Netflix's new sci-fi series Another Life stars Battlestar Galactica alum Katee Sackhoff in the lead role and has an intriguing premise about an astronaut crew on a vital first contact mission - so why are the reviews so negative? Another Life currently has a dismal score of just 7% on Rotten Tomatoes and the show has been met with a considerable amount of derision from general audiences as well.
Sackhoff plays Niko Breckenridge, the leader of the spaceship Salvare, which has been sent out into deep space to investigate a signal coming from the star system Pi Canis Majoris. The signal is linked to a mysterious crystalline structure called the Artifact that has planted itself on Earth, and whose intentions remain unclear. As Niko looks for answers out in space, her husband Erik (Justin Chatwin) stays on Earth to study the Artifact itself, and try to find a way to communicate with Earth's alien visitors. The premise is particularly reminiscent of Denis Villeneuve's 2016 sci-fi film Arrival, and indeed most of Another Life's reviews call it out for being too derivative of other, better stories.
Many criticisms of Another Life are aimed at the cast of characters. The crew of the Salvare are mostly 20-somethings who appear to have very little impulse control, professional discipline, or crisis management skills - all of which should really have disqualified them from such an important mission. A mutiny occurs in the very first episode over a simple disagreement, and scenes of characters bickering, gossiping, and yelling at each other in the early episodes become quite grating. And that isn't the only problem that reviewers found with the show.
"The constant-threat approach to storytelling means Another Life has a complete lack of character development within Niko’s crew because they're too busy worrying and yelling. It sometimes felt like the producers were just tossing in extras to the group to see if I would notice. None of them are allowed any personality with the small exception of William (Samuel Anderson), who is sort of the “android/mother” character... Everyone else feels like a lost group of models who wandered on to the wrong set."
"The fact that the writers have wasted so much of their opening act revisiting such familiar science fiction clichés with so little personal flavor or variety makes a strong, startling turnaround feel unlikely. Despite its potential, Another Life just feels like a generic, humorless space adventure that’s likely to crash and burn long before it unravels its big mysteries."
IGN:
"Occasionally, Another Life will land a decent surprise, or provide an emotional moment that resonates, but its main super-power seems to be making the perils of space travel incredibly boring. It's as if you took the bottle episode from each season of a way more successful sci-fi show and then just strung them together in a chain."
Those reviews might seem unfair to fans who enjoyed Another Life's first season, and to the show's credit it does improve somewhat after a rocky first couple of episodes. Highlights of the season include episode 4, "Guilt Trip," in which Niko is trapped in a dream state and has to wrestle with her past trauma in order to escape, and the season finale, "Hello," which finally provides answers about who the aliens are and what they want. Though the majority of the Another Life's reviews are negative, it did get a generally positive write-up from NOW Toronto:
"A pleasantly cluttered new Netflix series that hybridizes Arrival, Annihilation and Interstellar into something less heady and more adventure-driven... Another Life has an appealingly low-stakes vibe; like showrunner Aaron Martin’s ensemble horror series Slasher, it’s not trying for profundity or gravitas, just some good old genre fun. And it’s a pleasure to see Sackhoff, who added such electricity to the rebooted Battlestar Galactica, bring a more mature version of that unpredictability to the centre of this show."
For sci-fi fans and those in need of something new to binge, it's worth checking Another Life out for yourself to see if its "good old genre fun" is enough to overcome its shortcomings. But given the general critical response, it's probably best not to go in with high expectations.