An isolated community on the water, trying to make big decisions about its future, becomes entangled in a very spooky situation right here, right now. Also, there are crusty fishermen, a dive where everyone hangs out, mentions of “hags,” outsiders who don’t quite understand the local culture, and something very worrisome lurking a little too close to the surface. Is it Apple TV’s Emmy juggernautWidow’s Bay… or is it Netflix’s new series Below?
Rather than asking that question, we should instead be thanking the streaming gods that two such entertaining series have floated our way in the span of a few months. But also, while there are certainly some superficial similarities, the two shows also stand apart in important ways. To get too into detail would spoil Below (presumably, you’ve already heard those bell tolls in Widow’s Bay by now), but suffice to say, Below star Josh Hartnett was also a bit worried when he first became aware of Apple TV’s horror comedy.
“It involves some of the same themes,” Hartnett admitted to the Hollywood Reporter. “So yeah, I guess it was a little bit of a scary situation if we get caught in that flywheel of people’s opinion, that ‘Oh, it’s just that, it’s just that, it’s just that.’ But I always knew that Jesse [McKeown] was making something—well, since seeing Widow’s Bay—that’s totally different. And luckily Netflix didn’t get scared of it because we’d already shot it. We were done. It was coming out.”
If you’ve watched Below, or even just the trailer for Below, you know that Hartnett and his castmates speak in a very specific accent that ties into the show’s Newfoundland setting. (You may have also watched the show with the subtitles on as a result.)
“I knew when we started, as we all did, [the accent was] going to be jarring to the public when they first [heard] it,” Hartnett explained. And he’s heard the feedback, it seems. “There are going to be some haters that come up; there are going to be some trolls. If you don’t commit to it… you’re not really doing a service to the story—so we decided to really go for it.”
You can watch Below on Netflix now.
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