Paranormal Netflix

As Egyptians, very few things scare us. We don’t fear vampires and we don’t care so much for Halloween killers. And so it’s no surprise that horror movies rarely scare us.

What does scare us, though, is what is quintessential to our culture. Myths and hauntings that go back to our very roots…and that’s the exact thing that Netflix’s Paranormal tries to tell us.

warning: will contain spoilers

Plot

It’s no secret that Paranormal is adapted from the iconic Egyptian book series Ma Waraa El-Tabiaa by late author Ahmed Khaled Tawfik.

With 81 books in the series, though, director and creator Amr Salama takes a creative license in reworking the events and storylines to whip up the perfect backstory for Dr. Refaat Ismail.

In Paranormal, we journey between the past and the present with Refaat, as he makes do with the bleak and totally unsupernatural life he’s been given, all while knowing that something sinister is lying in wait.

The Refaat we meet doesn’t believe in the supernatural (or in taking initiatives in life) and we see both these things clearerly as he goes out of his way to tell us.

In the first episode, we see Refaat re-meet Maggie McKillop, his old love from Scotland, in Cairo for a fellowship, which casts a series of doubts over Refaat’s entire life and his current engagement to Howaida. And Refaat’s entire family seems to agree as they all meet Maggie when Refaat takes her to his birthday dinner unprompted.

As Refaat grapples with his personal feelings, his life takes a turn for the odd as supernatural happenings occur all around him as he encounters ancient Pharaonic curses, demons, and much more.

And all of that is, of course, without mentioning the ghost of a little girl called Shiraz, as she haunts both Refaat’s waking and dreaming worlds, playing on all his regrets and guilt.

Adaptation Check

With an adaptation of this size, it’s only natural that we (and everyone else!) compare and see where the TV show falls compared to the books.
See, here’s the thing. We doubt, in all honesty, that any other actor could have embodied the essence of Refaat Ismail like Ahmed Amin did. Truly.

And that was where the worry came from for a lot of die-hard fans. But Ahmed Amin killed it. In fact, looking at him, you can only see Refaat with all his mannerisms and cynical personality and indecipherable looks.

And when he lets himself be vulnerable, you will not feel at all broken out of the show’s trance — in fact, Refaat’s rare vulnerability makes him so incredibly human, he’s realer than he ever was in our imagination!

Naturally, we can’t just give all the credit to Ahmed Amin. Razane Jamal breathes life into Maggie McKillop so effortlessly and charmingly (with incredible Scottish and Arabic-as-a-second-language accents to boot!) that you can’t help but completely love her…and also wish she and Refaat would bury the hatchet and talk it out already!

As for the new and new-ish characters, we cannot help but completely fall in love and demand more than we could have ever hoped from Refaat’s family and old childhood friends (don’t even get us started on Reda) as they don’t feel at all forced in. They just make us want to see them more and more!

Some Criticisms

As amazing and well-everything as Paranormal was, we cannot pretend that everything was perfect. Even great series sometimes fall victim to this sort of thing.

No, we’re not talking about that little setting mishap. We’re just talking about how some pieces of the show feel a little disjointed and too out of the blue.

For one thing, we absolutely loved that confrontation between Refaat and Reda, especially since it shed a lot of light on their relationship and childhoods.

But then again, we didn’t see much of Reda and Refaat interacting in the first place so that was the first and last peek into them that we ever get. In all of Refaat’s inner dialogue, we heard about Raeefa more than we heard about Reda by miles!

And this same out-of-nowhere factor happens a little with Howaida, whose character development we loved but didn’t quite get. Sure, we understand that she tried and tried with Refaat but maybe just a little glimpse into her inner conflict and ultimate decision to leave him would have tied it all together.

In fact, maybe just seeing her more would have helped since she existed in glimpses.

Verdict

Do you really need us to tell you, after this lengthy review, whether or not you’ll enjoy a horror/fantasy show rooted in Egyptian legends and stories (as well as complex human emotions) that’s also based on the iconic works of a beloved author?

What are you even waiting for? Binge it now!