Common Sense Media Review
By Joyce Slaton
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Language, gore, violence in exciting man vs. nature series.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Below
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
Enroute over the water to a new town with his family, Calvin Penney (played by Josh Hartnett as an adult, Azriel Dalman in flashbacks) spots something terrifying BELOW: a round eye, so giant that it has to be something as big, or bigger, than a whale. But this is no whale. Whatever it was, it sinks the house the Penney family is towing, taking patriarch Leo (James Hawksley) with it. Decades later, Calvin has fathered his own family: Mary (Ruby Stokes), who's moved off the island to Montreal, Jay (Rohan Campbell), who also left, to work on an oil rig, and Wade (Charlie Heaton), who stayed at home and is a bit of a ne'er do well. Cod fishing having been long since banned, Calvin makes a living harvesting icebergs for the premium vodka brand that manufactures its product in Snook's Arm. But when Dr. Fonda Howander (Mackenzie Davis) from the Ocean Science Centre finds that newly gathered ice has decidedly unusual properties and bodies start turning up, it's clear that something very big, and very strange, is going on.
Is It Any Good?
Like an icy Jaws, this Canadian series capitalizes on our instinctive fear of what's under the unfathomable water, and intensifies the terror by humanizing the characters on the boat and the shore. Below masterfully winches up its tension by spending a lot of time with the folks of Snook's Arm, a humble Newfoundland fishing village at a crossroads: the government has offered its residents a one-time payout if the whole town relocates to a more inhabited area (it's expensive to supply the li'l towns with power and other necessities), while local officials are finding odd things in the water: ice teeming with biological matter, human and animal body parts torn apart by something as big and vicious as a shark. But this is no shark, according to Dr. Howander. This is something else.
The behemoth haunting Snook's Arm may ring faintly ridiculous to science-minded viewers, but then, so did Jaws, and that scared the pants off oceangoers, too. Hartnett makes for a wholly sympathetic protagonist, with his plaid wool shirts and his humble dreams: maybe he can make some money, buy his own boat, work for himself instead of begging the vodka company for "crumbs." He didn't plan on, nor does he deserve, to combat a mighty threat from the sea; but once the stakes are in place, watching him, his family, and Dr. Howander outmaneuver both a deadly creature and the economic forces set against him is a potent thrill. Below will make you think twice about just what's out there in the deep blue sea, as well as those who struggle to make a living amongst the fog and the brine.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what gives scary series like Below its power. What's scary about the water? About the dark? About non-human creatures that are much bigger than us? Would the average viewer ever encounter a threat like the one in Below? If not, why is it still scary to us?
Literary theorists have boiled down a number of narrative plots to a basic source of conflict: man vs. nature, man vs. himself, man vs. man. Which is Below? What other conflicts can you name in movies or TV shows that are similar? How is Below like these other conflicts? How is it different?
Music is one way that filmmakers signal us how to feel about what we're seeing. How does music and sound contribute to the chills of Below? What music do you hear when a threat is looming, or when someone is actively being attacked? What music or sounds do you hear when there's no danger looming?
TV Details
- Premiere date : October 8, 2026
- Cast : Josh Hartnett , Charlie Heaton , Mackenzie Davis
- Network : Netflix
- Genre : Drama
- Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance , Teamwork
- TV rating :
- Last updated : October 11, 2026
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