Charlie Heaton and Josh Hartnett’s father-son scenes are the emotional center of Netflix’s Below because the series gives its supernatural mystery a recognizably human problem: a father trying to protect his family and a son who has never fully escaped the history that shaped him.
In the six-episode Newfoundland-set thriller, Hartnett plays Calvin Penney, a fisherman determined to keep his family and community together, while Heaton plays Wade, his oldest son. The danger in the water drives the plot, but the relationship between Calvin and Wade gives the danger its personal cost. Netflix’s own series guide frames Calvin’s struggle as both a fight against an unknown creature and an effort to protect his family and a vanishing way of life.
Why Calvin and Wade feel like a real father and son
The most effective family scenes in Below are not simply about one character giving orders and the other resisting. Calvin and Wade carry different versions of the same history. Calvin is shaped by old grief and a powerful sense of responsibility; Wade has grown up inside the consequences of that history, with his own frustrations and a complicated relationship with home.
That tension makes their scenes feel lived-in. They can argue, needle each other, or show affection without turning every exchange into a speech about what family means. Their connection is often clearest in the small shifts: a moment of concern that interrupts an argument, a pause before a difficult answer, or the instinct to protect someone even when the relationship is strained.
Hartnett’s restraint gives Calvin’s worry weight
Hartnett does not need to make Calvin openly sentimental in every scene for the audience to understand that his family matters to him. The character’s rough edges and guarded manner make the moments when concern breaks through more meaningful. His protectiveness is not always expressed gracefully; at times, it comes out as stubbornness or anger. That imperfection is part of what makes the relationship believable.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Hartnett described how readily he could connect with the feelings required in scenes opposite Heaton, saying the emotional material was already present on the page. The same interview describes how the actors’ on-screen bond benefits from the fact that they play a family living and working in a demanding coastal environment.
Heaton makes Wade more than the rebellious son
Wade could easily have become a familiar thriller archetype: the difficult son who complicates an already dangerous situation. Heaton gives him a more specific inner life. Wade’s restlessness and rough humor sit alongside the sense that he is still trying to work out his place in the town and in his family. He is not simply pushing Calvin away; he is also responding to a life shaped by events he did not choose.
Netflix’s cast guide describes Wade as the child who has remained in the hometown while some of his siblings have gone elsewhere. That detail matters. The town is not just the setting of the monster story for Wade; it is the place he knows, the place he may resent, and the place he has not managed to leave behind.
The Newfoundland setting raises the stakes
The relationship works because Below places it inside a community where leaving is not a simple personal decision. The town’s future, its fishing life, and its people’s connection to the coast all press on the Penney family. When the threat in the water grows, Calvin’s responsibility to his son overlaps with his responsibility to the wider community. Wade, meanwhile, has to decide what belonging means when the place he knows is becoming dangerous.
The production’s location work helps make those choices tangible. The Reuters report on the series notes that the cast credited Newfoundland residents and local performers with helping the show capture the region’s character and accent. That local texture keeps the family story from feeling detached from its surroundings: Calvin and Wade are not just father and son in a generic horror setting, but members of a place with its own rhythms, pressures, and history.
Why the emotional scenes matter more than the creature
A creature feature needs a threat, but suspense alone rarely gives viewers a reason to care what happens after the danger arrives. In Below, the mystery in the ocean keeps the story moving; the family conflict gives the suspense consequences. A risk taken by Calvin matters because Wade may pay for it. Wade’s choices matter because Calvin is not only trying to solve a mystery—he is trying to keep his family intact.
The father-son dynamic also helps the series move between tones. The story can be eerie, funny, or suddenly frightening without losing its emotional center, because the characters continue to react to one another as family. Their disagreements are not put on hold whenever the plot needs a scare. Instead, those unresolved feelings make each new danger more complicated.
What Josh Hartnett and Charlie Heaton bring to the relationship
The performances complement each other because neither character has to be entirely right. Hartnett gives Calvin the weight of someone who believes he must hold everything together, while Heaton gives Wade the impatience of someone who wants to be seen as an adult rather than treated as a problem to solve. That difference creates friction, but it also creates the possibility of recognition: each can see something of himself in the other, even when neither wants to admit it.
Their chemistry is not built only on resemblance. It comes from contrast—Calvin’s protective instinct against Wade’s need for independence, a father’s fear against a son’s frustration, and shared loyalty against years of emotional baggage. That is why the quieter exchanges can stay with viewers after the show’s more spectacular moments have passed.
Watch the trailer for Below
The trailer introduces the coastal setting, the family at the center of the story, and the mystery threatening their town. For the full series details, visit Netflix’s official Below page.
Trailer video embed. Video source: YouTube.
Frequently asked questions
Who plays the father and son in Below?
Josh Hartnett plays Calvin Penney, and Charlie Heaton plays his son Wade in Netflix’s six-episode thriller Below.
Why are Calvin and Wade’s scenes important?
Their relationship gives the supernatural mystery emotional stakes. Calvin’s attempts to protect his family and Wade’s struggle to find his place in the community make the danger personal.
Is Below a family drama or a creature thriller?
It is both. The sea-creature mystery supplies suspense, while the Penney family’s conflicts give the story its emotional foundation.
Where was Below filmed?
The series was filmed in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, and uses the region’s coastal landscape and local culture as central parts of its atmosphere.
How many episodes does Below have?
Netflix lists Below as a six-episode limited series.
Sources
- Netflix Tudum: Below series guide and first-look photos
- Netflix Tudum: Below cast guide
- Los Angeles Times: Josh Hartnett and Charlie Heaton on their father-son bond
- Reuters: The cast and Newfoundland community
By Shivam Das
