Childhood's End

The disturbing alien plot unfurls through a wondrous, hours-long act of dramatic magic that draws together elements from ancient religions and modern science. This is heady stuff--but it's relayed with such intensity it'll sweep you along. The last act is a gut punch.

It’s been brought into the present (Clarke’s jumping-off point was the Cold War space race), but the depth and ambition are still there.

Childhood’s End is great enough that nitpicking feels unwarranted.... How Graham and company made such endearingly dour worldviews into a rollicking six hours of layered complexity and B-movie schlock is beyond me.

Childhood’s End is great looking, with impressive special effects. It’s also extremely slow, at least in the two hours previewed, and none of the characters is especially engaging.... But with just six hours (4.5 minus commercials) start to finish and dark clouds looming before Night 2, the miniseries could be just the antidote viewers need to counter Christmas sugar and spice.

Graham has updated the story pretty well, while overstuffing it a bit. Nevertheless, the miniseries keeps the novelist’s questions about mankind’s destiny percolating throughout and never really lets you lose interest.

For all its running time over three consecutive nights, Childhood’s End leaves a sense of a story not quite told--the result, largely, of the fact that it deals so much in large themes and generalities and provides so little of character and detail. Even so, it’s entirely compelling drama, with a uniformly fine cast and dazzling special effects.

The premiere prologue gives away too much, and the mini’s pacing­ drags at times.... It’s a tale that never gets old.