The I-Land

The I-Land is an American science fiction thriller streaming television miniseries created by Anthony Salter. The series is executive produced by Neil LaBute, Chad Oakes and Mike Frislev. The series stars Kate Bosworth, Natalie Martinez, Ronald Peet, Kyle Schmid, Gilles Geary, Sibylla Deen, Anthony Lee Medina, Kota Eberhardt, Michelle Veintimilla and Alex Pettyfer. It was released on September 12, 2019 on Netflix. The series received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics.
Synopsis.
Ten people wake up on the beach of what appears to be a deserted tropical island. None of them have any memory of who they are or how they got there, and each takes on the name that is printed on their clothes tags. The group make initial attempts to band together, but differing priorities and strong personalities cause some of them to clash. In particular, Chase, who wants to investigate the island, doesn't get along with KC, who is suspicious of Chase's ability to find resources, and Brody, who attempts to rape Chase.
When Brody is murdered, the group assume Chase is responsible and knock her unconscious. Chase wakes up in a futuristic Texas correctional prison facility, where she learns that she and the other nine people are violent crime prisoners, and are part of a "rehabilitation simulation". Their minds have been put in the computer simulation of the island to test if they'll resume old behavioral patterns. Anyone who dies in the simulation dies in real life. Chase is returned to the island simulation, where the avatars of two prison marshals arrive to deliberately cause the group to fight and split up. Additionally, the prisoners' memories start to return, which causes further friction and confusion.
Production.
Development.
On September 28, 2018, it was announced that Netflix had given the production a series order for a seven-episode first season. Neil LaBute was set to serve as co-director, writer and showrunner for the miniseries along with directorial credits from Jonathan Scarfe and writing credits from Lucy Teitler. Executive producers were expected to include LaBute, Chad Oakes, and Mike Frislev with Lucy Teitler and Jonathan Scarfe serving as co-executive producers and Kate Bosworth acting as a producer. Production companies involved with the miniseries were slated to consist of Nomadic Pictures Entertainment. The production company reportedly spent a budget of $14 million for the first season, with each episode costing $2 million. On August 20, 2019, it was reported that the miniseries was set to be released on September 12, 2019.
Casting.
Alongside the series order announcement, it was confirmed that Kate Bosworth, Natalie Martinez, and Alex Pettyfer would star in the miniseries. In October 2018, it was announced that Kyle Schmid had been cast in a starring role. In December 2018, it was reported that Clara Wong had joined the cast in a recurring capacity. In August 2019, Gilles Geary joined the main cast. In the same month, it was confirmed that Michelle Veintimilla, Kota Eberhardt, Sibylla Deen, Ronald Peet and Anthony Lee Medina would star in the miniseries.
Filming.
Filming for the first miniseries took place in Pinewood Indomina Studios, Dominican Republic, San Pedro De Macoris and Las Terrenas, Samaná, Dominican Republic from October 15, 2018 to December 19, 2018.
Release.
On August 20, 2019, the teaser trailer for the miniseries was released. On August 29, 2019, the official trailer for the miniseries was released.
Reception.
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 8% approval rating with an average rating of 3/10, based on 12 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "Bafflingly bad, the only mystery is how "The I-Land" got made in the first place."
Tim Surette, writing for "TV Guide", gave the miniseries a rating of 0.5/5, summarizing that it "is an astonishingly dumb seven-episode mystery-box limited series about 10 people who wake up on a deserted tropical island with no memory of who they are or how they got there. But that central conceit is quickly resolved by Episode 3, as "The I-Land" spins out of control, rolls over, and wraps itself around an entirely new and equally stupid story."
Writing for "The Hollywood Reporter", Daniel Fienberg compared the miniseries to the series "Lost" "only with a fundamental misunderstanding of how "Lost" handled character development, mythology, flashback structure, theme and ensemble-building." He also wrote that "no aspect of "The I-Land" works, and every bad aspect builds on the bad aspects before in a way that makes it pretty clear that nobody involved could have been under any misapprehensions about the quality of the endeavor."
At "Paste", Allison Keene said "I have watched some truly, truly bad series in my day, but few that went off the rails this hard this fast. But man, what a ride. Cannibals, climate change, rogue simulations, for-profit prisons, a game with no rules and no logic … what an embarrassment of riches. Or just an embarrassment. We’ll go with that last one."
In his "Stream It Or Skip It" review, Joel Keller at Decider stated that the miniseries should be skipped and summarizes that ""The I-Land"‘s clunky dialogue and generic characters make us care very little about why these ten jerks are on this island. And, yes, they’re all pretty much jerks."
Jack Seale at "The Guardian" gave the miniseries one out of five stars and summarizes that "This is sci-fi without a vision, a genre piece that doesn’t know how its own genre works. "The I-Land" is begging to be forgotten."
Writing for RogerEbert.com, Brian Tallerico summarized that "The ‘I’ stands for Idiotic. If you put a group of teenagers in a room and showed them a few episodes of "LOST" and "Westworld" before asking them to write their own program, they might come up with "The I-Land,"" and that "It is a bafflingly horrible sci-fi show, the kind of project that leaves your jaw on the floor, not unlike the first time you saw Tommy Wiseau’s "The Room.""