REVIEW: ‘The Deep’ Season 3 Deepens Family Exploration

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The Deep Season 3 is an Australian/Canadian co-produced animated television series that is distributed by Netflix in the United States. If you haven’t heard of this series before, it is based on the comic book created by Tom Taylor and James Brouwer. The award-winning TV show follows the Nekton family on their adventures exploring the mysteries of the deep. The Nektons are made up of parents, Will (voiced by Michael Dobson) and Kaiko (voiced by Kathleen Barr), the children Antaeus, who goes by Ant (voiced by Vincent Tong), and Fontaine (voiced by Ashleigh Ball), and of course Ant’s pet Jeffrey, a Yellowback Basslet fish who is a character in his own right.

The family are adventurous underwater explorers who live aboard a state-of-the-art submarine, the Aronnax. Descendents of explorers who died trying to solve the riddle of how to get to the lost city of Lemuria and refused to abandon it. Now, thanks to family friend Nereus, the Nektons know why they are so attracted to solving underwater riddles because they are the descendants of Lemurians and they continue the search that started with their ancestors. Season two ended with the Nektons stopping Alpheus from opening what he had thought was the Gates of Lemuria, an Atlantis like lost civilization, but instead, it was actually a prison for the Kraken.

This choice allowed for season three to start without having to dive right after a previous season cliffhanger. This season starts fresh and shifted the series back into more exploration type tone. At the start of season three, the Nektons, are back to their normal day routines with the search for Lemuria occurring more in a background role for most of the season.

The Deep has always done a fantastic job of exploring marine life in the ocean and learning about sea creatures, while still adding a little extra to the creatures they discover. One of the strengths of the series is that the Nektons have always done a great job of solving problems through non-violent means and this season is no different. Ultimately, this is something I have always loved about the show. The Nektons always find ways to complete their mission without destroying the environment or harming any marine life.

The Nekton knights, underwater exosuits, are one of the highlights for this season as they spent a good big modifying and upgrading them throughout the season. Watching the evolution of these suits throughout the seasons has been fun to watch and keeps discovery and research at the heart of the show.

While there are no new major characters introduced in this season, this is in no way a bad thing. The choice to use an existing cast allowed for more character development from both the main and side characters. We also get more family dynamics for the Hammerheads, the rival pirate family. We see a focus on Maddi and her father’s relationship as she pushes to be the perfect daughter this season and we also see development of Finn Hammerhead and Fontaine’s relationship as Finn tries to do good.

The Monumentials, giant Sea-Creatures that the Lumerians dubbed with the name, play a role once again as we do get a see a few new ones along with the return of some of the older ones. This is nothing new to the series as it has always been a theme within the show, but getting to see how Will and Kaiko trust and believe in their children more as the show progresses is a major highlight. In season one they questioned them, now, in season three, they trust them.  The Deep season three shows Will and Kaiko acting out the perfect balance of knowing that their kids are still children while still allowing them to do things on their own and trusting them to do accomplish even some of the most dangerous of tasks. Ant and Fontaine are clearly getting more independent as the seasons go on and seeing their parents by their side always a pleasure to watch.

The Deep Season 3 is a fantastic continuation to an already award-winning show. There are only thirteen episodes, but still plenty to get excited about throughout the season. The perfect balance of fun exploration and mystery storytelling all wrapped into one. The season sets up nicely for a season four so I fully expect the Nektons to be back sometime in 2020.

The Deep Season 3 is streaming now on Netflix.