Review | K-drama review: The Silent Sea – Netflix sci-fi series starring Bae Doona and Gong Yoo is the latest fail in Korean attempts to nail the genre
- Adapted from the 2014 short film The Sea of Tranquility, this eight-part series kicks off with a first episode that’s one of the worst hours of TV this year
- Things do improve - slightly - but the dull narrative, drearily repetitive environments and lack of characterisation will disappoint genre fans
2/5 stars
South Korean storytellers are at the vanguard of modern entertainment, but one area where they have long struggled is science fiction. Those looking to Netflix’s latest drama The Silent Sea, a moon-set action-mystery-horror series, to buck that trend are likely to walk away disappointed, if not outright frustrated.
Set in a dystopian near future, the eight-part series is adapted from director Choi Hang-yong’s well-regarded 2014 short film The Sea of Tranquility. Bae Doona and Gong Yoo star respectively as a scientist and a soldier, who lead an expedition to an abandoned station on the moon, where they must retrieve samples that may have a material impact on the critical water shortage ravaging humanity back on earth.
The series starts with scientist Song Ji-an (Bae) and Han Yoon-jae (Gong) picked to be the brains and brawn of a team that is tasked with voyaging to the abandoned Balhae moon station, where 117 researchers died five years earlier. Both characters have personal reasons for taking on the mission, which later become apparent.