History Series / TheThirdDay

The first part (''Summer'', directed by Marc Munden) follows Sam (Creator/JudeLaw) after he saves a young girl from hanging herself. Reminded by memories of his son's gruesome murder, Sam takes her back to her home island, Osea. He is immediately taken in by villagers (Creator/EmilyWatson and Paddy Cosidine) and has a brief fling with an American woman Jess (Creator/KatherineWaterston) as he learns what the island really wants from him.

The first part (Summer) follows Sam (Creator/JudeLaw) after he saves a young girl from hanging herself. Reminded by memories of his son's gruesome murder, Sam takes her back to her home island, Osea. He is immediately taken in by villagers (Creator/EmilyWatson and Paddy Cosidine) and has a brief fling with an American woman Jess (Creator/KatherineWaterston) as he learns what the island really wants from him.

The second part (Autumn) is a twelve-hour presentation that was live-streamed on Website/{{Facebook}} on October 3, 2020. Shot in one continuous take (although with time compressed), it depicts the entirety of Osea's festival and various local rituals.

The third part (Winter) follows Helen (Creator/NaomieHarris), a StrugglingSingleMother who goes to Osea in winter with her daughters several years later to unravel a mystery.

Airing on Creator/{{HBO}} and Creator/{{Sky}} Atlantic in fall 2020, ''The Third Day'' is a FolkHorror MiniSeries created by Dennis Kelly and Marc Munden (of ''Series/{{Utopia}}'' fame), set on the small island of Osea off England. It is split into three parts, "Summer", "Autumn", and "Winter".

Airing on Creator/{{HBO}} and Creator/{{Sky}} Atlantic in fall 2020, ''The Third Day'' is a FolkHorror MiniSeries created by Dennis Kelly and Marc Munden (of ''Series/Utopia'' fame) set on the small island of Osea off England. It is split into three parts, "Summer", "Autumn", and "Winter".

Airing on Creator/{{HBO}} and Creator/{{Sky}} Atlantic in fall 2020, ''The Third Day'' is a FolkHorror MiniSeries set on the small island of Osea off England. It is split into three parts, "Summer", "Autumn", and "Winter".

The second part (Autumn) is a twelve-hour presentation that was live-streamed on Facebook on October 3, 2020. Shot in one continuous take (although with time compressed), it depicts the entirety of Osea's festival and various local rituals.

** Did the trippy things, such as people flying, that Sam sees during his acid trip real or just a MushroomSamba?

* MessianicArchetype: Discussed, invoked, and finally played straight. [[spoiler:Osea believes that Sam is the first ChosenOne, but upon learning that he has a son and accusing him of corrupting their island, they decide that he's actually the "father" of the Chosen One and Sam's possible EnfantTerrible son is the ''actual'' Messiah.]]

* HenPeckedHusband: Ms. Martin is constantly insulting Mr Martin, but he never even seems to notice and instead maintains his blandly pleasant demeanor.

* DecompositeCharacter: Both Epona and [[spoiler: Sam's son]] take on features of [[spoiler:Rowan Morrison from ''Film/TheWickerMan1973''. Like Rowan, Epona is used (and acts herself) to pull Sam deliberately onto the island where he will be sacrificed. However, unlike Rowan, Sam doesn't fear that Epnea is actually dead until she kills herself for real (whereas, in the original, Rowan was actually ''not'' the sacrifice. These features have been given to Sam's son Nathan, who is still alive and was actually FakingTheDead like Rowan.]]

* EqualOpportunityEvil: Although Osea follows ancient Celtic customs, they welcome people of all races. We see a few black people among their ranks, and their clergyman is South Asian. When Helen accuses some locals of refusing service to her because of her skin color, the hotelier says that people in Osea have many flaws, but racism isn't one of them. Later still, we find that [[spoiler:Jess's daughter tries to recruit Helen's mixed-race daughter into Osea's customs]].

** [[spoiler: Mr. Martin is a friendly and blandly pleasant man as well as the guy who thought up the idea to steal Nathan and murder another child to cover it up]].

