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Lost in Space (Season 1 review)
Apr. 16th, 2018 12:38 pmI‘ve never watched the original Lost in Space. I gathered a few things in fannish osmosis, plus I did see the movie some years back which I also gathered many of the original show fans hated, and which did not find a new audience, either, and thus flopped and disappeared from publich consciousness. (Yours truly recalls feeling indifferent.) Which means I went in watching this new version of the tale with the following background info by osmosis and flopped movie watching:
- the original show was an optimistic 60s tale, in which Bill Mumy, aka Lennier in Babylon 5, was the child hero Will
- There was a robot, with the catch phrase „danger, Will Robinson“
- The original show‘s pilot introduced one Dr. Smith as a dangerous villain, but in subsequent episodes he almost immediately became instead a silly, non-threatening villain, and also camp (in the flopped film, he‘s dangerous again and played by Gary Oldman at his craziest, but then the entire film was GRIMDARK in capital letters, which I take it pissed the original fans off)
- The Robinsons were a family of geniuses, idyllic in the original, grimdark dysfunctional in the flopped movie.
Now, due to the movie not having left much of an impression, I might or might not have watched the new series, but then I realised Toby Stephens was in it (as family father John Robinson), and also Dr. Smith is a woman this time around. (Amoral female villains still being far rarer than the male variety, this was a plus.) So I thought, okay, I‘ll check this out. Now, having marathoned it, there‘s the irony that what sold me on this newest version and made me like it a lot isn‘t either Toby Stephens (he‘s reliably good, but has essentially a solid supporting role) nor female Dr. Smith (they do some interesting things with her and avoid various trapfalls, but one of those trapfalls they avoid is making the villain the quippy, cool character). It‘s Maureen Robinson, and also the kids. Oh, and the robot, yeah, him, too.
But really: Maureen. ( Read more... )
- the original show was an optimistic 60s tale, in which Bill Mumy, aka Lennier in Babylon 5, was the child hero Will
- There was a robot, with the catch phrase „danger, Will Robinson“
- The original show‘s pilot introduced one Dr. Smith as a dangerous villain, but in subsequent episodes he almost immediately became instead a silly, non-threatening villain, and also camp (in the flopped film, he‘s dangerous again and played by Gary Oldman at his craziest, but then the entire film was GRIMDARK in capital letters, which I take it pissed the original fans off)
- The Robinsons were a family of geniuses, idyllic in the original, grimdark dysfunctional in the flopped movie.
Now, due to the movie not having left much of an impression, I might or might not have watched the new series, but then I realised Toby Stephens was in it (as family father John Robinson), and also Dr. Smith is a woman this time around. (Amoral female villains still being far rarer than the male variety, this was a plus.) So I thought, okay, I‘ll check this out. Now, having marathoned it, there‘s the irony that what sold me on this newest version and made me like it a lot isn‘t either Toby Stephens (he‘s reliably good, but has essentially a solid supporting role) nor female Dr. Smith (they do some interesting things with her and avoid various trapfalls, but one of those trapfalls they avoid is making the villain the quippy, cool character). It‘s Maureen Robinson, and also the kids. Oh, and the robot, yeah, him, too.
But really: Maureen. ( Read more... )
