The Vibe
If you’ve been looking for your next binge-watch, Netflix’s new limited series Below just dropped, and it’s giving high-stakes coastal horror. Created by Jesse McKeown, the show takes us to the tiny, fictional town of Snook’s Arm in Newfoundland, where the vibes are lowkey falling apart.
The Plot
We start in 1986 with a nine-year-old Calvin Penney (Azriel Dalman). His family is trying to tow their house across the water when everything goes south, leading to his father drowning. Flash forward 40 years, and adult Calvin (played by Josh Hartnett) is still living with that trauma. He’s now a widower trying to keep his family afloat in a dying fishing town. He and his son, Wade (Charlie Heaton), are scraping by by selling ice to a local brewery and running an Airbnb.
Things get messy when the brewery rejects their ice for smelling weird, and Wade—who has a habit of using alcohol and mushrooms to cope—gets into a serious accident. Meanwhile, the town residents start acting super strange, and a massive iceberg emerges, signaling that something is definitely lurking in the water. Calvin and Dr. Fonda Howander (Mackenzie Davis) eventually realize the town’s decay and the water’s secrets might be linked to his own tragic past.
Why it matters
Clocking in at just six episodes under 45 minutes each, the show is an absolute masterclass in pacing. Beyond the literal sea monster, it’s really a deep dive into how human greed and the climate crisis create our own monsters. It’s a gripping reminder that sometimes, the most terrifying thing isn't the creature under the water—it's refusing to let go of the past.
