Raised by Wolves is a HBOmax original science fiction series created by Aaron Guzikowski. It tells the saga of two androids, who arrives on Kepler-22b (a life inhabitable planet) commanded with the mission to raise children (From the frozen embryos that they brought with them) as atheist for Earth was annihilated by wars fought upon its people’s religious beliefs.
In spite of having the potential to become the next big series for HBO, over the course of its 10 episodes it struggles to provide a coherent narrative. The quality varies on its story telling although the gorgeousness of its visuals and production remained constant.
The premise of the story is super interesting, a kinda of lord of the flies-esque commentary on the innocence or the animalistic nature of humans in the wild where we are not shackled by the morals of the society which were projected through the trapped children away from urban civilization and it also borrows the aspect from the ABC’s television milestone LOST, of its usage of the mystery of the unknown land as a tool to advance the plot further.
The Androids “Mother” and “Father” played by Amanda Collins and Abubakar Salim are the stars of the show owing to the actors' believable performance as machines who do not comprehend human emotion and as uncompromising Guardians who are driven towards the completion of their mission despite of their failings and also due to their Character being extensively written even though towards the end of season the writers played little too carelessly with them, making them less android (being which was the very thing made these character really interesting); Mother’s shriek of pain because of her fetus and Father feeling jealous over Mother’s impregnation was certain notable instances that made them inconsistent of their portrayal. Aside from the androids, Travis Fimmel’s Caleb (of Viking fame) Commanded the attention of the viewers every time he was present, while the rest of the character was ill developed and showcased motivations that are downright confusing, Campion who was supposed to be the John connor of the show became annoying as Carl from walking dead and all the other characters especially the children were forgettable.
Also, the story had multiple plots running along. Most of the moments these plots provided fell flat for not having the sufficient time to develop emotion onto its audience. At time it seemed that three seasons of story line was rushed into one as the idea seemed intriguing but the execution was premature. Raised by wolves also had a terrific villain in the prisoner/rapist which the series desperately needed halfway into the series, but how the writers used him was the series' biggest missed opportunity. And usage of pseudoscience in most places instead of actual science is a big letdown.
All that being said, the involvement of Ridley Scott alone should make you watch this series as it has all of his sci-fi flairs. Alongside being the producer of the series, he also directed the first two episodes, which could stand head-to-head against any Sci fi movies ever created. Further, the Lore of the series is very rich and is waiting to be explored, in spite of the missed opportunities in this season the density of stories that could be told in the “Raised by wolves universe” in the future make errors that it made negligible.
Verdict
Regardless
of the series' issues such as presenting the characters with confusing
motivations, mishandling the should have-been main villain and making
the androids less android-y towards the end, it still presents a sci-fi
universe that is rich of its mythos which should recruit a loyal fan
base, salivating to consume any future installments.
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