Another Life

:

Season 1
  • Network: Netflix
  • Series Premiere Date: Jul 25, 2019
Season #: 2, 1
User Score
3.7

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 101 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 101
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 101
  3. Negative: 59 out of 101
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  1. Dodger
    Jul 27, 2019
    3
    Disappointing is the word here. An extremely paint by numbers series with the much over utilised "villain of the week" storyline with more than a whiff of a Scyfy series about it. A swing and a miss for Netflix here unfortunately.
  2. metabad
    Jul 29, 2019
    3
    The premise sounds reasonable:
    An alien ship lands on earth and builds a crystalline, impenetrable structure around it.
    The military and scientists try to analyze it and establish contact with the aliens. A spaceship is sent to a distant star where the aliens are assumed to be from. But then, oh boy, the trouble starts. Katee Sackoff is passable as the ship's commander Nico and I    The premise sounds reasonable:
    An alien ship lands on earth and builds a crystalline, impenetrable structure around it.
    The military and scientists try to analyze it and establish contact with the aliens.
    A spaceship is sent to a distant star where the aliens are assumed to be from.

    But then, oh boy, the trouble starts.
    Katee Sackoff is passable as the ship's commander Nico and I liked Samuel Anderson as the ship's AI (William) a lot.
    Among a purely american crew, the AI picks as a visualization of itself a...British black man with a beard. Priceless! But I'm glad it's Samuel Anderson.

    The rest of the crew is basically a pain in the *ss.
    They're an annoying bunch of whiny, bickering twenty-somethings that would pass as undergraduates at best.
    Especially Michelle, the 'computer whiz' is yelling all the time. If I had been there, I would have tased her and put her back to cryo-sleep.

    According to Michelle, they got rid of mandatory uniforms a decade ago. That's so cool and in episode one, we get to see all female cast members in sports bras. Great! And so woke!
    The 'medical officer' appears to be transgender and that person is the only crew member that looks stable, competent and trustworthy. At least one!

    The space trip is basically a wrap-up of all scify themes and tropes you know from many scify shows and movies.
    Since the writers preferred action and scares over suspense and character development, the show throws one scify theme after another at us.
    Sometimes you would have two or three of those themes in one episode together.
    It's non-stop action, one emergency after another. Some of them due to stupid behavior of one of the crew members, like opening the helmet on a foreign planet, well...there is enough oxygen to do it!
    And it's all completely random and arbitrary, a fire, AI failure, cryo sleep problems...it goes on and on.
    They need food and...find an earth-like moon that's not too far away...Come ON!

    And of course, those hormones. Smooching and sex is apparently unavoidable. Ah, those sports bras!
    Based on all the above there should be no doubt in your mind that the science is all nonsense.

    Another problem:
    The space trip goes on for seven to twelve months, due to detours they make.
    So on earth, they're analyzing the strucure for almost a year? Those two time lines don't match convincingly.
    But that's just a minor issue of the show because on the whole it's all a big old nonsensical mess.

    Even in the season's finale, where you learn more about the aliens, you'll be all question marks about what
    happens.
    It's somewhat cryptic but it's to avoid spoilers:
    When you see the last couple of scenes you won't really understand why it's necessary what the aliens do and especially, you won't understand what they don't do.

    But despite all that, I can understand why some people like the show. It's entertaining in a way and the production value is ok. It doesn't look cheap.
    So, if you have nothing to do, give it about three episodes, that will give you a good impression what you're dealing with.
    On the other hand, looking at the (user-) ratings, I wonder if it's worth it, because the question is: Do you really think we'll get a second season?    … Expand
  3. LastAeon
    Aug 26, 2019
    3
    It's like some progressive agenda for gender and orientation using Sci-Fi as a vehicle. If it wasn't for the fact that I couldn't take my eyes off the gorgeous women in the cast and that the A.I. character played by Samuel Anderson and earthbound scientist Justin Chatwin are genuinely interesting and sympathetic characters I would have stopped watching. Despite that all the actors do aIt's like some progressive agenda for gender and orientation using Sci-Fi as a vehicle. If it wasn't for the fact that I couldn't take my eyes off the gorgeous women in the cast and that the A.I. character played by Samuel Anderson and earthbound scientist Justin Chatwin are genuinely interesting and sympathetic characters I would have stopped watching. Despite that all the actors do a great job for what they've been given.… Expand
  4. metamanners
    Aug 6, 2019
    3
    This review contains some SPOILERS.

