France 2 is launching this Wednesday evening the broadcast of “Les Survivors de l’Arianna”, a dramatic mini-series with international production. What really happened to the crew of the Arianna sailboat, which disappeared from radar for a year?
What is it about ?
For a year, the sailboat Arianna and its twelve passengers have been missing. When it suddenly reappears, with only seven of its twelve passengers on board, the families left behind must relearn how to live with their missing, who have become strangers, or accept the death of their loved ones. But the seven survivors also share a terrible secret…
Every Wednesday at 9:10 p.m. on France 2 (three episodes per week). Episodes seen: 3/10.
Who is it with?
Who says international production, necessarily says international casting. Les Rescapés de l’Arianna being the result of a collaboration between RAI Fiction, Rodeo Drive, Cinétévé, France Télévisions and ZDF Néo, its distribution comes from all over Europe.
The Frenchie Stéfi Celma, whom we have notably been able to use in Dix Pour Cent or even Lost Ball, thus camps Sylvie, wife of one of the survivors who will have to manage the return of her husband whom she thought was dead.
The young Adèle Wismes, who appeared in the OCS Les Grands series, slips into the skin of the mysterious Léa, one of the survivors. Lino Guanciale, Barbora Bobulova, Vincenzo Ferrera and Sophie Pfennigstorf complete the cast.
On the production side, Carmine Elia (La Porta Rossa) takes care of the shots, while the scripts are written by Viola Rispoli (Doc), Massimo Bacchini, Sofia Bruschetta, Giovanni Galassi, Ivano Fachin and Tommaso Matano.
It’s worth checking out ?
After Around the World in 80 Days and Abyss (which was broadcast on the channel last June), France 2 is offering Les Survivors de l’Arianna this summer, its new fiction in co-production with Germany and Italy.
But where Abyss offered us a futuristic sci-fi thriller against a backdrop of global warming, this new disaster mini-series is slightly lacking in substance and originality.
One year after its mysterious disappearance, the sailing ship Arianna is found at sea. If the families of the twelve members of the crew are already delighted with this unexpected return, they will quickly become disillusioned when they learn that there is only seven survivors. But what happened to them on the boat?
Each of the survivors is questioned by the police in order to understand the unfolding of the events that took place during this year at sea. Faced with their evasive or too precise explanations, the mother of one of the missing begins to doubt the reported version. She then embarks on an investigation to find out the truth.
If the Arianna Survivors mystery had it all – a missing ship, survivors hiding a dark secret, and families dealing with the sudden reappearance of those they thought were dead – the miniseries in 12 episodes struggles to find its rhythm.
If the flashbacks allow us very quickly to understand that the survivors hide many secrets, the sequences in the present, where the characters try to adapt to this unexpected return, leave us unmoved.
The very slow pace, and the irrelevant dialogues, may also discourage more than one. And it is not the hideous shots of the drifting boat made on a green screen, which manage to save this televisual sinking.
Only the mystery of what really happened on the sailboat manages to hold us spellbound, and almost makes us want to keep watching. In short, the survivors of Arianna is a forgettable mini-series that will fill the long summer evenings of fans of the genre in search of novelty during this summer period.