Netflix's Surviving Death Season 1: Series Review

Death. It's the one thing we all will experience one way or another, sooner or later. But actual death probably brings out the biggest enigma and conundrum for everyone and everything that has ever and will exist - finding out if there really is a life after death. The Netflix docu-series "Surviving Death" of course won't give the ultimate answer to this millennia-old question but it at least provides a more scientific - although flawed and questionable at times - and satsifying dive into the topic.

"Surviving Death" seeks to provide a more intimate look into the topic of life after death. The docu-series uses intimate personal interviews with real people and scientists and their research to try to piece together a clearer image for viewers. The series will tackle near death experiences, mediumships, signs from the dead, seeing dead people, and even reincarnation - of which thousands if not millions of people experience every single day.

There are two significant observations that we appreciated most with our viewing experience with "Surviving Death". First was its approach regarding the topic of life after death itself. For us, it was a surprisingly balanced one most of the way. The topic of life after death, we always assumed, worked in extremes - of skeptics and science and of those who throw away logic out the door - but "Surviving Death" showed that this isn't the case sometimes. In each episode, we actually get to see that some scientists and doctors are trying hard to understand the phenomena experienced during and after death and with it they are bringing and promising a more scientific, logical, and quantifiable approach on the topic. The second observation is that the show was able to give a sense that it wasn't biased towards one side or the other. The episode about mediumships (Episode 3 and 4) showed this best in our opinion as it was able to show how powerful of an experience a seance could be but also discussed the reality that the information that came from the Medium could easily be found online. Like anything else regarding life after death, the show won't provide an answer and it mostly leaves each episode as an open-ended experience - because finding the answer is an impossible task right now. But at least the show will make you think twice about your own convictions on the topic and it is up to the viewer to look into each episode as a skeptic or not. Unfortunately, some episodes proved to be better than others. Our favorite were the first (near death experience) and last (reincarnation) episodes - probably because they were the most scientific-based out of the bunch. We also discovered through our own research that the series at times skimped on important information that could have proven some of their key points false. Maybe it was ruled out of the series to have more drama and impact but it left a lot of doubt on its authenticity overall. But considering the docu-series as a whole, we felt satisfied, intrigued and happy about it. It gave us a new profound interpretation on the paranormal and broke our own apprehensions and biases on the topic of life after death.

Rating: 4 reels

Why you should watch it:
- provides a well-balanced look into the various ways humans are trying to understand and cope with death

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- some episodes felt a little too fantastical and after searching we found out it was presenting evidence that have already been disproven as false