“The Silent Sea” tells the story of the critical space mission that will determine the future of planet earth. Even though the drama had its problems, it ended up an enjoyable and interesting ride.

The drama is a mystery horror thriller without any romantic aspect as it only focuses on the mission. Generally speaking, it isn’t creepy as it is gore and (a little) disgusting so I don’t consider it a heavy drama. The drama is also a Sci-Fi and that makes it not everyone’s cup of tea.


~~The Sci-Fi~~

The Sci-Fi of the drama is mainly about Biology, especially Astrobiology. I have to say that I found the Sci-Fi part pretty interesting and it was very well presented and delivered through the episodes. Using Astrobiology was one of the keys to success for the Sci-Fi theme because space is endless, full of mysteries and that lets the human’s imagination arise and make unique stories. Also, as we don’t know many things about space, the Sci-Fi part is more acceptable and less frustrating (unless you are an Astrobiologist I guess).

The Sci-Fi part reminded me of the “Panspermia Hypothesis” which basically says that “life began on Earth when the "seeds" of life, already present in the universe, arrived here from space”. I don’t know if the creators know about this hypothesis but I really like the fact that the resemblance with this hypothesis existed even if it wasn’t on purpose. If you watch the drama, you will understand this resemblance too.


~~The Pace and Storytelling~~

Slow but interesting, without action but suspenseful. This drama is very insidious, even though “silent” it manages to make the louder noise.

“The Silent Sea” is a slow burn drama, but it’s not boring. It takes it’s time to unfold the mystery and to create the right atmosphere. The suspense of the drama is built through the “unknown” factor and the process which will eventually lead to the knowledge and not through the violence and action scenes. Even the music of the drama is slow, mysterious, calm, hypotonic but also very interesting and aesthetically pleasing. As a lover of slow burn dramas, I really appreciate this drama’s aura.

“The Silent Sea” felt like a movie and this is a good but also, a bad thing.

The good thing first, it felt like a 7-hour movie, it was easy to binge and it didn’t lose its interest. The storytelling was very meticulously made. It had a start, a middle and an end united with a very good coherence. In other words, the story is a well-completed chapter.

The bad thing was that as a movie due to the lack of time has some undeveloped parts, “The Silent Sea” has some undeveloped parts too. The main undeveloped thing is the character’s depth. One of the advantages that series have over movies, is that they have the comfort to dedicate time to spend on the character building and on its development. “The Silent Sea” though didn’t dedicate the necessary time on this. All the characters were one-dimensional, even the ones with the backstories, and also, there isn’t any character development.

The second bad thing is the ending. Unfortunately, the story only focuses on the space mission and the mystery behind the accident but not to what happens after. As many movies, “The Silent Sea '' is dedicated to one action but not to the universe that this action is part of. Thus, I believe that “The Silent Sea” might have a second season.


~~Production and Acting~~

I don’t have much to say here, I am fully satisfied with both production and acting. Netflix paid much attention to their last Korean Drama of the year and the result was beautiful. “The Silent Sea” is just visually stunning with neat directing that contains beautiful space sceneries and scene transitions and with good quality VFX and CGI. The acting was great but the actors didn’t have the needed space to develop their portrayal through the drama and reach their full potential. Still, it was so nice to see these lovable actors on the screen again.


~~Overall~~

If you are a lover of Sci-Fi and slow burn dramas, but also a binge watcher, “The Silent Sea” is a very good choice. The story has some mistakes and some loose, rough points but generally, the storytelling is comprehensive in terms of its main theme and quite interesting. I don’t know if you will end up loving the drama or hate it but I believe that this drama will be an entertaining watching experience.