Below: This is a new series on Netflix starring John Hartnett, along with co-stars who include Mackenzie Davis, Charlie Heaton and Natasha Henstridge. It is six episodes in total and marketed as a thriller. For a Canadian, it is nice to see a series set in Newfoundland in a small fishing village that has come upon harder times, with the cod fishing limited and others struggling with other ways to make ends meet. There is a government program, not confirmed by me whether this is true, to have small townsfolk being offered sums of money to move to larger centres in the Province. The movie opens with a family within a small craft towing a house/cottage to an island. Something happens and a tragedy occurs which impacts the life of the Calvin Penney, played by Hartnett, and his family. Fast forward about 40 years and some strange things are happening in the town, and the inhabitants are unsure how to approach it.
Regular readers will know that I am a huge fan of Jaws. I found many of the scenes within the earlier episodes borrowing heavily from the classic film on more than one occasion. I will state that this film is not dealing with a shark. I don’t think that this is a serious spoiler. I will admit that the accents used by the principal actors were distracting to say the least. Newfoundland is the only Province that I have not visited but it is on my list. I have heard that true Newfoundland accents are virtually indecipherable to the Ontario ear. Hartnett is a mixture of sloppy Irish and strange Scottish. Others aren’t much better. The story with a single Hartnett fight for his family (two sons and a daughter) and with his family notably his sister Ruth. He works diligently and inexplicably at times in looking to address the problem within his community. There are some artificial barriers created and some unusual circumstances. One instance for me is at one point where the townspeople are seeking to rehydrate very quickly, but they seem to be focused on bottled water. Last I checked they should have clean running water in Newfoundland and all you need to do is turn on a tap. But nevermind. The final couple of episodes address global warning, naturally, but also corporate greed. To sum it up, I was underwhelmed by the series Below. It was Below expectations for a bar that was not very high to begin with. I have to admit that I am surprised to see Josh Hartnett once again after seeing him a couple weeks ago in the weak Verity with Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson. He had been gone for so long, and was a heart throb back in Pearl Harbor days back in 2001
The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicone Valley: Last week I went out to watch the memorable You Can See Everything at the theatre. I have to admit that I didn’t remember a lot about the Holmes case and her time as the CEO at Theranos. This documentary from 2019 outlines in detail what had happened and the charges made against her from the perspective from the NY Times writers who did the investigation. What we see is the rise of Theranos and the young Stanford drop out, Holmes, engaging with powerful people to become part of her new Board.
Her invention was a machine called Edison which she claimed that through a single drop of blood could do numerous tests required from labs which we all know take vials and vials of blood for these tests. Her goal was to make these tests more accessible and more affordable so that the everyday person could have a literal pin prick finger test and learn the results in quick succession. The leading labs in the world already in this business used sophisticated equiment to produce their results. Holmes was looking to become a major disruptor in this business. As part of this, she was working with major drug companies and retailers in the US to put labs into the stores. This meant bullish attitudes about the product from Wall Street. Holmes herself was the focus and the face of the company. With this focus, became the interviews, the notoriety, the buzz of being a young superstar.
She was a rising star, going on talk shows and meeting other powerful politicians on her way up. She was on discussion panels with other young rich people, as her start up has then been valued up to $9 billion and she was the primary shareholder. People like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk and others. She was invited to places like Brasil to talk with the President about how her “invention” could be used to help his people in a cheap and efficient manner.
As a person she had always looked up to Apple’s Steve Jobs. She decided to channel some of his energy by wearing turtlenecks and lowering her voice. These were conscious choices. Within the company we could see that there were two differing sides to it: notably (1) the business side with Holmes and her right hand man Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani and (2) the lab side where they were looking to actually perform the tests and get results for the public. Regarding Sunny, what Holmes failed didn’t disclose to investors was that she was also carrying on a romantic relationship with the former Lotus Development and Microsoft sales executive. He was 37yo when he met an 18yo Holmes at Stanford. The romance came later. From the lab, as we learn from Tyler Shultz, the grandson of former US Secretary of State George Shultz, who was on the Board and a big believer in Holmes, that the Edison machine was struggling. It failed to provide reliable results and often Theranos technicians performed certain tests by using outside third party standard equipment to perform those tests. None of this was disclosed to the public, as Theranos double down on their commitment that they do all their own tests. The house of cards eventually dramatically fell and those responsible were brought to trial. There certainly seemed to be an attitude within scientific discovery (as shown by Thomas Edison himself) that you “fake it until you make it”. Apple also had this attitude themselves as you watch movies like Steve Jobs with Michael Fassbender showing the panic in doing product demonstrations for new machines.
Without going into detail in the new documentary, it is astonishing to watch a younger and cocky version of Holmes at work in this documentary. It includes many interviews with her. She may indeed have a different perspective of the world, and how her own brain processes it, however it is much more than an interpretation of some Edison specifications or capabilities that we see. Other clear statements made by Holmes and reiterated by her husband Billy are plain shocking. This documentary is a really good companion piece for those wanting to dig further into the Holmes and Theranos story. The audience can make up their own opinions about this notorious person with broad ideas in looking to try and improve the human condition, while also making herself very rich and famous along the way. In 2026, she certainly is still very well known but not for what she was hoping for.
