Netflix says g’day to fantasy series ‘Tidelands’
Netflix is continuing its investment in original Australian content, with the series Tidelands set to debut later this year. The announcement positioned the show as the platform’s first fully Australian Netflix original, and it delivered on that promise when it arrived as a completed single season.
A ten-episode first season has been commissioned for what Netflix has dubbed a “supernatural crime drama” from Stephen M. Irwin (Secrets & Lies, Australia Day). The finished version ultimately landed at eight episodes, all dropped at once in December 2018, which suited the binge-friendly format Netflix favored at the time.
Plot Summary Without Spoilers
Follows ex-con Cal McTeer returning to Orphelin Bay after a decade away. She quickly finds herself pulled back into local tensions when a fisherman’s body washes up, exposing layers of crime and hidden power structures. The story threads together murder investigations, drug operations, and the presence of a secretive coastal community whose members are part human and part something older. The setting leans into Queensland’s tidal flats and fishing culture without turning the landscape into simple postcard scenery.
Cast and Key Performances
Charlotte Best stars as protagonist Cal McTeer, bringing a grounded physicality to a character who has to navigate both criminal past and supernatural present. Elsa Pataky plays matriarch Adrielle Cuthbert, anchoring the tidelander side of the narrative with quiet authority. Aaron Jakubenko and Marco Pigossi fill key supporting roles that keep the small-town dynamics tense and personal. The ensemble stays tight, which helps the show balance its crime-drama beats with the more fantastical elements.
Reception and Legacy
Received mixed reviews with praise for visuals and premise but criticism for pacing and depth. It holds a 77% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, while audience scores sit a little lower. On IMDb the user rating hovers around 6.8/10. Viewers who stuck with the season often cited the coastal atmosphere and the central mystery as reasons to keep watching, even when some subplots felt underdeveloped. The series never spawned a second season, so the story remains contained in that single eight-episode arc.
Current Availability and Status
All 8 episodes released simultaneously on December 14, 2018. No second season has been produced as of 2025. The full season remains available on Netflix, making it easy for new viewers to jump in without hunting for missing installments. The show still circulates in conversations about early Netflix experiments with Australian genre storytelling, particularly those that tried to fuse crime procedural structure with mythic elements.
Tidelands will be produced for Netflix by Brisbane-based Hoodlum Entertainment. Tracey Robertson, Nathan Mayfield and Leigh McGrath, who produced acclaimed Australian series Secrets & Lies, along with its remake for U.S. television, will serve as executive producers. Their experience with twisty, character-driven mysteries gave the production a clear sense of how to keep secrets layered without losing momentum.
“We’re proud these strong Australian storytellers are bringing their vision to the first Australian Netflix original series”, said Erik Barmack, vice president of international original series at Netflix. The quote captured the platform’s early push into local originals that could still travel internationally.
“The primeval landscapes of Queensland are a perfect setting to tell the story of betrayal, small town secrets, ancient mythology. And when it comes to family, the show explores whether blood really is thicker than water”, adds Robertson. That emphasis on place and blood ties became one of the clearer through-lines once the episodes landed.
Netflix isn’t a newcomer to Australian programming, having co-produced Glitch, Beat Bugs, Bottersnikes & Gumbles, Kazoops, Mako Mermaids: An H20 Adventure and White Rabbit Project. The next Australian co-production from Netflix will be upcoming series The Legend of the Monkey. Tidelands stood apart from those earlier titles because it was the first fully commissioned original rather than a co-production, giving the creative team more room to define tone and scope.
Tidelands entered production in Queensland in 2018 and reached audiences by year’s end. The completed season offers a compact snapshot of what Netflix hoped to achieve with its first Australian original: a genre piece rooted in local geography that could still hook viewers on the other side of the world.
