Below<\/em> is now streaming on Netflix.<\/em><\/p>\n
Set in a tiny, remote coastal town that\u2019s suddenly facing a mysterious threat from the sea, Netflix\u2019s new drama\/horror series Below is in the unfortunate position of being compared to Widow\u2019s Bay, the other show that already did that this year. It\u2019s a \u201cwhat if Jaws but\u2026\u201d vehicle for Josh Hartnett, on a career upswing with things like Oppenheimer, Trap (yes, Trap), and a great episode of Black Mirror. And while he\u2019s doing all he can here, in a thick Newfoundland accent no less, to carry the six-episode series, Below can\u2019t keep pace with the other<\/em> show. A relatively solid first half of episodes is done in by the back three that messily (and occasionally ridiculously) tie up a story that hasn\u2019t fully found its sea legs.<\/p>\n
Hartnett stars as Calvin Penney, a man with a trauma-filled life dating back to his family\u2019s forced resettlement from one remote town to the slightly less remote town of Snook\u2019s Arm (which, in real life, was resettled in 2018). As seen in the opening scene from 1986, a young Calvin, his sister Ruth, his mother, father, and a resettlement officer tow the Penny family\u2019s whole-ass house behind a tiny, puttering boat. But something terrible happens; the Penny\u2019s house is pulled under water and Calvin\u2019s father, Leo, goes down with it, and Calvin cuts the line from the house to the boat to save the rest of his family. During this accident, Calvin sees something in the water<\/em> \u2014 a clich\u00e9 that isn\u2019t just used as marketing for Below, but is repeated several times throughout the series \u2014 that looks like a void. Or rather, the gigantic eye of a very large beast that lives in these waters.<\/p>\n