Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The I-Land’ On Netflix, Where 10 People Are Stranded On An Island With Their Memories Wiped

For some reason or another, Netflix did not offer The I-Land for review prior to its release, which is unusual for one of their American-made series. It could be because they didn’t want spoilers out, as this is a Lost-esque mystery about ten people whose memories are wiped waking up on a weird tropical island. But could it have been for quality reasons? Read on for more…

THE I-LAND: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We push into a view of a tropical island in the middle of nowhere. As we see a beach shot from above, there’s a woman lying on the beach, unconscious, a conch shell next to her.

The Gist: The woman wakes up, and blows into the shell to see if anyone else is there. A second woman is awake, holding a knife. Neither of them know their names or how they got there. Instead of working together, though, the second woman immediately pulls the knife on the first, leading the first to grab it from her by force.

Eventually, we see eight other people wake up, all clad in similar white shirts and khaki pants. The first time they gather, the woman who had the knife, K.C. (Kate Bosworth), figures out that everyone has their names sown into tags on their shirts. Chase (Natalie Martinez), who had the conch, tries to take the lead and gather a group to explore the island, but K.C. rebuffs her, citing their earlier confrontation and calling her a “bitch.” Eventually, Brody (Alex Pettyfer) and Donovan (Anthony Lee Medina) agree to go.

At even intervals on the beach, Chase finds things like a hatchet, a first aid kit, and other things. When Brody takes his shirt off to use it as a sack, Donovan sees where this is going and returns to the group. Chase and Brody find a waterfall with fresh water, a potential place for the group to settle. Brody wants to make the place “our little secret”, and they start to get romantic, until Chase backs off but Brody attacks to the point where she needs to defend herself.

Meanwhile, back on the beach, Donovan returns and encourages everyone to go for a swim. Most of them go, but they’re immediately surrounded by sharks. Someone or something pushes Donovan towards a shark and he’s bitten and dragged away. Everyone assumes he’s dead. Brody tries to encourage everyone to move to the shade, and when Chase comes back, she beats on Brody for attacking her. Later there’s a debate on whether to settle by the waterfall or stay on the beach to summon help. Chase has other ideas, as she tries to push something Mason (Gilles Geary) and Hayden (Michelle Veintimilla) found — a sign saying “FIND YOUR WAY BACK.”

Our Take: Created by Anthony Salter, with executive producer Neil LaBute writing and directing many of the limited series’ seven episodes, The I-Land is trying to be Lost, but as so many “grand mystery” shows that have debuted in Lost‘s shadow, The I-Land‘s central mystery isn’t really interesting. It seems fairly obvious that these ten people are on this island for a reason; their memories were erased and they were sent there to see who will survive under artificially-created stress, like those sharks hanging around close to shore. Someone put them there, and the reason they are there is that most of them are likely not good people.

We know this because, while their identities are wiped, their innate skills and experience isn’t. We know K.C. is confrontational and keeps to herself. Chase is aggressive but wants to find answers — we also see her dreaming a hazy image of her holding a gun at someone, a fragment of her life before the I-Land. Brody obviously doesn’t care about other people’s boundaries — “Here, it’s either sex or no sex”.

We’re not sure about the others yet, except for the fact that Taylor (Kota Eberhardt) likes to get some sun. While it feels like the main characters will be Chase, K.C. and Brody, we should hold our judgement about the rest until the season is completed. Still, the only reason why there seems to be ten people is so five generic characters can get picked of before the series ends.

The I-Land isn’t bad, per se, it’s just not all that memorable, likely because of some stiff dialogue and a penchant for amping up the conflict without earning it. The trailer makes it pretty clear that this is a simulation of some sort of survival game, but the first episode doesn’t make us want to get far enough to find out about it.

Sex and Skin: Some of the women hang in their sports bras and panties, and the men take their shirts off. Besides the flirtation between Chase and Brody, though, there isn’t much sex.

Parting Shot: Chase, frustrated that no one will listen to her about the sign, she tosses the conch against a rock and storms away. We see a closeup of the broken conch, which says “Property of the I-Land” and has a transmitter inside. So it’s pretty obvious that someone is watching.

Sleeper Star: No one stands out so far. And that’s a problem.

Most Pilot-y Line: When Brody says to Chase that they should keep the waterfall their secret, she says flirtingly, “I see… So it’s a whole survival of the fittest kind of thing?” to which Brody replies, “Well, I mean, you are pretty fit.” That makes “How you doin’?” sound like Shakespeare by comparison.

Our Call: SKIP IT. The I-Land‘s clunky dialogue and generic characters make us care very little about why these ten jerks are on this island. And, yes, they’re all pretty much jerks.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream The I-Land On Netflix