Category: Directed by Neil Marshall

Lost in Space (2018) s01e02 – Diamonds in the Sky

This episode feels a little bit like “Pilot: Part Two” since it introduces Parker Posey to the series. The soft cliffhanger last episode had her assuming a false identity and getting onto an escape spaceship with mechanics Ignacio Serricchio and AnnaMaria Demara. As the bigger spaceship was under attack from a killer robot before all the ships—including the escape vessels—get sucked into a black hole.

The regular cast will find out all that spaceship information, though not all of it for everyone (and not the specifics). For instance, Maxwell Jenkins will discover his pet Terminator (they even play catch at one point) attacked the ship and killed a bunch of people. But the robot’s changed so Jenkins is going to keep it to himself. Molly Parker and Toby Stephens find out they’re way off course—in another galaxy—though it’s more Parker finds out and has to tell Stephens about it. There’s quite a bit about who’s in charge, Parker or Stephens, and the show tries hard to make Stephens a reasonable leader but… then he does something dumb and callous, whereas Parker’s never callous even when she makes a mistake.

Parker, Stephens, and Jenkins are off investigating other crashed ships—one of their fellow colonist vessels and then the alien robot’s ship. Back at their ship, Taylor Russell and Mina Sundwall are in charge of slowing freeing said ship from an underwater ice lake. Except Sundwall is worried about an approaching storm front and wants to get their RV out of storage while Russell wants to follow the rules.

Under threat from the same storm is Serricchio and Posey. They’ve survived their crash and are trying to find other survivors. Except we, the audience, know there’s something shady about Posey and it seems like Serricchio might be in danger. Except Serricchio is a working class hero and he’s not going to let a little straightedge lady like Posey cramp his style. It’s an interesting way to do character development, having Posey discover the sympathetic truths under Serricchio’s bravado while she’s still a danger to him. Posey mostly plays it restrained, letting Serricchio run the scenes, only with her character developing underneath it. It’s good banter and sci-fi action survival stuff. Serricchio’s so sympathetic he makes Posey seem less dangerous.

While the whole cast gets something to do—although Russell ends up with less and less as the episode goes on—introducing Posey is the point and it’s successfully done. The family drama is all building—the conflicts between sisters, parents, then Jenkins and everyone but his killer robot—there’s no time for relief here, not when the storm is imminent and the planet has diamond-sharp sand that storm will be kicking up.

Again, it feels very much like the conclusion to the pilot movie for the show. The board is set, the pieces’s rules and responsibilities define, time for the game to start.

Lost in Space (2018) s01e01 – Impact

I must confess I didn’t remember my “Lost in Space” enough to know they had three kids. I thought Taylor Russell was added for the new show. I also don’t think I’ve ever seen the original series, just the movie. But there are three kids.

Besides Russell, who’s the Doogie Howser teen doctor, there’s Mina Sundwall, who’s the annoying middle child, and Maxwell Jenkins, who’s the unspectacular youngest. The episode opens with the family sitting around the proverbial dinner table—albeit on an interstellar spacecraft hurtling to an Offworld colony in another star system—playing Go Fish. We find out Jenkins doesn’t cover his cards, and Sundwall takes advantage. We also find out Russell isn’t happy with dad Toby Stephens. Also, they’re crashing and trying to stay calm as they do it.

The episode has a series of flashbacks filling in the backstory, which has an asteroid hitting Earth and basically making it a shithole in a few years, so all the capable smart people are going to go colonize another planet. Luckily, mom Molly Parker, Russell, and Sundwall are all very, very smart and capable people. Dad Stephens was in the Marines on Earth, and everyone’s mad at him about something, even though the first time we see them in flashback, they’re all pleased with dad. Presumably, being in the Marines means he gets to go Offworld with them.

Jenkins, it turns out, wasn’t good enough to cut it for the mission, and Parker had his record hacked to bring him along. So when he’s feeling inadequate, it’s because he’s actually inadequate. Luckily, he will tame a killer robot before the episode’s over, so he’s a lot more useful.

But since I didn’t remember Russell’s character was a series staple, I thought when they were threatening to kill her terribly, they might do it. What a way to do a tough new “Lost in Space” and immediately kill one of the kids. “Lost in Space”’s future is nice looking (except for the really crappy UX on the computers), but the society is really messed up.

Anyway.

Russell spends most of the episode in a life-threatening situation, with Jenkins also getting into one in the second act. Stephens’s questionable dad skills will be involved with both situations, leading to a lot of drama with Parker. Then we find out she was kind of ready to just divorce him when he decided to tag along on their interstellar relocation.

It helps the cast is mostly likable—well, mainly Parker and Russell are likable, while Jenkins is sympathetic. Sundwall gets the least character and but the most personality. And then Stephens is shifty and questionably competent.

Neil Marshall directs, usually emphasizing character drama and the resulting development (a plus since the special effects are iffy at times); he’s thoughtful about how he puts the children in danger, though the sequence where Jenkins is taming the robot ratchets up the intensity a tad much for the pay-off. The first half of the episode seems more budget conscious (limited sets) before the second half opens things up. It scales nicely.

The last flashback reveal introduces Parker Posey’s “Doctor Smith” (in a way you don’t have to know anything about the series or even the accompanying Bill Mumy cameo) in addition to giving the audience a bunch more information than the characters about the crashed spaceships and the robot. It’s a good hook for next time.