The Survivors (Netflix series, 2025) & Boy Swallows Universe (Netflix series, 2024)

The Survivors is a new Australian mystery drama series that takes place in a fictional town called Evelyn Bay in Tasmania.

Based on the novel by Jane Harper (The Dig), this six part series opens both spectacularly and tragically during an especially stormy night.

There is a teenage boy, Kieran Elliott (Ned Morgan), almost drowning in the bay and a speed boat with two young men, one of them his brother Finn (Remy Kidd) and the other his friend Toby, trying to save him.

Unfortunately, the boat capsizes and the rescuers drown. Kieran is saved, but he gets all the blame cause what the hell was he doing out there on his own late at night?

At the same time, a young woman, Gabby Birch (Eloise Rothfeld), goes missing, presumed dead, her body never found.

Fifteen years later, the boy Kieran is now a man, played by Charlie Vickers (The Rings of Power), and he comes back home from Sydney to Evelyn Bay, together with his girlfriend, Mia (Yerin Ha, from Bridgerton) and a child of their own.

Even though Kieran still has some friends, the community isn’t very welcoming. His father Brian (Damien Garvey) is ailing, while his mother Verity (Robyn Malcolm) still blames Kieran for his brother’s death.

Then another young woman, Bronte (Shannon Berry) is found washed up on the beach and the show becomes a mixture of murder mystery and melodrama.

Bronte was trying to find out what happened to Gabby. Are their fates connected? ‘This town has a habit of overlooking dead girls,’ Mia (who was Gabby’s best friend) remarks at some point.

So who is the killer inside this closed community? And why is that person being protected?

Creator and writer Tony Ayres (Nowhere Boys, Glitch) doesn’t just focus on the search for the killer in this good looking but hard hitting and well acted series.

Ayres, together with directors Ben C. Lucas and Cherie Nowlan, is also interested in exploring the themes of grief, guilt, loss and trauma, as well as male insecurity, which adds more depth to the story as a whole.

Another bonus is that Tasmania, the island 150 miles to the South East of the Australian mainland, adds a lot of visual splendor to the show and basically functions as an extra character.

Based on the first couple of episodes, I’d say The Survivors is a very compelling watch.

If you want to see the secrets of Evelyn Bay slowly come to the surface, I would suggest you dive right in.

I give it four stars!

Bonus review:

Boy Swallows Universe (Netflix series, 2024)

Boy Swallows Universe is the gripping and emotional adaptation of the semi-autobiographical novel (from 2019) by Australian writer Trent Dalton, that captivated readers around the world.

Chances are this series will do the same for Netflix viewers. It’s moving and, in a good way, melodramatic and tugs at the heartstrings to great effect.

Set in the tough, rough and tumble suburb of Darra, Brisbane in the 1980’s, it tells the story of young Eli Bell (Felix Cameron), who over the course of the series will try to overcome his precarious circumstances and try to save his drug-addicted mother Frankie (Phoebe Tonkin), who ends up serving a four year prison sentence, from danger and grievous bodily harm.

But Eli has to deal with a lot of other stuff too. To wit: his closest ally is his brother Gus (Lee Tiger Halley), who goes through life as a mute since he decided not to speak anymore. Their stepfather Lyle (Travis Fimmel) is a drug dealer, and even though he is a nice enough guy, he is more or less responsible for Frankie getting hooked on smack.

Then there is Slim, who was convicted for murdering a taxi driver and spent 25 years in jail. Eli has a pen friend in another jailbird, Alex Bermuda, who is serving time in Boggo Road Gaol.

When Frankie winds up there, the boys go to live for a while with their biological father Robert (Simon Baker), who means well even though he is an alcoholic, who once drove the entire family of a bridge.

Boy Swallows Universe could have told a very dark story, but the cinematography is bright and colorful and the series also has a sense of humor about a lot that happens which makes it go down easier than you would expect.

There is also a lot of great music on the soundtrack, from some of my favorite Australian bands, like Wide Open Road by The Triffids (in the trailer) and The Unguarded Moment by The Church (in the first episode).

One of the strong points of those first couple of episodes is that most if not all of the characters are portrayed with a fair amount of empathy. Nobody is born bad, the series implies, and people make a lot of wrong choices with the best intentions but in unfortunate circumstances with the odds stacked against them.

Part of the book’s success is because it is based on real life events, even though writer Dalton has since admitted that it’s basically fifty percent fact and fifty percent fiction.

It doesn’t matter. Screenwriter John Collee, who adapted the book, has done a great job. The setting feels realistic and the actors who play the characters come across as very convincing. This lived-in feeling makes it easy to connect with Eli and everything that he is going through.

What’s also interesting is that visually, the show’s directors Bharat Nalluri, Jocelyn Moorhouse and Kim Mordaunt, have added a layer of magic realism, which makes the viewing experience all the more worthwhile.

There are certain dreamlike scenes that take on a psychedelic quality, like one where a hospital ridden Eli flies through space in a car. While, in a nice David Lynch touch, there are also phone messages to a disconnected red phone in the basement of Lyle’s house. Also, Gus writes words with his magic finger, which then become visible in the air. It’s a form of heightened reality that adds a sense of wonder to an already impressive series.

I give it four stars!