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Ridley Scott, the man behind ‘Alien’ and ‘Blade Runner’, delivers a supercooled science fiction series with ‘Raised by Wolves’ in which two robots want to start a new civilization on Earth.
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Can robots raise human children and rebuild civilization on Earth? That is the premise of ‘Raised by Wolves’. The ten-part science fiction series premiered last year on HBO Max, the streaming platform of the American pay channel. It is the first major title from the HBO Max range from which the Flemish Streamz from next week can draw.
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Raised by Wolves is not easy. That will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Ridley Scott’s SF work. The now 83-year-old British director is known for his visually appealing but very complicated stories. Although ‘Blade Runner’ is today considered one of the greatest science fiction films of all time in terms of content and form, in 1982 the general public was not sure what to do with it. Initially, ‘Alien’ (1979) was not a great commercial success either.
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Scott was never in the habit of telling rosy SF stories. That hasn’t changed. Raised by Wolves revolves around two androids – machine humans, if you like – who fled Earth after it was destroyed in a religious war. On the planet Kepler-22b somewhere deep in the galaxy, Mother and Father, as they are called and also address each other remotely all the time, arrive with in their backpack some human embryos with which they want to start a new civilization.
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Manipulative
It must become a society free from religion and idolatry. But parenting is not going well for Mother and Father. After twelve years, only one of their six human children survives. Why does the viewer find out little by little. The loss of their children makes them question their worth as parents. Out of self-interest, Mother kidnaps other human children who have meanwhile arrived on the planet. Her only ‘real’ child starts to resist her. It soon turns out that the kidnapped children are religious. That clashes with her atheism.
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Watch the Raised by Wolves trailer here
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Parenthood and religion run like a thread through the ten episodes. It is sometimes amusing and recognizable how the two robots struggle with parenthood and walk up the walls due to the manipulative nature of their human children.
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Humor is hard to find, except sometimes with Vader.
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Mother and Father are played by two unknown actors: the Danish Amanda Collin and the Briton Abubakar Salim. No matter how well they play, it is difficult to sympathize with their characters. Is it because of the cold way they treat each other and their offspring? Or is it the clinical way in which the series is portrayed? Kepler-22b is an inhospitable planet. Dull, dusty and gray, every inhabitant is full of paranoia and fear: for each other, for the punishments of god, for the crushing responsibilities of parenthood. Humor is also hard to find, except sometimes with Vader.
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©HBO Max
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The greyness is impressively portrayed. Scott and co. – the Briton directed the first two episodes, but is the producer of the entire series – went to film in a crater-like no man’s land in South Africa. Gray-blue dominates. The camera work is amazing, the special effects are spectacular. Also visually strong is the moment when Mother’s pale skin turns into bronze-colored armor and she rises into the air, arms spread. Then the series takes on something Biblical.
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‘Raised by Wolves’ is a cross between the dystopian nature of ‘Battlestar Galactica’ and the mechanics of the ‘Terminator’ films. You really have to sit down for it. The episodes start slowly but take an intriguing turn every time in the very last minutes, so that you want to continue watching.
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‘Raised by Wolves’ can be viewed on Streamz from 10 May.
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