--- title: "Boy Swallows Universe" year: 2024 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/boy-swallows-universe" fi1m_id: "boy-swallows-universe" imdb_id: "tt10399902" tmdb_id: 209332 wikidata_id: "Q115477970" fi1m_score: 64 critics_reviews: 3 published: "2026-10-01T00:39:29.960011+00:00" updated: "2026-10-01T00:39:30.668716+00:00" region: "NL" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Boy Swallows Universe (2024) Created by John Collee · Kijkwijzer 16 · Drama, Crime, Mystery ## Identity Boy Swallows Universe - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/boy-swallows-universe - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** boy-swallows-universe - **IMDb ID:** tt10399902 - **TMDB ID:** 209332 - **Wikidata ID:** Q115477970 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10399902/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/209332, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q115477970 **Fi1m score: 64** · Critics: 3 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* The sunniest suburb in Australia and everyone in it is either dealing heroin or twelve > John Collee’s seven-part adaptation is warmly acted and shot in hard Queensland light, with two fine boys at its centre. It then piles more grief, crime and whimsy on top of them than seven hours can hold. Worth it for the brothers; brace for the lurches. ## Synopsis Brisbane, the mid-1980s. Eli Bell (Felix Cameron) is twelve, lives with his mother Frances (Phoebe Tonkin), who has come off heroin, and his older brother Gus (Lee Tiger Halley), who has not spoken for years and writes his sentences in the air with a finger. Their mother’s partner sells heroin from a room hidden behind a wardrobe, supplied by Bich Dang (Haiha Le), whose son (Zachary Wan) is Eli’s friend at school. An old former prisoner, Slim Halliday, babysits the boys and teaches Eli to drive. Eli writes letters to a prisoner called Alex Bermuda (Briggs) and keeps an eye on his stepfather’s mate Teddy Callis (Ben O’Toole). Then a red telephone in the hidden room, which is not connected to anything, rings. ## Review John Collee’s seven-part adaptation of Trent Dalton’s novel takes a boy from a Brisbane suburb in the mid-1980s and hands him a brother who does not speak, a mother a few months off heroin, a stepfather who sells it, and a babysitter who has done time for murder. Out of this it tries to make something hopeful, and for long stretches it does. *Boy Swallows Universe* is generous, loud and often lovely, and it is also far too much. Its best scenes are two boys alone in a room; its worst are the ones that keep interrupting them. The boys are the reason to watch. Felix Cameron plays Eli as a chatterer, a child who has worked out that if he keeps talking the adults cannot lie to him for long, and he can switch from cheek to terror in the space of a line. Lee Tiger Halley has the harder job as Gus, who says nothing for most of the series and writes his sentences in the air for Eli to read back, and he does it with a stillness that never reads as blankness. When the two of them crouch in the hidden room behind the wardrobe and the disconnected red telephone starts to ring, we were more frightened and more moved than we had expected to be, because the show had already made us believe they only had each other. The adults are a mixed crowd, as the script intends. Phoebe Tonkin gives Frances a brittle, hopeful energy, a woman counting her clean days and knowing who is in the next room. Ben O’Toole’s Teddy Callis, the mate with the truck, is the kind of man you would not leave alone with your dog. Haiha Le plays the supplier Bich Dang with a politeness that chills, Zachary Wan plays a schoolboy already too comfortable with the family trade, and Deborah Mailman, as the school counsellor Poppy Birkbeck, is one of the few adults who listens to Eli rather than talking at him. It looks terrific. Shelley Farthing-Dawe and Mark Wareham shoot the suburb in flat, saturated sunlight, so that even the ugliest fibro house looks like it is on holiday, and keep the hidden room and the city at night in hard, coloured shadow. Michelle McGahey’s production design gets the brown lounge, the patterned wallpaper and the fridge full of beer exactly right. Kerry Thompson puts the men in short shorts and singlets and the boys in school uniforms a size too large. Gabriel Mounsey and Johnny Klimek’s score is at its best when it stays small, a few notes under a conversation, and at its worst when it swells to tell us a sad scene is sad. The trouble is volume. Every episode adds another blow to the family: a disappearance, an arrest, a beating, an illness, a hand that is not what it was. Each one on its own is handled with care. Together they begin to feel like a schedule. Somewhere in the fifth episode we noticed we had stopped flinching, and then we were annoyed with the series for making us numb to things that ought to hurt. The tone swings as hard as the plot does, from dream sequences and a comic subplot about Eloise Rothfield’s Shelly Huffman to scenes of real brutality, sometimes within the same ten minutes. Three directors, Bharat Nalluri, Jocelyn Moorhouse and Kim Mordaunt, share the episodes, and the joins show. The story jumps forward in time in its second half, and the series does not quite survive the jump. The final episode in particular tries to tie off every thread with a flourish, and the flourish is not earned. We will not describe it, except to say that a show which spent six hours teaching us that life in this suburb does not resolve itself then spends one hour resolving it. As a drama about brothers it is as good as anything of its kind in years. As a crime thriller, a coming-of-age story, a fable and a family weepie, all of which it also wants to be, it keeps tripping over its own feet. See it for Cameron and Halley, take it one episode at a time rather than in a weekend, and forgive the last hour if you can. It carries a 15 certificate and earns it. *Fi1m score 64, published 1 October 2026.