A year after a volcano eruption, the survivors are still dealing with the aftermath…

Does Life imitate Art, or Art imitate Life? It’s an age-old question… but clearly Iceland –bless its thermal socks – is exempt from such considerations. Back in March of this year the Fagradalsfjall volcano erupted and lava is still flowing three months later. So. Are the local communities haunted by naked, traumatised ash-coated visitors who surely cannot be who they say they are? Do strange women in the local hotels stare wide-eyed at their dog-eared Tarot cards? Is there strange but incomprehensible stuff going on with the plumage of the local crow population?

No.

Icelanders are clearly a jollier lot than they like to depict in their noir thrillers or paranormal TV series, and thus it was they flocked in their thousands to watch the volcanic spectacle, had a family day out, enjoyed a picnic, and even cooked their sausages on the cooling lava flows.  Google it – it was on the BBC News website.

There are no lava cooked sausages in the series opener of Netflix’s new genre show – a genre that shall henceforth be called ‘Volcano Noir’ – instead, when Katla erupts (which Wiki tells me is actually a real volcano) it’s the crows, the Tarot ladies and the naked ash people. Although, on reflection, we haven’t had any male naked ash people as yet, so I guess that cooked sausages could still be on the menu.

The first ep was, actually, very enjoyable, and took itself terribly seriously, only just staying this side of becoming slightly comical. I am definitely drawn in enough to watch more, but it’s one of those shows that might turn out to be brilliant – or incredibly stupid. It’s too early to tell. What I can say is that it looks amazing. Some of the CGI is a little ropey, but the real-world cinematography is sumptuously lit, and I doff my thermal bobble hat to Director of Photography Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson, who gives the interiors a Vermeer-like quality to contrast them with the cold, ash strewn outdoors, and is in many ways the real star of the show.

Verdict: Definitely worth a look, and I’m hopeful that this may turn out to be a slow burn treat – sausages or no sausages. 7/10

Martin Jameson