Reviewed by Jay Andrews Tracy
Review Rating: 6.5 out of 10
What would it like to travel to Mars? The crew of the show Away finds that out. They find out what it would be like to be away from loved ones, and what kind of mental toll it takes on a human being to be in space for that long.
Emma Green (Hilary Swank) leaves her husband Matt Logan (Josh Charles) to be one of the first colonists on Mars. She commands a ship called the Atlas that takes them on the journey. The story develops each character really well.
Emma has a daughter named Alexis (Tabitha Bateman), who has a hard time dealing with her mother traveling through space, being both emotionally and physically distant. The characters develop and we find out who they are as the show progresses. The character development is pretty good, and we get to know who they all are by the end of the season, wanting to know what happens to them after.
Emma misses a lot of her daughter’s growing up phase. She, Emma, ends up getting a boyfriend, and doing things she is not supposed to do, and that is more or less caused by her missing her mother. I think that if we did do a Mars mission, that it would have to be someone who doesn’t have any attachments on Earth. I think that the struggles would be too realistic for both parties. Everyone who was on the ship has some sort of ties to someone special to them. Emma as not the only person who is experiencing space travel problems.
The ship the Atlas is designed to keep all the astronauts occupying it safe. Throughout the mission they experience problems with the ship – the water system breaks, and various other types of issues that they might or would encounter on a long trip if it was a real space exploration.
The crew experiences problems mentally and physically due to it being a very long trip, making it hard to do their common functions properly. They have mental break downs along with losing vision, they try to keep it realistic on what would actually happen if they embark on this mission in real life.
With the Corona virus with us and many people are staying at home trying to find something to do, this is a good way to relax. The show could use some more action to it, but it is well written, and it was written and created by Andrew Hindraker. The only thing that I had recognized that he has written other then Away was Penny Dreadful.
This is no Star Trek, but it is a great story nevertheless, and we’re already plenty inundated with that anyway. It is close to what I think they would have experienced in real life. Even though this is not real life, obviously, because we have not been to Mars yet. I think that if more people watched the show it would still be a show with future seasons.
The story is a space drama. There is not very much action in it but it is suspenseful at times. Netflix has cancelled this show, not entirely sure why. It is well written and I would love to find out what happens after they reach Mars.