AWAY (Netflix)

[HugeLobes]

What struck me is that they depicted China government in a not very favorable way. Lately Hollywood was terrified of offending China in any way so as not to lose their market.

I think that’s mainly big action movies that have come to rely on China for high box office returns. Netflix isn’t even available in China, so they probably don’t much care. Also, they weren’t particularly hostile towards the Chinese government.

The fact that this is very obviously a Chinese woman created for Western viewers could be seen as a problem itself, of course, especially since she had very little actual character. That was one thing that made me turn off, tbh.

 

[Mojochi]

Watched the whole season. Only boredom kept me from giving up a number of times. It's a pretty looking show, & there's an interesting sci-fi aspect now & then, but ultimately I just can't get around the issue of it being one the absolute least realistic portrayals of NASA astronaut behavior I've ever seen. These people would never have made it to launch, let alone another planet

 

[Aragorn]

Well compared to Another Life, the people on Away are the greatest astronauts to ever live.

 

[HugeLobes]

Watched the whole season. Only boredom kept me from giving up a number of times. It's a pretty looking show, & there's an interesting sci-fi aspect now & then, but ultimately I just can't get around the issue of it being one the absolute least realistic portrayals of NASA astronaut behavior I've ever seen. These people would never have made it to launch, let alone another planet

They stretched it way too far. Look at Apollo 13. They definitely put in conflict between the astronauts that wasn't there originally, but they didn't take away any sense of professionalism. I know that movie has a very different tone, but I wish Away had adopted that kind of balance. I get a little more annoyed by it the more I think of it. Maybe it gets better, but the Jewish British-Ghanaian almost seemed like a bad joke about tokenism.

 

[Mojochi]

They stretched it way too far. Look at Apollo 13. They definitely put in conflict between the astronauts that wasn't there originally, but they didn't take away any sense of professionalism. I know that movie has a very different tone, but I wish Away had adopted that kind of balance.

You have to expect some dramatization, & I'm pretty lenient about it when it comes to astronauts, who, when involved in their business, are some of the dullest sounding people there are lol. Apollo 13 & The Martian, have plenty of artistic license with the behavior, but it walks the line just right imho, where I can still buy into it

This isn't about astronauts at all. It's a piece about a conflicted professional mom, her debilitated family, & her dysfunctional multicultural working environment, played to the tune of life & death stakes, set against a deep space mission backdrop. Seriously, being astronauts is almost irrelevant at points

 

[Skipper]

You have to expect some dramatization, & I'm pretty lenient about it when it comes to astronauts, who, when involved in their business, are some of the dullest sounding people there are lol.

Here you are right. The First Man was lauded for its faithful depiction of Neil Armstrong, and really, he seemed the most boring person on Earth

 

[Bornin1980something]

They really aren't astronauts, any more than the various Trek characters are. They simply use space for a backdrop.

That's a point, I always felt that Star Trek lacked that outer space feel. I don't get it from Star Wars, either, and I rarely get it in Doctor Who. I suppose the only Trek character I can really imagine as an astronaut is B'elanna Torres. Real astronauts are pretty extraordinary people. There is just something different about them. As another poster pointed out, though, they really can come across as boring due to the level of procedure that goes into their work. I suspect a lot of real spaceflight is like aviation, reading from checklists and saying little else.

I'm now two episodes into Away. So far, I think am finding the Russian most engaging. And while the character work may be weak, the outer space visuals are the best I've seen for a while, even down to totally convincing feed camera footage. All this courtesy of David Boyd, famous for its pioneering photographic work on Firefly.

Also, I laughed out loud when I saw the caption 'Lunar Base Alpha'!

 

[BillJ]

Also, I laughed out loud when I saw the caption 'Lunar Base Alpha'!

I didn’t get that until you mentioned it.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Been watching this as a family and it's been thoroughly entertaining. No, if you're looking for hard sci-fi, you won't find it here. But for what it is, I think it's really great. Been finding the writing and the acting really good, and one thing that has really impressed us is when they do the character backstories, exploring not only the character but their language and cultures as well and that's added some good depth to the characters and their complexity. Science-wise, yeah, there are a lot of technical errors, but we've been entertained enough to let those slide because we feel it has excelled in a lot of other places where so few have. The writing we feel has been fairly smart without feeling pretentious.

There's a line in the 8th episode that Emma says she had a telescope that was bought at Walmart as a kid and she couldn't see a thing with it. That rings true, because that's something Amateur Astronomers have been suggesting against for pretty much ever, as department store scopes have a tendency to be shaky and frustrating to use and with inadequate eyepieces, and it's so nice and refreshing to see something finally acknowledge that.

 

[TimeTravellingWhale]

The Series has been canceled.
https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/netflix-cancels-away-1234810392/

I stopped watching after the solar panel thingy cause the scriptwriting was just too unrealistic for me.
No professional astronaut would EVER do something like that

 

[Reverend]

Yeah, I'm only a few episodes in and this show isn't doing it for me. WAY too much personal drama for what's supposed to be a bunch of seasoned professional astronauts. There's plenty of ways to have drama in space without resorting to THIS kind of petty nonsense.

Here you are right. The First Man was lauded for its faithful depiction of Neil Armstrong, and really, he seemed the most boring person on Earth

Which is exactly the sort of person you want in that job. "Exciting" people are way more likely to crash billion dollar space ships while the whole world watches.

 

[tama.maigo]

Judging by the number of post here, this show was not a hit. I started watching recently and am enjoying it. Yea it's a bit soapy, but why not? I was hoping they would renew it, but I guess they cancelled it.
I liked the poker scene.

 

[Kerock]

Similar to another life, but I didn't have to cringe like I did every time Katee threw out the F word. Much better for family watching.

 

[Bornin1980something]

Well, if it's never revived, I can say it had a satisfactory ending.