The Signal

There is an interesting idea here, but for me it got lost along the way. A female astronaut returns home, almost since she nearly purposely crashes their capsule home, but she doesn't only to perhaps be the reason for the plane to crash while taking her back home to her family. I found it curious that there was not a moment of containment for contamination for anyone on the spaceship after returning to Earth. I did like Florian David Fitz in the lead somewhat, but the real star in this is a child by the name of Yuna Bennett in the role of the astronaut's daughter, I don't know how old she is, but she was rather impressive. It has it's interesting moments, but it has more boring or incomprehensible ones and I was disappointed, though glad it was on four episodes.

On one hand, I'm thinking why I wasted so much time of my life to watch it, but at the same time, it's a masterpiece. It's neither of the two beliefs the series could offer much more, but of course, that's in my own mind and imagination. A very nice message in the end. The actors perform quite well you should watch it in German to see for yourself. It's more of a sci-fi within the viewer's mind than a regular sci-fi in the full sense of the term. Personally, I watched all the episodes in one go I don't know if it would hold my interest if I watched it sporadically. The involvement of politics may spoil the overall story for some, but it's realistic, I believe, especially considering the ending. I can say I felt a similar frustration to what I experienced when I watched "Don't Look Up."

I enjoyed this up until the last episode. The acting is great. Another review questioned criticism of the acting based on dubbing but I only ever use subtitles.

Setup is done well and drew me in, there is enough going on to make you curious although some of the revelations are dragged out, the effects are good enough with only one or two dodgy bits of CGI. The relationship between Sven and Charlie is nuanced and convincing. Most of the other characters are delivered well although space jock being allowed on the ISS seemed ludicrous.

The ending felt a bit anti-climactic to me as well as completely infeasible but the message about how we deal with crises as a species seems sadly accurate at the moment.

Final comment - one other scathing review poured scorn on the idea of someone being able to listen in on radio transmissions between Paula and Charlie. If you're going to watch sci-fi, maybe consider understanding a bit of science first.

I'm midway through and I'm debating whether I want to finish. Huge sci-fi fan but as others have stated its slow... there's building suspense over time but so far this is kind of pushing it. Also just got mentally burned on it a bit. Why do shows have to bring politics in. It is nauseating. I don't watch TV shows to think of the current mess. I don't want to hear the names of any political person on either side. I don't care for the shows creators personal views on either side. Sven is also really ruining it for me. His character is weak and very soft, not being there for his daughter much in a chaotic time. Anyway, I'll finish watching it, just because I want to know if anything actually interesting or redeeming happens. I will change my review if it does.

The series were deep and mostly focused on us, humans. I loved it. It surprised me in so many ways. It got my attention from the first to the very last second. The ending got me unprepared, too. Unpredictable endings are something I miss in the movies nowadays and this one was a nice getaway from the typical forseen stories. If you want something different and character oriented, I strongly recommend this one. If you are expecting the next "alien against humanity" type of series with battles and guns, don't start. As a movie is closer to "Arrival", but amazingly different in so many ways. Just give it a chance.