Aaron Guzikowski (screenwriter of Prisoners) has created a complex and compelling sci-fi series that not only plays with big ideas, but also delivers on an emotionally engaging story.
As Warner Brothers' first original show for its streaming service HBO Max, Raised by Wolves has set the bar very high.
It was filmed in Cape Town and is now locally available on Showmax.
Let's dig in...
On the surface the plot looks straightforward: two androids are sent to Kepler 22b, a real planet about 600 light years from earth and twice the earth's size.
They're sent to re-populate it with six human embryos. Straightforward until now. The one android has six teat-like structures, where the embryos feed.
A call back to the Remus and Romulus myth, the two founders of Rome who were believed to be raised by wolves, which is not the first or last connection to Rome that the series has outside from the title
From here the series gets trippy, then more trippy, then even more trippy. But trippy in a very good way.
The show does a great job of subverting audience expectation by leading the viewer one way and then making a hard left when one least expects it.
Whether it be character identities or genre expectations, Aaron and his EP Ridley Scott seem to enjoy pulling the rug out from under the audience's feet.
For example, the series focuses on Mithraism, which was a religion that existed in Rome at more or less the same time as Christianity.
The series pits Mithraism against Atheism and then goes and gives the atheists, not the religious mithraists, a crises of belief that is palable and relatable.
This subplot of belief and how and why we choose to believe runs through all the drama.
It's unpacked through different characters and explores how their belief system impacts on how they act and how they see themselves: for good, bad and at times, the ugly things we do in the name of faith.
The series, like Alien 1 and Terminator 2, does a great job in advancing the sci-fi action female lead.
Amanda Collin, who plays the android Mother, has one of the most complex lead character roles in a series.
She's set up to be the stereotype Mother-nurturer type but Guzikowski flips this and makes her the archetype of the male protector.
Whilst Father (Abubakar Salim) takes on the archetype of the nurturer in the true sense, although he is set up as the protector who saves Mother from certain doom early on in Episode 1.
The complexities of Salim and Collin's relationship is mined for a lot of drama. Drama between them and eventually the kids they raise.
This drama becomes even more complex when the mithraists who worship the sun god known as Sol enter the picture.
Travis Fimmel (Ragna from Vikings) plays another tortured leader who starts off on one side of the spectrum of the conflict and ends up on the next.
The fight of ideology between the mithraists and the atheist is something each character and relationship has to contend with.
That fight is crystallised in Travis's character journey and trust me, it's not predictable.
Then there's the question of aliens, which is another rabbit hole that I'm not willing to go down in this review lest I start spilling spoilers.
A lot happens in Season 1. It starts off as a slow burn but by Episode 3 the plot starts firing on all cylinders and the questions and weirdness start popping up.
But unlike Lost, here it feels like the showrunners at least have answers.
Although we get some answers to half the questions raised in the first season, the show leaves us with many more questions for Season 2.
At the heart of the series there are intriguing questions about faith, humanity, family, religion and the role of destiny in our lives. It's a thinking man's sci-fi.
It felt like: Ridley Scott at his best, if Prometheus had a better story and ideas.
Verdict: Raised by Wolves is a quintessential thinking man's sci-fi that is accessible to casual viewers who have patience for a story that does not necessarily spoon-feed you. Can't wait for season 2
Rating : *****
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
index * trash **ja nee ***it tries ****Almost Perfect *****Instant Classic
NB: The series uses the Western Cape's stark vegetation for the best, from the mountains to the desert plains.
It also proves the investment that was put into the Film Afrika Studios in Cape Town was not a waste, with all the studio segments being shot there and it features many South Africans in supporting and minor parts, which is not a bad thing