"Below" Review : Creature Thriller Never Dives Deep Enough
Netflix heads to Newfoundland for the six-part limited series “Below,” created by Jesse McKeown and starring Josh Hartnett, Mackenzie Davis, and Charlie Heaton. Mixing a creature feature with family drama and small-town secrets, the series has a solid premise but never quite reaches the suspense its setup promises.
Hartnett stars as Calvin Penney, a stubborn but good-hearted fisherman still haunted by the mysterious death of his father decades earlier. When an unidentified sea creature begins terrorizing his hometown, Calvin tries to protect his family while keeping the community from falling apart. With his son Wade (Charlie Heaton) in danger, Calvin eventually teams up with visiting marine researcher Fonda Howander (Mackenzie Davis) to figure out exactly what is happening.
I have always enjoyed Hartnett as an actor, and it’s been great seeing him pop up more often in recent years. He gives Calvin enough heart that we understand why people follow him, even when his stubbornness becomes frustrating. However, I would be lying if I said his Newfoundland accent didn’t distract me. There were numerous moments when I found myself focusing more on how Hartnett said something than on what Calvin was actually saying.
That became one of several issues I had with “Below.”The series tries to balance suspense with heartfelt humor, but too many jokes fall flat. I understand the need to give audiences some breathing room between darker moments, but the comedy rarely feels organic. Instead of making the characters more endearing, some of the humor slows things down.
The suspense doesn’t fare much better. For a series centered around an unidentified creature and buried family secrets, I expected much more tension. Too many scares and reveals feel familiar, and the suspense becomes trite when it should pull us deeper into the mystery. At times, “Below” seems ready to cut loose, only to fall back on predictable genre beats.
Davis and Heaton provide solid support, while filming on location in Newfoundland gives the series a natural atmosphere that works in its favor. The isolated setting is actually more intimidating than some of the scripted scares.
“Below” isn’t a bad series, and Hartnett remains watchable even when that accent occasionally takes me out of the moment. Unfortunately, the jokes miss more than they hit, the suspense rarely delivers, and a promising creature-thriller premise spends too much time treading water.
Final Grade: C+
“Below” is streaming on Netflix now
