It’s hard to think of a worse – or weirder – place to be stuck with a killer than on a cruise ship in open water. But when the killer is also clutching a knife and wearing a duck costume? That certainly makes for a fun mystery show.

I watched the first two episodes of WRECK, the new nautical horror/comedy show from creator Ryan J. Brown. In the first episode, we meet 19-year-old Jamie (Oscar Kennedy). In order to become a crew member aboard a Velorum ship called the MS Sacrementum, he pilfers the identity of Cormac Kelly (Peter Claffey) to go undercover.

Jamie doesn’t dream of life at sea. There’s only one reason he’s on the ship: to find out what happened to his sister, Pippa (Jodie Tyack), during her time as a cruise staff member. Her death aboard the vessel was ruled a suicide, but Jamie refuses to believe that. He will stop at nothing to search the cruise ship for clues about her disappearance and pry information from the numerous staff working tirelessly behind the scenes.

Everything is not what it seems aboard the Velorum. The mean and haughty Officer Karen (Harriet Webb) runs a tight ship. She keeps an eye on everyone as the head Officer, and quickly lets her new recruits know that she cares about the guest experience – not her employees’ feelings and wellbeing.

From the start, Jamie clicks with Vivian (Thaddea Graham), who’s running away from a difficult family situation to start anew. She and Jamie get to work, which seems to involve mainly cleaning or making giant tropical cocktails for grumpy cruise ship passengers. In fact, although the show takes place on a cruise ship, Jamie and Vivian explore plenty of the back rooms of the ship and seem to barely work at all. Instead, they attend boozy crew parties and sneak around the ship, searching the endless corridors for any information about Pippa.

Jamie isn’t the only person who is worried there’s hidden danger onboard. The Amys, a group of popular singers and performers, are concerned for their safety, and strategize with each other to try and get help. Their leader, Sophia (Alice Nokes) urges calm to the group of entertainers who look to her for guidance, but she’s clearly worried herself. Everyone on this cruise ship has people they’re loyal to, along with other reasons to hide their motivations. Even Cormac’s cute crush Olly (Anthony Rickman) warns him that the boat is “tribal as hell.”

In the second episode, “Finding Nemo,” Jamie and Vivian make an interesting discovery on Pippa’s cell phone. Someone sent her a dick pic, revealing a fish tattoo. The duo goes on the hunt for the person with the tat and ends up in the ship’s underbelly.

Several jokes fall flat in this episode, like during a baffling funeral scene where Bethany-May (Ali Hardiman), one of the Amys, sings a “touching” song in front of the audience. It’s the 1999 hit “Thong Song” by Sisqo, an inexplicable 24-year-old song reference. That’s odd too, because WRECK generally has the trappings of a CW show, skewing towards a younger and LGBTQ+ audience. That said, the tone of the show is all over the place, bouncing from jokey to horrifying to sexy and back again. Maybe this show just needs to find its sea legs.

WRECK will probably catch the eye of horror comedy fans who enjoyed the Scream and Chucky TV series. It’s a simple but intriguing whodunnit that WRECK poses: the “killer duck” is hiding an evil person underneath that feathery costume. With a massive cruise ship full of employees, Pippa’s killer could be anyone who chooses to don the bird suit.

Find out who’s targeting both Pippa and the other disappearing crew members of WRECK, which is now streaming exclusively on Hulu.