Watch This: Safe Harbour
Don't Miss Out On This Australian Drama
“I don’t know what happened out there, in the middle of that ocean… But someone in your group isn’t telling the whole truth.”
Hulu‘s latest import is the Australian drama series, Safe Harbour. This four-part mystery miniseries explores the far-reaching consequences of an innocent vacation gone horribly wrong. While en route to Indonesia for a weekend of mindless entertainment, a group of Australian pleasure-seekers get more than they bargained for when they come across a derelict vessel adrift in the sea. The ship is filled with middle-eastern immigrants trying to make their way to a safe haven, and a tentative partnership is formed, with the Australians tying a rope to the broken down fishing boat and resolving to bring everyone home safely.
However, distrust and discontent ultimately win out; one way or another, the ships are untied and the Australians return home without the refugees. By the time the refugees make it to civilization, seven of their group are dead, and the survivors want answers. The subsequent investigation – the main crux of the show – is focused on determining just what happened out there, in the merciless and untamed ocean.
What Safe Harbour lacks in star power and production values, it makes up for in beautiful scenery, compelling plotting, and realistic drama. Fear of “the other” makes men do terrible things, and the series would be more entertaining if it wasn’t so believable. We would all like to think we’d be valiant heroes if we were placed in a comparable situation, but would we? How often do we turn a blind eye to injustice when we can help? How often do we choose to ignore problematic situations by resorting to willful ignorance? Problems don’t disappear if you hide from them; there’s an entire world outside of any given safe harbor.
Safe Harbour debuts August 24 on Hulu.
