Northern Rescue, a family drama series that stars William Baldwin as a single parent of three kids, is jointly produced by CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and Netflix. It hit their respective streaming sites on March 1, 2019. And it has stayed underground since its release as there’s no buzz about it.
Social media went into a frenzy last year when The Haunting of Hill House and You debuted on Netflix. Similarly, this year, The Umbrella Academy grabbed the most number of eyeballs. But the quietness encompassing, Northern Rescue is unusual, and, it somehow sounds like an alarm as it gives a very clear message – not all the Netflix shows become big topics of conversation amongst serial-watchers.
Northern Rescue isn’t a weak drama to begin with. The ten-episode series follows the stages of grief pretty well by taking you through the difficulties and mild acceptances that the West family goes through. It opens with Sarah (Michelle Nolden) getting diagnosed with cancer and passing away. While Maddie (Amalia Williamson), the eldest kid and the occasional narrator of the show, lashes out at everybody around her, Scout (Spencer MacPherson) and Taylor (Taylor Thorne) are more sensitive. So, the pressure to put a brave face under such trying circumstances breaks them down. Maddie’s not only angry because her mother left them all without much of a warning; she also has a secret that can destroy the remaining members of the family. She oscillates between burying her findings under the garb of her large-heartedness and shoving them down her father’s throat.
John West (William Baldwin) tries his best to comfort his three adolescents on his own, but, the demands of the new situation are too many and too hard, and, he finds a helping hand in his sister-in-law, Charlie (Kathleen Robertson). Charlie loved her sister, Sarah, dearly as the two shared a great bond. And, as a result, she feels attached to her kids. Hence, she decides to stand like a rock for them despite not being able to lift herself up from the muck she’s been waddling in.
Upon receiving a job offer as the head of the Search and rescue (SAR) team in Turtle Island Bay, John uproots his kids from Boston, Massachusetts, to take them back to his hometown as he feels that a change of atmosphere might allow them to start afresh. Though, Scout and Maddie shoot down the proposal, they slowly warm up to it as they have no other choice but to listen to their father.
Almost every episode contains a parallel thread about John risking his life to save people. He’s either climbing up electric poles, or working his way down hillocks, to bring adventurers to safety. Those edge-of-the-seat moments will keep you thinking about his importance in the small town.
What would happen to all the stranded souls if John and his assistant don’t reach them on time? It’s hard not to look for bleak signs when the things he does for a living involve such dangers. The question, “Will he end up on a stretcher?” will occupy your mind for a huge chunk of the show.
Even as the members of the West family move on from the woeful incident and put the differences they have against each other behind them by episode seven, the creators (Mark Bacci, David Cormican, and Dwayne Hill) stretch the stories to keep the momentum going for future seasons. The season finale has so many open-endings that it almost feels like we’re back to square one.
That’s the single-most disappointing element of Northern Rescue as the makers could have easily rounded off the edges and wrapped them up in a span of ten episodes. Now, we’ll have to wait for another year to know about the steps that Maddie is going to take in order to get her life back in control. The secret she thought she knew about her mother isn’t something that has shaken her father. It’s actually a revelation that has left her heart-broken.
This isn’t a thriller whose cliffhangers are worth the year-long wait. I hope Netflix and CBC don’t mess it up next time.