Opening in the idyllic New Hampshire town of Greylock, the show introduces us to history teacher Sarah Cooper years ago, he’s now back as a representative of an overbearing oil company that’s ready to use every legal loophole available in order to bulldoze the entire town and dredge up the riches lurking right underneath.
Rather than just try to protest the corporate invaders, Sarah digs up the town’s history to discover that it lies at a unique point between the United States and Canadian borders and, thanks to an ever-shifting tidal bed, was never formally claimed for either country in its current form.
In a world of bloated streaming dramas taking entire seasons to get to the point, it’s rare for me to say the following, but: This show really could have benefitted from slowing down.
At the very least, “The Republic of Sarah” does a decent job fleshing out the world of Greylock beyond Sarah alone with a sprawling cast of other characters.
The balancing act between all the intersecting storylines is solid, if perfunctory.
Each solution generally follows the example of the country it recently left; despite its colorful new currency, Greylock isn’t trying to reinvent anything so much as replicate what it knows on a smaller scale.