* ConsummateLiar: Mrs. Martin is able to spin lies effortlessly, especially after someone else has already been caught in a lie and she's making up a new lie to cover for the first one. She always comes up with something that both achieves the ends of the original lie as well as explains why they lied about it.

* HenPeckedHusband: Ms. Martin is constantly insulting Mr. Martin, but he never even seems to notice and instead maintains his blandly pleasant demeanor.

* ConsummateLiar: Ms. Martin is able to spin lies effortlessly, especially after someone else has already been caught in a lie and she's making up a new lie to cover for the first one. She always comes up with something that both achieves the ends of the original lie as well as explains why they lied about it.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Following [[spoiler:Following Sam choosing to remain at Osea and lead the cult, as they coerced him to]], the island is blanketed by a ''massive'' swarm of red crickets... which, as Jess offhandedly mentioned earlier, are a portent of coming disaster.

* AmbiguousEnding: [[spoiler: Jess has taken over Osea but Sam killed some of her supporters, so whether she'll allow him to continue to live is uncertain, plus her daughter is clearly resentful of Jess's neglect and might attempt again to disrupt her mother's plan. And though Helen escaped with Ellie and Lu, the islanders have already proven to be able to hunt people down on the mainland and cover it up if they feel the need to, and Jess might feel her daughter's place as Mother of Osea will be threatened by Sam's two other children. Ellie's prolonged stare towards Osea also implies she might wish to return to the place she felt belonging, given Helen saying she has a lot of Sam in her and we saw how he reacted to it, it probably wouldn't end well for her, even without the added danger of Jess.]]

* LeaveTheCameraRunning: "Autumn" is presented in one continues shot, runs 12 hours over the course of 2 videos, and features people doing things like digging ditches, riding in trucks and staring into space in real-time.

* YourCheatingHeart:
** Jess was often unfaithful to her husband; if he truly is the abusive ControlFreak she claims he is, it's understandable.
** In the final episode, it's revealed that the "intense conversation" Sam had while Nathan disappeared was [[spoiler:with his mistress. He claims he was breaking it off, which provides cold comfort to Helen]].

* LeaveTheCameraRunning: "Autumn" is presented in one continues shot, runs 6 hours, and features people doing things like digging ditches, riding in trucks and staring into space in real-time.

The second part (Autumn) is a six-hour presentation that was live-streamed on Facebook on October 3, 2020. Shot in one continuous take (although with time compressed), it depicts the entirety of Osea's festival and various local rituals.

* NightmareFuelColoringBook: [[spoiler:"Nathan"] has a collection of crude paintings he made. All of them depict people being violently murdered.

* DreamSpot:
** Sam has nightmares, hallucinations and visions throughout his time on Osea.
** In the final episode, Helem perceives the blue-striped shopping bag as Nathan's blue-striped shirt, which Sam discarded in the first episode.

* DecompositeCharacter: Both Epona and [[spoiler: Sam's son]] take on features of [[spoiler:Rowan Morrison from ''Film/TheWickerMan1971''. Like Rowan, Epona is used (and acts herself) to pull Sam deliberately onto the island where he will be sacrificed. However, unlike Rowan, Sam doesn't fear that Epnea is actually dead until she kills herself for real (whereas, in the original, Rowan was actually ''not'' the sacrifice. These features have been given to Sam's son Nathan, who is still alive and was actually FakingTheDead like Rowan.]]

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Film/TheWickerMan1971''. Both are about a man journeying to a small, isolated community in Great Britain that follows Celtic traditions so that he can investigate an issue with a girl who holds strange, sacrificial significance to the community.

* ConsumateLiar: Ms. Martin is able to spin lies effortlessly, especially after someone else has already been caught in a lie and she's making up a new lie to cover for the first one. She always comes up with something that both achieves the ends of the original lie as well as explains why they lied about it.

