THE PEARL WHISPERER

A child with a special gift comes between two rivals searching for a cursed stone that grants wishes in this award-winning series opener from Finland that’s been translated from the original Swedish.

Pearl diver Miranda, who lost an arm to a rose-shark when she was 11, becomes utterly obsessed with finding the elusive eye stone, much like her long-gone parents and many others. Syrsa, a similarly abandoned child who’s also missing an arm thanks to a shark attack, tags along willy-nilly. At first, Syrsa only seems like an annoying obligation, but when the laughing, cheery urchin turns out to have a rare ability to hear the pearls (and perhaps the eye stone itself), their seagoing quest takes on the character of a frantic flight as Miranda tries to keep her young charge out of the clutches of Iberis, a scary, ruthless, relentless stranger who’s even more bent on securing the prize. The pearls in this world do not come from oysters but are precious items of various colors, formed from mud, guarded by sharks, and scattered along riverbeds and seabeds. Syrsa’s sometimes comical stream of chatter gradually breaks down Miranda’s stiff-necked reserve, such that by episode’s end, their relationship has become closer and warmer. The quest is also transformed, but only after a separation and a mutual rescue that comes at a devastating cost. Characters read white.

A sturdy start, with adventure, heartbreak, and touches of magic.