The Survivors bundles the pain of grief and loss with the guilt of 15 year old secrets in this series about events in the coastal town of Evelyn Bay, Tasmania.

The Survivors uses a timeline from the present and the past. Fifteen years ago, on a day known simply as the day of the storm, two men died and one teen girl vanished. The two men were in a boat out to rescue Kieran (Charlie Vickers) who was in a dangerous cave as high tide and the storm came in. One of the men in the boat was Kieran’s brother. The other was the son of a prominent man named Julian (Martin Sacks). Everyone blamed Kieran for the deaths because he was foolish enough to be in the cave at the wrong time and need to call for help.

The town made a big deal over the two dead men. The young girl was never found and forgotten by everyone but her mother, Trish (Catherine McClements). A newcomer in town, Bronte (Shannon Berry), was incensed down to her feminist bones that the girl was forgotten. She vowed to find out what happened to the girl.

Bronte – that’s her photo up at the top – stirred up old stories. It got her murdered and left on the beach. That should have been enough of an inciting incident to get the story going but there’s more happening.

Kieran and his partner Mia (Yerin Ha) returned to Evelyn Bay so their four month old daughter could meet her grandparents. Mia had been best friends with the missing girl in high school.

Kieran’s mom, Verity (Robyn Malcolm), along with Julian and his family, had arranged a series of events honoring the two dead men. Nobody was honoring the missing girl. Robyn Malcolm was brilliant in this. She blamed Kieran for what happened. She was simultaneously cruel to Kieran and loving to her new grandchild and Kieran’s father Brian (Damien Garvey), who had dementia.

There are many other characters involved, most of them holding 15 year old secrets. Olivia (Jessica De Gouw) is the missing girl’s sister and Kieran’s girlfriend in high school. Kieran’s buddies Ash (George Mason) and Sean (Thom Green) were still living there.

There are six episodes in the series, half of them directed by Cherie Nowlan. They are densely packed with townspeople, police, and secret after secret. The mystery hidden in the town slowly was solved, with an ending that surprised me. That’s a bonus in a mystery when you don’t see the ending coming.

The mystery was well written. The characters were developed in brilliant ways. The town was home to a large number of weak and fragile men surrounded by tough women. The Survivors is based on a novel by Jane Harper and created for television by Tony Ayres.

This one is streaming on Netflix. I thought it was worth the watch.