Daniel B

The youngest recurring character on this show is Hillary Swank's daughter, who is 15 years old in the show. That also appears to be the exact age that this show is trying to cater to. The characters on board the mission to Mars appear to be obsessed with their own internal drama, bickering between each other, reveling in gossip and sometimes outright verbally or emotionally attacking other members of the team. Every single one of these behaviors would have resulted in them being scrubbed from a mission of such an experimental and stressful undertaking. Instead, to make the show more appealing to teenagers apparently, the creators and writers leaned hard into cramming as much strife and as many unnecessary conflicts involving personal attacks and passive-aggressive whining as possible. The international coalition of astronauts breaks down into political and cultural aggression within the first two episodes, another thing that would never be tolerated in any space program, but is very appealing to the status quo of netflix viewers. Keep in mind these behavioral failings erupt into conflict within the first WEEK of the mission, demonstrating a complete lack of awareness or subtlety on behalf of the creators and writers of the show. The science is also flawed in many respects, as well as certain technical aspects. But, since literally none of that matters in this show, clearly the main things being pushed are the interpersonal relationships between the crew members and their own struggles with their personal lives. The show also comes up short in this regard, with characters bouncing back and forth wildly between functions and emotions. Every character appears to have a terrible or difficult past, no doubt intended to earn sympathy and understanding to their characters, but instead come across as quick excuses for their actions and motivations. The moment any of them appear to have genuine moments of reflection or inspiration, something explodes or someone is in danger and the system resets to default turmoil and conflict. Great way to hook bored viewers back into watching. Do yourself a favor and skip this show. If you want some fun sci-fi/info about space travel, try The Expanse, the new Lost In Space, The Martian, Interstellar, Apollo 13, or hell, even Star Trek. If you want something more drama heavy, try The First Man, or the television show The First. However, The First has only one season, which is a tragedy. Hopefully, any future mission to Mars will be NOTHING like this story.