Extant

It packs a lot of intriguing plot threads into its first hour while also brimming with money-on-the-screen production values.

Despite the kitchen-sink feel to it all, Extant has much going for it. Berry impressively handles the task of playing a woman who's coming to grips with both a interstellar conception and a laboratory-built “son.” And so far the series has done a good job of balancing the gee-whiz gadget fetishism of science fiction with the need for characters that the viewer will care about.

Extant is laying some intriguing groundwork and doesn’t shy away from difficult conversations about humanity and artificial intelligence, particularly in John’s heated debate with a board that is considering financing his android work.

Oscar winner Berry and the dependable Visnjic, as well as familiar supporting faces, all do a good enough job in the first episode with a tantalizing premise--and lot of grade A special effects--to make Extant worth checking out before it becomes extinct.

Extant has a clever concept that would probably work better on a bigger screen (especially the orbital scenes). But it's thoroughly entertaining--even if you wind up watching it on your shrinky-dink cellphone.

If the rest of the 13-episode Extant remains as compelling as its first episode, this will be the standout show of the summer season.

Extant plays with genres, mixing sci-fi, conspiracy thriller and scenes from a struggling marriage. It also asks some daring questions about the collision of machine and humanity.

Berry provides (pardon the pun) enough gravity to make Extant feel like a genuine work of science fiction, rather than a soap opera dressed up in sci-fi drag, which happens too often on the broadcast networks.

If parts of the tale are familiar, it's all well-told, with a bit of visual flair.... [Berry] brings a dignity and gravity to Molly, a projected intelligence that allows you to buy her as an astronaut and to see what has happened to her as frightening rather than ridiculous.

Capitalizing on the astronaut-in-peril popularity of last year’s “Gravity,” and buoyed by Spielberg’s influence, the 13-episode Extant looks to be an enjoyable if not mind-blowingly-original summer series.

Of course, the first episode will leave you with more questions--which will make the drama one of the most compelling (or maddening) of the summer. Berry’s character drives the story. The Oscar winner is a good choice for the role.

There are more questions than answers in the pilot of Extant, which, in this case, is a good thing. The seeds of dramatic conflict have been planted, and we're going to come back the next week to see how all of this plays out.

No one element of this show feels original, and yet I would totally watch more, even if just to peep at the sleek futuristic garbage cans again.

While Wednesday's pilot episode of Extant (all that was available for review) lacks the sort of unforgettable "wow" moment provided by the severed cow in Dome's opener, the new series also seems less likely to lapse irrevocably into silly hysteria.

I am not yet sold, but I will stick around a while to see what this future holds.

It’s way too soon to say whether this jumble works, but it’s promising that Extant‘s premiere seems confident enough to play it cool and mysterious rather than hammer us with holy-crap moments.

The short, 41-minute opener (I'd DVR it and fast-forward through the commercials) is slickly filmed, generally well acted and ends with an intriguing revelation. But so little feels new and fresh.

The mostly intriguing premiere raises many questions, not least of which is: Will the story be too out there for a mainstream audience?

Though Extant is competently made, it shares a problem with another new TV show with a big name attached. Like "Extant," "The Strain," which arrives Sunday and boasts Guillermo Del Toro as one of its executive producers, feels kind of bland and bloodless.

Extant is more deft and sophisticated [than season two of "Under the Dome"], and Halle Berry is a big star. But, as is the case with "Under the Dome," the new series dilutes its own mystique with too many plodding plot devices and stock characters.

You’re left to wonder about what she sees, or whether she believes what she sees, a set of questions that might be intriguing (watching her distraught face as she watches herself) or annoying (watching her vaguely worried face as she spots a stranger at the end of her driveway in the dead of night).

One hour out of 13 isn't enough to tell if the many questions raised by Extant will be dealt with in any coherent way or whether, this time next summer, we'll still be wondering.

Aside from the coup of landing Berry--a woman, apparently, irresistible to sentient life throughout the galaxy--the show’s strong cast hints at more promise than the premiere ultimately exhibits, racing as it does to establish a foundation for what’s to come.

The show clearly plans to unveil the science fiction slowly, in some cases letting us come to certain realizations at the same time as the characters. This will rule out some casual viewers, because Extant is a show to which you must pay attention/--a task which, happily, the writing and acting make rather pleasant.

It’s an entertaining pilot, full of surprises that should hook viewers and get them engaged for the subsequent 12 episodes. But there’s also the question of whether the show sets about spinning too many mysteries at once.

The show gets off to a serviceable start--coolly conceived and professionally directed, at least in the one episode shared with critics. Where it goes from here is anybody’s guess at this point, but Extant’s creator and cast seem to be taking things seriously enough as a work of sci-fi origami, folded and layered with a certain precision.

The lead performances are a tad opaque, and the script feels as though it's telling two separate stories that don't immediately seem as though they'll connect in a graceful way.

To be blunt, there are better sci-fi shows. The biggest problem is a cold, icy aesthetic that Berry does her best to break through but that feels like the product of a writer’s room that lacks passion.

Despite having Berry and a sci-fi idea that, while not super-original, is still intriguing, Extant lays flat for most of the hour, failing to set the hook.