Haunted houses, pharaohs, incubi and naiads: this show has it all. It takes you back to Egypt in the 1960s, to solve some paranormal mysteries. As you probably know, Netflix started expanding its content a couple of years ago to not only include English productions, but also shows from the rest of the world. Paranormal is one such show, produced in Egypt. It is also known under its Arabic name ما وراء الطبيعة or ma wara attabiya. The show takes place in Egypt in the 60s and centers on Dr. Refaat Ismail (Ahmed Amin, Ghamam's Island), a medical doctor who specialized in blood diseases. The story starts when his old friend and love interest Maggie Mckillop (Razane Jammal, Carlos) from Scotland visits him in Egypt. Quickly, one after the other bizarre event starts to haunt Refaat and he unwillingly becomes a go-to person for solving these paranormal events. The show is often characterized as horror, but I would rather say ‘creepy’, not the gory horror type.
Refaat is not a particularly likable character. Instead, he is an anti-hero who somehow always ends up in the center of some weird phenomenon. His personal life can also only be described as a gigantic mess, for a large part due to his own making. He seems completely unable to communicate properly and often makes horrible decisions. Nonetheless, he is a good main character. His calmness in facing all the outer-worldly experiences works well with the absolute craziness of what we see on screen. It also helps that Amin (and most other actors in the show) are great.
In general, the show is well put together. The cinematography is good, the sets are beautiful and the clothes really take us back to the sixties. We also see different parts of Egypt; city and countryside. The special effects are quite poor, especially in the third episode, but the good make-up and practical effects in the other episodes make up for that. The music is also well-done and adds to the atmosphere.
The show thrives on the chaos and its trademark seems to be to show absurd scenarios as if perfectly ordinary
The storyline is good and caught my attention. You want to know what is happening, and whether the characters are going to survive; not everyone makes it to the end. Refaat’s personal life does not always make sense, however, and I especially wanted to shout at Huwaida (Karla Maatouk) that she needs to find herself a better life and a better man, but oh well. The show sort of thrives on the chaos and its trademark seems to be to show absurd scenarios as if perfectly ordinary. And it does so well.
Yet, sometimes as a viewer you are left a bit lost on what exactly happened, and some loose ends are not tied up or resolved properly, which can be a bit frustrating. Nonetheless, it is a good Egyptian Netflix show, which I can recommend, especially to those who like creepy shows.
About the writer, Nienke de Boode
She started with watching NCIS, CSI and Bones, but over time her passion for TV shows has grown to what it is today, with dozens of shows that need to be watched. You can always wake her up for a good crime show, but she is also open to different things. Comedy and fantasy are on her list of favourites as well. Since October 2014, she also writes for MySeries to combine her love for TV shows and writing.
The vibe is indeed very different. But I finished the series. Very nice. Not super high-quality, but nice for in between. Certainly creepy here and there and in a few short stretches also a bit horror. But nowhere does the main character really seem to be in danger, so it doesn't make much of an impression. I did watch it with the English dub, because I don't like the Egyptian dub at all ;-)
