Summerwater Review: A Disappointing Adaptation
Channel 4's new six-part drama Summerwater proves that holidays can indeed feel like murder. This adaptation of Sarah Moss's novel, written by John Donnelly, attempts to explore the dark undercurrents of family life but ultimately delivers a confused and frustrating viewing experience.
The series begins with a familiar dramatic device: characters being interviewed by police about a fire that destroyed one of the holiday cabins. Viewers must wait until the final episode to discover who started the blaze, who died, and whose cabin was involved.
A Flawed Narrative Structure
Summerwater employs an interlinked anthology format, showing the same rain-lashed day repeatedly from different perspectives. The first episode focuses on Justine, played by Valene Kane, a wife and mother of two preteens who appears deeply troubled.
The central problem with this adaptation becomes apparent early on. The television version cannot replicate the detailed inner monologues that made Moss's novel compelling, and having largely abandoned the book's state-of-the-nation political commentary, the series struggles to find its purpose.
Instead, viewers are treated to what the reviewer describes as 'a sort of allusive psychodrama' filled with baleful blank stares and threatening Scottish landscapes, all set to a shimmering, whining score.
Unconvincing Character Portrayals
Justine's story involves flashbacks that attempt to explain her distance from her emotionally inadequate husband Steve, played by Daniel Rigby, and their children. Her obsessive long runs around the holiday village are punctuated by attempts to dispose of evidence from a crime.
Back in her normal life, a workplace disappointment triggered a breakdown and a reckless campaign of revenge. While there might be a resonant story about a woman overwhelmed by expectations, the series fails to develop this properly, relying instead on the unsettling spectacle of a character having a severe mental health episode.
Subsequent episodes introduce other unhappy households, including:
- Empty nesters played by Dougray Scott and Shirley Henderson, haunted by paths not taken
- A teenage boy, portrayed by Calum Ross, humiliated by his first relationship ending
- A young Eastern European couple working at the nearby hotel
The immigrant couple, discriminated against by their employers and othered by British holidaymakers, annoy everyone by playing loud house music late at night, which appears to be someone's fatal tipping point.
Genre Confusion and Implausibility
The review notes that all characters are 'phenomenally unhappy people in cartoonishly grim situations', with their ability to connect with audiences stifled by melodramatic acting at the expense of narrative substance.
Backstories are too basic for viewers to care about, and implausible character behaviour frequently leaves audiences wondering about motivations. The series occasionally tilts toward other genres, including a brief suggestion of Lynchian mind-horror with the use of Roy Orbison's In Dreams, but this atmosphere proves fleeting.
An element of the supernatural appears in the form of a mysterious, dilapidated hut in the woods that influences those who enter, but this concept is underdeveloped and becomes another annoying loose end.
While Summerwater contains some redemptive moments and deserves credit for attempting to move beyond the standard crime mystery template, the overall result is a drama that makes viewers want to 'back out of the room slowly and carefully'. The series is currently available to watch on Channel 4.
