This an ambitious piece of fiction, a story not so much of redemption but of sheer survival. The former may be what people often seek, but the latter is what they are so often reduced to finding.

While slow to start off with, The North Water develops into a gripping watch as the characters are dealt one misfortune after another.

The North Water has a great cast, an expensive boat, a dark and engaging story, and a sinister mood.

Gripping. ... Joseph (Heart of Darkness) Conrad would approve. [2 - 15 Aug 2021, p.9]

We suspect that the remaining four episodes of the limited series will pick up, as the ship actually fulfills its doomed mission as an insurance claim. But if you want to get a good idea about the main two characters, the first episode does a fine job setting things up.

Haigh’s “The North Water” possesses every psychological and humanist component required to elucidate the nature of good and evil, including all of the shades in between, but wastes too much effort trying to discover profound significance rather than fortifying its lackluster characters.

Watching The North Water is to constantly alternate between admiring the attempt to tackle a difficult genre at all and being aware that if you’re a fan of the genre, nearly everything you’re seeing has been done before, if not always better.