The Whisper Man is indeed a safe space for tropes... You may also wonder which is weirder: the long periods when Scott vanishes from the story, or the periods he doesn’t, miscast as a brooding drinker. Still, the plot rolls on efficiently enough.

A Netflix serial killer thriller that’s – whisper it! – actually pretty good, with a heavyweight cast that brings greater heft to solid if forgettable material.

Saying that The Whisper Man is "better than it needs to be" would only reinforce the idea that it’s okay for Netflix movies to be disposable trash, but still: The effort is appreciated.

If you like this sort of serial procedural and that cranky father-son dynamic, the Netflix film The Whisper Man looks like a no-brainer. And yeah, it’s definitely in search of a brain.