4 September 2020
Travel through space with Hilary Swank in Netflix’s Away
Humans have been obsessed with Mars for decades, centuries even, and it’s been depicted in movies and series from the cartoon Marvin the Martian to Total Recall (twice), from monsters and little green men, and even Christmas on Mars, to the more recent outings that imagine believable 21st-Century missions to the red planet.
Away stars Hilary Swank as Commander Emma Green, who is leading an international team to Mars. There’s Misha (Mark Ivanir), the grumpy Russian cosmonaut who is the oldest and most experienced, and not at all in the mood to take orders from a woman younger than he is. Wang Lu (Vivian Wu) from China is destined to be the face of the mission as it’s planned she will be the first to set foot on Mars and create the greatest photo opportunity of all time.
Kwesi (Ato Essondoh) is Ghanaian-adopted-and-brought-up-in-the-UK, a world-renowned botanist, and the spiritual member who says prayers for all of them. Ram (Ray Panthaki) is from India and second-in-command but he has a bit of a thing for Emma, so that’s a problem.
Balancing the space journey is life on earth with Emma’s husband Matt (Josh Charles, The Good Wife) and their daughter Lex (Talitha Bateman).
In the first episode, at their stop-over on the moon, tension is already high after a fire on board the Atlas (their rocket ship), which creates a rift between those who blame Emma and those who support her. In episode 2, Misha and Emma have to do a spacewalk, and although you know full well they’re not going to kill off two main characters in the second episode, it doesn’t stop this from being nail-biting.
In episode 3, we learn about a taboo personal relationship that is deep and emotional. In fact, a lot of Away veers dangerously into the over-sentimental territory, which has drawn some negative criticism. Sure, it’s melodramatic at times, but we can overlook that in the name of ultimately being entertained, and perhaps moved to tears. Just a little bit. The themes of separation and loneliness are timely in the current state of the world, as we are torn from our loved ones through quarantines and lockdowns.
“In a weird confluence of events, the show is dropping during a worldwide pandemic, which makes for oddly good timing for a show that examines feelings of isolation, loss, separation, and anxiety.
“Away doles out the intense emotional moments liberally over the ten episodes. Keep the tissues handy, and remember, there’s no place like home,” says TV Guide, in a review headlined “Netflix’s Hilary Swank-in-Space Show Is the Cathartic Drama We Need Right Now”.
“Away cements its status as the best, saddest, and most uplifting sci-fi show of 2020,” says Inverse.
The mission is going to take three years, and every crew member – and their families – have made enormous sacrifices, and risk death in every episode, for the greater good of humankind. For the first part of the journey, they keep in touch via video calls but the farther from Earth the Atlas hurtles, the less reliable are the communication channels.
In episode 4, Ram gets sick, as in highly contagious sick, and this too hits close to home with the fear of catching the virus, and the wearing of masks and protective suits. The fifth is the Christmas episode, and a very disturbing scene in which a bit of one of the crew members’ body floats off in the zero-gravity environment (which makes for some lovely floaty special effects throughout).
Six is the one in which the water filtration system becomes problematic, something that will arc through the rest of the season. In 7, Emma loses her mind a bit and when she says she wishes she had stayed home – something the others are not going to let her forget. A problem with the supply ship that was sent to Mars ahead of Atlas puts the whole mission in jeopardy in episode 8, and in 9 that pesky water problem is back. In the 10th and final episode, with Mars in their sights (literally), Emma puts herself through her own personal hell by imagining everything that could possibly go wrong.
On the Earth side of things, the story of Lex and Matt is central; he has the CCM gene (cerebral cavernous malformation), which is hereditary. Matt is also a NASA engineer and vital to the Atlas mission but then he goes and has a stroke, putting him in hospital. Lex wonders if she has the gene too, but deals with her anxiety by hooking up with a cute guy and immediately becoming a natural dirt biker and giving her parents heart failure. Elsewhere we get Ram, Misha, Kwesi and Wang Lu’s backstories to enrich the narrative.
“Away cements its status as the best, saddest, and most uplifting sci-fi show of 2020,” says Inverse, adding “Hilary Swank soars in this grounded space travel drama.”
Netflix’s Away is a timely tale of isolation and hope, set against the background of a groundbreaking – and tension-filled – trip into space, says Den Of Geek.
“Whether it intended to be or not, Away is a remarkably perfect show for our moment, a drama that illustrates that something wondrous can come out of months of pain and separation, that beautiful things often have painful and difficult beginnings, and that humanity is stronger and better when we rely on one another than when we don’t.”
Nutshell: it’s probably not going to win a lot of awards, but it’s engaging viewing and I’m not sorry about those 10 hours. Now, about those tissues…
PS: Given the international crew, there are subtitles throughout.
