How Keep Breathing depicted the power of overcoming inner struggles

Netflix's latest mini-series, Keep Breathing, debuted on Netflix on July 28, 2022, bringing forth a classic lone-survivor story of a Manhattan lawyer who neither had the skills nor tools to survive. Created by Martin Gero and Brendan Gall (from The L.A. Complex), the six-episode show depicted how Liv (Melissa Barrera) managed to survive the wilderness by overcoming the struggles within her.

The premise dealt with Liv's attempts at survival in a Canadian frontier after she boarded a private flight in a desperate and impulsive attempt to reach her mother, with whom she had a strained relationship all her life. After her flight crashed in the first episode, the rest of the story followed her battle with her inner self as she struggled to find solutions to the challenges of the wilderness.

Keep Breathing left behind some valuable lessons about survival and the fight with one's inner self.

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Keep Breathing takeaway: The most important battle is always the one that rages inside

As Liv’s story progressed, the show went back and forth exploring her life before the crash, bringing to light some of the issues that plagued the Manhattan-based lawyer. Most of these went back to her childhood and featured her mother. Liv's mother had impulsively abandoned her to follow her dreams, a move that gave Liv abandonment issues that she is seen struggling with even in the present day.

As she faced numerous other challenges, more details about her life surfaced, including her issues with her boyfriend. Through a number of physical manifestations of her memories, she slowly figured the answer out to most of the challenges while also gradually confronting the issues that she never formally dealt with. Curious enough is the fact that, even though some of the answers were right in front of her, she often had to browse through memories to find solutions.

Keep Breathing beautifully split the narrative into two parts, covering both her life before the flight crash and her present-day attempts at survival. By the end, Liv had faced numerous challenges, involving poison mushrooms and deep ditches, and came out on top owing to her willpower. When she finally accepted her mother's choice and her father's resolve, she took the leap of faith, and that ultimately propelled her towards survival.

Throughout the rather predictable plot, Keep Breathing established how one must overcome their inner struggle to confront challenges in the physical world. Though this is a done-to-death premise, it still had enough novelty to keep viewers engaged and even left behind some valuable lessons.

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What is Keep Breathing about?

Keep Breathing is a six-episode survival drama that focuses on a Manhattan-based lawyer who gets stuck in a remote Canadian wilderness after a private plane crashes there, killing off her other two acquaintances.

The official synopsis of the show reads:

"After her private plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness, lone survivor Liv must battle both an unforgiving cold and past personal traumas to stay alive in the harsh environments."

While the show gave considerable time to Liv and her life before the crash, it failed to develop the side characters. Consequently, the entire show lacked some flavor.

Melissa's brilliant performance was sadly not enough to save the series, but at least it left behind some valuable lessons for viewers. It also had some great cinematography and sound design to keep viewers engaged.