Next up? Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.
YOU MAY THINK you have an idea of what Sirens, Netflix’s new darkly comedic limited series set in the fictional beach resort town of “Port Haven,” is all about. The last few years of television have been chock full of shows centered on Rich People Behaving Badly and Getting Themselves Into Trouble. The best of the bunch are probably HBO’s The White Lotus and Big Little Lies, but shows like Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers, and Netflix’s The Perfect Couple are among many wading their toes into these waters, and from the start and the basic set-up, it kind of seems like Sirens could be another file to slip into the folder.
It’s not for nothing. The show centers on Devon (Meghann Fahy), a woman from Buffalo who has personal issues (including a recent DUI and trying to care for her father, who recently got diagnosed with Dementia), as she tries to track down her sister, Simone (Milly Alcock), who hasn’t been seen or heard from since she got a fancy new job. Devon and Simone, in a certain way, are our audience surrogates as we enter a world of rich chaos.
But in exploring this situation and getting to know these characters, we see that Sirens is quite different from those other shows. While Simone’s boss, Michaela (the fantastic Juliane Moore, tapping into her May December or Big Lebowski best) is presented as a Nicole Kidman in Nine Perfect Strangers level potential cult leader, there’s far more interiority and purpose to both her as a person and how she moves through this world. There’s also Peter (Kevin Bacon), Michaela’s billionaire husband who, at his surface, acts and carries himself as a fairly down to earth person despite his massive wealth; His character, though, proves to be something the show takes a nuanced look at and who winds up impacting where everyone else involved in the story ends up.
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What sets Sirens apart from the bunch is that it’s not depending on any of these plot-focused crutches to tell it’s story; Creator Molly Smith Metzler (who based the series on her own 2011 play called Elemeno Pea) instead makes it a point to build strong characters first, and let the story unfold and center on them, who they are, and who they may eventually evolve into.
And while all of the characters here slowly-but-sure become people you feel like you know and understand, it’s the sisters Devon and Simone who become the most vital parts of the story; After all, it’s Devon going to find Simone that gets the ball moving on the whole thing. Meghann Fahy has been in the midst of a tremendous breakout, appearing in Drop earlier this year and set to still appear in Peacock’s The Good Daughter later this year.
Devon may be the entry point to the story, but it’s Alcock as Simone who gets the biggest opportunity to show off and put her talent on display. As someone who’s been through a lot—ground the series covers often and with nuance—Simone gets to be vulnerable at times, and impenetrably rude at others. She gets to put her emotions on screen for everyone to see, and, as a function of the character, almost cycle through a number of different personalities over the course of the show’s single weekend setting. In the hands of a less capable actor, it may have been a tough endeavor, but Alcock makes Simone look as easy as a summer cocktail on the Port Haven cliff.
Stream Sirens Here
Milly Alcock plays Simone in Sirens
Netflix
Sirens has a truly fantastic cast, including Academy Award-winning actors like Julianne Moore, household names like Kevin Bacon, ascending stars like Meghann Fahy, and veteran character actors like Bill Camp. But it’s Milly Alcock’s performance as Simone that the whole show ultimately revolves around; Over the course of the show, we learn little by little that the Simone we first meet isn’t the same as the Simone we know by the end of the show, and that Simone is someone else entirely from the one Devon knew when they were growing up. It’s a lot of character to put on one performer’s shoulders, but Alcock is up to the task every step of the way, pulling each phase and change off with ease.
As the center character in the Sirens web, Alcock also gets a chance for great moments with the entire cast. She rises to the occasion when sharing the screen with a performer as decorated with accolades as Moore, shares a believable sister bond with Fahy, and truly looks troubled when sharing the screen with Camp, who her character blames for her troubled childhood.
Perhaps her most entertaining relationship on screen, though, comes with Glenn Howerton’s Ethan. Ethan—whom Simone is in the midst of a summer fling with—is probably the most one-dimensional character in the show, a rich, spoiled, man-child who has no empathy for anyone and can’t understand basically anything. Ethan is in his late 40s while Simone is 25, but the show flips the presumed power dynamic; Despite having lots of money and being significantly older, Simone is the arbiter of every aspect of how their relationship goes, and when she ultimately (spoiler!) dumps Ethan, it provides one of the funniest moments in the show. The “…No” that Alcock mutters in a deadpan when asked if she’s going to marry Ethan or not is next-level.
She’ll next be seen on the big screen as Kara Zor-El/ Supergirl
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Most fans were first introduced to Alcock in House of the Dragon as the youngest version of Rhaenyra Targaryen, and now for her next major role she’s taking on another major franchise figure: Kara Zor-El, also known as Supergirl. She’s expected to make a brief appearance in July’s Superman before leading Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow in 2026.
This version of Supergirl is a bit different from what you might typically think of, though. Kara is Kal-El’s (also known as Clark Kent, also known as Superman) cousin, hailing from Krypton. But the Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow film is based on the acclaimed 2021-2022 comic series of the same name, written by Tom King. That comic was frequently compared to True Grit, the original novel being written by Charles Portis, but also adapted into two movies, one starring John Wayne and another directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and starring Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld.
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow has already wrapped filming, and while we haven’t gotten any images or trailers for the movie yet, we do know that Alcock will also be joined in the cast by Jason Momoa as the bounty hunter Lobo, who is considered by some to be DC’s take on Wolverine, albeit a more cosmic space-focused version. If we could get a version of True Grit with Alcock’s Supergirl and Momoa’s Lobo, well, that would be pretty cool.
