Liverpool Sound and Vison Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Amanda Collin, Abubaker Salim, Winta McGrath, Travis Fimmel, Niamh Algar, Jordan Loughran, Felix Jamieson, Ethan Hazzard, Aasiya Shah, Ivy Wong, Matias Varela, Loulou Taylor, Susan Danford, Litha Bam, Shoko Yoshimura, Jenna Upton, Daniel Lasker, Garth Breytenbach, Clayton Evertson, Morgan Santo, Peter Christoffersen, Carel Nel, Selina Jones, James Harkness, Kim Engelbrecht.
The first series of Raised By Wolves was arguably one of the darker illustrations of science fiction television to be broadcast in quite some time, not surprising when the wealth of talent behind the scenes is examined and celebrated, but it is to its second outing in front of the viewers in which the tension, the drama, and the performance, have combined to make the dystopian scenes, the bleached out aspect of other worldliness and horror that awaits the colonists, almost too much for the senses to handle.
A feeling of discord, unsettling, the confirmation of many of the tropes that have congealed and thickened the genre over the course of decades, is to be found nestling at the heart of story; the bleakness faced by the survivors of humanity’s folly, the deep-down distrust that we have in android-kind, especially of those that have evolved past our own intellectual grasp, natural cunning, and even sentimental nurturing, Raised By Wolves is the realisation of the spectre that follows naturally from films such as the Alien franchise…no surprise when the godfather of the genre, Ridley Scott is involved in an executive role.
One of the stark realities of the genre is that the events portrayed could happen. We don’t know what is waiting for us should we start to journey out to the stars, what we will need to survive, what the ground beneath our feet contains, and if the bleakness of the time to come resembles all that Human kind has so far endured and placed upon itself, then it is no wonder that serials such as Raised By Wolves hit home with the force of a wrecking ball against the mind, crushing hope, but imploring upon us a sense of moral continuance, the desire to live on even in the midst of fierce despair.
The mythic element to the series adds a distinct flavour to the overall arc, and in its second series this mythological standpoint reaches new heights of intrigue and inventiveness, splicing historical and almost biblical allusions together to create a dynamic that reaches its crescendo with alarming brilliance.
With Selina Jones joining a superb cast as the mysterious android known as Grandmother, and Amanda Collin, Abubaker Salim, Winta McGrath, Travis Fimmel, and Niamh Algar all catching the attention of the viewer, Raised By Wolves is a dystopian dream, an almost forgotten art when set in the darkness of space, and one that it is hoped will further whet the appetite with a third series in the not too distant future.
Ian D. Hall