Netflix’s The I-Land trailer reveals a tropical paradise loaded with danger. Confining characters to an isolated or contained environment is hardly a new angle for any TV series or film, though to date, the concept has repeatedly found a substantial degree of success with audiences.
Most recently, Netflix has managed to utilize the contained thriller to impressive effect with their original series The Society, which focuses on a group of teenagers left to their own devices after they discover that they are the only inhabitants of their small town. Other Netflix programs that take a stab at a variation of this formula are Another Life and to some degree, Black Mirror. While the contained thriller is a tricky one to successfully pull off, when it’s done properly, audiences are all too often instantly drawn into seeing what happens next. Perhaps one of the most notable examples of this (although it wasn’t a Netflix original), was J.J. Abrams’ Lost, which drew in a devoted fanbase that continues to revisit the show some nine years after its final season.
With its commitment to producing original content for its subscribers still well intact, Netflix has just announced their new contained sci-fi thriller series The I-Land, which will arrive on September 12. The new series stars Kota Eberhart (X-Men: Dark Phoenix), Sibylla Deen (The Last Ship), Anthony Lee Medina (The First Purge) and Natalie Martinez (The Crossing), as well as Kate Bosworth, Alex Pettyfer, Ronald Peet, Kyle Schmid, Gilles Geary, and Michele Veintimilla. You can check out the brand new trailer and poster below:
As seen in the trailer, the series focuses on ten people who wake up on a deserted island with no memory of how they got there or why they are there. From then on, it appears that the new inhabitants of the island begin to learn that they are being toyed with and that their time on the island is some kind of test, where survival is the only way to win. The series appears to have a low budget quality to it that could have the dual effect of both repelling and drawing in viewers. It also appears to have a heavy similarity to established programs like Lost and The Society, which could also offer that same duality. Though exactly how popular the series will be will heavily rely on its initial episodes.
At first look, this appears to be a rather cynical series which will likely draw on the age-old cliché of people turning on one another when left to their own devices. As previously mentioned, other programs have already gone for a similar concept and made good on it, so there could always be room for one more within the same genre. That being said, The I-Land will have to display significant creativity and watchability to be able to keep up with a standard that has already been set, and at this point, whether or not it can remains a hard call to make.
Next: What To Expect From The Society Season 2
Source: Netflix
