Katla

The portrait of daily life in a small Icelandic community affected by a volcanic eruption looks mesmerizing to the foreign (non-Icelandic) viewer. It's like life on another planet.

The scenery, the harsh environment, the feeling of imminent danger, they all contribute to an immersive experience into a totally different reality.

The result is a balanced mix of real life events that look otherworldly with otherworldly events that look real and almost possible in that quasi alternate reality.

Served with solid writing, performances and astonishing landscapes well captured in a beautiful cinematography.

The storyline moved at a snails pace but was utterly captivating. The premise was unique and the conclusion was poetic. The cinematography and special effects are magnificent throughout the series. Overall, a well made and well acted sci-fi/drama.

Although the plot is quite slow and drawn out far longer than required, I really enjoyed this show. I wish they'd done more with the root cause of everything (trying not to give spoilers) but I suppose not doing so gives them a ton of room to further develop and grow this idea in season 2 and beyond.

If you liked "The Returned" ("Les Revenants"), "Glitch", "Us", or even "Pet Sematery", you'll have much to like in the Icelandic series "Katla". Eerie, dark, forbidding (often literally so, as the nearly deserted town of Vik, Iceland, has been showered with ash from the Katla volcano for a year), and gripping, the plot moves somewhat slowly but is always engaging.

The story and setting are so grounded in a harsh, otherworldly, and unforgiving environment that the impossible becomes strangely believable. That the characters are tough, realistic, unfanciful sorts adds to the credibility of the supernatural events that befall them.

As each episode ends with a cliffhanger, it's very hard to stop watching. Just one more episode!

I'm amused by the amount of people saying this show is "too slow" and "could be wrapped up in 3 episodes". Have you ever heard about the genre "Nordic noir"? It IS supposed to be slow, depressing and leaving unanswered questions.

Otherwise it's like watching a Marvel movie and asking why there are so many mutants and superheroes with ridiculous abilities. That's the point of the genre. Superhero movies have their rules, Hallmark production its own, and Nordic noir its own.

Now, for those who know what they are going to watch, this show hits all the right spots, and yet remains refreshingly engaging. Someone in the earlier comments compared it to Australian Glitch - the similarity is indeed there, but Glitch, in my opinion, was an entangled mess of loose ends, and I was never able to finish it, but Katla just went in one go.

There are indeed a few awkward plothole moments when just a couple of questions could, ugh, "speed up the pace", but it's not really about speedying anything up. Everyone is soaked up in their own past, and the surrounding reality is often hard to distinguish from sticky, dim anguish of memories. In this setting, with raging ash storms and blended borders between black sand beaches, northern sea and heavy sky, would you really be surprised to see someone looking a tad bit older than expected?

I really hope there will be no season 2, at least with the current characters. Their stories are wrapped up - time for the new ones.