    A good cast and a decent premise is wasted on this show because of it's terrible plot lines and some truly awful writing.. I mean an alien non-carbon based virus that attacks the nerve cells of humans and extremely rapidly grows into a snake like thing that bursts out of the spine of the infected (who in spite of this was feeling just fine only 30    This review contains some SPOILERS.

    A good cast and a decent premise is wasted on this show because of it's terrible plot lines and some truly awful writing.. I mean an alien non-carbon based virus that attacks the nerve cells of humans and extremely rapidly grows into a snake like thing that bursts out of the spine of the infected (who in spite of this was feeling just fine only 30 seconds before)! I mean in Alien I could overlook the lack of pain both to John Hurt's character and the potential mental pain to me for watching it because it was a fresh idea and (as it turned out) the creature was probably bioengineered as a weapon. But here it just becomes unintentionally hilarious. What was the virus living on before the crew conveniently let themselves be infected by it, considering it was a pretty dead world in the first place?

    Don't misunderstand - not ALL the writing is that bad but its not great either, All in all, fire some writers and whoever was supposed to keep them in check and things might be OK if - and at this point it seems VERY unlikely - it ever comes to a second season.    … Expand
  5. Chuck_Woolery
    Sep 16, 2019
    2
    Wow. Just wow. Vacuous nonsense. I feel dumber after watching this. 2 stars for production work and some visuals. Though whomever worked on it deserves better than some contrived set of shallow characters literally trying to tell each other why they are there. And don't misjudge a bunch of weak male caricatures as "strength" in the female characters. You can do better.
  6. abowman
    Jul 31, 2019
    2
    We don't get too many space fantasy shows so I really tried to give this one a shot. I'm almost done with the series for the sake of seeing it through but I honestly can't recommend it to anyone. The characters are unbelievable and out of place. You have a bunch of sex crazed teenagers leading one of earth's most important missions to date.

    As many others have mentioned, Netflix tends    We don't get too many space fantasy shows so I really tried to give this one a shot. I'm almost done with the series for the sake of seeing it through but I honestly can't recommend it to anyone. The characters are unbelievable and out of place. You have a bunch of sex crazed teenagers leading one of earth's most important missions to date.

    As many others have mentioned, Netflix tends to shove their "progressive" ideology down your throat, even if it doesn't make any sense or add anything to the story. Almost every episode is filled with extremely immature writing to almost laughable levels. Every time the show starts to pick up steam with an actual interesting ideas, the very next scene will make you shout at the screen "what the hell am I watching!" I honestly don't know who this stuff appeals to, but after reading the reviews it seems i'm not alone.

    There so much potential for a good show here... its a shame that its painfully ruined by out of place characters that no one can relate to. Netflix - reevaluate your audience because i'm not sure who this **** is suppose to appeal to.    … Expand
  7. bhadfield
    Jul 29, 2019
    2
    A crew is selected to travel to deep space on a mission that may save humanity. Unfortunately, the members of the crew conduct themselves with all the professionalism of a high school social committee, which is perhaps unfair to high schoolers; Maybe they have more on the ball. Starting with an interesting premise the show, instead of answering the big questions, spends its time on sideA crew is selected to travel to deep space on a mission that may save humanity. Unfortunately, the members of the crew conduct themselves with all the professionalism of a high school social committee, which is perhaps unfair to high schoolers; Maybe they have more on the ball. Starting with an interesting premise the show, instead of answering the big questions, spends its time on side trips and soapy subplots. In space we all learn that revealing attire, and the regular application of makeup are the important shipboard activities. Dumb.… Expand
  8. MadHammer314
    Jul 26, 2019
    2
    ~Spoiler Free~

    TLDR: Insanely sloppy and unbelievable sci-fi. The only redeeming points are performances from Samuel Anderson and to a lesser extent Katee Sackhoff, but it's nowhere near enough to make this mess worthwhile. Full Review: I just put myself through all 10 episodes of this trainwreck, and it was an irritating mess from start to finish. Plus Points: * There's clearly    ~Spoiler Free~

    TLDR: Insanely sloppy and unbelievable sci-fi. The only redeeming points are performances from Samuel Anderson and to a lesser extent Katee Sackhoff, but it's nowhere near enough to make this mess worthwhile.

    Full Review:
    I just put myself through all 10 episodes of this trainwreck, and it was an irritating mess from start to finish.

