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Raised by Wolves TV-MA 2020 - 2022 2 ... 80% Avg. Tomatometer 72 Reviews 81% Avg. Audience Score 1,000+ Ratings Two androids are tasked with raising human children on a mysterious virgin planet ...
- (72)
- Amanda Collin
- TV-MA
- 2
- Ridley Scott revisits his roots.
- Raised By Wolves: Season 1 Photos
- Verdict
By Siddhant Adlakha
Updated: Sep 4, 2020 2:32 am
Posted: Sep 3, 2020 5:50 pm
This is a spoiler-free review of HBO Max's Raised By Wolves. For our spoiler-filled deep-dive into the first three episodes, check out our Raised By Wolves premiere breakdown. For more from our exclusive IGN Premiere preview of Raised By Wolves, watch our Raised By Wolves trailer debut, and see how Raised By Wolves utilizes Ridley Scott's distinctive aesthetics and themes in our trailer analysis.
Raised by Wolves feels like the logical next step in Ridley Scott’s career. The Alien and Blade Runner director has returned to artificially intelligent characters in recent years with films like Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, so it follows that his first US TV directing gig would be about gradually deteriorating AI wrestling against their programming on a mysterious, far-flung world.
The HBO Max series, which released its first three episodes on Thursday, September 3, was created by Prisoners scribe Aaron Guzikowski with Scott on board as executive producer. Scott also helmed the first two installments - setting the stage for a 10-part saga that feels at once new and familiar - before passing episode 3 onto his son Luke (who directed several supplemental short films for Blade Runner 2049, Alien: Covenant, and The Martian). This father-son handoff is fitting; Raised by Wolves centers on a pair of humanoid androids tasked with raising a new generation of human children, exploring the limits of their own humanity — and their own inhumanity — in the process.
The first episode is focused mostly on this makeshift interstellar family, while the second and third flesh out the backstories of two Mithraic characters in particular — Marcus (Travis Fimmel) and Sue (Niamh Algar) — in manners both delightful and surprising, positioning them as thematic mirrors to Mother and Father in ways best left unspoiled. The show is constantly twisting its screws, throwing new sci-fi concepts at the wall at breakneck speed, though they seem to stick for the most part. No genre element is introduced without the express purpose of exploring its characters and exacerbating their crises of identity, even if it takes a while to get a handle on what the premise actually is (the “who” and “why” of Earth’s collapse is left frustratingly oblique, even when it seems like the central focus).
However, these specifics become a secondary concern when someone like Ridley Scott is at the helm. The opening scenes promise a wildly idiosyncratic story in the vein of Scott gleefully toying with his creations, a career-long instinct that appeared to come to Frankensteinian fruition in Alien: Covenant. Here, though, body horror takes a back seat, even though some elements undoubtedly carry over.
The main focus appears to be nature of the nuclear family — a familiar structure in the face of societal deterioration — from the ways it protects, to the ways in which it stifles. As much as the show is about characters coming physically undone (and about Scott’s signature, milky android innards), it’s also a story about white lies and betrayals; horrors that go hand-in-hand with emotional intimacy.
There’s a real weight to everything that happens, but it wouldn’t be a post-Prometheus Scott story if it weren’t also incredibly fun to watch. The family’s bland bodysuits and floppy, uniform hats feel winkingly retro-futuristic. (I sometimes wondered if the show was based on a series of decades old pulp sci-fi novels; to my delight, it’s wholly original.) What makes the show especially enticing is Mother and Father themselves — especially Amanda Collin, who oscillates fearlessly between maternal and terrifying, in a performance that teeters on the edge of madness but never fails to be empathetic. The Scotts even shoot Mother the way they shoot this new planet: in one moment it’s home, warm and welcoming. In the next, it’s filmed in shadow, as untold dangers lurk within its hidden corners. (Fittingly, cinematographer Dariusz Wolski shoots the first two episodes before handing the camera over to his Alien: Covenant second unit director Ross Emery, who also shot a trio of Covenant shorts, thus keeping it all in the family).
To put it simply, Raised by Wolves is peak Ridley Scott. Though what appears to separate it from his android predecessors (Alien, Blade Runner, and his Alien prequels) is something all too fitting for a show coming out in 2020. Where the aforementioned works all featured androids in somewhat functioning human societies — even those taking place on distant worlds — Raised by Wolves continues this exploration amidst an ever-shifting status quo, in which any semblance of societal function seems like a luxury of the past. Humanity’s remnants exist in the radioactive afterglow of a world torn apart by extreme, irreconcilable convictions. So rather than a story of androids figuring out how they fit into an ostensibly normal world, the show pushes this familiar premise into unfamiliar territory, as technological beings are forced to reckon not only with what humanity is, but what it once was — the worst parts of it, which undoubtedly led to its downfall.
In addition to protective and parental instincts, this appetite for destruction, and penchant for clutching tightly to one’s beliefs, is as much a part of the programming Mother and Father need to reckon with. And so, Raised by Wolves holds a terrifying amount of relevance — at least initially, though it seems poised to keep up its momentum.
With Raised by Wolves, legendary director Ridley Scott expands on his android explorations from films like Alien and Blade Runner (and more recently, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant) before handing the reins to his son Luke for episode 3. The atmosphere in these premiere episodes veers between welcoming and dangerous, as androids named “Mother” and ...
- Siddhant Adlakha
Sep 2, 2020 · By Mike Hale. Sept. 2, 2020. Ridley Scott, when he’s in his great-man-of-science-fiction mode, can be counted on to deliver a signature image. In the new series “Raised by Wolves,” it’s a ...
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Sep 3, 2020 · This is an epic sci-fi show with grand and beautiful visual effects... Every episode will leave you with questions. Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10 | Oct 3, 2020. Raised by Wolves may be too ...
Sep 3, 2020 · Link Copied! Abubakar Salim and Amanda Collin in 'Raised by Wolves.'. “Raised by Wolves” might be the year’s most original series, an audaciously cerebral science-fiction concept that covers ...
Aug 28, 2020 · Over the course of a deep sleep during the ark’s transportation, in which everyone’s mind is able to hang out while their bodies are asleep, Marcus and Sue grow close to Paul. When the boy is taken by Mother, Marcus and Sue scheme to manipulate a group of heavily devout Mithraic searchers on Kepler-22B to get Paul back.
Oct 2, 2020 · Posted: Oct 1, 2020 6:35 pm. This is a spoiler-filled review of Raised By Wolves Season 1. All episodes are now streaming on HBO Max, and the show has already been renewed for a Season 2. Ridley ...
