Away

What a let down. The trailer seemed exiting so I gave 7 hours of my life away for that show and couldn't be more disappointed. The cast is not so much the issue. I really just believe that whoever directed this or wrote the plot should spend some time hanging out at NASA or with PhDs in science to realize that no character in this show delivers the behavior of what you would expect from an elite international group of five highly trained, educated individuals. I myself am of such a background, so are all my colleagues, and this shows ridiculizes the scientific community / NASA research sphere. Right of the start of the show an indecent happens and all five members give conflicting accounts of the 2 minutes event. Spend some time with intellectuals of that level to know that this would not happen, they would all be sharply on point. Then there is the amount of nonsense lines all over the place that just made me stop the show. For me, it was when the world leading botanist suggested that the reason one plant survived was a miracle from God did the trick.

In a few words, this a basically nothing but a soap opera, with a slight twist of background - if what you are after is realistic space movie, go back to Apollo 13.

As other reviews have complained, this is not The Expanse. It's far closer to First Man (which I thought was excellent). Away is a story about people and relationships, just set in space. Where most of sci fi is really shallow on character and script, and heavy on aliens and action, Away is the opposite, and I find it so refreshing. This is how actual humans behave and speak to each other, and I really wish this attention to character and story development was put into every movie and show. Hilary Swank does an amazing job of being both a strong, believable commander, and a mother and wife. I can't think of anywhere else I've seen this done so well, and it's a shame this doesn't seem to be what people want in their television. I guess I agree generally that some character tropes are present, but they are all written so well it just doesn't matter. I absolutely BELIEVE them, and I'm invested in their stories. I haven't rolled my eyes once during season 1 so far, which I cannot say for literally any other sci fi show I've ever seen (and I've seen A LOT). If you tend to cringe a lot while watching sci fi due to cheesy dialog and characters, I'd highly recommend giving Away a shot.

Many reviewers absolutely hate it. I am not one of them. Here is why:

This is not a sci fi series. This a drama, on the base of a sci fi premise. How families and crew are dealing with a prospect of 3 year space travel and the unknown.

Here is what I think it got done well: -Overall atmosphere and drama. -Crisis and how different people deal with it. -Some scenes are very very good. -Some writing is very good. -Visuals are overall very good, with few exceptions noted below. -Music is great. I think casting is well done. -Chemistry is very good also. -I liked the Russian character. Very good done.

The bad (or what could have made it this great). -This needs another pass at editing -Some scenes are too gratuitous, where they just indulge themselves in special fx for special effects sake. -About 70% of flashback are either useless or too long while not offering anything substantial.

Overall, I enjoyed it, but with another edit/cut, I think it has potential to be very good. 6.5/10

Don't even think about watching this if like me you are in search of sci fi horror, or even a sci fi thriller, it's neither, what it is, is a long series where the key focus of it, is relationships. How people cope in their various relationships with adversity, be it loss or distance.

Ten episodes was complete and utter overkill, they could have done this in four or five, the plots are reworked a few times, the main issue here being the writing, it really isn't the best.

The show's main strength, the actors, there is plenty of acting talent here to enjoy, Hilary Swank is great, Ray Pathanki I enjoyed very much, his character was very entertaining.

Impressive special effects, and it is quite watchable, just as you know what you're in for, a rollercoaster of emotions, without a scare in sight.

Better than some reviews would have you believe.

This series had potential to be something great. Unfortunately, it's very slow paced, boring, unrealistic and full of clichés.