    Plus Points:
    * There's clearly at least a semi-reasonable budget behind the show, and some of the sets/CGI/effects are passable.
    * The cast overall is ok, and I really liked Samuel Anderson as "William"

    Minus Points:
    * The Science! There's always a fair amount of disbelief to be granted in sci-fi, but some of the elements in this series are so out of touch it's very jarring, if you have even a cursory scientific knowledge. If the writers had bothered to watch even a 10 minute YouTube video on dark matter, they would have realised how dumb their depiction was, and made some amends. As is, they took a 'cool' sounding term from physics and then just went crazy. SMH.
    * The tone is all over the place, and just feels like a mess. Admittedly this did cause some unintentional comedy with how ridiculous some scenes were, but crikey it's bad.
    * The writing just feels lazy. It's naturally tough to create drama when you have competent characters, so the writing staff just took the easy route of making a large number of the spaceship 'crew' be irrational idiots. Maybe I'm being too harsh, but I just can't imagine a future government choosing these 'astronauts' for such an important mission. Can you imagine the Star Ship Enterprise crewed by people that didn't make the cut for the ship in Prometheus? Yeah I don't want to either...

    Conclusion:
    I'm marking this show down as one to watch if you have _literally_ nothing better to do, or have a taste for very dumb sci-fi. But even then there are much better options, as this show manages to avoid the "so bad it's good" category, and is simply disappointing.    … Expand
  9. dr0nzer
    Jul 28, 2019
    2
    Samuel Anderson's performance as the AI stole the show, Katee Sackhoff and her character was more believable than anything else.
    It had the recipe to be a great sci-fi series but it's just plagued with inconsistencies and stupidity, bickering over little things in space, over acting of the supporting characters and the lack of common sense as humans is unbelievable.
    Add this to the    Samuel Anderson's performance as the AI stole the show, Katee Sackhoff and her character was more believable than anything else.
    It had the recipe to be a great sci-fi series but it's just plagued with inconsistencies and stupidity, bickering over little things in space, over acting of the supporting characters and the lack of common sense as humans is unbelievable.
    Add this to the growing list of Netflix trash.    … Expand
  10. Jlucca33
    Jan 22, 2021
    2
    What starts out as an interesting storyline, slowly doing a great into a woke season of big brother episodes in outer space. Everyone suddenly starts the sexual revolution in space. Suddenly, we've got multi-partner sexual experiences along with gay and lesbian escapades amongst a group of scientists that are supposed to be looking for life outside of Earth. Such a shame.
  11. jtmason3
    Jan 15, 2020
    2
    I'm actually in complete agreement with the critics on this show. First the good. The premise was/is great, and I liked the pace as far as introduction of some surprising elements most episodes. But the overall story just falls apart in too many places, and while I'm very LGBTQ and feminist friendly, it just doesn't work to have it shoved down your throat at so many turns. However, theI'm actually in complete agreement with the critics on this show. First the good. The premise was/is great, and I liked the pace as far as introduction of some surprising elements most episodes. But the overall story just falls apart in too many places, and while I'm very LGBTQ and feminist friendly, it just doesn't work to have it shoved down your throat at so many turns. However, the largest problem is the acting, or rather at many times over-acting. I really don't care about any of these characters because they're so shallow. True irony that the only character with relatable and genuine depth is William, and he's a hologram. The lead actress is built up to be the heroine and savior so much, you're nauseated when she achieves yet another victory. I began to fast-forward through 50% or so of each episode (usually through Nico's rants, raves, and introspections) just because I wanted to at least see where the story goes, but unless they make a significant character swap, especially for the leads (Nico AND her talentless husband), I probably won't sign-on for Season 2.… Expand
  12. UncleWillard
    Jul 26, 2019
    2
    2 stars for Katie and the dude playing her husband. JFC what is this, Big Brother in space? Why is everyone dressed like they work at Hot Topic? Too brutally moronic for me. Shame because the production values aren't half bad. And why is there a fat guy on board? Lastly, William sux ass. I don't care how futury your ship is, strap in for complicated maneuvers.
  13. Stevenster
    Jul 31, 2019
    2
    Okay I like all these space shows like lost in space that was good one. As soon as this new show popped up in my feed I watched it. But the beginning feels so slow to me. It’s so unnecessary and the only reason they have somatic sleep is so they can keep getting new characters without question. It’s hardly entertaining and the writing is garbage. Every episode just feels like a repeat ofOkay I like all these space shows like lost in space that was good one. As soon as this new show popped up in my feed I watched it. But the beginning feels so slow to me. It’s so unnecessary and the only reason they have somatic sleep is so they can keep getting new characters without question. It’s hardly entertaining and the writing is garbage. Every episode just feels like a repeat of the same thing. Maybe if this show had better writing it would be good. If it has a second season they definitely need to rethink the character development… Expand
  14. EnnioW
    Aug 3, 2019
    2
    Katee Sackhoff is the biggest redeeming factor of this show. Still, there are others and if the next season will explore less themes in a deeper way, the series might eek out a sufficient story to be binge worthy.
  15. OXOTA
    Dec 21, 2019
    2
    This is horrible, actually it is a shame that the 2 or 3 talented people in it got dragged down by this mess. Feels like it was made by a bunch of morons with way too much enthusiasm and way too little talent. This really is stupidity unleashed to its fullest potential.

