‘Sirens’ assessment: Julianne Moore, Meghann Fahy, and Milly Alcock serve up beachy thrills

Just like the alluring mythological creatures from which it attracts its identify, Netflix’s Sirens wears a tempting facade, however conceals one thing darker at its core.

That facade attracts on the pleasures of exhibits like Massive Little Lies and The White Lotus: nice actors — Julianne Moore! Meghann Fahy! Milly Alcock! — going through off in opposition to a backdrop of picturesque mansions and seashores. As in these collection, showrunner Molly Smith Metzler (Maid) additionally seems to be to deal with thornier subjects of sophistication and trauma. But these topics not often get the depth they deserve, brushed over by a haphazard plot that delivers soapy enjoyable, if not a lot else.

What’s Sirens about?

Sirens kicks off with the world’s most misguided edible association. Devon (Fahy), contemporary off her second DUI and studying her father (Invoice Camp) has early-onset dementia, has appealed to her absent youthful sister Simone (Alcock) for assist. Simone’s response? A basket of melon and berries, and a card telling Devon to “keep your chin up.” The subpar present and empty platitude are sufficient to make Devon journey a number of hours, rotting fruit in hand, to the luxurious island the place Simone works as assistant to rich philanthropist Michaela “Kiki” Kell (Moore).

Simone would not simply handle the workers who run Michaela’s lavish Cliff Home property. The working relationship between the 2 is deeply private — and admittedly, creepy. Boundaries do not exist for them: Simone drafts Michaela’s sexts to her husband Peter (Kevin Bacon). The pair share gum with a view to have contemporary breath.

If that is elevating pink flags for you, you are not alone: Devon is horrified by Simone’s bond together with her boss, and he or she’s prepared to pull her sister kicking and screaming from Michaela’s grasp. However as a scrappy working-class interloper in Michaela’s rich world — over the all-important, party-filled Labor Day weekend, no much less — Devon is at a significant drawback. As she makes an attempt to guard her sister, darkish secrets and techniques about their previous (and darkish rumors about Michaela’s) come to mild, prompting a whirlwind of dramatic revelations that in the end do not maintain the burden they need to.

Julianne Moore, Meghann Fahy, and Milly Alcock are nice in Sirens, however is it sufficient?

Julianne Moore in “Sirens.”
Credit score: Macall Polay / Netflix

Sirens is at its greatest when it is a darkish comedy with a contact of cleaning soap opera, and far of that comes all the way down to Moore, Fahy, and Alcock’s performances. Moore and Alcock make an ideal pair, channeling Stepford Wives creepiness of their pastel getups and matching athleisure units. Alcock’s Simone simpers and preens for her boss, whereas Moore commits absolutely to Michaela’s frigid cult chief vibes. (Whether or not Michaela’s hen preservation society is really a cult is without doubt one of the mysteries Sirens presents, even when the decision is not significantly satisfying.)

Fahy’s Devon, in the meantime, is a splendidly prickly distinction to Simone and Michaela’s wealthy woman acts. She’s uncooked and unapologetic, unafraid to name out Michaela’s bizarro rituals. When she and Simone are collectively, that rawness rubs off on Simone, too, highlighting their sisterly connection and the ache the 2 shared throughout their traumatic upbringing.

Dialogue of that trauma leads to a few of Sirens‘ greatest tonal swings, because the present ranges from send-ups of the superficial wealthy — Glenn Howerton excels as Michaela and Peter’s sleazeball neighbor, for instance — to clichéd explorations of psychological well being, like Simone’s panic assaults. Additionally predictable? Sirens‘ examination of unbalanced, predatory energy dynamics inside relationships. As quickly as Bacon’s Peter exhibits up on the scene, it is clear what’s going to play out between him, Michaela, and Simone. The present treats this arc as culminating in a revelatory plot twist, but it surely feels extra drained than something.

Sirens is not with out fascinating concepts. In step with the “sirens” motif, all three girls are handled as monstrous sooner or later within the present’s five-episode run, although they’re usually at a drawback. (Particularly Devon and Simone.) The mythological theme extends to a strong working joke through which two of Devon’s loser suitors observe her round, as if lured by her siren music, regardless of her irritated rejections of them. These contrasts between folks perceiving Sirens‘ leads as near-mythic beings versus their precise, unfulfilling realities outcome within the present’s most fascinating moments. However with solely 5 episodes, Sirens fails to probe these contrasts as a lot because it might, and its music in the end falls flat.

Sirens is now streaming on Netflix.