Netflix released all 20 episodes of The Rain across three seasons, and the show never quite escaped the shadow of the premise that launched it. The Danish post-apocalyptic series premiered on 4 May 2018, ran through a final season on 6 August 2020, and built its entire hook on a single deadly mechanic: rain that carries a virus. That is a strong opening image. What follows is a show that knows how to start and struggles to know when to stop.
Trailer, via Netflix.
Simone and Rasmus Anderson Enter the Bunker
The Rain comes from creators Jannik Tai Mosholt, Esben Toft Jacobsen and Christian Potalivo. It opens with a virus carried by rainfall wiping out almost all humans in Scandinavia. Danish siblings Simone and Rasmus take shelter in a bunker. Six years later they emerge to search for their father, a scientist who left them in the bunker but never returned.
Alba August plays Simone Anderson. Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen plays Rasmus Anderson. In this paper’s view, the two carry the emotional weight of the series, and the show is smartest when it keeps its focus on them. The premise is a sibling story wearing a disaster-movie coat.
Along the way they join a group of young survivors. Together they travel across Denmark and Sweden, searching for a safe place and for the siblings’ father, who may be able to provide answers and a cure. That search is the engine of all three seasons.
A Cast That Grows and Shifts
Mikkel Boe Følsgaard plays Martin. Lukas Løkken plays Patrick. Sonny Lindberg plays Jean. Johannes Bah Kuhnke plays Sten. Natalie Madueño plays Fie. Clara Rosager plays Sarah. Evin Ahmad plays Kira. Rex Leonard plays Daniel. Sandra Guldberg Kampp plays Mathilde. Cecilia Loffredo plays Luna.
The source also credits Jessica Dinnage, Angela Bundalovic, Lars Simonsen and Bertil De Lorenhmad, so this list is not the whole roster. What the fuller record shows is how the show evolves. Evin Ahmad and Johannes Bah Kuhnke begin in recurring roles and become main characters in the second season. That promotion is a structural tell: The Rain is a show that keeps adding survivors, keeps widening its map, keeps looking for new places to put its characters.
That is also where it gets into trouble. A post-apocalyptic series lives or dies on the tension between the group and the world outside it. The Rain has a great world. It has a harder time making the group itself feel essential.
Three Seasons, Twenty Episodes, One Long Goodbye
Netflix renewed the show for a second season on 30 May 2018. That season arrived on 17 May 2019 with 6 episodes. In June 2019, it was confirmed the series was renewed for a third and final season, which was released on 6 August 2020.
| Season | Premiere Date | Episodes | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 4 May 2018 | Not stated | Released |
| Season 2 | 17 May 2019 | 6 | Released |
| Season 3 | 6 August 2020 | Not stated | Final season |
The numbers are worth sitting with. The source gives 20 episodes total across three seasons, and it gives 6 for season two. It does not break out the other two seasons. What can be said plainly is that the final run is short, and the show’s ambitions are not.
A six-episode season can work. A six-episode season that has to introduce new main characters, move the group across Denmark and Sweden, and service a mystery about a missing scientist is a different problem. The Rain tries to do all of it. It rarely fails outright. It just rarely lands cleanly either.
What the Rain Virus Actually Does
The show’s central mechanic is simple and brutal. Rain carries the virus. Rain falls everywhere. That means the show has a built-in source of dread that never goes away, and it uses it well in its best moments.
| Element | The Rain |
|---|---|
| Threat | Virus carried by rainfall |
| Setting | Denmark and Sweden |
| Core unit | Two siblings and a group of young survivors |
| Central quest | Find the siblings’ father and a possible cure |
| Genre | Scandinavian thriller |
The distinction matters because The Rain is not chasing the usual post-apocalyptic template. It is a Scandinavian thriller first. The virus is a clock, not a monster. The show’s best tension comes from the question of whether it will rain, not from what is chasing the characters.
That is a genuinely good idea. It is also an idea that gets harder to sustain the longer the show runs. A threat that falls from the sky has no face and no motive, and the series has to keep finding new ways to make it feel immediate. The Rain never quite solves that problem.
The Father, the Cure, and the Long Search
The search for the siblings’ father is the show’s spine. He is a scientist. He left them in the bunker. He never returned. He may be able to provide answers and a cure.
That is a clean setup for a mystery. It gives Simone and Rasmus a reason to keep moving, and it gives the audience a reason to keep watching. The problem is that a mystery has to resolve, and The Rain takes its time getting there.
The show is at its best when it treats the father as a question rather than a destination. It is at its weakest when it treats the journey as a series of stops. Across Denmark and Sweden, the group meets survivors, faces threats, and moves on. Some of those stops are strong. Some are filler.
The Rain is a 20-episode show that could have been a 12-episode show. That is not a knock on its ambition. It is a knock on its discipline.
Where The Rain Lands
The Rain holds a 7.2 out of 10 audience score on TMDB, based on 1,363 votes. That number is about right. It is a show with a great premise, a strong lead pair, and a structure that keeps getting in its own way.
August and Lynggaard Tønnesen are the reason to watch. Simone and Rasmus are the emotional center, and the show knows it. When The Rain remembers that it is a story about two siblings trying to find their father, it works. When it remembers that it is a story about a virus carried by rainfall, it works. When it tries to be both at once across three seasons and 20 episodes, it starts to strain.
The final season arrived on 6 August 2020 and closed the book. Three seasons. Twenty episodes. A beginning that promised more than the ending could deliver.
The Rain is worth watching for its first season. It is worth finishing for its cast. It is not worth pretending that the middle stretch earns its length. The show’s best idea — rain as the enemy — is also its most limiting one, because once you have shown the audience the rain, you have to find something else to scare them with. The Rain never finds anything as good as its first image.
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