Origin: What the reviewers think
Must Watch TV reviewers Scott Bryan, TV Editor at Buzzfeed and Anna Leszkiewicz, deputy culture editor at the New Statesman share their thoughts on YouTube Premium's new sci-fi drama, Origin.
Anna says: "It's very much a sci-fi drama"
"This is YouTube’s fifth foray into original drama, but I feel like this is by far the biggest budget, most international and explosive drama that they’ve done.
"This is the first thing that I have ever watched on YouTube that I thought: 'This feels like a real , serious TV show.'
"It looks incredible, it’s got a proper, serious cast and I actually really liked it. It’s very much a sci-fi drama, so if you’re not interested in sci-fi, I don’t think this is doing enough experimental stuff to really persuade you to be a sudden convert.
"I feel like a lot of the tension and the drama in this show comes from two things, one: being the idea that all of these characters are desperate for a fresh start, that’s what they’re looking for in going on this journey, and so that obviously brings with it a lot of compelling back stories, and two: the idea of how people would interact in that very high pressure situation.
"Who become the risk takers? Who become the leaders? Who crack under the pressure? Those kinds of things that I think a lot of people will find really compelling in this drama."
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Scott says: "Sometimes it does take itself a bit too seriously"
"The opening scene, where a guy comes out of a machine that sort of looks like a chromogenic chamber, deep in space,confused, is really strong. The way that it slowly brings in different people who are equally confused, you really get that sense from the first episode that the problem at large is really strong and I think that really holds up.
"My only frustration with it is that I think sometimes it does take itself a bit too seriously.
"I don’t know why but I have this sort of feeling of it being connected to something like ‘Lost’. People being trapped from the outside world, can’t communicate. They have flashbacks and flash-forwards with each character very much like what ‘Lost’ did.
"But I found that’ Lost still had a sense of uplift, that odd sense of humour from time to time, that sense of human spirit. I find that sometimes with this, because it’s trying to be that sort of deep sci-fi drama it can sometimes be a little bit heavy.
Even terrible things that happen to terrible people in space even have the odd one line or the odd riff."
Origin is available now on YouTube Premium.
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