Though it is at times a little silly, the dystopian world of See is the sort of bonkers, high-concept genre spectacle that Apple TV+ needs in order to make a splash in the increasingly competitive and crowded streaming television market. The series not only boasts an impressively diverse cast that has the billion-dollar star of Aquaman in the lead role, but it also includes Academy Award nominee Alfre Woodard as his spiritual council, as he becomes the protector of a pair of children gifted with the ability to see in a world that’s been blind for centuries. 

Part of the race to win the streaming wars is also the race to discover the next Game of Thrones. While it’s likely the next series to become a massive, all-consuming, global sensation the size of HBO’s George R.R. Martin adaptation won’t be one that was specifically engineered to be serve that purpose, that hasn’t stopped everyone from Netflix to Amazon to Apple to even HBO itself from searching for the next hit, largely by taking advantage of similar genre conventions. As such, See is basically Apple TV+’s Game of Thrones, a designation that’s apparent not only in its casting of the man who played Khal Drogo, but also in its obviously large budget, one that demonstrates Apple’s commitment (financial, anyway) to its original content and upends the notion that the tech giant’s shows will be bloodless, toothless exercises that only appeal to the widest possible audience. 

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See is created and written by Steven Knight and directed by Francis Lawrence, who as the director of I Am Legend and the latter Hunger Games films is well-versed in the language of dystopian drama. Knight, on the other hand, is perhaps better known for Peaky Blinders and Taboo, slightly more grounded gritty crime and period dramas that mix character and plot to a near pulpy perfection. That willingness to embrace sensationalism suits See well, as it tells the story of the remnants of humanity after it was nearly wiped out and rendered sightless by a deadly virus centuries prior. Now, in the distant future, humankind has found a way to survive, and in some ways flourish, despite the notion of sight being considered heresy among the pockets of civilization roaming the landscape. And though it doesn’t seem like the somewhat absurd world of See would be in the wheelhouse of a writer like Knight, keep in mind that he also wrote and directed 2019’s Serenity, a movie starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway that features one of the most bonkers twists in recent movie history. 

Jason Momoa in See Apple TV+

It’s an elaborate concept, to be sure, one that requires no small amount of generosity and suspension of disbelief from the audience. That's especially true as it frequently repeats character names like Baba Voss (Momoa) and Gether Bax (Mojean Aria). But what See lacks in plausibility — or even subtlety — it makes up in the sheer conviction of its premise and its main cast of characters. In that sense, See, in its early episodes, is all about world-building. Though Knight and Lawrence do their due diligence in crafting a world where humanity is so far removed from what it is now that it visually looks as though the series takes place thousands of years ago, it’s the show's construction of new and bizarre social and cultural conventions, whose potential beginnings are nevertheless easy enough to trace back to their source, that makes this far-flung world most fun to watch. 

To that end, a humanity so far removed from the idea that its ancestors could once see that mentioning it is punishable by death, becomes more important to the story at hand than the notion that these characters are — mostly — without the power of sight. That See moves so quickly to expand the conflict stemming from its this device, to thrust its audience into a story where two children born with the ability to see is the greatest threat to everything any of its characters have never known, is one of the show’s many saving graces. But, more than that, it’s the series’ willingness to be weird, and sometimes downright silly, that will likely save it from being thought of merely as a shallow Game of Thrones imitator. 

Maghra in Baba Voss on a mountain in See

Some of that is due to the unflinching conviction of its cast, in particular the effortlessly charismatic Jason Momoa and the imposing Alfre Woodard. But most of it is actually on account of the series’ two very serious and very strange villains, the witch hunter Tamacti Jun (Christian Camargo) and Queen Kane (Sylvia Hoeks). Audiences will likely recognize Hoeks as the killer replicant Luv in Blade Runner 2049. More so than anyone else on the show, Hoeks is asked to turn the volume way up, and her amplified performance doesn’t just go over the top, it effectively re-establishes the tonal parameters on of the series itself — which were not exactly narrow to begin with.  

While the unbending certainty of See’s storytelling ambitions is admirable, it doesn’t hurt that the series also looks like a million bucks (or tens of millions of bucks per episode). That’s no surprise, as much has been made already about the exorbitant budgets Apple has poured into its slate of flagship originals. With a mixture of gorgeous locations and CGI, the series convincingly creates a dystopian world that barely remembers its past. Those sprawling vistas and creatively repurposed ruins become backdrops for some spectacular action set pieces, the most impressive of which is wisely delivered in the opening moments of the series premiere. The result, then, is a bonkers, sometimes silly, but frequently visually stunning sci-fi drama that, for better or for worse, will allow Apple TV+ the chance to make a splash when it launches on November 1. 

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See premieres Friday, November 1, exclusively on Apple TV+.