A giant squid is terrorising a small fishing town on Netflix, and the real star might be the coastline around it. 'Below', the six-episode thriller starring Josh Hartnett, has been sitting at No. 1 on the platform's global charts, and its moody Newfoundland setting has viewers searching for flights.
The show is set in the fictional Snook's Arm, but it leans on real island history: since 1954, the provincial government has run a resettlement programme that has moved people out of more than 300 remote fishing towns, a few as recently as 2017. Creator Jesse McKeown, a longtime visitor to the region, wanted an authentic depiction of that world, and production designer Emmanuel Fréchette built much of it from scratch, modelling the low-ceilinged, boat-like architecture of surviving outport homes.
Most of the action was filmed in Brigus South, a town of roughly 700 people on the Avalon Peninsula, chosen because a deep inlet runs into the land — handy when characters keep getting dragged into the water. The crew constructed about 80% of what you see on screen there, including the fish plant, Fishermen's Hall and the wharf; even the church was a retrofitted house with a bolted-on bell tower.
Elsewhere, Twillingate — about 275 miles northwest of the capital, on the famous Iceberg Alley — doubles for scenes of Hartnett's character harvesting icebergs. Real drifting glacial chunks float past between late April and July, occasionally chilling the air over an entire bay. St. John's hosted the crew, and its 1960s-era Ocean Sciences Centre, half an hour north of downtown, plays the marine research lab where Mackenzie Davis's character works. Pouch Cove's crumbling heritage building was restored by the show's carpenters and used as a hall interior, while the abandoned town of Little Pot Rock is a genuinely resettled community reachable on a 4.3-mile East Coast Trail hike. Bay Bulls, home to North America's largest Atlantic puffin colony, supplied the industrial harbour for the research vessel, and the interior of the on-screen bar is actually a convenience store in Harbour Main known for its homemade ice cream.
The Netflix effect is already measurable: Booking.com reports American searches for St. John's up 16.9% year on year, and Twillingate searches up a staggering 123.7%. If the show has you hooked, going in shoulder season — or iceberg season — is the way to do it.
Fans of 'Come From Away' will recognise another local ritual: the cast got "screeched in" at St. John's Christian's Pub, kissing a cod to become honorary Newfoundlanders. Do the same and you'll leave with a story, if not a distaste for frozen fish.
Condé Nast Traveler
