Netflix’s Australian series The Boy Swallows the Universe surprises the viewer

The boy swallows the universe. Netflix.

★★★★

Australian series The boy swallows the universe surprise the viewer. And even twice!

Set in the 1980s, the series depicts the brothers, 13-year-old Eli (Felix Cameron) and 15-year-old Gus (Lee Halley), who live in a poorer area of ​​Brisbane with their mother and stepfather.

The going is, in a word, unstable. Drug-problem parents Frances and Lyle (Phoebe Tonkin and Travis Fimmel) are involved in the drug trade, and when the mother tries to get dry, the boys listen behind the door to her rants and rages about her withdrawal symptoms. Father Robert (almost unrecognizable Simon Baker) is a faded recluse and alcoholic.

When the cards are these, the safe adult in the brothers’ lives is represented by former castle clan Slim (Bryan Brown), a legend in his field. He keeps an eye on the boys and makes sure that everyday life doesn’t become too chaotic. Stability is also brought by Eli’s regular correspondence. Letter kamu is a prisoner serving a sentence, how else!

Home conditions are therefore difficult, but life is full of love, even happiness.

The first surprise is here. The boy swallows the universe doesn’t cringe in the description of the dark side of life or drag it to the extreme to laugh at the misery. Its world is dark, unfair and raw, but their counterforce is humor, which, depending on the situation, is warm or turns into darker shades.

Sometimes it’s even so nice that you almost forget where the series begins: stepfather Lyle’s stepfather slaps the car’s tailgate with hard faces.

There is also a bit of fantasy, and it strengthens the unique, mystical atmosphere of the series. Eli has a strange and recurring dream about a flying car, Gus, who has stopped talking, can predict the future, and there is a strange landline phone that rings by itself in the basement of the home.

Son engulfs the universe is at its strongest as a coming-of-age story that holds onto its optimism without being annoyingly naive. Life throws up all kinds of adversity, from school bullying to mother’s prison sentence, and the boys survive as they have learned, that is, by adapting and leaning on each other.

You get used to it when you only see adults who fail.

Series based on Australian Trent Daltonin to the first novel of the same name published in 2018 (Fin. Kira Poutanen2023). The story has great twists and turns and at least some personal experience: Dalton and his siblings grew up as children of parents who had substance abuse problems and were involved in drug crimes.

The biggest thanks for the success of the TV series must go to the Scottish veteran who wrote the script John Colleellewho has rustled all kinds of things during his career Bergeracista penguin animation Happy Feeling. He has woven the ingredients into a whole with enough shades.

Actors are also at stake. There are a number of Aussies who have created an international career: alongside Fimmel, Tonkin, Baker and Brown, the local pohat who runs a mysterious prosthetics business is played by an experienced Anthony LaPaglia. The young actors, especially Cameron and Halley, are also good.

The other onea more unpleasant surprise comes at the end of the seven-part series. The magic that charmed from the beginning fades as the series focuses on following a crime plot. The last episode is already like another series.

But well over halfway The boy swallows the universe is excellent.