Rent Lost in Space: Series 1 (2018)

Humourless - Lost in Space: Series 1 review by JF

The original Lost in Space series worked because of the antics of Dr Smith, Robbie the Robot and Will. The character interactions were comical. This new series has fantastic effects abounding but with incredibly unlikely plot contrivances put on a background of nonsense science. It could get away with the nonsense science if only it did not take itself so seriously. The modernisation of the new characters is interesting, but with the typical cheap flashbacks to fill in the back story obviously, I guess, because it was felt that the plot is not strong enough for chronological portrayal. It's the cheap modern way. The 'robot' should have been given more character and communication; it's the Data character and story line that was absolutely core to the appeal of Star Trek TNG.

CAUCASIANS IN SPACE - Lost in Space: Series 1 review by Frank TALKER™

A would-be space epic about a dysfunctional family sent on a colonising space-mission, when it would obviously have been far better to send an optimally-functioning one.

The self-indulgent, familial whining inevitably on-show here means that any attempt to make this a drama about the meaning and the purpose of the family, as such, is immediately scuppered with an ethnic obsession with the decline of the White family, as such. This social failing is compounded with there not being a single productive idea presented as to what to do about this contemporary state-of-affairs - albeit one that is here being projected into the near future.

However realistic it is to present emotionally-barren characters as two-dimensional creations, it makes for boring melodrama since there is minimal character-differentiation or development. The people here speak in the same histrionic and sarcastic manner at each other - but never to each other - most of the time, such that one begins to wonder if this is how White people actually see family life, in general, most of the time. We frequently see how these people are not emotionally-open to one another, but not in what manner they might actually complement each other.

In the end, what it is that might unite the space-family Robinson is never made clear because the writing never wants to explore character nor the basic premise of the survivability - or otherwise - of the modern nuclear-family in any emotional depth; favouring, instead, a repetitive chain of hyperbolic threats-to-life more reminiscent of a computer game than a family drama: The group psychological dynamics make no sense in terms of the need for the coherent unit-operation that is essential both to individual and to group survival.

The actors are all fine - especially Posey PARKER and Taylor RUSSELL - but they are saddled with a vast array of verbal quips spoken in the most inappropriate circumstances (eg, when someone might get killed) that it becomes very difficult to take their characters seriously, nor to care much for them. No-one here seems to be in any real danger from the alien planet that they have crash-landed onto which, in spite of this, seems completely determined to destroy them with ice, snow, freezing temperatures, hail, lack of food, etc.

(The science aspect of this science-fiction drama either makes no sense or is never properly explained. Why would spaceships in the future be powered by methane rather than something far more futuristic and far more powerful? How can a submerged spacecraft immediately work as new when raised from its watery grave while still completely sodden? How is it possible to have a glacier right next-to a wooded and then next-to a semi-desert area? These all assume that the same basic laws of geology do not operate throughout the universe, but without any explanation nor discussion from any of the onboard scientists.)

Surprisingly compelling - Lost in Space: Series 1 review by WP

I must admit that I was not expecting much when I hired this. A cheap cash-in on some 60s nostalgia, I feared. Instead it is a very well made, well acted and surprisingly engaging series. It's got a lot of holes - the science is nonsense, some plot lines are ridiculous, but it is none the less entertaining and you actually start to care about at least some of the characters. Nice tension when it comes to the robot as well. Good to have some real family entertainment (beware of some scares and very occasional bad language though).