The new Acorn TV series Summerwater is about five families who are staying in a lot of small cabins on a Scottish loch; in each of those families, someone has traumas and secrets that are drawn out by the strange things that happen at Summerwater.
Opening Shot: A shot of a fire, and someone looking at it. Then we see shots of a Scottish loch, the nearby woods, and a ramshackle cabin in those woods. A body is carried out of a police tent situated amongst a group of vacation cottages on that loch.
The Gist: We see various people being questioned by the police after the fire. The cop states that there were 5 cabins in the Summerwater resort, four with vacationing families and one with the family that works to take care of the resort. The first person we hear from is Justine Tindall (Valene Kane), who says “these people” were reckless, citing that one of her neighbors “didn’t even know where her own child had wandered off to.”
“These people” mostly refers to the family of Alina Piotrowska (Anna Próchniak), who is staying two cabins away from the Tindalls. They have lights on and thumping music playing late into the night, seemingly constantly having a party. In addition, Justine keeps seeing Alina, a photographer, pointing her camera and taking pictures of her.
Justine has her own issues to deal with, though; her husband Steve (Daniel Rigby) suggested that the family take this holiday after a diagnosis of a heart problem indicated that she needed to be less stressed. But Justine can’t stop thinking about an incident back in Manchester with her new boss, Maya Cho (Crystal Yu). Justine had expected to get the job that eventually went to Maya, and her rage led her to do things like key Maya’s car and steal her passport, which she hides in the woods.
Advised not to go for runs, she does so anyway as a way of helping her clear her thoughts. She passes out in the middle of the woods and ends up seeing that ramshackle cabin, where she encounters two people who engage her in an unexpected way. The next time she sees their faces, though, is in a 30-year-old photo of a group that used to stay at Summerwater.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The spooky nature of Summerwater, created by John Donnelly and based on Sarah Moss’ novel, reminds of of shows like From or Castle Rock. (Comparing it to Widow’s Bay would not be fair to Widow’s Bay.)
Our Take: Summerwater is one of those shows that shows different perspectives; in this case, it’s the perspectives of each of the residents of the cabins on this Scottish loch. We see glimpses of them in other episodes, like when David Campbell (Dougray Scott) has to retrieve his wife Annie (Shirley Henderson) when she approaches Justine thinking she’s someone else. But we don’t really know what’s brought them to Summerwater — or how being there affects them — until the episode that concentrates on them.
It does seem, though, that most of the tension centers around Alina and who’s staying in her cabin, though the idea that others’ perceptions don’t mirror reality is going to be what’s explored when we get to see what brought her family to Summerwater. Even when we see Alina and her brood from Justine’s perspective, we can see where Justine is being a huge hypocrite, though she’s also not exactly in her right mind.
Each episode promises to be a psychological deep dive that culminates in the fire we see in the first scene of the first episode. But with that deep dive also comes a lot of repetition and pointless asides that may be real or imagined, like Justine’s encounter in that broken-down cabin. Yes, we get that the resort does something to these emotionally fragile people that brings out the very things that are making them fragile. But we’re wondering if the show is going to be more a series of flashbacks and/or “fantasy” sequences at the sacrifice of a story that might hold a viewer’s interest.
Performance Worth Watching: In the first episode, Valene Kane does a good job of conveying Justine’s particular brand of psychosis, though we don’t seem to get much of an explanation of why she lost control of her rage after being passed over for that promotion.
Sex And Skin: There are some flashes of skin as we see Justine’s encounter at the remote cabin.
Parting Shot: Where does the pilot leave us? Hanging off a cliff, or running for the hills?
Sleeper Star: Justine watches her husband and daughter Lola (Emily Briscoe) go to Alina’s cabin to tell them to turn down the music, and lights a cigarette. We get a closeup of a match being struck.
Most Pilot-y Line: The way Maya finds out that Justine was the one who keyed her car was beyond stupid, mainly because someone who had a scintilla of logic wouldn’t have had the paint-covered key out for everyone to see.
Our Call: SKIP IT. Summerwater feels like it’s too in love with showing the inner workings of the bent brains of its characters than actually advancing plot or making the main characters into something more than caricatures.
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Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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