What Is the Story About?
Apple TV’s Constellation follows Johanna “Jo” Ericsson, a Swedish astronaut who boards the ISS and is tasked with research on the mental and psychological trials of human mind in the outerspace. The space vehicle she works in collides with an external object mysteriously and Jo should now repair the damaged module and then return back to earth to regain her lost-life, uncover a space conspiracy and discover the missing pieces of her new life.
Performances?
Noomi Rapace steps up as astronaut Jo, embodies her strength and mental fabric very effectively. Her performance keeps the audience engaged enough to care about the drama that unfolds between her and her daughter. The Colman twins (Davina & Rosie) however seems to have so much to do as the mother-daughter relationship comes in the forefront.
Analysis
Created by Peter Harness for Apple TV, Constellation is a genre bending sci-fi psychological thriller that also happens to have a lot of in-depth drama. The show follows how the life of a woman turns upside down after she survives a space disaster.
Constellation starts off with a visibly paranoid Jo rushing her daughter Alice towards a cabin and then desperately following the noises that call to her. Cut back to 5 weeks earlier, Jo is amidst an eponymous space mission and her family back home, missing her. The space ship meets an unexpected collision damaging the life supports and injuring a fellow scientist. Jo finds the body of a Russian Cosmonaut while surveying the damage likely hinting at how this would uncover a lot of conspiracies, and make Jo’s life back in Earth topsy turvy.
With time slipping out of her hand, Jo needs to fix the space ship and also get back home with everything from food,water and oxygen running out. The ultimate experiment to discover a new state of matter fiddles terribly and now it’s all a matter of survival and escape.
Constellation throws in hat-tips to some of the most iconic space survival movies like Gravity & 2001 : A Space Odyssey, while also trying to achieve a complicated time-non-linearity in its story telling. Flashbacks flash in and out without evidently distinguishing itselves from the events of the current days.
While the opening shot clears that Constellation is more of an emotional drama between a mother and child and conspiracy drama, the show fails to find a middle path between a thriller and a drama. The non-,linear screenplay doesn’t help much either.
One of the biggest setbacks of Constellation (so far) is that it’s pace is lethargic for even the most patient audience. Even if the creator intends for a rewarding finale and is saving the best for the last, the pilot lacks the intrigue of a film of this scale and genre of this nature. The characters aren’t so far great either.
To be concise, Constellation is definitely not the best space/sci-fi series out there, but it does have the scope for a potential interesting drama with some real good acting to back it up. The frames are gorgeous, the blend of psychological thriller, politics, conspiracy and sci-fi also seems promising. Constellation is a technically superior show, that needs a bit more aid from the writing team and one can only hope that it gets better by the time finale comes.
Music and Other Departments?
Created by Peter Harness based on a concept from Sean Jablonski, one of the greatest assets of Constellation is the writing in its dramatic moments. The mother-daughter relationship has so much tenderness to it that the show works largely like an in-depth drama. The music is nothing extraordinary, but the art design and cinematography is spectacular. The budget that went into the making really shows.
Highlights?
Drama
Acting
Cinematography
Drawbacks?
Expositions
Slow Pacing
Falls out of steam
Did I Enjoy It?
Yes, in parts.
Will You Recommend It?
The show is interesting in parts but the pilot episodes haven’t put the cards out in open to consistently intrigue.
Constellation Series Review Review by Binged Bureau
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