The Silent Sea: Season 1

  

Based on: The Sea of Tranquility short film by Choi Hang-yong

Written by: Park Eun-kyo 

Directed by: Choi Hang-yong

Starring: Bae Doona (Dr. Song Ji-an), Gong Yoo (Han Yoon-jae), Lee Joon (Lt Ryoo Tae-seok), Kim Sun-young (Dr. Hong Ga-Young), Lee Moo-Saeng (Chief Gong Soo-hyuk), Kim Si-A (Luna)

Premiere review:

Well, this seems like it's going to be quite the interesting ride! 

The first thing I noticed was that the visuals seem very nice. The episode opens with broad, sweeping views of an overpopulated, overused, and dying planet earth. The sweep felt majestic and thrilling and gave me a very positive sensation of the world I was about to jump into. 

The subs, of course, made it a little more difficult. I didn't honestly even check to see if English dub was an option, but I always prefer to watch anything in its native language. It's a little distracting but i think it's worth it to get full immersion. Plus, when the lips are off from the words, I find that very distracting. 

We're introduced to a lead--Dr. Song--who's pretty much over it. This remains her attitude for the first episode, which feels a little off-putting, but she isn't actually disrespectful to others. She's just short with her words and prefers to get it done, not get to know you. I can get behind that attitude if there's still respect and intellect, both of which she seems to display. 

The episode moves quickly from assigning Dr. Song this mysterious mission to getting them on the spacecraft to shooting them into space to crashing (correct, not quite landing) on the moon to getting them to the space station. That's a lot for 45 minutes, which is my only complaint for the episode. It didn't need to move fast. Or rather, it might've, given that it only has eight episodes in this season, sadly. But that's Netflix's fault, and the storytelling hasn't felt entirely lacking. It just could've been better. if it'd had more time to breathe. I kept feeling surprised the episode kept going. When they boarded their spacecraft and prepared to take off, I thought to myself, "that's a good ending spot." When they crashed on the moon, I thought, "that's a good cliffhanger." But then the episode kept going. 

Mission crew aboard their spacecraft preparing for flight. Dr. Song is far left

Of course, that negative will hopefully result in a greater positive: the show itself is about the moon base and the very mysterious circumstances they encounter there, so it's better to have more episodes to flesh out that more important aspect. Still, it's sad to have to sacrifice any parts of the story. (Assuming they did have to sacrifice.) 

I also question some of the character's choices. As they began trekking to the base after escaping their shuttle, they discovered one crewmember had a potentially serious injury and couldn't walk as fast as they needed. In my mind, it would be logical for three or four of the healthy people to carry this person the rest of the way to the base. That would have been quick, efficient, and potentially saved his life. Instead, the whole crew mulled about as the injured member trembled on his knees, trying to figure out what to do, wasting their suit's oxygen that was already low. They stood still and mulled long enough that the member succumbed to the injury and everyone's suits were alarming. Then they left the member behind and ran to the base, their collective suits around 1%. That does not foreshadow decent decision-making to come. 

But it does set up an air of mystery, danger, and fear. At the expense of logic, in my opinion. But so be it. 

But the show has set up a very interesting mystery and situation. It's made clear that there's a whole lot of unknown with this base, even to the mission bosses. During a debrief on Earth, the superiors were cornered into admitting that they don't know what's in this sample that the crew is being told to retrieve. It's just important. It's also unclear why this base was abandoned in the first place. 

So, I'm pretty excited to see what this show has yet to come. I like the main character, I like most of the crew, I like the world and I like the plot. 

Finale review: 

The story developed very impressively and unveiled some very compelling secrets. Human cloning and human experimentation? Wow, that's some messed up stuff the government was playing with, and the crew has to figure out how to handle this information. The mysterious samples they're tasked to retrieve contain "Lunar Water" or water found on the moon, which has infectious viral properties. When in contact with organic matter, it reproduces itself exponentially, becoming fatal to humans. The cloning and experimentation were done to figure out how to circumvent this issue, eventually succeeding with the clone named "Luna" who can not only survive contact with the water but gained supernatural healing and agility from it. 

Captain Han Yoon-jae

Most of the crew has died by this point, either from exposure to lunar water or at the hands of an imposter government spy whose top priority is to keep these secrets. By the finale episode, only three of the original crew remain, and they manage to kill this imposter. Then they're left with a final question: what to do with Luna? By this point, they recognize her as two conflicting ideas: a normal young girl who needs a life--and a scientific wonder, potentially the key to saving humanity. The crew recognizes that turning Luna over to the government will result in a life of further experimentation, her only being recognized as an object. They determine that our main character, Dr. Song, who was the first to recognize Luna as a normal person, needs to accompany her at all times. Dr. Song also coins the idea of taking Luna to international public space so no one government has a say on her fate. However, this is never seen to fruition in the season. 

Luna, appearing unkempt after many years alone aboard the abandoned moon station

In the last moments, the ship's captain is nearly dying as the rescue ship from earth comes upon them. Luna is there, and we're left to wonder if she performs some miracle to save the captain's life as the four are rescued. It fades to black as the rescue ship lands. 

The season leaves some very compelling questions that could be followed up in a second season. Most prominently, what will happen to Luna? What of the Korean government heads who sanctioned this mission and worked so hard to cover up these illegal experiments? Will the lunar water be treated properly? I don't know how confident I should be that this series will be picked up, given that it's foreign-made. Will enough American and global audiences find and enjoy it? I certainly hope so.