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Away

(Streaming release: 4 September 2020, Netflix / Andrew Hinderaker, creator of series as inspired by Chris Jones' Esquire article titled "Away—The Launch" / Jason Katims, Matt Reeves, Jessica Goldberg, Edward Zwick, etc., producers / True Jack Productions, 6th & Idaho, Refuge Inc., Universal Television / Sci fi, Drama)

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WE can now treat Away as a miniseries (limited series), or a long piece by playwright Andrew Hinderaker (with help from six other writers), a potential second season having been canceled in October. In his review of the film on WXIX-TV, critic TT Stern-Enzi said: "What provides most of the fascination and drama is just how deep the technology is, and what's there...." As for the characterization, Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe wrote: "Each of the actors gradually deepens his or her character, so that they aren’t simply the clichés of their respective countries as written. Emma faces sexism, particularly from Misha, and she faces disdain from the subdued Lu, who dislikes Emma’s willingness to display her emotions publicly. They all form a dynamic ensemble, especially as, in almost every episode, something goes wrong with the machinery or with the interpersonal strains on board. Again, they’re all ultimately good people, but, like so much in this positive, feel-good show, tolerably so."
    Now, after watching the series, we were convinced that the show most delivers on what Deadline Hollywood editor-in-chief Nellie Andreeva described as what the yet-to-be-launched project promised to be eloquent on: "hope, humanity and how, ultimately, we need one another if we are to achieve impossible things." It's a message that, in our time of geographic and cultural wall-making, must perhaps needs be seen both from a distance and within a confined space.
    As Esquire's own 35 best TV series of 2020 end-of-the-year listing's notes puts it right on the money: "Set in a not-so-distant, much more globalist future, Netflix’s Away follows the first (wo)manned mission to Mars, a massive international undertaking by five powerhouse nations . . . captained by Commander Emma Green (Hilary Swank), a tough, brave, and selfless NASA veteran, who is soon keelhauled by personal tragedy when her husband Matt (Josh Charles) is paralyzed by a stroke. . . . In a time when so many of us are so far from the people who feel like home, Away is a dazzling show about the final frontier, but also a welcome parable about the matters of the heart that matter most, even in the face of unprecedented human progress."
    Emma Green for President!

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