Below is a miniseries that I went in totally blind to during TIFF back in September and came out thankful knowing I didn’t have to wait to long to see the rest of the story.
I’ll admit, I thought I was going to be watching a movie at this screening, so imagine my surprise when it was announced we’d be watching the first two episodes of a six-part series. Either way, the cast was aces, and the first two episodes I got to see definitely left me wanting more. The show centers on a remote town in Newfoundland, who are in talks to relocate to the mainland. Calvin Penney has a bit of history with relocation, given that the last time his family was forced to do it his father died. While his sister is hesitant to move, too, his kids have already moved on to bigger cities.
They do all happen to be in town for the homecoming celebration, something that actually happens in Newfoundland, so of course it’s the perfect time for some weird stuff to go down. Given that Calvin barely makes a living as an iceberg harvester, he’s thrilled to wake up to a massive one in the water one morning. He’s also a little skeptical. He grows even more weary and downright concerned when his eldest survives an attack on a boat from a creature that severs another man clean in half.
That’s got the town uneasy, but more deaths pile up, and suddenly people are suffering from an unquenchable thirst. It’s definitely got people a little more motivated to relocate. If they don’t die first. With the help of a local marine biologist, they start to uncover that the creature is something far older than anyone has ever come across, at least outside of the pages of some really old books. Calvin’s past is almost repeating itself and he wants answers. His kids don’t really help him get any peace in the matter. In fact, they’ve all got a heck of a complex web of shit going on in their own lives.
The plotlines in this series are many, but they are so freaking interesting. I also thought it was cool how much Newfoundland lore was actually woven into this series. I know this thanks to the insight that creatore/writer/director, Jesse McKeown, shared at TIFF. My only real beef with the show is tha I think it could have benefited from being at least one or two more episodes longer. The last episode really felt rushed trying to resolve everything that had been stewing in the previous five episodes. All that to say, definitely worth checking out. It’s got eerie and sci-fi vibes and sticks the landing in my opinion.