I’ve been putting this off forever, but I’ve wanted to talk about this show for a while. Thanks to Hulu (which the show is no longer on), I was able to watch the show “Siren,” which is on Freeform. Mermaids as a mystical creature tend to fascinate me so I wanted to see what the show was going to do with them. However, I felt it deserved attention and wanted to use my blog to promote it. Remember though, it was weeks ago since I saw this so it’s been a while, but a lot is still fresh in my mind.
The show takes place in Bristol Cove, a town that at one point had a legendary experience with mermaids. At the beginning, a fishing vessel accidentally picks up a mermaid doing a normal run. Almost immediately, the military shows up and takes away the mermaid and one of the injured crewmen. Meanwhile, another mermaid, which can sprout legs when needed, comes on land to find its captured sister. So it’s up to the descendant of the captain from the mermaid legend, Ben Pownall his marine biologist girlfriend, and the younger crewmen of the ship, who Ben has worked with in the past and is friends with, to find out exactly what is going on as well as to save their captured friend.
I’ll start of by making a comparison to give an idea for what the show was like. In the simplest vein, it was essentially Stranger Things if it was a modern adult drama about mermaids instead of a parallel dimension. In both, you have a government conspiracy and cover up, unanswered questions about interaction with a previously untouched world, a bunch of different characters with different goals relating to the world they inhabit, and lives being changed by things going wrong. Stranger Things season 1 is better, but I felt Siren was better than season 2 as it wasn’t retreading previous ground. Take that for what it’s worth as you might be able to tell whether or not you’d be interested.
First off, the story kept me engaged. The story has a natural flow with events constantly coming and going while nothing overstays its welcome. This keeps the audience on its toes as a lot does transpire throughout the ten episodes. The show also takes advantage of Mermaid lore (especially the songs) so there are no missed opportunities. This makes the overall experience quite pleasant.
The acting is really good as well. Everyone turns in an excellent performance and make the characters both memorable and likeable. All those involved have understandable and sympathetic goals, even the villains, which make their struggles much more engaging. Elin Powell especially turns in an excellent performance as Ryn, making her otherworldly and naïve of her new surroundings, but also intelligent and powerful. Definitely there is a lot working in this show’s favor.
One last thing of note from a purely selfish standpoint. The evil scientist is played by Ron Yuan, who also played Crown Prince Tatsu in the video game Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3. Tatsu was one of my favorite characters in that game so it was nice to see Yuan here as well. His portrayal of scientist Dekkard was just as excellent and really made me feel for the character who was studying the mermaids. He really portrayed his struggle and goals.
One other thing I like personally is the fact that there isn’t too much of a love triangle throughout the story. Normally with a story like this, you end up with the main character falling in love with the female humanoid creature, but that was mostly avoided. Since he was in a pleasantly strong relationship already, it would have felt out of nowhere and unnecessary. It seems odd to praise a show for not doing something, but this seriously helped. So definite points there.
Unfortunately, there are draw backs to the show. As previously stated, this is a drama and it follows a lot of the tropes you’d expect. There’s a quest for revenge, a dark secret, and other things that tend to make it into the genre. Fortunately, there isn’t necessarily a set path so there is still an element of surprise as things come up. Also, the execution does pull off the events in ways that are interesting so that does help as well. However, based on the criteria, you will know what to expect as the show continues.
In addition, the last episode had some elements that felt really forced. Without getting into spoilers, a lot of the elements felt added just for the sake of having cliff hangers. For example, the weight and after effects of everything that has happened is felt in the last episode. However, some of the breakdowns in various relationships don’t feel earned or genuine. A lot happens that feels like it just comes out of nowhere, or at least is not pulled off as well as it should be. This is a problem with only the last episode specifically, but it did get annoying as the ending came.
Overall, the show was fun and well made. It wasn’t groundbreaking, but it was a good time. So I have to recommend it for that entertainment value. If it sounds up your ally, you’ll have a good time, and if it doesn’t then probably best to avoid. I enjoyed it though and was happy to watch.
