Review: in 'Below', Josh Hartnett faces a sea monster in Newfoundland — and the Penney family is worth more than the creature

Released this week on Netflix, 'Below' is a six-episode horror limited series created by Jesse McKeown ('The Umbrella Academy'). On the tiny island community of Snook's Arm, Newfoundland, fisherman Calvin Penney (Josh Hartnett) saw his father's house swallowed by the sea as a child, and a giant eye beneath his boat. Decades later, with billionaires buying out homes, fishing in crisis and a mysterious iceberg drifting nearby, something is hunting people from the water again — and his son Wade (Charlie Heaton) nearly dies in an encounter with it.

The show's best asset has no scales: Hartnett, also an executive producer, plays a single father of three adult kids with convincing weariness, and Mackenzie Davis fits in well as researcher Fonda. The town feels lived-in, with regional dialect, cluttered homes and a grimy harbor, and the 'Come Home Year' backdrop, when former residents return for the summer, gives weight to its themes of community and the environment. Critics' comparisons to 'Midnight Mass' and 'Jaws' aren't a stretch in the first half.

The problem is ambition in too little time: Jay's (Rohan Campbell) affair with Jan (Natasha Henstridge), his debts and a missing engagement ring take up space without paying off, and a near-bottle episode explains the island in a slightly 'Scooby-Doo' way, as TheWrap noted. The back half shifts tone in a way that doesn't feel intentional. Still, the finale puts character first and wraps the story while leaving room for more. Flawed, but very bingeable. Score: 7/10