* ## What the critics say With only 3 reviews in so far, the early word is cautiously warm. Most critics find the series impressive and often moving, with the praise clustering on the cast, particularly the two brothers and Travis Fimmel, and on its vivid visual style. The reservations are about tone: all three note how much misery it piles on, and two worry that the repeated blows become overwhelming and that the chaotic structure, including a disappointing final episode, blunts the family drama underneath. Radio Times is the most guarded, crediting the comedy with keeping the bleakness bearable but not with much more. ## Straight answers **Is Boy Swallows Universe worth watching?** *Boy Swallows Universe* is worth watching for the two boys at its centre, and we scored it 64. Felix Cameron and Lee Tiger Halley are fine as the brothers, and the Brisbane suburb is shot in flat, saturated sunlight that looks terrific. The series piles on more grief, crime and whimsy than seven hours can hold, so take it one episode at a time and forgive the last hour if you can. **How long is Boy Swallows Universe, and what is it rated?** *Boy Swallows Universe* is rated 16 by the Kijkwijzer in the Netherlands. It is a drama and crime series. **Where can I watch Boy Swallows Universe in the Netherlands?** *Boy Swallows Universe* is streaming on Netflix in the Netherlands. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is Boy Swallows Universe, and is it suitable for children?** *Boy Swallows Universe* carries a 15 certificate in the UK and earns it, so it is not for children. It contains heroin dealing, beatings, arrests and scenes of real brutality, often cutting between comedy and violence within the same ten minutes. The frightening moments involve two boys alone with adults they cannot trust, which is harder to watch than the blood. **How does Boy Swallows Universe compare to Animal Kingdom?** *Boy Swallows Universe* is the sunnier, louder and more sentimental of the two, while [*Animal Kingdom*](https://film.one/film/animal-kingdom) is the tighter and more frightening. Both see a crime family through a boy's eyes, but Michôd's film is tense and patient where Collee's series swings between whimsy and brutality and tries to be five things at once. Choose the series for the brothers and the warmth, the film for sustained dread. **What should I watch after Boy Swallows Universe?** After *Boy Swallows Universe*, try [*Animal Kingdom*](https://film.one/film/animal-kingdom) (2010, Fi1m 84): A Melbourne crime family seen through a teenage boy’s eyes, with none of the sunshine. Then [*The Florida Project*](https://film.one/film/the-florida-project) (2017, Fi1m 88): Children making a kingdom out of a motel while the adults fall apart around them; and [*Shoplifters*](https://film.one/film/shoplifters) (2018, Fi1m 89): Kore-eda on a makeshift family that works better than the real kind, until it does not. ### Reviews we read (3) - **The AV Club**, Jenna Scherer (B-): Scherer finds the series overloaded with misery and tonal shifts, though a moving family drama is buried beneath them. She praises the lead performances, especially the convincing bond and expressive acting of the two brothers. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/boy-swallows-universe-review-netflix-tv-limited-series-1851147766) - **The Guardian**, Luke Buckmaster (70/100, inferred): Buckmaster finds the series impressive and often very good, though its chaotic structure and disappointing final episode weaken it. He especially praises the vivid visual style and the cast, singling out Travis Fimmel’s performance as dynamite. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/jan/11/boy-swallows-universe-review-netflix-trent-dalton-adaptation) - **Radio Times**, Morgan Cormack (50/100, inferred): The review describes the series as bleak but tempered by comedy. It singles out wit as necessary, while warning that the repeated blows may prove overwhelming. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/boy-swallows-universe-netflix-review/) ## Details - **Created by:** John Collee - **Creator:** John Collee - **Director:** Jocelyn Moorhouse, Bharat Nalluri, Kim Mordaunt - **Writer:** John Collee - **Cinematography:** Shelley Farthing-Dawe, Mark Wareham - **Music:** Gabriel Mounsey, Johnny Klimek - **Production design:** Michelle McGahey - **Costume design:** Kerry Thompson - **Cast:** Phoebe Tonkin as Frances Bell; Lee Tiger Halley as Gus Bell; Felix Cameron as Eli Bell; Eloise Rothfield as Shelly Huffman; Briggs as Alex Bermuda; Zachary Wan as Darren Dang; Auden Ryan; Jake Cockburn - **Certificate (Kijkwijzer):** 16 - **Release (the Netherlands):** 11 January 2024 - **Genres:** Drama, Crime, Mystery - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raizBMsLYug ## Where to watch in the Netherlands - Netflix: streaming *Checked 2026-10-01.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, AZ, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Animal Kingdom* (2010), Fi1m 84: A Melbourne crime family seen through a teenage boy’s eyes, with none of the sunshine — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/animal-kingdom.md) - *Boy* (2010): Taika Waititi’s New Zealand childhood comedy about a father who is not worth the wait - *The Florida Project* (2017), Fi1m 88: Children making a kingdom out of a motel while the adults fall apart around them — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-florida-project.md) - *Shoplifters* (2018), Fi1m 89: Kore-eda on a makeshift family that works better than the real kind, until it does not — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/shoplifters.md) - *Kes* (1969), Fi1m 88: Ken Loach’s Yorkshire boy and his kestrel; the same hope, far less plot — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/kes.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/boy-swallows-universe