Netflix's 'Another Life' has a great cast but viewers find predictable plot unbearably melodramatic
In Netflix’s ‘Another Life’, Commander Niko Breckinridge (Katee Sackhoff) leads her crew on a dangerous and historic mission to discover alien life after a mysterious U.F.O. lands on Earth. The premise almost feels like 'Star Trek' with bits of 'Stargate' thrown in. In fact, the show takes inspiration from a lot of classic sci-fi stories but despite excellent performances by some of the cast, audiences don’t seem to have appreciated the show’s more dramatic elements.
“It was like watching Big Brother in space,” said Reddit user u/admlshake. “Most of those people on the ship would never in a million years have passed a psych eval for space travel. Most of them came off like they wouldn't know how to handle the drive through at starbucks being out of their normal blend.”
Meanwhile, on Twitter, users have complained that the series seems to have thrown together a bunch of sci-fi cliches into an unappetizing mixture that is unworthy of being associated with actors like Sackhoff and Selma Blair, who plays journalist Harper Glass on the show.
“Netflix's #AnotherLife is inane, tedious drivel. It's like they grabbed every clichéd sci-fi trope they could find and threw them into a blender with a lot of unnecessary swearing. Katee Sackhoff and Selma Blair deserved better. Oh well, at least the ship's AI is cute,” user Richard said. Despite the general negativity, at least some viewers said the show does get better in its later episodes.
“The plot is filled with so much unnecessary drama I can’t even comprehend it,” said Reddit user u/Kultteri. “I did still make it through the season but I skipped about 2/5 of it. The last 4 or 3 episodes were surprisingly good as they did something for the plot as a whole and gave light to what actually is going on. There [are] a few interesting unpredictable twists to the plot which did somewhat save the series for me but all in all the plot was predictable but not bad. And for the love of satan if there will be a second season DO NOT fill it with that crazy, stupid, unrealistic sh*t you try to sell us as drama. It did nothing for the plot but just scares everyone away.”
“All in all the series was not good thanks to it being too busy handing us B-class movie drama. If this season had been 6 episodes long I know I would’ve actually liked it,” the post added. “If you are planning on watching this don’t be afraid to skip to the latter half of the season. You won’t miss anything important but all the anger-inducing sh*t.”
Another Reddit user, u/Infiltrator41, pointed out that except for the flaws in the writing, the show was more or less enjoyable, especially during the finale. “The first half hour was good, and the last episode of the season was good. Everything in between was Big Brother or Dawson's Creek, with a distant backdrop of Alien, Stargate or Star Trek. The show was everything and nothing at the same time. I pulled through because the sci-fi was pretty decent and Katee Sackhoff. But I could have done without the melodrama and the poorly written conflict and relationship crap between the crew. I mean honestly who sends the graduating class of Degrassi High to space as humanity's last hope?”
Judging from the general reactions online, ‘Another Life’ isn’t entirely irredeemable but if the show gets a second season, they will need to minimize the drama (which does, to be fair, get a bit tiresome) and give audiences more of the sci-fi madness that they signed up for.
With a stellar cast including Samuel Anderson, Greg Hovanessian, Elizabeth Faith Ludlow, Alex Ozerov and others, not to mention legends of the industry like Sackhoff and Blair, ‘Another Life’ has the potential to be much better than what it was in season 1. Here’s hoping the show gets a chance to right its wrongs.
If you’d like to form your own opinion of the show, all ten episodes of ‘Another Life’ Season 1 are currently available for streaming on Netflix.