If you enjoy sitting on the edge of your seat, heart-racing, biting your nails with anxiety about what will happen next, “Last Breath” is for you.

Based on a true story, it’s about a diver performing routine pipeline repair work 300 feet below the surface of the North Sea when the cable attached to his diving bell snaps, leaving him stranded in the dark with his oxygen running out

Living with his nervous fiancé Morag (Bobby Rainsbury) in a trailer on the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland, young, curly-haired Chris Lemons (Finn Cole) is a saturation diver – which is described as “the most dangerous job on Earth.” 

Saturation divers work at great depths for an extended period in a pressurized environment that prevents decompression sickness – a.k.a. ‘the bends.’  This ‘saturation’ technique allows them to perform complex underwater tasks – like maintenance and construction – without needing to decompress after each dive.  

In September, 2012, Chris joined his teammates – veteran Duncan Allock (Woody Harrelson) and brusque Dave Yuasa (Simu Liu) – on a vessel assigned to oil pipeline repair work deep underwater in the treacherous North Sea.

A crisis occurred when the ship’s dynamic computerized positioning system failed during an intense storm while Chris and Dave were diving.  Then – suddenly – Chris became untethered, drifting away with only ten minutes of oxygen left in his suit.

What happens next can only be described as gripping, high-tension logistics, as his shipmates – including Cliff Curtis, Mark Bonnar, Myanna Buring – devise various schemes to find and rescue now-unconscious Chris, eventually using an underwater mechanical retriever that resembles the kind of claw that kids use to grab a toy from an arcade vending device.

Scripted by Mitchell LaFortune, David Brooks and director Alex Parkinson, it’s an authentically claustrophobic adventure that manages to be visually compelling even in the murky darkness – thanks to cinematographer Nick Remy Matthews.

If this sounds familiar, Alex Parkinson made it into a 2019 British documentary which he’s expanded significantly,

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Last Breath” is an intense, suspenseful 6, streaming on Prime Video, Peacock and Apple TV.

“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different. ” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald

Molly Smith Metzler must have been familiar with Fitzgerald’s description because it matches hers in Netflix’s new, five-part miniseries “Sirens,” alluding to the Greek mythology in which sea monsters/mermaids lured sailors to their death.

Her story begins with wealthy ethereal socialite Michaela “Kiki” Kell (Julianne Moore) standing on the edge of a cliff, releasing a falcon into freedom. At the same time, Devon DeWitt (Meghann Fahy) is getting out of jail in Buffalo, New York. 

Devon is exhausted caring for her widower father Bruce (Bill Camp) who suffers from dementia. So she hops a ferry to an unnamed sanctuary off the coast of Rhode Island and makes her way to the palatial clapboard beachfront estate known as Cliff House where her estranged younger sister Simone (Milly Alcock) – having survived a traumatic childhood – now works as Kiki’s personal assistant.

Kiki lives a lavish life of luxury with a devoted staff catering to her every whim, and Simone is caught in her Lilly Pulitzer-pastel-clad web of seduction. While Devon attempts an intervention, she’s no match for manipulative Kiki, although she does befriend Peter (Kevin Bacon), Kiki’s hedge-fund billionaire husband.

It’s Labor Day weekend and the annual ‘raptor conservation’ charity Gala, so Simone is busy passing along controlling Kiki’s mercurial orders to the beleaguered servants (Felix Solis, Lauren Weedman, Britne Oldford).

Meanwhile, Devon discovers that Simone is romantically involved with the playboy-next-door (Glenn Howerton) and ignites her own flirtation with a yacht captain – much to the chagrin of her married boss/lover who follows her to the island with perpetually confused Bruce in tow.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Sirens” is a satirical, suspenseful 7 – with a twist ending that may surprise you. All five episodes are now streaming on Netflix.

Catch up with Susan Granger’s latest reviews here:

• “Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning” and “Death of a Unicorn”
• “The Studio” and “The Four Seasons”
• “Real Women Have Curves” and “Rust”
• “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” and “Good American Family”

Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in Journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has appeared on radio and television as an anchorwoman and movie critic for many years. Read all her reviews at susangranger.com.