Netflix’s new six-episode drama and horror series Below arrives as a coastal thriller starring Josh Hartnett as Calvin Penney, a resident of the remote Newfoundland town of Snook’s Arm. While boasting a high-concept environmental premise and strong family dynamics, the series struggles to maintain its pacing through a messy, scientifically explained back half.
What to Know About the Newfoundland Horror Series
- Josh Hartnett anchors the six-episode run as Calvin Penney, performing with a thick Newfoundland accent against the backdrop of a remote coastal community hosting a local “Come Home Year” festival.
- The narrative premise tracks a massive, mysterious iceberg drifting into the harbor, accompanied by unexplained animal deaths and a lingering visual entity in the water reminiscent of Jaws.
- While early episodes establish a compelling atmosphere balancing climate change metaphors and corporate greed, the final three episodes rush toward science-based resolutions that leave critical plot holes unresolved.
Josh Hartnett Leads a Remote Newfoundland Community Facing Deep Waters
Set in a tiny coastal town suddenly facing a mysterious threat from the sea, Below positions Josh Hartnett on an ongoing career upswing that includes work in Oppenheimer, Trap, and Black Mirror. Hartnett stars as Calvin Penney, a man carrying lifelong trauma rooted in a 1986 forced resettlement event. In the opening scene, a young Calvin, his family, and a resettlement officer tow their entire house behind a tiny boat before disaster strikes. Calvin’s father, Leo, goes down with the sinking house, and Calvin cuts the line to save the rest of the family—catching a brief, chilling glimpse of a gigantic void-like eye in the deep water.
Fast forward forty years, and an older Calvin works as an iceberg harvester, dragging flaked-off ice blocks to the docks to supply a local vodka distillery owned by the powerful Crocker family. The Crockers also maintain heavy investments in the nearby Ocean Science Center, where lead researcher Dr. Fonda Howander, played by Mackenzie Davis, studies marine samples and strange wildlife occurrences. The series leans heavily into eco-conscious motifs, touching on climate change and corporate exploitation as a massive, anomalous chunk of iceberg drifts into the local harbor.
Family Friction and the Come Home Year Festival
The town of Snook’s Arm serves as the backdrop for a traditional “Come Home Year” celebration, drawing back scattered family members and old traditions like kissing fish in the local dive bar. Calvin shares his home with his mushroom-addled son Wade, played by Charlie Heaton, with whom Hartnett shares some of the series’ most grounded, compelling scenes. Meanwhile, Calvin’s other two adult children return to the fold: Mary, portrayed by Ruby Stokes, who harbors her own cosmopolitan concerns, and Jay, played by Rohan Campbell, who arrives carrying dangerous personal baggage punctuated by threatening text messages.
The arrival of the aberrant iceberg coincides with sudden, unexplained deaths among local wildlife and humans near the water. Rather than leaning entirely into the supernatural, Below initially balances multiple possibilities, keeping viewers guessing whether the phenomena stem from ancient myth or cold marine zoobiology. However, as the narrative progresses into its fourth episode, the sheer volume of character arcs and subplots begins to strain the six-episode runtime.
| Production Element | Details & Cast |
|---|---|
| Format | 6-Episode Drama/Horror Series |
| Network/Platform | Netflix |
| Lead Cast | Josh Hartnett, Mackenzie Davis, Charlie Heaton, Ruby Stokes, Rohan Campbell |
| Setting | Snook’s Arm, Newfoundland |
Unresolved Conclusions Beneath a Shallow Environmental Thesis
By the time Below reaches its latter half, the narrative momentum falters under the weight of its ambitions. The series attempts to tackle sweeping themes of environmental degradation and capitalist greed, yet it ultimately relies on broad landscape gestures rather than deep structural insight. Episode 4 takes a particularly jarring deep-water turn, triggering a rapid sequence of explanations that attempt to tie up the central mysteries before the credits roll.
Those rushed explanations leave substantial narrative gaps. While Hartnett delivers an earnest performance carrying the emotional anchor of the Penny family trauma, the back three episodes struggle to find their sea legs, leaving viewers with more questions than satisfying resolutions.
