With a unique setting and unforgettable characters, Sirens is an exciting tale of power, wealth, sisterhood, and how these come together.
Creator: Molly Smith Metzler
Genre: Dark Comedy, Drama, Mini Series
Number of Episodes: 5
Release Date: May 22, 2025
Where to Watch: Stream it Globally on Netflix
“No one knows you like a sister. No one loves you better,” is one of the first sentences we hear in the first episode of Sirens, Netflix’s newest limited series. It is also one of the lines that best define the entire TV show, as it relies heavily on the relationship between two sisters and how far they are each willing to go to support and help the other.
Set during Labour Day weekend, Sirens starts when Devon DeWitt (Meghann Fahy, of Drop) arrives on a small island near upstate New York to look for her sister Simone DeWitt (Milly Alcock, of House of the Dragon), who has been ignoring her plea for help with taking care of their sick father. Simone, on the other hand, has completely reinvented herself after a traumatic childhood and upbringing and is now a live-in assistant to Michaela Kell (Julianne Moore, of May December), a socialite who runs a raptor conservation charity. As part of her job, Simone gets to enjoy Michaela’s expensive lifestyle, including living in a large beachside estate that her husband, Peter Kell (Kevin Bacon, of Footloose), owns. But not all that glitters is cold, and Devon is worried about her sister’s weird relationship with Michaela, whom she suspects of running a cult.
The show does a really good job at establishing the setting and location. The Kell mansion is key to the entire story. Not only is it a constant reminder of their wealth – and, therefore, power within their community – but it is also almost exclusively the setting for the series. For example, the whole story starts to unravel when Devon arrives at the house, and it is contained on the island where all the main characters end up congregating. Through the multiple repeated shots of the estate and its surroundings, Sirens makes us its audience more and more familiar with the setting with each passing episode. By the end of the show, we too feel like we could move around the main building, the guesthouse, the beach, and the forest with as much ease as the protagonists.
With every episode, Sirens is able to maintain the tension and mystery around the story going, keeping the audience hooked to the screen until its very last frame. Despite the fact that we get to know the characters, their intentions, and motivations better, there is still a feeling that we do not quite know what to expect from the show until its end. The episodes are very well structured, revealing just enough to keep our interest piqued but also never letting us see the entire picture until its final moments.
Sirens’ characters, in particular the three female leads Devon, Simone, and Michelle, are incredibly compelling and easily one of the strongest suits of the show. As we find out more about their backstories, the audience comes to understand their actions throughout the show, but the dynamic between them is also very interesting as they represent three different examples of strong and determined women. This does not make them perfect nor infallible. Instead, the Netflix limited series is not afraid of showing its main characters fail time and time again and make countless mistakes, but this makes them all the more realistic and truthful. While initially it may seem clear who we are supposed to like or not like, over the course of the five episodes, the line quickly starts to get blurred as we find out that not everything is as black and white as it may appear.
The original source material for Sirens is a play, “Elemeno Pea” by Molly Smith Metzler. The play’s inspiration can be felt throughout the entire show. While the monologues are very well written and incredibly well acted by the main cast, I did want to see more about the characters’ past rather than just hearing about it. I wish the adaptation to screen had included more flashbacks, in line with the one we see towards the end of the series, which is especially successful and well delivered within the context of the episode. It is a shame that the aforementioned one is the only flashback we see in the entire show, as the inclusion of more flashbacks would have been a good chance for the limited series to distinguish itself from the play it is adapted from.
Overall, Sirens is an exciting TV show. While the themes it touches on are not entirely new on the small screen – The White Lotus explored similar ones of privilege and wealth, for example – the series does so in a new manner by introducing compelling new characters, fascinating dynamic between them, and a mystery the audience is compelled to solve along with its protagonists.
Sirens (Netflix) Series Plot & Recap
Synopsis:
From the outside looking in, Simone’s life as a live-in assistant on a lavish and enormous beachside estate seems perfect. But when her older sister Devon decides to suddenly show up at her workplace – and new home – she starts to uncover the cracks behind the surface and the weird relationship Simone has with her boss, Michaela.
Pros:
- The three main characters – Devon, Simone, and Michaela- are incredibly compelling and realistic.
- The show is very well-written, especially when it comes to the monologue that it so heavily relies on.
- The interactions between the characters are well-built and create an interesting dynamic among them.
Cons:
- The show sometimes feels too derivative of a play in its structure and frequent monologues that often replace what could have been shown in flashback instead.
Sirens is now available to stream globally on Netflix.
