Even though the show hits on the standard tropes, it does so in an engaging enough style that keep it interesting. For me, it was a total blast as company on my commute on my train rides.
It got a 4.9/10 on IMDb and a scary 6% on Rotten Tomatoes, but I don't think it was THAT bad.
Another Life stars Katee Sackhoff, Elizabeth Faith Ludlo, Blu Hunt, Samuel Anderson, A.J. Rivera, Jake Abel (Supernatural), Ale Ozerov, Alexander Eling, and Selma Blair as an annoying, blonde podcaster/reporter.
The story goes that hard-ass astronaut Niko Breckinridge (Sackhoff) leads a crew that is on a mission to explore the genesis of an alien artifact that landed on Earth. As Breckinridge and her young crew investigate, they face dangers on what could end up being their one-way mission.
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Watching the series, you encounter the usual tropes when it comes to the crew in space travel... one screw up after another, one tragedy after another - from astronauts freaking out and not telling anyone, to all the other usual traumas we've seen.
But the writing misses a few moments...
When the alien ship comes to Earth and the population reacts almost as if it's just another day in watching their most exciting soap opera.
In one episode, they all wear spacesuits on a strange planet except one idiot who... well... But in the next episode, they're all gallivanting around without suits, despite the previous issues from before.
And it goes on like that.
But in this story, even though the crew may put themselves in danger with stupid decisions, they have an entire ship full of backup crew members in hibernation pods they can wake up. Lose the pilot, wake up another one. Lose the biologist, wake up the other one! But still...
The story that takes on Earth, where Breckinridge's husband leads the team trying to understand and communicate with the space artifact, keeps the series interesting.
The crew on Earth go through all the usual efforts of communication efforts, with some of the usual reactions from the alien.
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The show may not be on the leading edge of entertaining, but it's good enough to have kept me watching. Trust me, I bail on things that are way too obviously crap.
Sackhoff (on the ship) caries the story and the cast wonderfully, while Justin Chatwin carries the story on Earth. But don't let that distract you from the great work the rest of the actors put into the job. If it weren't for them, this could have been a complete fail.
So regardless of the bleak reviews like from Rotten Tomatoes,
A hodgepodge of science fiction homage, Another Life lacks the distinctive spark necessary to set it apart from the array of stories it aspires to be.
2019, Netflix, 10 episodes
It doesn't completely suck. I enjoyed it enough to watch it all the way through, and as the season wound down, I did become intrigued by where the story was going.
Each episode is pretty much a take on other stand-alone sci-fi stories or themes that in and of themselves, are great stories but is still a hard-edged drama about first contact and deep space travel. And to be honest, this is an incredibly tough era of writing, since pretty much most basic plots have already been covered and it all boils down to the show wrapping... the cast, the technology, the filming.
And it's one hell of a cliff-hanger season-ender, that's for sure, which makes me curious where they will go with this, for a second season. If they get it.
OH, one last thing.. there is quite a bit of cussing, from a ticked off to stressed out crew members. So if you have little ones around, maybe use headphones!
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