Starring : Pauline Etienne, Laurent Capelluto, Stéfano Cassetti, Mehmet Kurtulus
Created by : Jason George
Our pick today in our ongoing Lockdown review series is, Into The Night, a Belgian sci-fi thriller, which is currently streaming on Netflix. Created by Jason George, the series is inspired from a Polish science fiction novel The Old Axolotl, written by Jacek Dukaj.
What’s it about?
The story begins at Brussels airport, where a young woman Sylvie tries to convince an airline company to let her board a flight, after she’s told that she’s well past the check-in time. Taking pity on her, the airline company puts her on a flight to Moscow and from there, she’s told that she can fly to her original destination. Soon after Sylvie boards the flight, a NATO officer, Terenzio, hijacks the plane and threatens the pilot that he’ll kill everyone if he doesn’t fly the plane soon. Left with no other choice, the pilot, Mathieu, follows Terenzio’s instructions and flies to the West instead of going to Moscow. When the passengers in the flight agitate, Terenzio tells them a top secret, that they have to escape sunlight, which has turned lethal, killing everyone across the world. The rest of the story is about how the passengers on the flight try to put aside their differences and escape the Sun around the world.
What’s Good?
The premise of the series is terrific and the whole story has several adrenaline-pumping moments right from the very beginning. In the past, there have been films like Speed, 2012, and several disaster films, where the characters are put in an extraordinary situation, where they have to do everything they can to survive. Into the Night too follows a similar template. Initially, the characters in the story are in denial that the Sunlight is killing people; however, when they see people dropping dead at airports in different parts of the Northern hemisphere, including Iceland, Scotland, and Canada, they believe the story and try to come up with a plan to survive. There’s tension in the air, quite literally. Besides, creator Jason George ensures that there’s enough drama in the story since several characters in the story have a motive of their own, and don’t trust others. In a way, the story is a metaphor for the political scenario in European Union, where some countries don’t trust others, and yet, they are forced to be together to face a bigger crisis that threatens to kill them all. And as the story progresses, the characters fight with each other, then patch up, and just when they think everything is going to be fine, their temper and ego changes a lot of things.
What’s bad?
After a thrilling opening episode, the series doesn’t quite live up to the promise. When the characters are flying from one destination to another, the series relies on their personal motives and conflicts to keep the drama engaging; however, some of these segments don’t quite work well. There’s a subplot involving three British soldiers with a shady past and it feels quite unnecessary. Similarly, a lot of times, the interactions between the actors aren’t engaging enough. The biggest problem with the series is that it isn’t consistently good and that makes a big difference.
Final word :
After a thrilling opening episode, Into the Night feels like a promising new show, but it doesn’t quite live up to the expectations. Yet, there are plenty of engaging moments which help you keep watching the show, and when it focuses on how they escape an impending disaster, that’s when it works best. If you are looking for a quick watch, and a story with good number of twists and turns, Into The Night is a good option to explore.
123telugu.com Rating : 3/5