[SXSW ‘22] ‘Swimming with Sharks’ review: Stunning episodic premiere

March 15, 2022

If you’ve paid any attention to Kiernan Shipka’s career since her days as Sally Draper, you’ll know that she is one of the most impressive young actresses in Hollywood. As someone who was a child star, you’d imagine she knows how to navigate the Hollywood scene. In Swimming with Sharks, Shipka plays a newcomer on the scene – Lou Simms, an intern to studio CEO Joyce Holt (Dianne Kruger).

The first two episodes of the new Roku original premiered at SXSW Film Festival this year, and they are more than enough to get you hooked. The opening and title sequences of the pilot of Swimming with Sharks are a magnificent minute and a half of television. As a voiceover from Shipka lets us know exactly what kind of story we’ll be watching as the camera cuts between her and her soon-to-be boss getting ready and images of animals, predator and prey. Swimming with Sharks promises this won’t be a heartwarming tale, but something eerie, darker.

Following the eerie introduction are scenes of Lou’s first day on the job. It’s clear that Swimming with Sharks also has a sense of humor, despite it’s darker nature. The show cleverly balances this humor with a lingering sense of unease. Donald Sutherland plays Redmond, the patriarch of the studio and, seemingly, the only person who can tell Dianne Kruger’s fierce and serious Joyce Holt what to do. While he lays in hospice in his home, he still manages to be intimidating – and utterly despicable.

Holt is cold, determined, and calculating.

While the ins and outs of managing a studio might not make for the most interesting plot points, the characters promise interesting drama. Holt’s two assistants, Travis and Alex (Thomas Dekker and Ross Butler), both ambitious and catty, seem like they will make for an interesting season of television. Each character in Swimming with Sharks has clear motivations and interests; to make it to the top, and to look out for themselves.

Kiernan Shipka and Dianne Kruger don’t have much screen time together in these first two episodes, but the two of them are each fantastic to watch on screen. Holt is cold, determined, and calculating — and she is not afraid to show it. Simms, on the other hand, plays innocent and naïve, but there’s clearly so much more to her and what she wants than she’s showing her colleagues.

Swimming with Sharks will leave you wanting more after the first two episodes (which, of course, end on a cliffhanger). This short-form television series will only have 6 episodes, but it feels like it will have all of the drama of some of HBO’s best. With a great cast, great cinematography, and an intriguing story, this should be one many people watch in 2022.