A town, a tragedy and something in the water
Netflix's limited series 'Below' opens in 1986 in Newfoundland, where nine-year-old Calvin Penney, played by Azriel Dalman, is moving with his family from Little Pot Rock to a somewhat larger island called Snook's Arm. They travel by boat, towing their house behind them, and at first the trip seems to be going well. Then a mysterious incident forces Calvin to cut the tow line, and his father drowns. Four decades later, the adult Calvin, played by Josh Hartnett, remains tormented by what happened.[S1]
Calvin is a likable, hardworking widower. With fishing long gone from Snook's Arm, he and his son Wade, played by Charlie Heaton, get by harvesting ice for a local vodka brewery and renting out rooms in their home through Airbnb. Calvin is delighted to mark Come Home Year because his other children, Mary, played by Ruby Stokes, and Jay, played by Rohan Campbell, have returned to the island for a week. The visit quickly goes wrong: the brewery turns down his latest ice delivery because it smells foul, sending him to Dr. Fonda Howander, played by Mackenzie Davis, who runs the local science center. After Wade, who likes to treat his ADHD with alcohol and mushrooms, suffers a terrible accident, and residents of Snook's Cove start behaving strangely, Calvin and Fonda suspect something is wrong with the water.[S1]
More than a monster
Apart from Hartnett's comical stab at a Newfoundland accent, the show is gripping. Creator Jesse McKeown gives viewers a vivid picture of a close-knit community in decline and of a man set on rescuing it. Calvin's children and his sister Ruth, played by Willow Kean, who serves as Snook's Arm harbor master, understand how few resources remain to hold on to, but Calvin refuses to budge and keeps searching for a way forward. When a huge iceberg rises from the water and the town and its people fall into chaos, Calvin begins to suspect a link to his father's accident.[S1]
At six episodes of 45 minutes or less, 'Below' holds attention because it is more than it appears to be. A terrifying sea creature sits at its center, yet the story is really about a man clinging to a decaying past, a family in mourning and the way greed can create monsters. Episode four, titled 'The Ocean Will Have Us All,' is especially absorbing: it focuses on the creature while also showing how far people will go and whom they will sacrifice for their own gain. Its final minutes contain brutal displays of inhumanity that only start to make sense in the penultimate episode, 'Little Pot Rock.'[S1]
A familiar genre, a fragile world
In the end, 'Below' is an engaging ride that mixes horror and suspense while keeping the real climate crisis at its heart. McKeown delivers something genuinely distinctive within a well-worn genre. By looking closely at the Penney family and the place they call home, the series explores how fragile life is, how impermanent a place can be and how small people are in the universe. It also reminds viewers that change cannot be avoided and that the only response is to shift and adjust when it arrives. 'Below' is now streaming on Netflix.[S1][S2]
