Animation
Avatar: Seven Havens
The Avatar is reincarnated once again in ‘Seven Havens,’ this time in the form of twin sisters and paired with some thematically heavier content.
Calvin Penney feels conflicted about the sea.
His family legacy is that of seamen, as is the case for most residents of the small fishing town Snooks Arm. However, during a government-mandated relocation effort of the town’s residents over the murky ocean years ago, Calvin’s father tragically drowned. Calvin is still haunted by that accident. Even worse, he wasn’t able to carry on his father’s trade. Over the years, fewer and fewer fish have populated the waters surrounding Snooks Arm. Now residents make ends meet by reining in icebergs to be used in Blue Ice Vodka—a brand that makes its product from these drifting bergs.
The government is once again affording residents the opportunity to move. It’s in their favor to sunset the shrinking fishing town and assimilate its people into bigger towns to cut costs. Calvin hopes to convince his two oldest children to return home and help with the family ice business—and to vote against this most recent resettlement effort. After all, the Penney family knows better than anyone else that crossing the ocean can come at a much higher cost than the $140,000 being offered.
However, the looming threat of relocation is hardly Snooks Arm’s greatest worry. Large chunks of ice are drifting close to the shores of town. But they aren’t frozen water: They’re frozen mucus—the kind of excrement that might be left behind by a creature of biblical proportions.
Between icecaps melting and overfishing, this underwater behemoth isn’t happy—a foul mood that will likely spell doom for the sea-dwelling townsfolk.
Under the surface of Below’s intriguing premise is an impressively constructed family dynamic that instantly reels in viewers. The series patiently rolls out its tension like a thick fog, taunting audiences to look a little closer. Unfortunately, swimming too far from the shore will have viewers plunging into some surprisingly choppy waters.
With a slightly outlandish premise and some palpable creature-based tension, the setup here feels akin to the more recent work of a director like M. Night Shyamalan; however, the depths of content here run far deeper than most of his films. Below casts a wide net, catching harsh language and bloody gore alongside some nice familial sentiments. Characters also hit the bottle pretty heavily in Snooks Arm, with the pub in town seemingly functioning as the only establishment visited as often as the harbor.
While this spooky seafront mystery will likely garner critical appeal, discerning viewers may wish to sail over to a different streaming series to fulfill their TV time.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Still haunted by the death of his father during a resettlement effort, Calvin Penney and the townspeople of Snooks Arm are once again confronted with a demand for relocation. While opinions vary on whether or not the settlement money should be accepted, Calvin’s two eldest children join him and his youngest son, Wade, for a family reunion. This warm familial gathering may soon be cut short, though, as an unknown sub-nautical threat is lurking in the depths that have already taken so much from the Penney family.
The goriest moment of the episode is relegated to its last minute, as a man’s stomach gets crushed in an accident involving a thick cable. Pinned between the cable and his own ship, the line cuts into his skin, drawing a lot of blood. Moments later he’s cut in half, with blood and guts spilling out of him.
A house gets towed across a body of water on a raft of sorts. When it gets stuck, a man enters the house to investigate the problem. While he’s inside, the house begins sinking quickly, and the man drowns. Scientists closely inspect a dead flamingo. We’re told the bird was shot and killed after it landed on the wrong person’s roof. A fisherman’s dismembered leg is found in the ocean, foot still in the boot. The leg bone, along with the bone marrow, have been sucked dry by the creature that got to it. (It’s not confirmed what happened to the leg’s owner.) A character receives a threatening text that reads, “You’re a dead man.”
A large creature causes destruction that takes out a house and a boat, inadvertently taking at least two lives. (The creature is not fully seen other than a quick glimpse of its eye.) Characters use a firearm to shoot and break chunks of ice off a large iceberg. We hear frequent discussions about how wild changes in weather are affecting local animals and humans.
Strong language includes more than 10 uses of the f-word, a couple of s-words and around 10 misuses of God’s and Jesus’ names. God’s name is paired with “d–n” once. Two uses of “b–ch.”
Townsfolk spend time at the local pub drinking beer and shots. We’re told a character missed his flight because he had a few too many pints at the airport. Some song lyrics mention the drug ecstasy. A character smokes cigarettes on a few occasions.
A couple kisses, and there is mention that they are living together out of wedlock. A man sleeps in his underwear in a few quick shots, and a few women at a bar wear outfits that bare a bit of cleavage.
While no religion is clearly stated, the townsfolk of Snooks Arm, frequently discuss God’s will for their town, saying statements like “Lord knows” and “God help him.” A character wears a cross necklace for the majority of her scenes.
Jonah Parker’s first interaction with Plugged In came when he was just five years old, after his parents read a review for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and deemed the content too intense for him. What started out as a contentious relationship between Jonah and a staff of reviewers who knew not of his existence would later turn into an appreciation for the site’s ability to present media content in a way that was accurate and fair. Jonah enjoys analyzing how our entertainment echoes the creativity of our Creator while finding glimpses of Biblical truths within every genre. He believes that Robert Pattinson’s Batmobile is the perfect mix of cool and practical.
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