Despite a long distinguished career making films on a variety of subjects, it seems like Ridley Scott just can’t get enough of those wacky androids! While Raised by Wolves, HBO’s latest prestige drama, may be the brainchild Aaron Guzikowski, screenwriter on 2013’s Prisoners, but it’s Scott’s involvement in yet another Android drama that initially piques the interest; as was no doubt the plan.
With almost no prologue, apart from a painterly depiction of mushroom clouds and a spacecraft descending upon a planet, Raised by Wolves introduces two androids, Mother and Father, as they land on the planet Kepler-22b.
As befalls so many cinematic spacecraft that manage to successfully navigate the vast expanses of space without a scratch, they suffer an unfortunate parking accident and have to abandon their minuscule craft, grabbing only what they can. Their cargo? A collection of freeze dried embryos with which to restart the human race.
The Children Are the Future
What follows, at least in the first three episodes, is an often slow paced, frequently striking, baffling, and intriguing show about artificial intelligence, humanity’s fascination with religion and atheism, but overall, survival.
What initially seems to be a slow burning homesteader tale, centred around the family that the androids “grow,” soon takes on a much darker edge as they fall prey to various hazards on the far from idyllic planet before another remnant of humanity, one representing the opposing side of the war that Mother and Father fled, arrives.
With its initially languid pace and startling gear changes, Raised by Wolves nonetheless held my attention, mostly thanks to an odd art style, the remarkable landscape of the striking South African location, and the inhuman performances by Amanda Collin and Abubakar Salim as Mother and Father.
Their sleek rubber catsuits, odd mannerisms, and unnerving calm in tense situations seems to mark them out as simple thinking machines, however as events progress, more and more of what appears to be honest emotion bleeds through.
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Amanda Collin’s Mother switches from loving to creepy with horrifying ease, even if these androids can’t decide if they actually are angry, malfunctioning, or just intended to behave that way all along. Even in her warmer moments she exudes an air of creepiness that is matched by the warmth offered by Abubakar Salim’s constantly joking Father.
Are they merely mimicking emotions to calm their human charges? Why do they seem to express rage, despair, and loss? Is their behaviour in-built, learned, or merely a side effect of them slowly breaking down. What’s with the singing and howling?
Anything seems possible and considering Scott’s involvement, as director and executive producer, it’s a fair guess that these will be questions the show continues to explore in the remaining seven episodes.
Are We Human or Are We Dancers?
A perplexing, languid watch, HBO seems to have realised that this might not appeal to everyone looking for the next Watchmen or Game of Thrones, deciding to deliver three, full episodes in the show’s first week, with 2 episodes following every week after that. It’s an odd choice for such a high profile show, but perhaps a wise one. Raised by Wolves might be more suited to binge watching than the expertly parceled out fodder for weekly water cooler discussions that makes up the majority of HBO’s slate.
After getting past the second episode and what appears to be an overly simplistic portrayal of some religious antagonists, wearing costumes from a futuristic reboot of The Life of Brian, I’m intrigued to see where the show goes next.
Thankfully I won’t have too long a wait.
Raised By Wolves
HBO, Season 1, 10 episodes
Showrunner: Aaron Guzikowski
Writers: Aaron Guzikowski and Heather Bellson
Cast: Amanda Collin, Abubakar Salim, Winta McGrath, Travis Fimmel, and Niamh Algar.
The first three episodes of Raised by Wolves are now available on HBO GO, and two new episodes premiere each week, on Thursday.
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