The Castaways review: Is Sheridan Smith's Lost-style show worth a watch?
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Greetings post-Christmas carollers, how are we feeling? Like your blood sugar might actually have outpaced your blood water level? Wondering if perhaps that extra morsel of sausage wrapped in crispy bacon wasn't worth it?
Well, the powers that be at Paramount+ have foreseen all this by gifting us with a new Sheridan Smith vehicle to binge over Boxing Day. What better way to pass the plodding day? (On which we normally while hours away in front of the TV wondering whether those remnant mini Bounty bars are actually any good after all.)
The Castaways is a new plane-crash thriller which sees Lori (Smith) board an ill-fated jet, which has far more leg room than any we have been on and would seem a tempting airliner were it not for the sudden descent in later scenes. After a tiff the day before, her sister Erin (Celine Buckens) never makes it on board for their Fiji getaway.
While everyone is presumed dead once the plane goes missing, a sudden purchase on Lori's credit card months after the fact gives Erin fresh hope she might have survived and still be out there. She sets off for the South Pacific in search of her missing sister and, by some miraculous reservoir of mettle, is comfortable enough to catch a flight to do so.
There's a mix of flashbacks with present-day scenes and in the latter we also meet Lori's reedy partner, who has already moved on since her untimely demise, with a baby on the way. For him and his new squeeze, Erin is still hanging around like a bad smell.
It's all a bit like Lost, with less of the timey-wimey stuff, disembodied spirit or nuclear bomb.
The Castaways plane does eventually go down, which takes far too long, but that might have been to delay the dramatic unveiling of the CGI plane – more on that later. Then we're left with a split story between the two sisters because, mercifully, Smith's Lori avoids going the way of Martin Compston's petty officer in the first episode of Vigil.
It really is a relief because Smith is the best thing about this thriller, with an affability that connects with everyone her character comes across, elevating some of the more lacklustre performances. Once we get into the thick of the jungle-survival portion, it's Smith as we've never seen her before.
Much like the frantic turbulence of the plane, The Castaways jumps about like nobody's business. One moment we're with Erin on her computer, corralling a Reddit hive and scouring the internet for some trace of Lori via the popular search engine Nettrawl.com. The next we're by the pool with the sisters in the days before the crash. Then just as we're settling into that scene, we're on the plane itself as the passengers are starting to panic.
Speaking of the plane, the CGI is so ridiculous it borders on camp. It looks a bit like the fake planes they cobble together in History Channel documentaries retelling minute-by-minute accounts of horrific disasters.
When the CGI plane made its debut during the press screening for the first episode of The Castaways, drinks were brought out in an apparent attempt to distract from it, but it then popped up later on anyway to nose-dive towards the CGI sea. The plane is a guaranteed Boxing Day laugh. The show might be worth a watch for that alone.
The Lost comparisons are inevitable, as are likely the Yellowjackets ones, yet in reality The Castaways doesn't really live up to those high concept extravagances.
But that's all right, because for a Boxing Day binge, it's perfect. You'll probably have forgotten most of it by the time the New Year rolls around – with the possible exception of the plane – but you'll have a right rollicking good time while you're in the thick of it. So, what are you still doing here? Get on with it.
The Castaways is available to stream on Paramount+.
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