'Below' Netflix Review: A Great Start To An Otherwise Dull Show

When Below begins, you already know that you’re in for a good time. The first episode is genuinely one of the best pieces of TV I’ve seen in a really long time. Especially for a thriller/horror show on Netflix. My whole life I’ve been afraid of the ocean. You show me any kind of ghost/spirit/mysterious person horror, I will possibly not even flinch, but the second water is involved, I’m definitely going to be at least a little bit scared even before we get started. It’s just because the vast unknown is infinitely more terrifying than people in makeup and a couple of jump scares here and there. Never mind if there’s a creature to reckon with under the terrifying waves; just the idea of being sucked into the void is scary enough for me to instantly be intrigued and terrified at the same time. Below’s opening act is determinedly good at setting the tone for a show that doesn’t end up delivering. The 6-part series has some of the best sequences in the first 3 episodes of the show, where it really digs deep into the plot and gives us a thrilling and confusing experience. Is there really a creature, or is it all in Calvin’s imagination? Is this witchcraft? Are there ghosts at play? While I don’t want to answer any of these questions, because it might put you onto some spoilers, I do want to talk about what ultimately fails a genuinely good show.

Below, as the name suggests, focuses on an unknown threat coming from the ocean and jeopardizing the lives of the inhabitants of a remote island in Canada. The protagonist, Calvin Penney, is a widower, a father of 3, two of whom are mainlanders, and a third who lives with him in the town of Snook’s Arm and handles the Airbnb business. What do they do on this island? Well, they sell ice for vodka and fancy premium water, apparently something that is done in the real world too. After Calvin saw a creature underwater many moons ago, while his family and he were relocating from one island to another, and his dad died, he always thought his imagination had run wild. However, 40 years later, when something similar seems to be happening again, his mind can’t rest until he knows for sure that the island is safe.

An underdog protagonist, a creature who you can’t hate despite it being deadly, and a family drama underneath the surface. Below fits all the tropes of this kind of story, but that’s its biggest flaw. While it starts off being quite unique and delightfully exciting, it soon falls into a predictable pattern re: climate change and on-the-nose storytelling. I wish things had turned out differently, and the show had tried to do some actual world-building instead of focusing so hard on Calvin’s mental state and his relationship with the creature. Sure, that sounds super interesting, but it doesn’t work that way at all. In fact, it’s the most predictable part about the show.

After episode 3, Below takes a nosedive in terms of storytelling. It’s as if, until then, writer Jesse McKeown wanted to make something special and un-algorithmic. No, really, I didn’t want to look away; I wasn’t getting distracted by my phone, but as soon as we start to see the creature in all her glory, something about the story dips too. I don’t think it’s wrong that the show wants to focus on multiple things like climate change, the relationship between father and child, and exploitation of small-town folks. It’s all there; it’s a gold mine of ideas, I get it. But when those ideas are barely executed, it becomes a bit of a problem. I know that it’s only natural for Netflix to dumb down its stories as time passes to make us more stupid and give us easy access to content that isn’t worth our time, but this is seriously lazy work. I want to emphasize that this has nothing to do with the directors changing through the episodes, because there’s a seamless quality to the way things progress. It is definitely the writing that gets butchered in the second half; why, though, I’m not entirely sure.

The performances, on the other hand, are incredible, and I’m genuinely obsessed with the language and dialect being used here. At the beginning, I had no idea which part of the world this show was set in, and for something this White, that’s quite something to achieve, eh? I’m sorry to admit I didn’t know that Josh Hartnett used to be a Hollywood heartthrob, but there are honestly so many of those that I don’t even feel bad about it anymore. I was so excited to see underrated actress Ruby Stokes, who was robbed after the cancellation of Lockwood & Co, though she’s definitely very underutilized, considering Charles Heaton plays the underprivileged child of the trio. Is this the first time I’m seeing a man who hasn’t hit 50 play a dad to actors who might be slightly too old for it? I enjoyed this change, and I’m so glad Hartnett has been embracing the role of dad, something many contemporary actors his age and older might not even be familiar with.

Given the nature of the show, despite the disappointing ending, I want to recommend Below. I also really enjoyed the fact that if you just saw it without any context, you would not believe it’s a Netflix series, because it’s visually quite arresting. You really can tell that the whole thing’s been shot in real locations and boy, are they beautiful, if not cold and terrifying. At the end of the day, I want to give Below 3 out of 5 stars, but it’s genuinely not that good, so I’ll give it a solid 2.5, just because it made me curious and let me be undistracted for the first half at least.