Cliff Notes – Netflix is hours from dropping all 6 episodes of ‘traumatic’ Australian thriller
- Murder Mystery with Emotional Depth: The Survivors, created by Tony Ayres, is described as a family melodrama disguised as a murder mystery, exploring generational trauma.
- Based on a Bestselling Novel: The six-part miniseries is adapted from Jane Harper’s novel, set in the fictional town of Evelyn Bay, Tasmania, where buried secrets resurface following a tragic event.
- Stunning Tasmanian Landscapes: Filmed on location, the show utilises Tasmania’s dramatic scenery to enhance its themes of loss and community grief.
Netflix is hours from dropping all 6 episodes of ‘traumatic’ Australian thriller
If you’re willing to stay up for a few more hours into the night, Netflix is about to release your next bingeable fix.
The creator behind the platform’s hits Clickbait and Stateless now brings The Survivors to the streaming service, a murder mystery set against the Australian island Tasmania’s unforgiving landscape.
Showrunner Tony Ayres has described the six-part miniseries as ‘a family melodrama disguised as a murder mystery’, exploring the long-tail of generational trauma.
Based on Jane Harper’s bestselling book, the thriller follows Kieran Elliott (Charlie Vickers) and Mia Chang (Yerin Ha), who return to Kieran’s Tasmanian hometown Evelyn Bay.
They arrive in the seaside setting fifteen years after a terrible storm took three lives, including Kieran’s older brother.
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When a young woman’s body is discovered on the beach, Kieran’s father (Damien Garvey), who’s suffering from dementia, becomes the prime suspect.
The tragedy forces the community of Evelyn Bay – where everybody knows everybody’s business – to confront their long-ignored grief and buried secrets.
A synopsis of the show on Netflix’s Tudum reads: ‘The show explores what happens to families and friends when they’re forced to reckon with the kind of traumatic events that have a way of floating up to the surface again and again.
‘It’s a thrilling whodunnit— with an intensely emotional core.’
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Ayres has described the show as a ‘Trojan horse’ for family melodrama, using the murder mystery as cover.
‘The things that are really at its heart are things like a son wanting his mother’s love and the mother who just cannot afford to give it because her whole world might fall apart,’ he said.
‘Themes of family and loss and the stories that we tell each other to understand loss.’
Evelyn Bay isn’t a real place, but one Jane Harper created for her novel, although the Netflix production did shoot at various locations in Tasmania.
Ayres told Variety: ‘It became very clear once we found Eagle Hawk Neck and the spectacular landscapes that the locations were going to be crucial to not just the tone of the show, but the themes of the show.’
Those who come to The Survivors as fans of Harper’s books will also find much more than they bargained for here. Ayres has explained that the novel only afforded around two and a half hours of screen time, but Netflix wanted to make six episodes of the show.
He told the trade publication that there was a degree of ‘invention’ behind the scenes, but all of it drawn from the original book.
The Survivors is available to stream on Netflix from June 6.
