Rather than a destination, The Silent Sea served me a direction with countless possibilities and roads to follow. The questions have been asked, and it’s on me to answer them for myself.

Personally speaking, I like the shows that do not tell me everything, so I can dwell on the issues myself. Which decisions were correct, which were selfish, which showed humanity and which made the character greedy - The Silent Sea leaves enough room for me to decide on my own.

The dire reality of Earth’s water supply slowly ending was quite a nice and more realistic take on a potential dystopian scenario we might face. Showing us some details on how the nations work around the problem, the inequality in water distribution - both in the case of the quantity, but also quality of water, all that created a cohesive setting that made the mission seem justified, and the risk worth taking. The more I believe the setting, the less I question life-risking decisions the characters are making.

The Silent Sea tackles the topics of social inequality, distribution of necessary resources, corporate greed and misguided decisions that were made in hopes of bettering the lives of others. How far can we go to save the human race? Are we willing to give up humanity in the process? Should we focus on the struggles of individuals when we need to save the collective? But what is collective if not a group of individuals?

Another aspect that I greatly appreciated was the contrast between the individual goals and needs of the crew and the worsening situation on the Earth. On one hand, the contrast might make the personal issues trivial, on the other hand, it showed how important it is to consider these small, seemingly insignificant issues, as they might help us make morally sound decisions.

Moving to the cast and the performances - could we ask for me? Probably not. Bae Doona and Gong Yoo truly aced their roles, presenting all the emotions and dilemmas in the most realistic and subtle way possible. All the supporting cast did their best in bringing these characters to life, and they succeeded. Big props to Lee Joon who moved on from the meme English line “you shouldn’t do that” to the whole English dialogues (obscure references only A+ would know). His performance was for sure one that surprised me the most.

Adding to the value of the show, we’ve got some aesthetic feast. The color contrast between the warm yellow tones on Earth, and cold blue shades on the moon, the space shots, the use of light and shadows - all creating a number of beautiful pictures.

While the scenes taking place on either Earth or artificial gravity were amazing, all the physics in the rest, at times felt… oof. The movement of actors in zero gravity was an obvious wire work that took away from the realism. Some CGI could have either been improved, or the scene completely removed (was that fake lion truly necessary?).

Talking about science… just try not to think about it too hard, especially closer to the ending.

Overall, I appreciated how they did not slam me in the face with the answers, but left enough info in for me to puzzle it all together. Some twists were easier to predict than others (some could have been seen from miles away), but I was highly entertained from the beginning till the end. It’s slow at times, not action packed, but that’s the type of shows I appreciate the most.

There is also one aspect of the plot that made me quite “happy”, but since it is a spoiler, I will talk about it in the comment under the review.