Netflix’s newest reworking of a classic is a revival of the 1960s family science fiction program Lost in Space. High grade production values and streaming-age approaches have given the program an exciting new look and an intriguing storyline. Because of its lackluster character development and lousy setting, the film falls short.
Lost in Space, Netflix’s revival of the classic science fiction series, follows in many previous popular reboot footsteps. To celebrate the discovery of the Robinson family’s new paradise-like planet in Alpha Centauri, we’ve compiled a list of all the characters that will be accompanying them. Because of climate change and other society-ending challenges on Earth, explorers are traveling out to a new planet to create a new civilization from scratch.
A wormhole causes the Robinsons’ ship to crash-land on another habitable planet as the show begins but it doesn’t explain why the space ship is under attack.They have to pull their ship out of a glacier, get their bearings, and locate other survivors before their mothership departs without them at the beginning of the story.
Most films and TV shows at least try to sell you on the story line. It’s true that Lost in Space has some promising components, but it runs into an issue when trying to use the actions and predicaments of its characters to push the story along, and this leads to a lot of foolish choices. Also, for a Family Friendly Sci Fi adventure it involves too much cursing. I would rather my 7 year old watch Marvel’s Shang Chi 10 rings.
It is not clear why this white family has 1 black daughter. Yes, they may explain things more through flashbacks, and apparently she is from her mother’s first marriage, but I am not that invested to watch that long. I need to get emotionally invested out of the gate. There’s also a lot of crazy stuff, like eels that consume gasoline and lakes that freeze in a matter of minutes. Distracting for a program that is supposedly about reality, these flaws are a big problem. As a bunch of strangers on an unknown planet, coping with stressful and hazardous situations together, there are much more convincing problems to overcome than having to develop new physics to thwart the players.
While I have started this series with good hopes, I won’t be watching Season 2 or upcoming Season 3. Too much of the series seems like it’s stopped in time, waiting for everything else to be resolved before the plot can begin. However, it seems as if the show’s creators haven’t yet discovered a version of Lost in Space that’s as exciting as it might be. In the meanwhile, they’re still sifting through the enormous ice cube in search of the storyline.
