Sirens (2025) is described as a dark comedy limited series that was released on May 22nd, 2025 and is currently streaming on Netflix.
Created by Molly Smith Metzler, the series is based on her 2011 play, Elemeno Pea. The show spans 5 episodes with an average of 50 minutes per episode. It follows an explosive weekend at a lavish cliffside estate that sets off with a woman deciding to do something about her sister’s odd relationship with her billionaire boss.
Premise (Spoilers Ahead)
Episode 1
After a night in jail, Devon sets out to find her younger sister Simone and bring her home to Buffalo to help care for their father, who has early-onset dementia. She tracks Simone to a remote, ultra-wealthy estate on Port Haven island, owned by Michaela, a former lawyer turned bird sanctuary founder, and her billionaire husband, Peter. Simone, now Michaela’s assistant, is hiding her past and living a carefully curated life, secretly dating Ethan, Michaela’s odd neighbor.
Devon is unsettled by the estate’s cult-like atmosphere—tight rules, NDAs, and constant surveillance—and grows suspicious of Simone’s intense bond with Michaela. When Simone refuses to leave, Michaela offers Devon $10,000 to disappear. Devon declines. She later confides in a worker, Jose, about her struggles with hypersexuality after an awkward encounter, and ends up spending the night with Morgan, Ethan’s yacht captain.
Episode 2
Devon sneaks onto Michaela’s estate to convince Simone to come home, but their reunion turns into a fight, with Simone bringing up Devon’s affair with her married boss, Raymond. Michaela intervenes and has Devon arrested for trespassing, without Simone’s knowledge.
In jail, Devon hears rumors about the estate being a cult and Michaela possibly pushing her husband’s ex-wife off a cliff. Michaela bails her out on the condition she stays only for the weekend and doesn’t cause trouble. Devon agrees but secretly plans to rescue Simone.
After confronting Peter about Jocelyn and getting vague answers, her suspicions grow. As Michaela prepares for a Vanity Fair shoot and her bird’s funeral, she and Peter discover Simone’s secret meetings with Ethan. Simone hides, experiencing a panic attack. Jose alerts Devon, who finds and comforts her, realizing Simone has stopped taking her medication.
Episode 3
The next morning, Simone argues with Devon again, who reveals her struggles with alcoholism and past DUIs since Simone left. But Simone stubbornly rushes off to find Michaela, where she finally reveals her past and the circumstances regarding her mother’s death.
Meanwhile, Michaela grows suspicious of Peter after realizing his gift from Tokyo was fake. She sends Simone to spy on him, but Peter catches her and admits he’d secretly visited his grandson, hiding it due to Michaela’s rift with his kids. He then tries to kiss Simone, who pulls away.
Morgan invites Devon to spend a month with him on a yacht trip to Palm Beach. Simone repeatedly tries to reach Ethan but gets no response, and Devon begins to suspect Michaela’s involvement in his disappearance. They search his house—only for Ethan to walk in with Bruce, Simone and Devon’s father, and Raymond, who acts as his caregiver. He explains his absence and shocks everyone by proposing to Simone.
Episode 4
During Ethan’s proposal, Michaela shows up looking for Simone, who runs off in tears without answering. Michaela comforts her, advises against the engagement, and offers her a job in New York. Michaela later reconciles with Peter after confirming he wasn’t unfaithful. That night, Michaela hosts a dinner where Peter invites everyone to a gala for the bird sanctuary.
Simone tells Devon she feels no obligation to their father, citing his neglect and their mother’s suicide, sparking another fight about Devon’s sacrifices to care Simone. After some harsh truths are revealed, Devon storms off and ends things with Raymond on the beach. Simone later breaks up with Ethan, who drunkenly lashes out and accidentally falls off a cliff. Meanwhile, the Vanity Fair photographer reveals a secret photo of Simone and Peter’s kiss, enraging Michaela.
Episode 5
Ethan survives the fall. Devon and Simone reconcile in the hospital waiting room with Devon deciding to choose herself for once and agreeing to Morgan’s yacht trip to Palm Beach. After the kissing photo surfaces, Michaela fires Simone and kicks her out, leaving her in a state of shock. Jose arrives to drive Simone, Devon, and Bruce to the ferry to leave, but they stop to pick up Raymond from jail; however, Simone runs off to say goodbye to Peter, and Jose drives back to retrieve her.
Running into Morgan at the pre-gala event, Devon cancels the Yacht trip, choosing to return to Buffalo with Bruce. At the gala, she accuses Michaela of cult behavior and Jocelyn’s murder, only to learn Jocelyn is alive, hiding after botched surgery.
Peter divorces Michaela, admits his resentment for her, their childlessness and her collection of evidence of his affairs, and starts a relationship with Simone.
Michaela in turn accuses Peter of letting his children demonize her even though Peter was the one who sought after her, and putting her under a tight prenuptial agreement that would’ve only protected her if she had children. Michaela is escorted out.
Devon confronts Simone, who invites her to stay, but Devon declines, disappointed in what her sister had become. On the ferry, Devon apologizes to Michaela, who urges her to cash the $10,000 check. Now mistress of the estate, Simone watches the sea, smiling.
