What Is ‘The Silent Sea’? Everything You Need To Know About the Netflix Series

In 2021, South Korean TV took viewers to a faraway island to play children’s games with the risk of, uh, death, and then sent demons to Earth to carry people to hell. As the year ends, however, fans have one more uncanny trip to take—this time, to the moon.

In the Netflix series The Silent Sea, an elite team of astrobiologists, engineers, doctors, and spacecraft pilots is sent to the moon on a special mission to save Earth. 

The thriller-cum-mystery has been praised for its stunning visual effects but criticized for its slow-paced narrative and hodgepodge of storylines. The series’ stars, however, were eager to take on the mission.

"I love taking on projects that are full of adventure. I was curious about the film set in outer space and wanted to push my creative boundaries as an actor," Bae Doona, who takes the lead role in the series, told The Korea Times. 

Gong Yoo, who also stars in the series, said he was thrilled to take on a science fiction thriller. “As soon as I read the script, I immediately wanted to take part in it," Gong said. 

A trip to the moon to save Earth can be daunting, so here’s everything you need to know about the new show before you decide whether or not you’re up for the task.

The show is set in 2075, when planet Earth has been devastated by the depletion of natural resources, prompting the need to recover a “mysterious sample” from an abandoned research facility on the moon. But instead of finding answers to the Earth’s problems, the team of space travelers only seems to discover more questions. 

In the first episode, the team crash lands on the moon, threatening the mission right at the get-go. They barely escape from the spaceship tenuously hanging from a cliff before making it across the desolate surface of the moon to the abandoned research facility. But things only get riskier from there.

The eight-episode series dropped on Dec. 24, just in time for a holiday binge.

The show is based on its director Choi Hang-yong’s short film The Sea of Tranquility, which was screened at the Mise-en-scène Short Film Festival in 2014. Joining Hang-yong for the Netflix adaptation is screenwriter Park Eun-kyo, who co-wrote the award-winning 2009 film Mother with its director Bong Joon-ho.  

Apt for the out-of-this-world story is the show’s star-studded cast. The series is led by Bae Doona, known for roles in Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, The Host, Sense8, and Kingdom.  In The Silent Sea, she plays astrobiologist Song Jian. She’s joined by Gong Yoo (Coffee Prince, Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, Train To Busan), who also made headlines for his appearance on Squid Game. Other actors in the cast include Heo Sung-tae (Squid Game), Lee Joon (Rough Play), Kim Sun-young (Reply 1988, Crash Landing on You), Lee Moo-saeng (The Faceless Boss), Lee Sung-wook (Josée). 

Unfortunately, the sea of official announcements has been silent on this one, so whether this series will continue to flow or be completely dried up after its first season is anyone’s guess at the moment.

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