‘Below’ Is Netflix‘s Shallow Attempt to Recreate ‘Jaws’

Netflix There’s something under the water in Below , but unfortunately, there’s nothing beneath this Netflix miniseries’ monster-movie surface.

A six-episode saga about a Newfoundland town beset by a man-eating aquatic menace, Netflix’s quirky genre thriller (streaming Oct.

9) is a cornucopia of ridiculousness, be it a fiend whose behavior makes less sense with each subsequent action, a story that appears to have been hastily sketched on a cocktail napkin, or actors speaking in an overcooked Canadian-Irish accent that’s absurd to the point of distraction.

No matter Josh Hartnett’s hearty performance, it’s a water-thin washout that starts strong, then sinks like a stone.

In 1986, a family tows their home across frigid waters to Snooks Arm, an island where the predatory Crocker clan has forced them to relocate.

Their trip goes wrong when an ancient goliath attacks the floating house, and 10-year-old Calvin, to save them all, is forced to cut their dinghy free—dooming his father.

Forty years later, Calvin (Hartnett) is an ice fisherman scraping by and fighting plans to resettle the community elsewhere.

The past weighs heavily on the single father, and that extends to his refusal, out of overprotectiveness, to let his youngest son Wade ( Stranger Things ’ Charlie Heaton) join him on the water.

Wade’s sister Ruth (Willow Kean) is the local harbormaster, and his other two children soon visit him.

Mary (Ruby Stokes) lives in Montreal and has brought her boyfriend Noah (Kaleb Horn), and Jay (Rohan Campbell) earns a living working on a rig.

Both are happy to see their dad but less than interested in moving back to Snooks Arm to help him fulfill his dream of opening a brewery.

Such concerns prove secondary, however, after Calvin hauls in a piece of ice and discovers that it stinks to high heaven.

Ocean scientist Fonda Howander (Mackenzie Davis) deduces the stench is because it’s actually a frozen mucus membrane with a seemingly toxic excretion.

Creator and showrunner Jesse McKeown sets things in motion tantalizingly, slathering on the idiosyncratic color and embracing genre archetypes.