AustLit

'Netflix’s supernatural crime series Tidelands (2019) was the subscription video service’s first commissioned original series to be produced in Australia. Shot in tropical Queensland with a diverse cast of local and international stars, Tidelands exemplifies the complex challenges involved in Netflix’s attempts to be a global producer creating content for national markets. This article builds on a tradition of research into international television production to locate Tidelands within its industrial and cultural contexts. Combining textual and industry analysis, and drawing on an interview with executive producer Nathan Mayfield, we show how Tidelands negotiates a strategic dual orientationin its use of locations, casting and genre, addressing both Australian and international audiences simultaneously. We conclude that internationally oriented Australian subscription video-on-demand originals such as Tidelands rehearse but also reformulate longstanding tensions regarding the interaction between the national and the global in screen culture.' (Publication abstract)

'The first original Netflix series filmed in Australia, Tidelands, is a speculative story about half-human/half-siren beings who live in the coastal Queensland town of Orphelin Bay. The story follows the return to the bay of Calliope (Cal), after she has spent time in jail for alleged arson. Tidelands has a lot of expectations to live up to. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always meet them.' (Introduction)

'Netflix’s planned Australian TV series Tidelands has been met with excitement from a country not known for its sci-fi. Tidelands will focus on an ex-criminal who returns to her hometown, investigating a mysterious group of half-humans and half-Sirens known as “Tidelanders”.

'The ten-episode series will be filmed in Queensland in 2018. Co-creator and co-executive producer Tracey Robertson said of the show:

The primeval landscapes of Queensland are a perfect setting to tell the story of betrayal, small-town secrets [and] ancient mythology …

'Meanwhile, the not-for-profit organisation Scripted Ink will invest in developing Australian author C.S. McMullen’s sci-fi thriller series Awake. The series is set in a dystopian future in which the world’s richest 1% are able to choose to live without sleep.' (Introduction)