Keep Breathing

Would being the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness be deeply soporific? It seems so. Not even the bears add tension in this basic ...

It is an interesting tactic in a robinsonade, to swerve away from all the times the protagonist might be working out how to stay alive. She also got drunk and nearly died in an accidental fire after her father died, although whether this is meant to suggest she is an alcoholic is unclear. There is no question that Liv will escape the downed plane (she hitched a ride with two guys on a light aircraft after her commercial flight was cancelled). There is no question that the surviving pilot will die just after uttering the news that no one knew their flight plan and so no one is coming to rescue them. Any tension there is in Liv’s remarkably non-urgent fight for survival – it takes her until day three to start looking for food, despite the bear eating her power bars early doors – is further dissipated by flashbacks. And there is no question that this will be confirmed when she rescues their kitbags from the submerged plane and finds them full of money and tubs of opiates. Sure, you would rather be there with a little more food and firestarters than the two power bars and soggy lighter that is Liv’s lot by the time she has swum ashore.

A review of the new Netflix survival series starring Melissa Barrera.

Melissa Barrera is Mexican-born and arguably broke into US stardom via Latinx productions like “ Vida” and “ In the Heights.” Her Liv is also Latina, although we don’t see much more than the fact of her identity. Her reason to keep fighting to survive is because of a fetus inside her. And Liv does reach some revelations: that she was not to blame for her mother’s actions, but she is responsible for her own; that love is valuable even when it can hurt; that her father was imperfect; that so is she. “Keep Breathing” also folds in a psychological thriller with flashbacks to Liv’s past, revealing a long history of emotional wounds, both given and received. She flashes back to her time as a girl scout, remembering how to fashion a compass. Plus, the show does a great job of dramatizing the particular horror of being lost in the woods, the madness of walking in circles, the fear of never finding a way out.

After her ordeal inside the caves, episode 6 of Keep Breathing begins with Liv falling from that cliff edge and landing with a hard crash on the ground.

In the end, we get glimpses of what could be in a second season but we’ll have to wait and see if that manifests. Given how she was at the start of the season – self-centered, abrupt and slightly rude – that development to someone who’s far more self-aware of what’s happened to her has taken a long time – across multiple intrusive flashbacks. As the water starts to drift over her, Liv ends up hallucinating, imagining herself as a mother with Danny, and a future that could be a reality if she gets out the wild. Unfortunately, in Liv’s hastiness to escape the ghost of her mother and the demons of her past in the cave, Liv has left behind her bag. With no water, a missing bag and nothing but a stick and her broken leg for company, Liv soldiers on until she hears rumbling in the distance. She’s always been striving for order and in the courtroom, order and structure are two of the key ingredients.

Melissa Barrera stars in a limited series as a New York attorney who has to survive in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash.

One of the things we like about the six-episode limited series is that the episodes are all around 30 minutes, so you’re not seeing Liv wandering around the wilderness for hours on end. Barerra is taking on a monumental task here, having to essentially act the majority of the scenes by herself, with only the elements and inanimate objects to play against. She displays the same skills in this series; while Liv is decidedly tougher and more closed off than her Vida character Lyn, both characters are survivors in their own way, determined to live the way they feel they should. In her latest project, Barrera will basically be on screen most of the time, and much of the time she’ll be by herself. The pilot dies in his seat, but Liv somehow manages to get out and drag Sam, who doesn’t swim, to shore. Melissa Barrera’s profile has been on the rise for the past few years, ever since she was cast as one of the leads on the Starz series Vida. Since that show debuted in 2018, she has been in the Scream franchise and the film version of In The Heights. In all of those projects, it was hard to take our eyes off her when she was on screen.

This review of the Netflix limited series Keep Breathing, starring Melissa Barrera, does not contain spoilers. I am a firm believer in manifestation.

Melissa Barrera sells the modern adult, struck by the lack of technology, doomed by the perils of life-threatening nature. However, the heart of the story is meaningful. In six 30-minute chapters, Keep Breathing does not attempt to overbear the audience with ample of subplots. From childhood to the anguish of a potentially intense romance as an adult, Keep Breathing understands the human condition. Melissa Barrera sells the character by showing the encapsulation of a person who uses emotional avoidant tactics and disassociation throughout her career-driven life to keep steel-hearted. Being in the unknown allows the character to question her life.

Renewed Or Cancelled? Keep Breathing is Netflix's simple survivalist thriller, combining a litany of flashbacks with a young woman attempting to survive the ...

Would you like to see Keep Breathing return for a second season? Alone and with scarce resources, Liv is forced to battle the elements and the odds to survive. At the time of writing, Keep Breathing has not been renewed for a second season.

Keep Breathing ending explained... did the ending to Netflix survival drama Keep Breathing leave you stumped? Here's our recap of the ending of Keep ...

Initially, she grips onto a log for safety, but as she floats down the flow speeds up and she loses her grip and begins floating downriver on her own whilst memories of her past (and visions of her future) flash by her eyes. Although she'd just managed to find a way out of the cave she'd fallen into (where she got the chance to confront the hallucination of her own mother) the good news is short-lived. Having made peace with her life, she decides to head into the water. Just as she climbs out of the cave, Liv takes a horrific fall right back down to ground level and breaks her leg in the process. However, the series does not actually wrap up with Liv back in civilization, and it cuts to black before we see her escape the woods. Across six episodes, Netflix's Keep Breathing sees Liv (Melissa Barrera) desperately fighting for her survival in the Canadian wilderness after being the lone survivor of a plane crash.