The Man Who Fell to Earth: Season 1 Finale: Unique and Tender

I just want to begin by saying The Man Who Fell to Earth 2022 TV series was one of the most beautiful, unusual, almost tender pieces of science fiction that has ever come to the screen.  And the season finale on Showtime last night excelled in all those virtues.

[Spoilers ahead ...]

Newton finally became almost a mentch, admitting he had love for Faraday.  And although Newton keeps saying they're won't be any room on the ship from Anthea to Earth for any drones, Faraday is going to make sure he gets his family on board, anyway.

But speaking of family, I very much liked the way Faraday and Justin parted.  The two clearly love each other, too. The big story may be the tale of two different worlds, one on the verge of death, the other not that from it.  But the people we've met, and see in action especially in this finale, are very much alive and have lots of life ahead.

Back to Newton.  First, what an acting job by Bill Nighy!  And what delightful details.  One of my favorite lines in the overall series is Newton saying maybe it's time to kick the habit of smoking.  As I said, he's becoming a mentch.

And rather than commenting on the rest of the finale, let me instead say how much more there is to this story.  Faraday blasted off.  Wouldn't it be great to see what happens when he gets back to Anthea?  Wouldn't it be satisfying and fun to see what happens when he gets back to Earth?

The answer of course is yes.  So bring on another season.  And in the meantime, kudos to everyone who helped make this first season so good.  In addition to Nighy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Clarke Peters, and Naomie Harris were great in their roles.  Tell us more!

See also The Man Who Fell to Earth 1.1: Great Provenance and Excellent Start ... 1.2: The Ending We Needed ... 1.3: "I've come with a prototype ... " 1.4: "Tell my wife I love her very much ... " ... 1.5: Co-Mingling ... 1.6: Music of the Spheres ... 1.7 Game Changes ... 1.8: Battle at the Nunnery ... 1.9: Just Deserts

The Man Who Fell to Earth 1.1: Great Provenance and Excellent Start

The Man Who Fell to Earth, which debuted tonight on Showtime as a ten-episode television series, has a long and distinguished history.  The novel of the same name by Walter Tevis was published in 1963 to critical acclaim.  I didn't read it, because I had switched as a teenager by then from science fiction to rock music as my passion, and didn't go back to science fiction until a few decades years later -- Philip K. Dick's 1962 The Man in the High Castle had made it just under wire.  Meanwhile, The Man Who Fell to Earth was made into 1976 movie starring David Bowie which I saw and loved, and which also received critical acclaim.  A 1987 made-for-television movie followed, which I'm pretty sure I didn't see, and certainly can't remember.  A now this new Showtime series.

I just saw the first episode and really liked it.  In addition to the multiple provenance of the story from the novel, this new series also has echoes of the superb 1984 movie Starman starring Jeff Bridges and the also superb movie, also from 1984, The Brother from Another Planet starring Joe Morton.  So, to be clear, saying that the first episode of this new series is reminiscent of those two great movies is high praise indeed. Both movies have lots of humor, poking fun at the mores of the day, and the new Man Who Fell to Earth looks to have plenty of the same.  Both movies also have some serious punchlines, and it looks like the new series has those, too.  And, like The Brother from Another Planet, this Man Who Fell to Earth is Black, and his initiation into the culture of our planet will be mainly through people of color in the United States.

Like all of these other narratives, this visitor from a distant planet is both very bright and mostly clueless about our customs here on Earth.  We may or may not find out the reason for this cluelessness during the series -- usually, it's some variation of the crisis was so severe on that planet far out into space, that the visitor and/or his people didn't have time to properly research us.  (If the scientists on this other planet had submitted their plan for Earth to an academic journal, it would probably wouldn't have passed peer review.) The new series begins with the visitor addressing an assembled group of dignitaries or whomever, speaking in perfect English, strutting around like some kind of combination of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, with flashbacks to the time he first got here.  I think this kind of flashback approach is overdone in narratives these days, and the story would have been better off if told in real sequence, but that's ok.

I thought Chiwetel Ejiofor was excellent as the man who fell, as was Naomie Harris as the woman who reluctantly helps him but you know that will be much more, and it's too soon to tell about everyone else. But I'll definitely be back here next week and after to tell you what I think of the ensuing episodes.

first spaceship to Alpha Centauri from Mars