    I give it a 2 because the female lead is talented and lighting directors and the people who did the CGI have some skill.
  16. dadateyont
    Aug 22, 2019
    1
    I wanted to like this, but nothing about it makes any sense. The crew is intolerable. Bad directing, bad writing. I can’t believe some of the actors were able to do as well with the material as they did. It is a collage of other sci-fi shows and movies with no idea how to put the pieces together.
  17. Spiralus
    Aug 3, 2019
    1
    Huminty's elite crew of astronauts have members who don't know what a cerebral cortex is. They think that a planet in the "goldie locks zone" is likely to have edible plants. They are so immature that they fight to the death over their egos, first chance they get. Or the everyone involved with this project is dumb AF. I hope they dont vote. This show is a dumpster fire.
  18. palkab
    Aug 5, 2019
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Although the writers of the show know how to tell a tense story, there is little substance or believability to many of the events, there is almost no character development.

    Most of all, this supposed most important mission of mankind is undertaken by a group of highschoolers with the same attitude and drama and no real character competences. There's many points in the story where an obvious and simple action would avert disaster but none is taken.

    And then there's the AI love story, which is so clumsily written it's more satire than anything interesting.    … Expand
  19. cube10025
    Jul 27, 2019
    1
    Love sci-fi unfortunately couldn't even get through the first episode, great main actress but the other cast are so miss placed it gets embarrassing.
  20. Adriatic
    Aug 8, 2019
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It is hard to believe that this team was selected for such an important mission. It gets laughable. I managed to go just beyond the half of the series. It was a waste for the lead actress. A passionate AI? What is striking about this series is that everyone's hole belongs to everyone. A toast to diversity… Expand
  21. heck-know
    Dec 1, 2019
    1
    It was good at first. Then I had to sit through two guys making out. I think one was a transvestite cause I previously thought it was a girl until that gay-reveal-episode where the lighting showed a five-o'clock shadow on the dude. Netflix always seem to shoe-horn in a couple of guy kissing on their shows and they do it toward the end of season. And, it is completely unnecessary otherIt was good at first. Then I had to sit through two guys making out. I think one was a transvestite cause I previously thought it was a girl until that gay-reveal-episode where the lighting showed a five-o'clock shadow on the dude. Netflix always seem to shoe-horn in a couple of guy kissing on their shows and they do it toward the end of season. And, it is completely unnecessary other than to promote identity politics, etc... They also have a third gay dude who comes out by mentioning his husband back on earth. This gay-reveal is also completely irrelevant to the story...adds nothing to the story.......just irrelevant.… Expand
  22. noleme
    Oct 15, 2021
    1
    This is the worst tv show I have ever seen. The characters are incredibly stupid and immature. The science is awfully wrong. The plot is dumb and cliche. The premise and Katee Sackhoff are the only good things about season 1.
  23. Barny
    Jul 26, 2019
    0
    It's quite simply pathetic from the beginning to the end. The characters are underdevelopped children with the ego of a superstar, there is not much plot because everything relies on teenage girl high school drama, special effects are meh, and far too many aspects of this "production" are "borrowed" from other movies and TV shows. Also, the series panders far too much to the PC crowd toIt's quite simply pathetic from the beginning to the end. The characters are underdevelopped children with the ego of a superstar, there is not much plot because everything relies on teenage girl high school drama, special effects are meh, and far too many aspects of this "production" are "borrowed" from other movies and TV shows. Also, the series panders far too much to the PC crowd to the point where the question has to be asked: who is the audience they wanted to target ? Instead of watching this, go watch any other flavour of cooking competitions, at least its edible there.… Expand
  24. PS4_PC_LIFE
    Jul 25, 2019
    0
    cant stomach it, watched 30min of it and had to stop, like watching some SJW nightmare come to life, Netflix keeps regurgitating more Virtue signaling trash, that's why there bleeding subscriptions.
  25. markcd1234
    Oct 14, 2019
    0
    Nothing more to say then this just bad, really bad. Don't even waist your time watching the trailer, it's that bad.
  26. alllivesmatt3r
    Jul 28, 2019
    0
