‘Sirens’: Julianne Moore Leads a Wellness Cult With Dark Charisma in a Familiar Getaway of Privileged Dysfunction

Alci Rengifo

Another week, another series about the rich bottled up with their own internal problems. Netflix’s “Sirens” is the latest variation of a repeat format in the world of television shows. Call it “The White Lotus Effect.” The ingredients are fairly simple. Just cast a crop of fairly attractive actors, give them each some specific secret or trauma, money, and gather them in a picturesque locale. This one follows another trend of placing some guru or all-powerful figure above the rest of the cast. Julianne Moore is more than apt for the part and like other actors of her caliber, ends up being the strongest element of this trippy show. 

“Sirens” has the very specific plot detail of taking place during Labor Day weekend in Lloyd Neck, NY on the north shore of Long Island. A charity gala becomes the meeting point for a group of wealthy visitors gathered at a beachside estate. The place belongs to Michaela Kell (Moore), a conservationist obsessed with raptor falcons who is married to hedge fund billionaire Peter (Kevin Bacon). She’s also a kind of wellness guru. Our initial guide into this strange locale is Devon (Meghann Fahy of “The White Lotus”), an alcoholic who works at a falafel joint and is definitely not rich. When her father is diagnosed with dementia, Demon sends an urgent letter to her younger sister, Simone (Milly Alcock), the assistant of Michaela. When Simone only sends back an edible arrangement, Devon decides to go see her sibling in person. What she finds has all the signs of a cult. 

Though “Sirens” is clearly chasing after shows like “The White Lotus” and “Nine Perfect Strangers,” it is actually adapted by Molly Smith Metzler from her play “Elemeno Pea.” To her credit and that of the directing team, the show never feels like a theatrical work. It’s shot with style and edited with dreamlike pacing to music typical in these shows that sounds like some chorus from the beyond. The way the plot unfolds is also so suited for TV that you do wonder what the stage production was like. Devon, played with great dysfunctional urgency by Meghann Fahy, is a classic wreck hating her job while sleeping with her married boss. It’s hardship that makes her more immune to Michaela’s shallow self-help rhetoric masking the eerie, authoritarian nature of her estate. Devon learns soon enough that the guru controls the local police department and keeps her staff under rigid discipline. 

The standoff between older sister and Julianne Moore’s icy cult leader does lend some difference to other similar shows. Though stretched out for TV length, the plot grows thin and resorts to the endless parade of wealth porn we get in these series. You learn what an infrared face mask is at the spa. Other characters feel like mere props, such as Kevin Bacon’s dutiful husband and his best friend, Ethan (Glenn Howerton), who happens to be Simone’s older boyfriend. Catherine Cohen makes a great appearance as a local misfit Devon meets in the drunk tank, who shares about how she got out of a cult. Josh Segarra is buffoonish comic relief as Raymond, Devon’s boss who is left watching over her father (“help him with his butt cream”). Milly Alcock brings a sort of bouncy tension as the younger sibling in the grip of Michaela’s aura, basking in the power she herself gets over the estate’s workers.

“Sirens” then peppers the build-up to Michaela’s gala to raise funds for her bird sanctuary with the other expected turns into childhood trauma, greed and wellness lingo. It might have seemed too aimless if not be for Julianne Moore and cast, who give life to material that feels calculated. Plainly said, “Sirens” is a well-made factory product of a particular sort. It is following a trend and expecting you to binge every episode out of the sake of getting a fix now that the latest “The White Lotus” season has ended. Switch between this and the new outing of “Nine Perfect Strangers” and there is not much difference. It all melds together into the same, glittering yet twisted portrait of those comfortable enough to face their demons in a lap of luxury.

“Sirens” begins streaming May 22 on Netflix.