Canadians are known to be cosmopolitan, friendly and laid-back. They have yet to appear as particularly humorous, which the producers of “The Lake” want to change. The comedy series is the streaming service’s first Canadian in-house production.

Ontario is supposed to be the land of the Great Lakes and the eight-part series is also about something – which can be easily seen from the title. More precisely, it is about a beautiful cottage by the lake, which causes a dispute between the returning Julian and his half-sister Maisie-May.

That’s what the “lake” is about

Justin (Jordan Gavaris) is recently divorced from his partner and has just returned to Canada from overseas. With his underage daughter Billy (Madison Simon), whom he once put up for adoption, he wants to spend the holidays at the idyllic lake where he used to enjoy his youthful summers. There the two meet Justin’s half-sister Macy-May (Julia Stiles), for whom their father left the holiday home. Justin becomes obsessed with making sure he gets to the vacation home.

The only really known face of the series is that of Julia Stiles, best known from the “Bourne” series and the Sky series “Riviera”. The male lead Jordan Gavaris starred in the sci-fi series Orphan Black. So the real star of the lake is the beautiful Canadian nature that serves as the series’ impressive setting. The story, tried and tested thousands of times (the returnee does not recognize his homeland) and, on the other hand, the dialogues are not very important and not consistently reassuring. The bitter comedy of family feud turns out to be a bit ridiculous at times.

Overall, a delectable pleasure to watch at fast-paced, the eight episodes are only about 30 minutes long. The “lake” can be quickly seen – and quickly forgotten.

The Lake: Coming June 17th amazon prime video