TV Review - Away (2020)

Andrew Hinderaker adapted the 2014 Esquire magazine article by Chris Jones, which detailed what it would be like to be in space for an extended period of time. The article focused on Scott Kelly who was planning to spend a year in space on board the International Space Station (ISS), doing so with a Russian cosmonaut. The article provides information on what people in space would have to do in terms of their health and well-being, as well as mechanical problems that might occur for long spans. That information would be useful for what could be expeditions beyond the Moon, expeditions to other planets like Mars. Such an expedition to Mars would require a bit more organization and development than what humans currently have, but Hinderaker's series imagines that organization and development already being in place, so that a crew of five people could embark on a journey to the fourth planet from the Sun.

The series feels like a more modern-day version of Ron Howard's Apollo 13 (1995). Except, it's not a docudrama. Currently, NASA doesn't see human missions to Mars happening until 2030. That would put this series more in the realm of Ridley Scott's The Martian (2015), which was set in the year 2035. Hinderaker's series  never states exactly in what year this whole thing is set. The Martian though was about human missions to Mars having been already successful. This series imagines that what we're seeing is the very first attempt for humans traveling to Mars, imagining various problems that could go wrong on a mechanical level and how various interpersonal dynamics would clash.

Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby and Boys Don't Cry) stars as Emma Green, the commander of Atlas I, a spacecraft that's part of the Joint Mars Initiative. She's a pilot and an astronaut who was chosen over some men, which causes a bit of a stir. Some think that she shouldn't have gotten the job. This and other things lead her to doubt her ability to command and be a decisive and effective leader. It doesn't help that some in her crew doubt her. The series follows her as each episode tests her leadership. She has to stand strong, but we dive into her anxieties and fears, which stress her but also embolden her.

However, the series isn't just about Emma's leadership. It's also about her family. The series really underlines the guilt and regret she feels because she's going to be apart from her loved ones for three years. The trip to Mars takes the better part of a year. The crew is scheduled to stay on Mars for some time and then take another year to return, so in total, she's supposed to be gone for three years. The toll of her absence for that long represents the principal source of drama of her family whom the series follows while she's in space.

Josh Charles (The Good Wife and Sports Night) co-stars as Matt Logan, the husband to Emma and the chief engineer at NASA's mission control center in Houston. He was one of the people who were considered for Emma's job, but he's just as content to monitor her every move from the ground. One of the reasons that he was denied the job is because he has a serious health issue, a blood clot that makes him susceptible to strokes. He has to deal with this health issue, struggle to overcome it, while also being a single parent to his and Emma's teenage daughter.

Talitha Eliana Bateman (Love, Simon and Geostorm) also co-stars as Alexis Logan, the daughter to Emma and Matt. She's also struggling to deal with the absence of her mother and the health issues of her father. Her struggle is mostly with her fears that something will go wrong and that she'll lose not one but both her parents. She goes through various stages. One is to try to replace her mother's role at home. Another is to be depressed. Another is to break off, rebel and retreat into something else or rather someone else, as she meets a guy at school who likes to ride dirt bikes, Isaac Rodriguez, played by Adam Irigoyen (The Last Ship and Shake It Up).

It could be argued that this series is an ensemble series, much like ABC's Lost. In Lost, each episode became flashbacks inter-cut with the present action. The flashbacks would focus on one, singular character, relating that person's backstory. The flashbacks here delve into the lives of the four other astronauts on Atlas I who are under the command of Emma. The flashbacks are meant to give us insight into those four characters by showing us pivotal moments that inform what they're doing in the present and why. Unlike Lost, the flashbacks here aren't that interesting and exciting. The flashbacks don't inform us, as much as one might want. We get glimpses of the other four astronauts' family members, but we don't delve into their day-to-day lives as we do with Emma's family.

Ray Panthaki (Marcella and EastEnders) plays Ram Arya, one of the four, aforementioned astronauts whose under Emma's command. Ram is also the medical officer on board Atlas I. He's from India. He's that country's representative on this Mars mission. Of all the flashbacks, his is probably the most effective, as it directly relates to an incident that occurs to him in space. His flashback in fact mirrors what happens to him on board the ship. Of all the crew members on Atlas I, he's the most supportive of Emma, if not the most attentive.

Rounding out the cast is Mark Ivanir (The New Pope and Homeland) who plays Misha Popov, the Russian engineer who's the eldest of all the crew members. There's also Vivian Wu (The Joy Luck Club and The Last Emperor) who plays Lu Wang, the Chinese chemist who's a closeted lesbian, and there's Ato Essandoh (Chicago Med and The Code) who plays Kwesi Weisberg-Abban, a Jewish botanist from Ghana but who was adopted and raised in England after his parents died. Aside from the brief moments in their flashbacks, we don't get anything about Misha, Lu or Kwesi's family in the present tense.

Nevertheless, the interplay and dynamics between all of them on board the ship is compelling. It helps that each episode provides a fairly decent, if not over-the-top obstacle that they have to overcome. A lot of the obstacles are realistic, taking from Jones' article. Yet, Hinderaker and his writers are able to craft a good amount of drama to keep me glued to the screen. It kicks off in the first episode, which involves a potential problem that doesn't rise to the level of something like Alfonson Cuarón's Gravity (2013), but it did allow for good drama, structured and akin to Rashomon (1950). Aside from the first episode, episodes four and nine really shine as the best in terms of those aspects.

Yet, there's a great moment in Episode 7 where Emma confronts her best friend, Melissa, played by Monique Gabriela Curnen (Power and Taken). In flashback, Emma has to choose between her career and her family, as the first choice that she has to make in this series. However, that same flashback reveals that it isn't the first time that she's been put in that position, which goes back to her underlying fear of sexism rearing itself against her whether intentionally or not. Speaking of Melissa, she is the mother of a special needs daughter or a daughter with a disability. Yet, Melissa's daughter isn't the only one with a disability, but, instead of using able-body actors or nondisabled actors, the series actually uses actors with disabilities. Felicia Patti and Jamie Nieto are disabled actors who play disabled characters here extraordinarily.

Rated TV-14.
Running Time: 1 hr. / 10 eps.

Available on Netflix.