Keep Breathing

Would being the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness be deeply soporific? It seems so. Not even the bears add tension in this basic ...

It is an interesting tactic in a robinsonade, to swerve away from all the times the protagonist might be working out how to stay alive. She also got drunk and nearly died in an accidental fire after her father died, although whether this is meant to suggest she is an alcoholic is unclear. There is no question that Liv will escape the downed plane (she hitched a ride with two guys on a light aircraft after her commercial flight was cancelled). There is no question that the surviving pilot will die just after uttering the news that no one knew their flight plan and so no one is coming to rescue them. Any tension there is in Liv’s remarkably non-urgent fight for survival – it takes her until day three to start looking for food, despite the bear eating her power bars early doors – is further dissipated by flashbacks. And there is no question that this will be confirmed when she rescues their kitbags from the submerged plane and finds them full of money and tubs of opiates. Sure, you would rather be there with a little more food and firestarters than the two power bars and soggy lighter that is Liv’s lot by the time she has swum ashore.

A review of the new Netflix survival series starring Melissa Barrera.

Melissa Barrera is Mexican-born and arguably broke into US stardom via Latinx productions like “ Vida” and “ In the Heights.” Her Liv is also Latina, although we don’t see much more than the fact of her identity. Her reason to keep fighting to survive is because of a fetus inside her. And Liv does reach some revelations: that she was not to blame for her mother’s actions, but she is responsible for her own; that love is valuable even when it can hurt; that her father was imperfect; that so is she. “Keep Breathing” also folds in a psychological thriller with flashbacks to Liv’s past, revealing a long history of emotional wounds, both given and received. She flashes back to her time as a girl scout, remembering how to fashion a compass. Plus, the show does a great job of dramatizing the particular horror of being lost in the woods, the madness of walking in circles, the fear of never finding a way out.

This review of the Netflix limited series Keep Breathing, starring Melissa Barrera, does not contain spoilers. I am a firm believer in manifestation.

Melissa Barrera sells the modern adult, struck by the lack of technology, doomed by the perils of life-threatening nature. However, the heart of the story is meaningful. In six 30-minute chapters, Keep Breathing does not attempt to overbear the audience with ample of subplots. From childhood to the anguish of a potentially intense romance as an adult, Keep Breathing understands the human condition. Melissa Barrera sells the character by showing the encapsulation of a person who uses emotional avoidant tactics and disassociation throughout her career-driven life to keep steel-hearted. Being in the unknown allows the character to question her life.

Renewed Or Cancelled? Keep Breathing is Netflix's simple survivalist thriller, combining a litany of flashbacks with a young woman attempting to survive the ...

Would you like to see Keep Breathing return for a second season? Alone and with scarce resources, Liv is forced to battle the elements and the odds to survive. At the time of writing, Keep Breathing has not been renewed for a second season.

Keep Breathing streams on Netflix on July 28, 2022. The survival drama is a paint-by-numbers formula. Take a terrified individual or group, drop them into ...

There's also no reason for a device the series goes on to use: the deceased Sam acting as a negative voice that continues to tell Liv she's going to die. The best there is to say? Otherwise, it seems the rest of Liv’s time willing herself to survive is dominated by men as well. Because the last thing a woman should be taking care of is herself, apparently, and writing like this only serves to drive that harmful narrative home. There’s nothing to distract her from her absent mother and doting father’s death…or the skeletons in her closet. Interspersed with colorful vignettes that give us a peek into Liv's life before the crash, Keep Breathing showcases the young lawyer's determination to survive the wilderness – even if that means burning piles of money she finds in luggage and burying the oxycodone she found with it.