Diksha Sundriyal
If you go into ‘Curon’ expecting horror from it, because the trailer told you so, then the first thing you should know about it is that it is not really horror. If anything, the series would fall into the category of supernatural teen dramas, but even then, it isn’t quite like the ones that you might have seen before. It tries to strike a very delicate balance between philosophy and supernatural, trying to use one to explain the other. Despite this interesting facet, the show doesn’t quite deliver what it had promised.
Curon Season 1 Recap
Set in the small and mysterious town of Northern Italy, the Netflix series ‘Curon’ starts with a murder. Anna is told by her parents to stay inside her room while they tackle whatever problem has knocked on their door. But when she hears her mother’s cries, she runs out to see what’s happening. This is when she witnesses her mother’s murder, and the killer looks just like Anna.
Seventeen years later, Anna is on her way back to Curon, with her children, Mauro and Daria. They have left their life behind in Milan, which the children are not very happy about. They don’t understand why their mother would want to return to the town she swore she would never set foot on again? The situation is further complicated when their grandfather does not allow them to stay with him and pushes them to leave the town as soon as possible. Meanwhile, they also come to know about the hatred that almost the entire town seems to harbor for them.
In the midst of all this, they also have to try and fit into the crowd at their new school. Mauro, who is half-deaf and is a docile kid, becomes prone to bullying. Daria, on the other hand, stands her ground and invites trouble on the very first day. Things get even worse when their mother suddenly disappears without a word.
Curon Season 1 Review
The concept of ‘Curon’ is very interesting, though it is not something you haven’t seen before. In fact, another Netflix series by the name of ‘Living With Yourself’ explored this idea quite recently, though with a very different approach and tone. Both these stories explore the hidden natures of people and pose a dilemma. Which side of us do we really want out and about in the world? But while Paul Rudd’s show used comedy and a little bit of science-fiction to tread those grounds, ‘Curon’ uses the supernatural aspects of a real location in Italy. However, when it comes to the execution, the Italian drama lacks direction.
One of the biggest flaws of the series is that it doesn’t quite know how much of the supernatural it wants in the story. It is careful to not throw in the unnecessary twists and add too much of a fantasy element. It wants to stay close to reality so that its core message doesn’t get lost between too many layers of the mystical. But it feels too cautious, sometimes, and you wish they had thrown weirder things in the mix. If not that, then, at least, they should’ve delved a bit deeper into the local legends that feed the story.
The reason behind keeping all these things locked away could be that they want to explore them in the next season. This time around, they focus on setting the stage for the characters. For seven episodes, the story revolves more around the teenagers who are trying to find their mother rather than the paranormal things happening around them. And, for sure, it is a good approach, but then again, we don’t get much out of this too.
‘Curon’ starts out with a variety of characters and uses their differences to highlight the underlying theme of the show. The flipping of one of the teenagers from a shy kid who can’t profess his love to his best friend to becoming a psychopath who kills his father’s cat is one of the highlights of the season. It is also the character transformation that comes very close to touching the soul of the show. Apart from this, the other threads are too slack to bear the weight of the story. In the end, it is just another TV series that shows a flicker of potential but doesn’t succeed in turning it into a fire.
Rating: 2/5
Read More: Curon Filming Locations
