The Castaways

Sheridan Smith and Celine Buckens lead the cast in this glossy Paramount+ series based on the popular book by Lucy Clarke. A plane carrying 14 people crashes into the Pacific Ocean without any explanation as to why or where it is, and with no bodies recovered. Smith plays the unlucky plane crash victim Lori Holme, while Buckens portrays her wayward sister Erin. Both sisters were meant to be on the plane, however, they argue the night before, which leads to Erin missing the flight and Lori flying solo, leaving Erin desperately searching for answers.

Buckens plays the rebellious and relentless Erin very well, and Smith is fantastically watchable as always, but some of the surrounding characters are unconvincing, and there’s some pretty wooden acting in places. The ex-husband of Lori and his new partner are unreasonably belittling towards Erin while she tries to investigate what happened to the plane, telling her she needs to move on and eventually kicking her out despite it only being months after the plane disappeared. As is usually the case with these types of series, Erin is having a hard time convincing everyone else that there’s something fishy going on.

While she scrambles around Fiji searching for answers on the whereabouts of her sister, we get to see what Lori’s up to with the rest of the plane crash survivors on the island. But is there more to the story than just a simple accident?

There are a few tweaks here and there where the book adaption is concerned and the storyline gets crazier with each episode, but if you don’t mind a completely implausible plot and are just after a fun, easy-to-digest deserted island series then The Castaways might be for you. It’s slickly shot, with plenty of aspirational content, and Smith and Buckens carry it well, even when the script verges on cringeworthy.

Hannah Broughton

The Castaways is released on Paramount+ on 26^th December 2023.

Watch the trailer for The Castaways here: