The First: What the reviewers think?

Our Must Watch TV reviewers this week are Scott Bryan, TV Editor at Buzzfeed and Emma Bullimore, from TV Times. They're sharing their thoughts on the new Channel 4 Drama, The First which stars Natascha McElhone and Sean Penn.

See our full interview with Natascha below.

What did you think? Leave your reviews at the end of the article.

Scott says: "As an opener to a drama, it sets it up quite well"

"I really liked it.

"All the publicity for this show has been around the feat of space exploration - and then you watch it, and at first you might be quite disappointed. Without being too spoilerific [sic], something happens in the first episode that doesn't go to plan and it goes in a completely different direction.

"At first I was disappointed. But then, I started to get quite interested in the premise, and the relationship between all the characters.

"As an opener to a drama, it sets it up quite well.

"What I did like is the fact that this isn't a NASA, publicly-funded mission - this is a private company. It's really interesting seeing the interplay, and ethics of going to space for profit - is the safety the way it should be? What's the impact of it?

"It isn't really a sci-fi drama. A lot of it is about the personal interplay between the people involved and the personal sacrifice.

"With this, it's so encompassing - it's such an investment, and the risks are so high, it is an interesting premise.

"There aren't any other dramas really looking at space exploration without it being in a dystopian, Black Mirror-esque way."

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Emma says: "There was certainly enough for me to watch the second episode"

"It's shot in a very cinematic way, it's very epic and beautiful.

"I am such a big fan of Sean Penn's work - I think he's so magnetic throughout the whole of this. 

"The show itself - I wasn't really sure whether I'd like it or not... space exploration is interesting but it's not my favourite thing. But I did enjoy it - I think it's set up really well.

"For me, I'm really fascinated by Sean Penn's character and where that's going to go.

"I thought Natascha's character was interesting. At the moment it feels like there's a woman in power who's very cold, which rings alarm bells, but this is only episode one.

"It wasn't jam-packed with action but there was certainly enough there for me to watch the second episode."

The First starts on Channel 4 on Thursday 1 November 2018 at 21:00.

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