Alastair McKay The space family that crashes together stays together — as long as they have Oreos
Lost in Space Netflix
between analogue manners and a digital future. The show itself floats in the space between nostalgia and childlike wonder . The idea — it says here — was to produce a “big-scale, fourquadrant family entertainment” in the vein of Jurassic Park.
It all starts well enough, with a game of Go Fish being interrupted by a deorbit burn, an atmospheric disturbance and an impact detected. The space family Robinson crash lands onto a distant planet in another solar system and is catapulted immediately into various kinds of jeopardy. The oldest Robinson child, Judy (Taylor Russell), is trapped beneath some ice, Will’s up a tree, and mum Maureen (Molly Parker) has a dicky leg, though is still alert enough to calculate that in six hours the temperature on this austerely beautiful planet will plunge to 60 below. But it’s not all bad. They have a packet of Oreos.
Meanwhile, in The City and the City, inspector Tyador Borlú (David Morrissey) of the Extreme Crime Squad is flitting between the twin cities of Beszel and Ul Qoma in the gorgeously realised reworking of China Miéville’s book. Borlú is investigating the murder of a girl, but the case is complicated by the fact that the two cities exist in the same space — though there is a border — and the inhabitants of Beszel (which is beige and run-down) aren’t allowed to see the more affluent other.
Both cities are roughly fascist but there are rumours of an idyllic third place. Borlú also has a missing wife, so he’s keen to find that utopian rabbit hole. It’s a high-concept yarn, and it’s appropriate that Quissima Dhatt — sidekick in the blue cocktail bars of Ul Qoma — is played by Maria Schrader, the glamorous spy from Deutschland 83.