What the hell did I just watch?
In the late hours of the evening after I binged all 10 episodes of Netflix's Another Life in a single day, I tried to imagine the pitch that summoned such a thing into being. I think it probably went: "What if Star Trek, but with Selma Blair lighting up a B-plot take on The Arrival and a cast of hot 20-somethings where everyone fucks?"
Even that only kind of gets to the heart of this magically ridiculous season of streaming television. The premise is simple: An alien craft that we've decided to call "the Artifact" has parked itself on Earth, sprouting into a skyscraper-sized crystal tower. And there it sits, doing precisely nothing.
In a twofold effort to get to the bottom of this mystery, scientists on Earth work to understand and communicate with the Artifact while a crewed ship heads to the distant planet that Earth's visitor seems to have come from. It's a mission of peace, but humans being humans, more aggressive measures are ready if diplomacy fails.
The outer space part of our journey is headlined by Katee Sackhoff's Neko, a reluctant ship captain with a husband and young daughter at home, and some ghosts from her past haunting every decision. It's basically a more commanding version of Sackhoff's beloved Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica, only here the work of keeping her crew in line is roughly as challenging as herding cats.
This early exchange from the first episode says so much...
Catty comms officer, exasperated: Why do you think they sent a bunch of 20-somethings on this mission?
Microbiologist and totally not a Hurley-from-Lost lookalike: Because of our good health and shiny teeth.
CCO, still exasperated (it's her schtick): Wrong! Because after 27, it is all cowardice, all the time. And so one day you wake up and you are ancient, like Neko, and you should not even get out of bed, let alone lead a mission across the galaxy, because, you know, safety first.
Putting aside the fact that none of the exchange really makes sense — even once you hear it in the context of the comms officer's "27 club" rant — all of this happens before Another Life really goes off the deep end, mind you. It's just the way people talk on this show.
Back on Earth, Neko's husband Erik (Justin Chatwin) is working feverishly to communicate with the Artifact and juggling it alongside caring for a kid who really misses her mom. The space stuff goes wild very quickly, but Erik's adventures on Earth are more grounded for most of Another Life's 10 episodes.
Image: netflix
The highlight is Selma Blair's Harper Glass, who's basically playing a grown up version of her Legally Blonde mean girl after she's found fame as an online reporter and media influencer. She has a personal connection to Neko, and she constantly dogs Erik for an inside scoop on the secretive space mission.
Blair's role is more of a slow burn. She's the first character we're introduced to in the opening episode, but it's not until a few episodes later that we start to spend any meaningful time with her. Every moment she's on screen is worth savoring, though.
Blair built up a reputation as one of the top bad girls of the '90s and early '00s, and she hasn't lost her step at all in the intervening years. She can scorch with nothing more than a slight head turn and arched eyebrow. Her performance is captivating.
Space is where things get really wild, though. The young crew faces a never-ending string of disasters as they journey toward their destination, and yet in the midst of all the horror they still make time for petty squabbling and lustful pursuits.
To the show's credit, some of those relationships and the conversations around them step outside of traditional heteronormative constructs. There's a season-long blossoming of gay love, a consensual threesome, and even an honest (if clunky) exploration of what things like humanity and love mean for an artificial intelligence.
What the hell did I just watch?
That's not to say Another Life does a particularly good job with nuance. The small handful of thoughtful moments are far outshined by the show's much stronger focus on steamy hook-ups and romantic drama, and all of it makes for enjoyably pulpy TV watching.
That comes at the expense of the story, too. Characters don't always act the way you'd expect from a sane and intelligent adult human. You'll find yourself puzzling out some mysteries entire minutes or even episodes before anyone on the show does, and it's not because you know more than they do. There's just some dumb, illogical writing.
It only works because the pulp factor is so high, and the cast is so very game to lean in on the ridiculousness. Samuel Anderson is a standout as William, the ship's holographic AI interface. His relationship with Neko is among the show's most well-developed, and his slowly dawning humanity is quite a ride over the course of the 10 episodes.
Jessica Camacho owns every one of her scenes as the aforementioned catty comms officer. She's got a big chip on her shoulder for Neko, and she's never afraid to let sparks fly. Jake Abel is similarly entertaining; his character, Sasha Harrison, is a privileged rich white dude who's on the mission as a representative of the civilian government — but that role transforms significantly as the season moves on.
Sasha, like a number of other characters — notably JayR Tinaco's Zayn, the ship's medic; and A.J. Rivera's Bernie, microbiologist and chef — find their footing more as the season moves on. Another Life is a show fueled by its ridiculously over the top moments, and those moments propel much of the excitement in the early episodes. The going only gets more intense later on, and it's only because the show is good at getting you invested in these characters.
Image: netflix
I want to say it again, with emphasis: Over the top moments are everything in Another Life. The show is at its best when it's going so far into "WTF?!" territory that you find yourself laughing hysterically in the face of a serious disaster. I don't know if that was the intent, but it doesn't matter. This is immediately an all-star entry in the So-Bad-It's-Good Hall of Fame.
I can't even get into all the specifics, for fear of spoiling the delicious good times. There are sudden murders, intense gore that pops up out of nowhere, characters talking to phantom versions of themselves, and generally loopy behavior all around. And that's just on the ship. Once the party gets rolling back on Earth and Blair really rolls up her acting sleeves, Another Life reaches new levels of perfectly satisfying absurdity.
My only concern is that we're never going to see this story continue. The season doesn't quite end on a cliffhanger, but it does leave a whole lot of ongoing story up in the air. As much as Another Life wholeheartedly embraces its own hot nonsense, it's also building up to something and dammit, I want to see how it all turns out.
So everyone, please, give this show a shot. It's not great. It's not even good. But Another Life is thoroughly, mindlessly entertaining and an absolutely perfect diversion for wiling away those hot summer days from the comfort of your air conditioned home.
