In the tired and true method of confined spaces for cramped spending ,The Basement is a good but all be it tried and trued story. Centered on a family trapped between ground in their basement as nuclear arsenal rain from the sky, the less than happy family must confront their issues to survive. Anchored by believable and reasonably engaging performance, the cold and dingy basement is given new life by the conflicts, quarrelling and depressing odds. A father otherwise absent from his family along his sharp mouthed teenage daughter and wife are forced together by horrific circumstance and ironically to heal.

Conceptually we've seen these stories a hundred times over and fundamentally The Basement is reinventing no wheel. Yet, it most certainly justifies it's existence with surprisingly engaging characters aided by their performers. None big enough it seems to even appear on MDL's own ratings but nonetheless deserving of praise.
Obviously a low budget affair the show joins the Saw 1 school of chaining it's contents in a small space with the goal of survival. Though thankful for this cast, the option of disarming is one they would have asked for regarding their external circumstances.
Overall the show delivers exactly what you think it will but nowhere near as annoying by the books as you'd think it would.