Away Season 1 (2020) Review

This show made its way to Netflix a few weeks ago and during a busy time I have managed to finish the first season of Away and here is my review for it. The premise of the season sees a group of international astronauts sent on the first mission to Mars who are led by an American Astronaut who is leaving her husband and daughter behind on Earth. 

Main Character

Hilary Swank plays Emma Green, the main character here and Swank does her best, but the character is just so dull. It is funny, I feel like we haven't seen Swank in anything in ages so it was good to see her here and I thought she did a decent job here in terms of giving a performance that fit a leader of a space mission. But the issue is that you just don't care about her character, she makes some real questionable decisions and it makes you think that she is actually bad for the crew. 

Supporting Characters

This show has a big cast and caring about the characters is crucial and unfortunately the show mostly fails here. In terms of characters the highlight was the characters of Lu and Misha played by Vivian Wu and Mark Ivanir, they start off as your stereotypical foreign antagonist but then as you get to see them they develop and they became the most interesting characters of the show and the ones that I actually cared about. The other two members of the crew Kwesi and Ram are fine, they are good enough but I didn't care about them as much plus there are some stories involving them that hurt the show in my opinion. Then we get to the characters back on Earth and wow this part of the show is easily the worst part, Josh Charles plays Matt, Swanks husband and boy this guy is incredibly wooden, I swear no matter what he comes across he has the same look on his face and acts the exact same way. No development, no reason to care and it takes up way too much of the shows screen time. Then we get to their daughter who was incredibly annoying, you are meant to really care about this girl but I just wanted her off the screen and focusing more on the things going on in space.

Story

The story is where the big issue comes in here, seeing this crew of people travelling to Mars from many different backgrounds should have been fascinating but it just wasn't. The characters are written okay individually, but I never really bought there friendships that were building even though these people were spending so much time together I never felt they truly bonded. The the stuff on Earth is such a drag, it is here for you to care about the characters because Swank cares but you just don't, there was so much potential here if it focused on the different nations and there motivations. But it decides to focus on her family and there dull and generic lifestyle which is poorly acted. Also the episodes pretty much all function the same, something on the ship fails and the crew have to fix it, with usually an argument at some point, rinse and repeat for 10 hours and it becomes very noticeable. 

Script

The script is okay, there was actually some well written dialogue that helped the actors flesh out the characters and their backstories. But for me there is just nothing that totally stands out also as I mentioned the writing for the different episodes is uninspiring and feels very repetitive. 

Style

This show has a big budget and at times it is visually stunning, space looks amazing and really impressive when it is on show here. There is one particular section that is so intense and jaw dropping that it makes you wonder what is coming next, the issue is that this happens too early on and nothing ever comes close to topping it and the budget just disappears. The pacing of the show doesn't work either, due to the issues with episode structure I mentioned and way too much time focused on Earth instead of the ship where the more interesting things happen. 

Overall

Overall, this is a missed opportunity. Space shows should be great but this show is unmemorable and below average which means I wouldn't spend your time on this one here. 

Rating - 4/10