Cast and Performances
- Meghann Fahy as Devon DeWitt
- Milly Alcock as Simone DeWitt
- Bill Camp as Bruce DeWitt
- Julianne Moore as Michaela “Kiki” Kell
- Kevin Bacon as Peter Kell
- Felix Solis as Jose
Devon:
Devon is an intriguing character to me, and it’s not just because I relate to her in some aspects. She’s every bit the self sacrificing older sister that the movie tries to portray, but it’s very interesting how that is the only positive trait that she has.
She’s loud-mouthed, can be considered rude, makes a lot of toxic decisions, and has a lot of issues. She has an alcohol problem, and in order to stay sober, she turns to cigarettes and sex, soothing an addiction with even more dangerous addictions.
"No smoking on the ship."
"I've been travelling for 17 hours, I gotta have something in my mouth."
*Insert explicit scene*
A problem I had with her though was at the end. What was the point of her learning to let go of the burden of her father if she… wasn’t gonna do it? Everyone tells her that it’s okay (even her father himself), and she still decides to stay and sacrifice more. It leads me to believe that her self-sacrificing nature isn’t that much self-sacrificing. It’s almost as if it makes her feel good about herself to see and say how much she has sacrificed. And I might be interpreting it wrong, this is further displayed when she tells Simone that sacrificing all her best years for her and their father is the thing she’s most proud of.
Simone:
She baffles me. A lot. But I think that has more to do with the writers than anything. Her character doesn’t seem to have any depth. It’s literally just sucking up to Michaela and being a brat to literally everyone else.
And trauma.
She has a lot of trauma.
And it would’ve been interesting to see an exploration of such realistic trauma and how it affects people, which would raise conversations about various mental health stressors such as the foster care system, suicide of a parent, parental neglect and child abuse, and many more. But no, instead her trauma is used as mere justification for her attitude towards everything that isn’t her boss or her lover.
And then the ending.
Why on earth would she start an affair with her Boss’s husband? There had been no build up, nothing. She was the one to run away when he kissed her without consent. But at the end, she just brushes over the whole thing, and even when Devon is clearly confused and asking her how and why all of this is happening, she just plays dumb and acts like nothing is happening. Then she smiles at the end like this was her plan all along, but there is absolutely nothing in the entire show that indicates such.
Michaela:
Easily the most confusing character after Simone, until the end that is. But the clarity at the end only made me more frustrated with the beginning. At the end, she is revealed to be nothing more than a scorned second wife, who had been demonized and antagonized by everyone in her current life despite the fact that she didn’t do anything wrong.
On top of that, she’s being held pretty much captive by a prenup AND her husband cheats on her with the assistant whom she thought was her best friend. That’s already great storytelling for a character, so why the unnecessary additions? Why give her this cult-leader persona if there was no such thing? Why did she have such a fixation on Simone? What on earth was with the “Hey Hey”? So many oddities with no answers, and that’s where I think this project failed.
What I Liked About Sirens
First of all, the actors did a fantastic job. Despite the characters being all the way off, I feel like the actors did the best they could with the scripts they were given. To the point where you can hardly imagine any other actor playing those roles.
I also really like the elements of comedy that were inserted in it. Despite my reluctance to actually classify this as a comedy like it claims to be, I can admit that certain parts of it made me laugh in a unique way (the estate staff in particular really cracked me up). I also really enjoyed the exploration of women and power. It was limited, but somewhat fun.
What I Didn’t Like
There. Is. No. Plot. If there was, it was lost around the 3rd episode. It genuinely felt like they changed writers along the way. There was so much inconsistency in the story and the few times there wasn’t, it would build up to something only to have it fall apart.
My attempt at the episode summaries don’t even do justice to the sheer amount of randomness that was involved (there was still that whole mess of Cloe, Lisa and Astrid), and it seemed like every single time I managed to find a plotline to coherently follow, it would blow up in my face and I’m back at square one of not understanding what on earth was going on.
Mind you, I still don’t understand why Michaela and Simone were so obsessed with each other to the point where Michaela banned Simone from dating anyone on the island and went as far as putting her sister in jail to isolate her, why almost everyone regarded Michaela in a brainwashed cult sort of way (the staff had literal NDAs), or why the cult agenda was foreshadowed so much (there was even that one scene where Devon is lured by Michaela’s singing into the bathroom where the latter is in the tub, Michaela begins to speak to Devon about the latter’s past in the most hypnotic cult-like way).
"You spent your whole life taking care of others, but who takes care of you? Let go...let us help you..."
And the cinematography does little to change the implications of this (it even escalates it).
Lastly, I don’t care how the show portrays it, Peter Kell was not some victim of a crazy wife who wouldn’t let him see his children. Michaela was living her life happily. This man saw her, sought after her, made her give up her career, put her under a lock and key prenup that only values her ability to have kids, let his kids demonize her as the reason for their broken home and estranged mother and then when he was done playing victim, he threw her out and replaced her with someone who was her assistant and best friend.
Final Thoughts on Sirens
This series was a funny mess at best and collection of confusions at worst. Beautifully filmed and performed but left me with more questions than answers.
I rate Sirens (2025): 2.5 out of 5 stars.
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