Netflix’s Away review perfectly captured space travel drama: Away tries to paint a picture of the emotional trauma associated with a long mission, but descends into video calls and office politics.
Cast: Hilary Swank, Josh Charles, Ato Essandoh, Mark Ivanir, Ray Panthaki, Vivian Wu, Talitha Bateman
Creator: Andrew Hinderaker
Showrunner: Jessica Goldberg
Premieres Friday, Sep. 4, on Netflix
Away a new space drama led by two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank.
The crew faces equipment blunder after equipment blunder – such as an important component on the outside of the ship detaching, the water system goes kaput, their rendezvous resupply ship may have exploded, etc.
Swank is Emma Green, the commander of a five-strong international team of astronauts and scientists embarking on a three-year mission to become the first humans to set foot on Mars. Swank does her best as Emma, but her character is not well-defined enough.
“Away” shows the journey of the brave, Mars-bound crew five astronauts risking their lives to make history and advance humankind, made up of Commander Emma Green (Swank) from NASA, Ram Arya (Ray Panthaki) from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), U.K. astronaut Dr. Kwesi Weisberg-Abban (Ato Essandoh), Lu Wang (Vivian Wu) from China and Russian cosmonaut Misha Popov (Mark Ivanir).
Away created by Andrew Hinderaker and executive-produced by Jason Katims, Matt Reeves, Adam Kassan and Ed Zwick (who directed the pilot).
In the first episode, Emma is already on her ship, docked at the moon, and coping with a couple of crew members who feel she’s unfit to lead them.
Verdictof Away by IGN, starring Hilary Swank, features nicely layered and graciously grounded characters who buck up against some of the more obvious close quarters tropes. The series delivers some nice highs, soaring victories, and heartfelt revelations while also sagging a little under dry homefront drama and a seemingly unending series of mechanical problems aboard the ship.
