The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Early bumps, but ‘Raised by Wolves’ intrigues
HBO Max series doesn’t reach full potential but has strengths
There’s no way around it: “Raised by Wolves” gets off to a rough start.
The new HBO Max science-fiction drama — the first three episodes of which launched Sept. 3 on the WarnerMedia-owned streaming platform — begins with a female android, Mother (Amanda Collin), and her male counterpart, Father (Abubakar Salim), landing on a planet called Kepler-22b.
Each artificial being is dressed rather ridiculously and, as illustrated through stiff, robot-ian dialogue, realizes part of its programming is to care about the well-being of the other.
For much of the first episode — directed by executive producer and veteran filmmaker Ridley Scott (“Alien,” “Prometheus”) — you worry “Raised by Wolves” may always seem ludicrous, a fear compounded when a deeply upset Mother decides to, in fact, howl like a wolf. Yikes. However, based on a viewing of the first six episodes — those made available in advance for review — the series largely finds its footing and tells a mildly entertaining and thought-provoking story about human children being brought up by artificially intelligent beings. Although rarely captivating, it can be taken seriously and offers a few stirring moments.
Early on in the debut episode, likewise titled “Raised by Wolves,” Mother and Father begin their work, trying to create human life from 12 viable human embryos they brought with them. (Why someone saw this as necessary will become apparent as the series progresses.)
With equipment, they are able to generate six babies, although the final child, a boy, appears to have died at the end of the gestation process. While Father reminds Mother their instructions in such an instance are to use that child as nutrients for the others, Mother says she wants to to hold him
first. As she cradles him, she sings to him, sheds a tear, and the previously unbreathing newborn begins to make sounds.
They name the boy Campion, after their supposed creator, and believe he may be special. A prophecy clung to by some humans may suggest as much, as well.
That idea Campion (Winta McGrath) is different is made only stronger years later as, unlike his siblings, he proves to be quite resilient when it comes to disease and general survival in a difficult environment. The androids have worked to grow what vegetation they can, but staying alive on this planet proves to be challenging for young humans.
The androids are raising the children strictly as atheists. They teach them how to behave morally and to be good to one another, but no praying to a higher power is permitted.
Given how many works of sci-fi ultimately are about how humanity treats the artificial beings it has created, it’s refreshing to learn, largely through flashbacks, the war that ravaged the earth was more about whether mankind should believe in a creator. That said, the show’s conflict ultimately revolves around humans trying to take children from Mother and Father, so the value of AI plays a big role in the series.
Later in the first hour of “Raised by Wolves,” Mother and Campion encounter a small band from a large ship in the sector, an ark, Heaven, that has left earth looking for a new home for its passengers. The dominant personality of the group is Marcus (“Vikings” star Travis Fimmel), and it is obvious he will become Mother’s major adversary.
Her encounter with Marcus leads to Mother discovering she has abilities far beyond what she knew, so humans wanting to take any child under her care are looking at a real challenge.
The second episode, “Pentagram,” begins with visually strong scenes of war in 2145 Boston. It is in this extended flashback sequence viewers learn that, as with Mother, there’s more to Marcus than you initially know.
In present day, on Kepler22b, Mother, Father and the young ones in their care encounter vicious creatures the androids haven’t seen in their 12 years on the planet, despite plenty of patrolling the region.
Refreshingly, “Raised by Wolves” offers a somewhatunusual vision of androids. While Mother and Father often are detached and taskoriented, when it comes to raising children, their programming allows for them to become quite passionate, and they don’t always agree.
As you may have guessed by now, Mother has extremely strong opinions regarding certain issues.
However, in later episodes, she allows herself to become distracted by a piece of equipment from the ark — a gift from Heaven, if you will — that allows her to learn more about her past.
While these first roughly six hours of “Raised by Wolves” do offer some stateof-the-art digital effects, so often the series reminds you of the 1960s version of “Star
Trek.” Along with the giggle-worthy costumes and hairstyles — a mullet-esque ‘do seems to be in fashion with some of the humans — there are the myriad scenes of actors running around doing this and that on a rocky landscape. This feels like a show with a fairly limited budget that spends its cash carefully.
In front of the camera, Collin (“A Horrible Woman”) is the unquestioned star, and she works hard to balance cold-androbotic with murderous maternalism. Fimmel, meanwhile, is there to bring some much-needed charisma, which he does from time to time, and give a generally strong performance.
However, the more you watch the work of Salim (“Jamestown”), the more you appreciate its complexity.
“Raised by Wolves” is enjoyable enough to stick with it once you start it, but it’s also not a must-see, considering how much new content is still popping up this deep into the novel coronavirus pandemic. And the show certainly is not strong enough to be the reason anyone but the biggest lovers of sci-fi should subscribe to HBO Max.
At least it keeps that howling to an absolute minimum.