From the play “Elemeno Pea” by Molly Smith Metzler, Netflix’s “Sirens” seems like a story we have come across on TV countless times. After her father is diagnosed with early-onset dementia, Devon (Meghann Fahy) tries in vain to reach out to her younger sister Simone (Milly Alcock), who, for her part, ignores the texts and sends a fruit basket instead. Following a jail stint for reasons we learn later, Devon heads to the coastal island where Simone works as a live-in aide to the irresistible and enchanting Michaela “Kiki” Kell (Julianne Moore).

Simone is seemingly addicted to this new, luxurious lifestyle as she manages the preparations for the bird sanctuary’s fundraising gala. As the first lady, dressed in pink and blue, handpicked by Michaela, Simone flashes her white teeth at every answer her sister poses for her. While this is the only version of Simone we know at this point, it’s clear from Devon’s reaction that this is not the sister she thought she had. This is strikingly different from the reality seemingly built around Simone. As fierce as the winds that batter the shores, this idyllic life begins to crumble, necessitating each of these three women to surrender to an Akrasitic version of themselves.

By the end of the weekend, they will all be put to the test, some will succeed while others will struggle to keep afloat in the web of lies they’ve constructed for themselves.

Even if Devon thinks that her boss's charm has magically enchanted Simone, she too, succumbs to the spell of Michaela's lifestyle. We witness Michaela perform the ultimate power move of chewing her gum then taking it out of her mouth, placing it into Simone's open waiting mouth, and directing the house staff like subordinates who actually love being at her service. The life she designed for herself is one where she exerts more influential power than her billionaire husband, Peter (Kevin Bacon), and it all hinges on her level of sociopathy as she endlessy manipulates and bends the motivations of people right in front of them.

“Sirens” features an entertaining ensemble cast, but you will have all your attention captured on Moore. While portraying Michaela, she wears a struggle to smile expression, ostensibly a grin, but begins to look like she is sneering or pouting when things do not go her way. Then her face blinks off with no emotion and mechanically shuffles down. Like her followers and friends who seem to be cult-like, she seems to be in a cage like prison like the women in “The Stepford Wives.” That is till we see the demolishing pressures of being a trophy wife. It seems to be Michaela who, out of all the characters, is in full control.

Control is the underlying theme for her relationship with Simone, a girl she offers protection to like a captured bird. She wishes to care for Simone, very obviously seeing a younger version of herself because she’s her assistant, but simultaneously wants to bang her into a molding head. Their interactions sometimes border on borderline psychosexual, the camera’s slow pans capturing the intensity of their gazes and touches accompanied by heavy sighs surrounding the score. Devon tries to push away, but in the end, she gets sucked into the world that Michaela controls.

Most contemporary shows do not seem to hold back when trying to satirize the interaction between the rich and the working class, but “Sirens” gives us something deeper. The show seems to lack a certain bite… When examining how the underdogs sometimes have to claw their way to the top, it tries (and we can tell) to highlight the fact that people are forced to erase their true essence. Blood streaming out from her eyes, clutching one of her precious dying birds, a stunning sculptural tableau of Michaela is for us to reckon with the figure of trophy wife. Captivating, isn’t it? This gruesome imagery forces us to rethink what it means to be married to a successful man; it is perpetual, inescapable pain and sorrow.

Moore may follow Alcock like a ghost, slowly transitioning each frame into a new dimension, but Alcock is on a different mission. Whirling through each scene like a fever dream, Alcock brings boundless momentum. Her secrets threaten to take apart the life Simone so desperately wants to sustain in New York. Struggling to please her boss, Simone nonstop curiosity leads her down a darker path than imagined. The elopement of Breaking character and Simone, who dissolved every last trace of sisterly-group identity by removing the shared tattoo, changing nation states, and even cosmetic priming, leads to a culmination of fights and fury. It seems drag and war in the for the reshaping into advantageous guard drives much deeper.

The series is at its best when it explores class and womanhood- artistic themes you won’t find in the cheap thrills of “The White Lotus.” In the fourth and penultimate episode of the show, it gets a bit melodramatic, and achieves a new high for the series. With the monologues shared between Alcock and Fahy, and Bacon and Moore, it really does feel like one of the rare shows that embraces the pulpy nature of its writing, and does not attempt to sugarcoat it. The fifth and final episode, as unapologetically over-the-top as it is, never proves to be a detriment for the series; unlike the repetitive fluff of most other shows. The phrases “limited series” and “clamoring” aren’t two you’d expect to hear in the same sentence as one another, but it reigns true in this case. “Sirens,” despite lacking tension at points, still manages to deliver a delightfully surprising twist.