    Wokeflix does it again! It's one thing to pander to progressives and the left, but it's completely something else to shove the LGBT!Q@ onto everyone else. 75% of the cast is either gay or trans or some version in between, and I guess this wouldn't be so bad, but the fact that you have the repeated makeout sessions between them. I'm sorry. I would rather suck on razor blades.Wokeflix does it again! It's one thing to pander to progressives and the left, but it's completely something else to shove the LGBT!Q@ onto everyone else. 75% of the cast is either gay or trans or some version in between, and I guess this wouldn't be so bad, but the fact that you have the repeated makeout sessions between them. I'm sorry. I would rather suck on razor blades. Episode 8 finished me! Especially 17min and 30 seconds into it. That's when I said, No More!… Expand
  27. oriondc
    Aug 1, 2019
    0
    Katee, why did you agree to do this show? Are you hard up for cash? I love you and frankly you were pretty good in it, but the entire 95% of the rest of the series.. my god. Awful. The premise makes no sense - why are all the crew members 20 years old? My freshmen writing class students could do better than this script from spaaaaaaaaaace.
  28. eshtazaki
    Aug 5, 2019
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. OMG, who written the scripts for this abomination. It is so unbelievable that a group of this characters would be even remotely close to a star ship mission. When NASA is sending astronauts to missions they go thru so many checks (physical and psychological). This band of misfits get into conflict in first episode, captain with power issues tries to murder whole team ! WHAT THE HELL.
    So unbelievable it hurts to watch. Everybody acts like they have issues. awful truly awful, and there was nice potential in the story... did not manage to go beyond half of episode 2.    … Expand
  29. MarcusLayne
    Jul 26, 2019
    0
    Did this show forget to hire writers? Seems they only put money into the diversity hires and not actual talent. I want to like this show since my girl sackoff is in this. All the characters act like children. We are supposed to believe they are the top people the government selected to run a mission? All the characters in the show are the villains cause SJW writers cant write for shet.Did this show forget to hire writers? Seems they only put money into the diversity hires and not actual talent. I want to like this show since my girl sackoff is in this. All the characters act like children. We are supposed to believe they are the top people the government selected to run a mission? All the characters in the show are the villains cause SJW writers cant write for shet. They do not know how to write believable human people. Everything is forced, artificial in their every move and decision. Time to deactivate my Netflix account until something good happens on there again. Collapse… Expand
  30. BahbCallins
    Jul 26, 2019
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Absolutely positively the most garbage sci-fi I have ever watched in my life.

    I'm a huge fan of anything that has a spaceship and I've watched some crap.

    This is simply the worst of the worst. Woke millennial nonsense teen drama in space. Hard pass. I even created a metacritic account just to rate this.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

12
#12 Most Discussed TV Season of 2019

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
33

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 8 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 8
  3. Negative: 4 out of 8
  1. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: Matt Zoller Seitz
    Jul 26, 2019
    30
    This is an earnest but hard-edged drama about extraterrestrial first contact and deep space exploration that Frankensteins together bits of classics and near-classics. But the the whole never congeals into an original statement. And the storytelling is so ungraceful that I got whiplash from the first four episodes.
    Read full review
  2. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Alex McLevy
    Jul 25, 2019
    50
    Nitpicking sci-fi conceits is usually a waste of time (who cares how implausible a lovestruck robot fixing a ship’s FTL drive is?), but there are enough glaring omissions of logic in Another Life that it’s impossible not to get pulled out of the story at times. ... What the series does have is Sackhoff, and she’s more than up to the task of reminding the viewer why she’s anchoring this series. Whenever she’s onscreen, the show’s sophomoric writing instantly becomes more plausible
    Read full review
  3. RogerEbert.com
    Reviewed by: Brian Tallerico
    Jul 25, 2019
    10
    “Another Life” has a complete lack of character development within Niko’s crew because they're too busy worrying and yelling. ... Blair and Sackhoff are always welcome presences on any show, and it’s telling how much the four episodes of “Another Life” that I could stomach simply annoyed me.
    Read full review
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