The I-Land is a new limited TV series that was created by Anthony Salter and is available to watch on Netflix. The show stars Kate Bosworth, Natalie Martinez, Ronald Peet, Sibylla Deen and Giles Geary.
This is a show that I didn’t really know about at all until last week when Netflix notified me on my phone that it was out. I was getting close to being done watching Carnival Row (see Review) and thought okay this show will be the next one I go through.
The I-Land has some promising aspects to it. It stars Natalie Martinez who some may know for her appearances in Death Race (2008) or Self/Less (2015). It also stars Kate Bosworth who some may know for her apparences in Superman Returns (2006) and 21 (2008).
The acting in this series is a major problem. While it has two good stars in there, the rest of the cast are mostly unknowns and they’re pretty bad. Most of the characters were portrayed in a way that I felt was a little unbelievable. While Kate Bosworth was okay, she’s not in the show that much. Natalie Martinez was not bad but it wasn’t until towards the end in the final episode of this show where she was at her best.
The story is interesting but it seemed not well told. Basically what happens in this show is that a bunch of people wake up on a island with no memories at all of who they are. The island itself is filled with some clues and other things to throw the characters on a journey, but it’s mostly like watching a very poor man’s version of Lost (2004).
There’s not much done at all with the characters early on in the show and most characters in the show seem to be disposable. There are multiple deaths along the way on the island and none of them have any impact. In fact I found myself happier when they removed characters as the episodes went by because they were all terrible.
The-Land is filmed mostly in a beach environment and while the location is nice. In general the show has fairly low production value. You get the feeling when watching it that there was just not enough budget for whatever they were trying to do.
The only episode of the show that I thought was actually good was the final one. Not because that meant I was finished with the show. But because the final episode seems to be acting like the exposition for explaining all the sillyness and confusing points from all the previous episodes. After watching this final episode of the show, it made a lot of sense. But it just sucks really that it was a mess all the way until the final episode.
The problem with The I-Land is that I can’t help but feel that this show had a good idea and an interesting concept because I saw that in the final episode. But it seems like it was told to the audience in a odd way, with strange writing, average actors and not enough budget for what they were trying to do. It’s not easy to recommended this show as it’s maybe the worst I’ve seen in 2019. If you do need something new to watch this week I highly recommend taking a look at Carnival Row.