* DecompositeCharacter: Both Epona and [[spoiler: Sam's son]] take on features of [[spoiler:Rowan Morrison from ''Film/TheWickerMan1971''. Like Rowan, Epona is used (and acts herself) to pull Sam deliberately onto the island where he will be sacrificed. However, unlike Rowan, Sam doesn't fear that Epnea is actually dead until she kills herself for real (whereas, in the original, Rowan was actually ''not'' the sacrifice. These features have been given to Sam's son Max, who is still alive and was actually FakingTheDead like Rowan.]]

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Film/WickerMan1971''. Both are about a man journeying to a small, isolated community in Great Britain that follows Celtic traditions so that he can investigate an issue with a girl who holds strange, sacrificial significance to the community.

The second part (Autumn) is a theatre show set across real time - filmed over twelve hours on Osea - as the residents say goodbye to Summer and force Sam to participate in their seasonal rituals.

* AluminiumChristmasTrees: Vets are trained and permitted to give medical attention to people in emergencies, like Helen does for Jess.

* BoringButPractical: Osea is not far from the mainland at all, but is only accessible by road at low tide, as at high tide the road is completely underwater. Likewise, traversing without a vehicle is impossible; the mud flats can't be crossed on foot, and the water is just deep enough to be unswimmable. Perfect for keeping outsiders out... or prisoners in.

* ChekhovsGun: Mrs Martin mentions that the wiring in the church is faulty and all the flooring is pulled up. [[spoiler:Twenty minutes later, Sam survives even though she has a gun trained on him because he manages to dive out of the way and she is electrocuted.]]

* TheCommiesMadeMeDoIt: Although not commies. [[spoiler:Jess tells Sam that she betrayed him and more or less stalked him around the island so he couldn't escape because ''she's'' from a similar cult community and her (abusive?) husband had their daughters.]]

* DespairGambit: [[spoiler:Osea pulled this on Sam with his son's murder, when he was actually alive...if they're telling the truth.]]
* EveryoneIsRelated: [[spoiler:All the protagonists are related: Sam and Helen are husband and wife, meaning she's the mother of his son Nathaniel and her daughters are also his.]] And, making this trope even more evident, Helen [[spoiler:delivers Jess's baby -- which is the result of having slept with Sam, so she delivers her daughters' half-sister.]]
* {{Expy}}: Epona is one of Rowan Morrison, the young missing girl who neither Sam or Howie can locate on the island and who appears to hold a sacrificial, strange meaning for their ritual, which is exactly what concerns both Sam and Howie.
* HeirClubForMen: To an extreme extent. [[spoiler:When she's monologuing to him about their plan, Mrs Martin only mentions the lineage coming from Sam's grandfather to his sons - apparently there were either no daughters in the family or they weren't considered important.]]
** [[spoiler: Subverted it seems in that Jess is able to install her and Sam's newborn daughter as the "Mother" of Osea.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: an extremely dark in-universe example; [[spoiler:Epona's]] suicide is viewed by the islanders as an extremely noble (and literal) self-sacrifice, as it was done to keep Sam from leaving Osea.
** In a similar vein, their earlier attempt was meant to be one as well, meant to placate the cult's gods.

* ImprobableInfantSurvival: [[spoiler:Sam's son Nathan apparently survived undetected being kidnapped and taken to Osea, and Osea - despite not showing any particular education or infrastructure to achieve such a thing - were able to infallibly fake his death for him using someone else's corpse.]]
** [[spoiler:Ultimately subverted: Helen has no idea who the boy is when she meets him, and points out Nathan died a decade earlier and would be a teen by now. "Nathan" is a substitute supplied by the islanders and Sam has gone mad.]]
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The one undeniably supernatural event we see (namely [[spoiler: people flyings]]) happens while Sam and Jess are tripping balls.

* WhamShot: At the end of episode 4, [[spoiler:we see a picture of Sam with Helen and her daughters. They're Sam's family.]]
* YourCheatingHeart: Jess was often unfaithful to her husband; if he truly is the abusive ControlFreak she claims he is, it's understandable.