Below Explained: Josh Hartnett's Netflix Sea-Monster Series, Reviewed

What Is Below About?

Below is set in Snook's Arm, a fictional Newfoundland fishing community created for the series and filmed in the real community of Brigus South. The story opens in the 1960s during Newfoundland's government-backed resettlement program, when a family's house is towed across the water on a barge. A creature surfaces during the crossing, trapping the father as he sinks and leaving his young son, Calvin, with a lasting memory of what he describes seeing as a giant eye beneath the surface, according to Slate.

In the present day, adult Calvin Penney, played by Josh Hartnett, still lives in Snook's Arm with his son Wade, as the town struggles economically following Canada's cod fishing moratorium. The plot is set in motion when Calvin brings an iceberg to a local vodka distillery and a marine biologist, Dr. Fonda Howander, finds something unexplained inside it, reigniting the mystery of the creature from his childhood, Slate reported.

Collider and Wikipedia describe the six-episode limited series as a blend of creature feature, family drama and climate fiction, using the threat beneath the water to explore themes of environmental change, economic decline and the lingering effects of forced resettlement on rural communities.

Cast and Who Made It

• Josh Hartnett as Calvin Penney, a fisherman protecting his family and community
• Mackenzie Davis as Dr. Fonda Howander, a marine biologist
• Charlie Heaton as Wade Penney, Calvin's son
• Ruby Stokes as Mary Penney
• Rohan Campbell as Jay Penney

The series was created and showrun by Jesse McKeown, who previously worked on 'The Umbrella Academy,' according to Collider. Wikipedia lists Jamie Childs, Helen Shaver and Stephen Dunn among the directors and Mark Korven, known for horror scores, as composer. Netflix ordered the limited series in February 2025, with production beginning that June. Slate reported that the production cast Newfoundland actors and leaned on regional dialect, adding that online reactions to the accents were largely positive overall, with Hartnett's singled out as the least convincing.

Why Below Is Trending Now

Netflix released all six episodes of Below at once on October 8, 2026. Within days it became the platform's most-watched title worldwide, according to FlixPatrol data cited by CBR, which reported the series topped Netflix's Top 10 in numerous countries including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark and Finland. In the United States, CBR reported Below overtook other Netflix titles such as 'East of Eden' and 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians' in the platform's rankings.

How Critics and Audiences Have Rated It

Review aggregators show a gap between critics and viewers. Rotten Tomatoes' editorial team and CBR both reported an 82% critics' score; CBR additionally cited a 64% audience score on the same site, while Collider's separate check of the aggregator listed 81% from critics and 65% from audiences — a small discrepancy likely reflecting the scores updating as more reviews and ratings came in. CBR additionally cited an IMDb user score of 6.5 out of 10, and Wikipedia reported a Metacritic score of 70, categorized as 'generally favorable.'

Praise centers on the show's atmosphere and its handling of climate change and resettlement themes. Rotten Tomatoes' editorial roundup quoted RogerEbert.com's review as saying the series' strength comes from weaving aquatic horror together with family drama. Collider's Carly Lane, who gave the show 7 out of 10, praised how it tackles 'bigger themes as impactful as the climate crisis and forced resettlement.'

Criticism has focused on pacing across six episodes and a perceived drop-off in the back half. The Rotten Tomatoes editorial roundup cited several critics, including Collider's Carly Lane, who said the show was strongest in its first half, with pacing, plotting and character development weakening in later episodes as the series leans more into family drama than horror.

Where Below Fits in the Creature-Feature Genre

Slate situates Below within a wave of recent horror and thriller series using sea monsters or climate-linked threats as a backdrop for stories about declining rural economies. Unlike the more genre-bending Widow's Bay, Slate describes Below as sticking closer to familiar creature-feature conventions, even as it uses Newfoundland's real history of government resettlement and the collapse of the cod fishery as its emotional foundation.