Where to Watch The Purge: Election Year in the US

The Purge: Election Year is currently streaming on Netflix and Crave, and it rewards the patience it asks of you. It knows exactly what kind of film it is from the opening scene, and never loses that thread. With 5,554 viewer ratings on TMDB, this is not a title flying under the radar. Elizabeth Mitchell's performance alone is worth the time investment. There is no real reason to keep putting it off — it is right there on Netflix.

The Purge: Election Year arrived without much fanfare and built its audience the hard way — through word of mouth. Character-driven storytelling at its most effective — The Purge: Election Year earns every emotional beat it goes for. Two years after choosing not to kill the man who killed his son, former police sergeant Leo Barnes has become head of security for Senator Charlene Roan, the front runner in the next Presidential election due to her vow to eliminate the Purge. On the night of what should be the final Purge, a betrayal from within the government forces Barnes and Roan out onto the street where they must fight to survive the night. Elizabeth Mitchell and Frank Grillo lead a cast doing genuinely serious work here. The Purge: Election Year came out in 2016. The writing trusts the audience to sit with ambiguity rather than wrapping everything up in a tidy conclusion — it is the approach that separates good drama from great. It delivers reliably on what it promises, which is more than most of its competition manages.

For anyone looking for storytelling that takes its characters seriously, The Purge: Election Year delivers. It stands on its own even without an obvious comparison point. The complete film is available and best experienced without too much prior knowledge of where it goes. Elizabeth Mitchell is the centre of it, and it is one of their strongest performances on record. The patience it asks of you early on is paid back with interest.