It’s not been a great week for calm beachside bathing: on Monday I was writing about all four Jaws movies coming to a streaming device near you, and now Netflix’s new critical hit The Survivors will make you wary of what might wash up.
The six-part series has become one of the best Netflix shows with its 100% critical Rotten Tomatoes score. It’s based on the book by Jane Harper and takes us to Evelyn Bay in Tasmania, where the body of a young woman from out of town washes up on the beach. What begins as a tragedy becomes an increasingly dark and complex drama about grief, guilt and resentment.
There aren’t many laughs, as you’ve probably guessed, but according to The Guardian it’s worth watching from behind your fingers: “The Survivors is a study in how raw grief and festering resentment warp everything – and how surviving a tragedy rarely means getting away unscathed.” The portrayal of three mothers in particular “marks The Survivors indelibly out from the murder mystery herd.”
What are critics saying about The Survivors?
Digital Mafia Talkies compared its power to that of Adolescence, the drama focusing on the misogyny that leads to a teen murder. “The Survivors covers a very wide array of topics, ranging from bad parenting to fragile masculinity. It delves into the concept of “nature versus nurture” and tries to answer if we become what our parents want us to be or if it all depends on the genes that we inherit and pass down… The results of these analyses are flawed but pointed enough to start some important conversations.”
Screenhub Australia gave the show four out of five stars, partly because the opening episode appears to be going in a different direction from where the series ends up and partly because the reviewer couldn’t find any of the characters remotely likeable. The show “does a solid job of setting up an intriguing premise. There’s plenty of suspects, and a few obvious red herrings that’ll no doubt end up having a skeleton or two in the closet. Taken as a pure whodunnit, it ticks all the boxes”. Just not the likeable-lead one.
The New York Times (paywall) wasn’t gripped immediately either, but became very involved as the episodes progressed. “Though it covers a lot of familiar angles, The Survivors outshines most of its brethren. The relationships here are knotty, the characters multidimensional in intriguing, moving ways. People can be both wonderful and cruel, loving but maybe not loving enough, loyal but also dishonest… The show picks up as it goes, and its plot lines nest like Russian dolls, giving the story a real sense of heft and potency.”
The Survivors is streaming now on Netflix.