Money often costs too much
Main Cast: Meghann Fahy, Julianne Moore
Creator: Molly Smith Metzler
If I had to guess what the creator of Maid was going to make next for Netflix, it would NOT have been Sirens. On the surface they seem wildly different. Look under the hood, though, and Molly Smith Metzler is just as adept at using dark comedy to explore her themes as she is using drama.
Sirens is the story of two sisters, Devon (Meghann Fahy) and Simone (Milly Alcock). We meet Devon first, a woman having a comically difficult day. She takes care of her father (Bill Camp) who is in the early stages of dementia, and to be honest, is making some poor choices. The arrival of an inappropriate gift from her sister sends Devon on a multi-hour trek from Buffalo to the isolated private island where Simone works for billionaire Kiki (Julianne Moore).
Kiki is not a billionaire herself, she is married to one. But she has adapted to the lifestyle and runs the house with every ounce of eccentricity and careless, manic control one might expect. Devon arrives on the eve of a large fundraiser to see Simone and find out what happened to the sister she knew.
It does not go well. We’ll leave it at that.
Sirens uses the backdrop of obscene wealth to look at the power dynamics crashing like thunder through this highly inequitable household. Devon provides an outsider’s view of the weirdness that is accepted as “normal” and shows how seductive all those lavish trappings are to the unsuspecting. Meghann Fahy’s Devon starts as a hot mess and ends up on a pretty illuminating journey.
Milly Alcock has the thankless role of younger sister Simone, who thinks she has found her place in the world as Kiki’s personal assistant. She is, at turns, naïve, dismissive, cruel, and plain old irritating.
Julianne Moore plays the hell out of the plum role of Kiki. Kiki is manipulative, immature, and needy. Moore digs in deep and presents us with a perfect picture of pampered, entitled wealth—a woman who has no regard for others despite her clear lack of self-esteem.
All three roles must have been a joy to play. They are broad and stereotypical and the actresses get to go over the top time and again. Sirens is not subtle, and it’s fun to watch these talented women inhabit their (mostly) shallow characters.
The men in the story are just window dressing, with the possible exception of Kevin Bacon as the billionaire husband. He gets some screen time, but mostly just to establish his character’s foundational power.
Glen Howerton (from AP Bio and Always Sunny in Philadelphia) does an admirable job playing a douche neighbor, and Josh Segurra (from The Other Two and Abbott Elementary) knocks it out of the park as Devon’s beleaguered boss.
The thing about Sirens is that on the surface, it’s silly, campy, trashy, soap opera-esque TV (which I obviously love) but underneath there’s a swirling current of topical social commentary. The upstairs/downstairs power inequity in that beautiful house has far more layers than we see at the outset.
Don’t get me wrong, you can absolutely enjoy it on any level you like. If that’s as a garbage TV binge watch, it delivers. If you choose to go along for a little bit deeper ride, though, I don’t think you’ll be sorry. The last episode—there are only five—gives us the context we need to understand how these women ended up in that place. It’s the pay-off of all the earlier campiness.
Sirens is streaming on Netflix and it’s an easy weekend watch. It’s a darkly fun and unexpectedly poignant follow up to the soul-crushing intensity of Maid.
Sue reads a lot, writes a lot, edits a lot, and loves a good craft. She was deemed “too picky” to proofread her children’s school papers and wears this as a badge of honor. She is also proud of her aggressively average knitting skills She is the Editorial Director at Silver Beacon Marketing and an aspiring Crazy Cat Lady.
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