With Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, Ridley Scott explored heady concepts of creation and religion through the eyes of an android longing to understand humanity. Executive producer Scott now passes the baton to Aaron Guzikowski (Prisoners), the series creator of HBO Max’s Raised by Wolves. This high concept series uses a sentient android as the focal point of its eerie and ambitious sci-fi fable, spinning out an expansive mythos that’s uneven in execution.
Raised by Wolves kicks off with androids Mother (Amanda Collin) and Father (Abubakar Salim) landing on Kepler-22b with human embryos after Earth has been rendered uninhabitable. They’ve been programmed with raising these embryos, to give humanity a chance to start anew. However, their new home isn’t quite the same as Earth and quickly proves an unforgiving, inhospitable place. Twelve years later, only one child remains, and the arrival of an Ark of surviving humans, a religious group called the Mithraic, presents an added threat for Mother’s end goals that she’s forced to confront.
Of the six episodes screened, Guzikowski is juggling multiple story threads at once. There’s Campion (Winta McGrath), the sole surviving child, who struggles with his morality and bond with his android parents. There’s the strange religious Mithraic and their past on Earth, with warrior Marcus (Travis Fimmel) providing the entry point in their story. Kepler-22b presents an elusive mystery; though creatures are teased and hinted throughout, much of this planet intriguingly remains a secret. The biggest storyline belongs to Mother, a cunning, dangerous figure clinging to her objective with terrifying ferocity while longing for more. It’s a lot, and yet the series struggles to maintain momentum as it pivots between characters and narrative threads.
Much of this has to do with its characters, and also in how the writing remains too conservative with doling out answers. Outside of Mother, there’s not much depth to any of the central players. It works for Father, a supportive android with simpler programming, but less so for Marcus, Campion, and the remaining supporting characters. Outside of a kernel of motivation, these characters still aren’t well defined. Through Collin’s riveting performance, Mother’s emotional journey, and the quest for answers make everything else pale in comparison. That means that whenever she’s not on the screen, the series starts to drag. Except, that is, for the hints of world-building that has yet to fully reveal itself.
The core conflict of science versus religion and the exploration of religion as a destructive force feel familiar, especially in a post-apocalyptic setting. Combine that with a cast of archetypical, derivative characters that don’t offer easy rooting interest, and you have a series that shouldn’t work. Yet, Raised by Wolves does successfully reel you into its bizarre world. It owes an outstanding debt to Collin’s compelling portrayal of Mother, and in the way this android continues to surprise. The series is also an operatic sci-fi spectacle, full of fantastic visuals and thrilling sequences of action and bloodshed. It helps that the first two episodes, helmed by Scott, immediately reel you into this enigmatic universe.
So far, Raised by Wolves is an ambitious series that manages to retread the same pitfalls of its sci-fi influences, yet stumbles through anyway thanks to its captivating lead android and the exciting promise of a creature-filled world we’ve only yet begun to explore. Unsurprisingly, the humans are the least interesting aspect of this show, but the eccentricities and otherworldliness of everything else charm nonetheless. For all the silliness within, it’s impossible to look away from the screen. Even with its flaws, it’s an immersive series full of intriguing imagery that leaves you curious for more.
The first three episodes of Raised by Wolves release on HBO Max on September 3, 2020.
