(Mini Series) Below - A Pretty Decent Creature Series which was not the Nonstop Thrilling and Suspenseful Kind

Two days ago, this series was just released on Netflix. I actually thought it was a movie which could be easily finished, but turned out it was a series that took longer time, even if it was only 6 episodes. Anyway I immediately began watching and completed it yesterday. All right then, I'll get started with the series.

Brief Story Line

In the small town of Newfoundland, fisherman Calvin Penney (Josh Hartnett - Verity, Wrath of Man etc) who had been living there for the last forty years lately was having difficulty in finding fish. When he found a large iceberg which was rather unusual, Calvin asked biologist Dr. Fonda (Mackenzie Davis - Speak No Evil, Halt and Catch Fire TV series etc) to look into it. Meanwhile the local people had been asked to relocate to another location, which made Calvin and his older sister Ruth (Willow Kean) upset as they did not want to go through the whole process again. 

During the biggest event of the year where all people who had left town return to Newfoundland, Calvin was delighted as his daughter Mary (Ruby Stokes -  Lockwood & Co. TV series, Where is Anne Frank etc) and son Jay (Rohan Campbell - The Hardy Boys TV series, Silent Night, Deadly Night etc) came back and reunite with the other son Wade (Charlie Heaton - Stranger Things TV series, Marrowbone etc). However their happy reunion was cut short when a giant sea creature started terrorizing the surrounding sea, and killing few people in the process. Things became worse when something else happened to the locals. 

So what would happen to Calvin and his family? You could find out in this series.

End of Brief Story Line

Well that was a little bit different from what I thought. This series began with a little teaser of what to expect and later introduction of the people involved. It was kind of interesting seeing the locals dealing with their problem and what they deemed as fun experience. But what surprised me was how Calvin was shown to have 3 adult children who looked old enough to be his siblings, perhaps because Josh Hartnett looked young for a 49 years old man (as mentioned in the story). Anyway the early part where the creature was only shown closely was suspenseful and the end of the first episode was exciting. 

Subsequently the series also dealt with the community's struggle to live their lives in the remote location and focus on Calvin's family who each had their personal matter. But obviously the thing that I liked the most was the creature as it was what I was looking for. Until the fourth episode the story was quite predictable, but things changed in the fifth episode with some kind of revelation, and the series seemed to switch to more terrifying (a bit horror if I might add). However in the last episode, the story once again changed to a lighter and uplifting feel instead of gloomy, dark and rather sad mood. Personally I liked this change as it made the ending felt more delightful. Until that final scene though which was quite surprising, although it is quite common for a horror show.

I was interested in giving this series a try because I like this kind of mysterious creature story, plus it starred the well known Josh Hartnett. After watching two episodes or so, I finally realized where I have seen Calvin's two sons and frankly was surprised to see how much they have aged. Aside from the names above, there were also other cast in support roles such as  Kaleb Horn (The Kid Detective etc) as Mary's boyfriend Noah, Mary Walsh (The Missus Downstairs TV series etc) as the Mayor Linda Best,  David Wenham (Elvis etc) as Steve Brunner the commander of RSV Sir John Franklin and several others. There was even appearance of Natasha Henstridge (Species movies etc) as Jan Hicks the local Resettlement officer.

The series itself was created and written by Jesse McKeown (writer of series like The Romeo Section, Da Vinci's Inquest etc). It was a Canadian production which would explained the use of many Canadian actors and actresses. From what I read, it was not based on anything and just purely creativity of McKeown. Critics seemed to be impressed with the series while I also liked this one though sometimes it felt the suspense of the creatures were not consistently maintained. I also thought the special effects were quite decent. They might not be spectacular but I felt they were sufficient for the series. It does not seem like audience were embracing this as by the time I wrote this, it did not make to Top 10 in Indonesia, although it might fare better in other countries. 

Overall this was pretty fun and enjoyable. It was not the nonstop suspenseful type as it still had some drama involving the family and the community, and the terror was not extraordinarily a lot but they were OK enough. The ending was also something that I liked with the change to a lighter and more cheerful mood after seeing five episodes that were dark and heavy. Oh and the 6 episodes with short duration of 37-47 minutes was also a factor that I liked as it did not take long to finish the story, plus the fact it was mini series with a proper conclusion. So if you are thinking of watching a series about small community dealing with unknown dangerous sea creature and a bit of family drama, then you might enjoy this one. But if you are hoping for a nonstop thrill, continous suspense monster hunting human series, then you need to manage your expectation. I myself was pretty entertained due to reasons I said earlier.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars