Away: What the Must Watch reviewers think
Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.
This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan share their thoughts on Away.
The Netflix series stars Hilary Swank as an astronaut who leads the first human mission to Mars, leaving her family behind.
Have you been watching it? What did you think? Leave your comments below...
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(Photo: Diyah Pera/Netflix)
Hayley says: "It focuses on the worst bits of space"
"You’re going to be looking hard for laughs in this one. [Hilary Swank] plays Commander Emma Green who’s leaving behind her husband and daughter to lead an international crew of astronauts on a perilous three year mission to Mars - it’s basically a very dramatic exploration of the question ‘how do you balance a promising career with motherhood?’
"I found it overly sentimental. For a space show it focuses purely upon the worst bits of space - the possibility of death, things going wrong with the ship, people getting sick, people missing people, having to have a bath with wet wipes like you’re at a music festival. At no point does anyone seem excited about being in space, nor do they encourage the audience to be excited about watching a show set in space.
"I felt like some of the otherness of space was lost because maybe we’re reading into it too much, because we read the pandemic in everything now, but it’s sort of a strange extension of what’s going on. So, if you want more of that, you want more sadness and isolation and fear... if you want to wallow in 2020 then maybe you want to watch this and pretend like you’re an astronaut."
(Photo: Diyah Pera/Netflix)
Scott says: "I’ve filled in self-assessments and tax forms that have been more uplifting than this"
"It manages to make space boring and that’s the thing I couldn’t get past, space with its infiniteness and its possibility.
"The premise is so interesting. Humankind has this aspiration to go to Mars but it will involve up to three years being cut off from your friends and family trying to get there and back and even then there is a chance that you won’t survive.
"There's a human cost to all this but also ethical questions for all of humanity to work out. Is it worth the expense for us to go to Mars when we haven't by any means solved any pressing issues here down on Earth?
"Yet despite all of this, they have really managed to make it as dry as possible. I’ve filled in self-assessments and tax forms that have been more uplifting than this."
(Photo: Diyah Pera/Netflix)
Away is available now on Netflix.
Must Watch is available as a podcast every Monday evening from BBC Sounds, or through your podcast app.
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