This article was published on 6/10 and republished on 6/12.
Netflix has been on something of a roll with its mystery series as of late, from the 100% scored Secrets We Keep to the newly Emmy-submitted Dept. Q. Now, a new series has arrived from Australia that also has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score.
That would be The Survivors, a new series starring a lead from a rival streaming service, Charlie Vickers, who plays Sauron in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Amazon. It also has Yerin Ha, the actress who was a supporting character in the awful Halo show on Paramount Plus but who has landed some seriously big parts including the co-lead of the next season of Bridgerton and now a big role in this perfectly scored mystery. What a turnaround.
What’s the story here? This is the official synopsis:
“Fifteen years ago, the loss of three young people tore a sleepy seaside town apart; the death of a young woman dredges up the past.”
Unlike Dept. Q, this is meant to be a six-episode limited series, and it was based on a book, so there’s no more source material to come with its self-contained story. It debuted at #3 on Netflix, a very solid performance, but again, viewership doesn’t really matter when you’re not attempting to grab a second season.
As it stands, with limited critic reviews in, it has that 100%. There are not enough audience reviews for a score yet on Rotten Tomatoes, but we can head over to IMDB to see that it has a 6.5 out of 10 with a thousand or so reviews in. That’s okay, not amazing, given the context of ratings on that site.
What’s good about it? Here’s a sampling of the critical praise:
- Guardian: “The Survivors is a study in how raw grief and festering resentment warp everything — and how surviving a tragedy rarely means getting away unscathed.”
- Digital Mafia Talkies: “I don’t know if The Survivors, Secrets We Keep, or Adolescence will have any real-world impact, but I do want more shows like this (…) Maybe if enough storytellers proclaim that the kids and their parents are not alright, we can hope to see some change.”
With episodes around 45-50 minutes, it’s perhaps a 1-2 day commitment, depending on your schedule, and an easy binge so you can see if your view matches critics. I started it, and I was sort of immediately put off by some bad CGI showcasing the original accident, but hopefully, it gets better from there. I’ll give it more of a chance, I suppose.
Update (6/12): Checking back in on The Survivors after it’s had a chance to marinate for a few days, and it’s still doing great. It has remained at #3 on Netflix’s top 10 list, still only behind Ginny and Georgia and Tires, and quite high for a one-off mystery series which are often a dime-a-dozen on Netflix.
With more reviews in, The Survivors has stayed at a 100% critic score. Audience scores are now also rolling in at the same time and it has an 81%, which in the context of this genre, is quite good. I find that mystery series scores tank when viewers reach the ending and it’s not a satisfying conclusion, and that seems to be what’s happening here.
I have now started the show for myself and I can agree with the praise, even early on. It’s crazy to see Charlie Vickers move from playing literal Sauron to a more low-key role like this, but he’s great. I also think Yerin Ha is a standout here, and this may also be a big boost for the captivating Jessica De Gouw, who steals every scene she’s in. Vickers is in Amazon’s biggest show, Ha is set to star in season 4 of Bridgerton, and I think that De Gouw may get a big break after this.
The mystery is compelling, and I am looking forward to seeing how this all works out. I was turned off by the first few minutes as I mentioned, but pushing past that, I think it’s going to be a solid offering in the end. I’ll report back when I know for sure.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
