“A subconscious influence”: Sirens creator reveals how the show took inspiration from this 1950s classic film

Netflix's Sirens debuted with a circle of high-end women wearing pastel polo tops, chatting over champagne.

In an interview with Variety, creator Molly Smith Metzler said she drew on aspects of a film that had deeply impacted her, namely All About Eve. This one, as she termed it, was "a subconscious influence."

As per Variety, she said,

"All About Eve had a subconscious influence on this creative team. But one difference in “Sirens” is the choice not to outright villainize Simone. I think the show sort of asked you to decide if she’s a monster or not,”

The series, which was completely original in premise and locale, borrowed its themes from Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1950 drama, renowned for its intellectual one-upmanship, repartee, and examination of women's ambition. Metzler reportedly hadn't noticed the similarity until she was reminded much later.

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Sirens and All About Eve: Parallel feelings

Though Sirens takes place in an elite beach resort instead of on the stage of Broadway, its human dynamics are no different from those of All About Eve. The women portrayed in the Netflix show fall in that tight-knit group of women united by power, jealousy, and loyalty—exactly the same dynamic between Margo Channing and Eve Harrington in the film.

Metzler admitted that she hadn't seen All About Eve afresh when she was writing Sirens, but as tension picked up and the characters started to become more complex, allusions from the 1950s movie became impossible to ignore.

According to Variety, she said,

"[Eve is] a sort of traditional villain, and I think Simone has ingredients of that, but we try to have more fun,”

The effect was not structural but tonal. The show takes the emotional game of chess that rendered All About Eve immortal: one woman's insidious but strategic ascent into another woman's territory, disguising itself as admiration.

In both narratives, friendship becomes competition and love becomes a means to an end. Metzler has referred to the effect as one that sneaked up on her while she made the series.

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Power, perception, and performance

One of the most powerful concepts the show takes from All About Eve is the evolution of womanhood—how social manners, charm, and appearance are means as much as attributes. The Sirens women perform for each other all the time: playing sweet, playing dumb, playing bored. Metzler has described how similar to Eve, her women are actresses at playing their part—except when they're not.

This same staginess, so characteristic of All About Eve, recurs actually in the show in beach brunches, charity balls, and dinner parties. The tension is diminished, but no less corrosive. The atmosphere of Sirens' homey excesses only underscores the passive-aggressive one-upmanship, so that each smile is poisonous and each toast potentially disastrous.

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Character echoes, not replicas

Although the show has been compared to All About Eve, Metzler pointed out that the women are not point-to-point equivalents. There is no single Margo, no Eve impersonator. Rather, the supporting cast of women blurs characteristics: ambition, insecurity, manipulation, and devotion. What ensues is a psychological study of group actions rather than competition.

Every woman of Sirens has her own burden of stories. According to Variety, Metzler said:

"Sirens” plays with Greek mythology and the concept of sirens who attract men through their voice, only to kill them. “All of that’s from Homer’s point of view, or it’s the sailors’ point of view. We don’t actually know what the women are singing about or who they are"

She added,

"I don’t know that ‘Sirens’ the show explains that, but we sure do try to shine a light on that. Like, this mythology is wrong, we shouldn’t hear this story and assume they’re monsters.”

Metzler has also clarified that the show's inner circle was initially based on pack dynamics—women behaving like wolves or sirens to entice sailors. But gradually, the inner circle and the silent betrayals started mirroring something older and creepily familiar: the several levels of social climbing and emotional duplicity of All About Eve.

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Not an homage, but an inherited sensibility

Aside from the homages, Metzler contends the show is not an homage. She did not start reproducing or reimagining All About Eve. Rather, it was "a subconscious influence"—an early memory that popped into her head while she was working. She thinks a great many authors are influenced by film and literature they loved as kids, and in her case, All About Eve just became part of her writing vocabulary. She called it not a touchstone, but a sense of shared emotion that wound its way into her work. As Metzler said, quoted by Variety,

"Why is it so natural and easy to dump our problems and blame on the beautiful women?"

It's a common occurrence—when a film glances off structure or tone without conscious intent—and in the show, it's an approximate process: in looks, in murmurs, and in polite silence. The series does have a rhythm of its own, but the specter of mid-century sophistication hovers over it.

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No doubt Sirens is a contemporary show, full of contemporary aesthetic and social commentary. But, as Metzler freely described, it also contains echoes from film far gone. It borrowed from the 1950s film All About Eve—not in plot turns, but in mood, in psychology, and in the way that it dealt with the relationships of women in close quarters.

Lastly, the show in all respects is original work. But via a subconscious influence, it also speaks cinema language many an audience unconsciously appreciates—without even knowing why. The series does not repeat history, but it listens to it. Unobtrusively. Focused. And with just enough bite to have you leaning forward.

Also read: Sirens: What the code word really meant to Devon and Simone in the Netflix show