Television has always been a place for both mocking and celebrating the rich, sometimes in the same show. Recently, the trend has been satires of the ridiculous lives rich people lead. Netflix’s new miniseries Sirens is born from that mold. The program plays like a mix of The White Lotus and Big Little Lies combining dark comedy with soap opera twists. It’s an intriguing premise with a star-studded cast to back it up.
Created by Molly Smith Metzler and based on her play Elemeno Pea, Sirens is the tale of two sisters who reunite over a hectic weekend at the lavish beach estate of a billionaire couple. Younger sister Simone (Milly Alcock) works for philanthropist Michaela (Julianne Moore) as her assistant. Michaela is the wife of the ultra-wealthy Peter Kell (Kevin Bacon) and spends most of her time on the aforementioned estate nestled on an island that they also own. Simone’s life on the estate takes a turn when her sister, Devon (Meghann Fahy) pays an unexpected visit. Will she be able to convince her sister to leave, or will she fall under the strange spell of this world of wealth?
Sirens is held together by the strength of its lead trio. Alcock does great work as the eager to impress Simone. She doesn’t come from money and she tries very hard to keep that a secret. Fahy’s Devon is her opposite to a comic degree. Brash, loud, and uncaring about how these people feel. She knows she doesn’t belong, and she actively flaunts it. Julianne Moore rounds out the group with a role tailor made for her. Both mystical and inscrutable, she plays Michaela as more than your typical rich housewife. It’s easy to see why she’s something of a cult of personality.
This is more than just your surface-level satire. Metzler and her team clearly have a lot of ideas regarding wealth, class, and the power dynamics involved. What ultimately holds the show back is that those ideas never coalesce into a workable whole. The more the plot zigs and zags from your expectations, the more muddied the messaging gets. The twists build on top of each other in interesting but rarely satisfying ways.
There’s enough here to hold your interest through the series’ densely packed 5 episodes. The show definitely doesn’t overstay its welcome. If you’re a huge fan of the lead actors or like your comedies to have a dash of melodrama to them, you’ll likely enjoy Sirens more than me. It’s got a fun cast and an intriguing premise, but it fails at bringing those elements together. In many ways, this is the ideal binge watch. Fun in the moment with nothing that will stick in your mind longer than a week.
Sirens is currently streaming on Netflix.