by Jake Bourgeois, Contributing Writer
Sometimes, you just see a cast and it’s enough to make you go, “Well, that’s worth a shot.”
Sirens is one such project.
It’s not that it’s a cast filled with A-listers, but it’s a collection that intrigues. With headline talent, like Julianne Moore and Kevin Bacon, rising names, like our new Supergirl, Milly Alcock, and Meghann Fahy (Drop and The White Lotus), and familiar character actors, like Bill Camp and Felix Solis, it makes for a fun mix.
The show follows two sisters as the older sister Devon (Fahy), goes to a remote, palatial, cliffside home of the Kells (Bacon and Moore), where her younger sister Simone (Alcock) is working as the personal assistant for Moore’s Michaela just as she’s preparing for her massive Labor Day gala. Devon goes to get her sister in a bid to get help taking care of their father with dementia (Camp).
A large portion of the show is about the allure of the mega rich — which the show realizes in a couple of different ways. First, it comes across very Stepford Wives, which it calls it out. Interesting things starting in the third episode, as it realizes the bubble that this island exists in as a sort of supernatural place, with dreams and visions impacting various characters throughout. Though I’m not sure that totally worked for me throughout, the sense it evokes of this setting being like a completely different realm certainly gets the show’s point across. Even before that, the haze feels very intentional, a nod to the titular mythological creatures. While at times things can look fake and a little washed out, there’s some real craft here, too. As the series goes along, it bothers me less, as the clear creative choice of the haze becomes more apparent.
The other major through line is unpacking the relationship between the sisters. As we learn what is truth and what is façade about the past of this duo, there’s some great stuff about trauma, repression, and love, and the repercussions they have on them both. Because of their age gap, the sisters have different relationships with their parents, and how their father plays into proceedings is not an easy web to untangle, given the various levels of abuse and neglect there, despite the care he as for his daughters as he struggles with demons of his own. I’m not sure how I feel about what the climactic argument between the pair is saying, but how different characters cope with the damage of their past is fascinating to unpack.
In addition to our two sisters, everyone is screwed up or complicated in their own way. Nobody really is one-note. Though there are some dark moments, there is some levity in this dark comedy, mostly through the staff, or the blissfully ignorant or dumb characters rotating around our main cast of four. A real standout is Jose (Solis). He’s a lot of fun, particularly in the early episodes, as he attempts to wrangle the insanity that descends upon the island. However, he’s not innocent in what’s going on here.
Creator Molly Smith Metzler, who also created Netflix’s miniseries Maid, and wrote on Shameless and Orange is the New Black, creates Sirens with a ton of great female talent behind the camera, too. The show plays out like a more prestige-y soap. There are plenty of twists and turns, which for the most part I was able to have fun and roll with. However, there are just loose ends that feel like they never get resolution (a plotline with the sisters’ dad and Michaela comes to the top of my mind).
All in all, Sirens is fun enough for what it is, and it’s certainly elevated by its cast. It just doesn’t quite reach the alluring depth that I hoped it would.
Rating: Liked It
Sirens is currently streaming on Netflix
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