The MGM+ miniseries Vanished is summed up by a quote from Kaley Cuoco’s character Alice Monroe. “I want to build a life that’s mine,” she says in the first episode. “Not just uncovering other people’s.”

That’s the plot of this four-episode thriller in a nutshell. It’s a take on the classic “an average American abroad gets dragged into a foreign conspiracy” premise. The script by Preston Thompson—from a story by David Hilton, who gets co-creator credit—offers plenty of twists and turns, but not many that savvy audiences won’t see coming. The real big question is, does that really matter?

Cuoco, who is also an executive producer on Vanished, plays Alice Monroe—an archeologist with the expected amount of wide-eyed naivete. She asks her dashing British boyfriend Tom Parker to move in with her once they finish their Parisian vacation, but the very next day Tom disappears in the middle of a train ride. This is where Alice begins her transformation from would-be associate professor to a scrappy amateur sleuth. Indiana Jones would be proud. And Cuoco isn’t too far off from the Emmy-nominated performance she gave in HBO Max‘s The Flight Attendant, similarly pushing Vanished forward with her stubbornness and understandably snarky attitude. The fun in Vanished comes not from the mystery, but from Cuoco bulldozing through the whole story.

Sam Claflin of Peaky Blinders plays Tom with the right amount of roguish charm, turning it up to eleven in occasional flashbacks to explain why Alice would wreck her life to chase after him. Claflin has less to work with than Cuoco, as Tom goes through a fairly standard character arc. It’s no spoiler to say that Alice’s seemingly perfect boyfriend isn’t so perfect. And despite the flashbacks, Vanished doesn’t quite sell viewers on their relationship; the audience ends up rooting for Alice on her own, not necessarily for Alice and Tom to be happily reunited. But that’s not Claflin’s fault—he does the best he can with his character.

Therein lies the challenge, and in some moments the charm, of Vanished. MGM+ viewers will know largely what they’re getting into throughout, from the opening scene that naturally is in media res before flashing back to Alice and Tom’s idyllic date. The supporting characters check all the thriller genre boxes: the cynical cop who doesn’t believe Alice’s story, the friendly local who becomes Alice’s sole ally (as wonderfully played by French actress Karin Viard), the bad guys who are really bad guys. But because audiences rally behind Cuoco’s performance so quickly, the predictability is less of an imposition. They want to see what’s coming next.

More than once, Vanished is reminiscent of the 1995 Sandra Bullock-led thriller The Net, which worked because Bullock was so spunky and fun to watch that the audience didn’t mind her character doing so obviously ill-advised things. The same is true of Vanished, although it doesn’t have the gritty camera style that Irwin Winkler used back then. Director Barnaby Thompson’s previous credits are mostly comedies, and he makes some choices that are a little too on the nose—as if needing to underline to the audience when something important has been revealed or is about to happen.

But despite that and despite the straightforward script, Vanished will entertain anyone who likes those “an American abroad” type thrillers, because it hits all the beats that need to be in such a project. There’s everything that viewers will be waiting for, whether it’s action scenes or confrontations between characters. And Cuoco jumps headfirst into the role of Alice, keeping the audience entertained even when the story isn’t perfect. The four-episode runtime is just the right length as well, ensuring that Vanished doesn’t stretch its plot too far. Like The Net, it may not be computer science, but it’s a fun ride—great for a Sunday night with some popcorn.

Vanished premieres Sunday, Feb. 1 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on MGM+. Photo Credit: Courtesy of MGM+.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.