TL;DR – This is a good start, but it was all set up, and I will need to see how it develops before I really can take a look at it.

Disclosure – I paid for the Stan service that viewed this series.

Earth Abides Review –

Well, if there is one genre that has had an interesting way of times, it is the post-apocalyptic. On the one hand, we all just went through a pandemic, so that is very much on our minds in a way that shows like The Last of Us had to change core parts of their lore to make them work. Yet we have also found joyous explorations of comradery and self-exploration in shows like Station Eleven, which have been almost cathartic to watch. But can you find new space in that genre? That is the question we will ask today.   

So, to set the scene, the world of today is a very interconnected beast, and that brings with it a bunch of benefits and problems. In that world lives Ish (Alexander Ludwig), a geologist who lives out in the sticks, finding mineral deposits that haven’t been harvested yet. But on this day, as he tries to find some new pyrite deposits, a rattlesnake bites him and only just makes it back to his house before he passes out. He manages to ride out the poison in his cabin, barely, but when he wakes from his trauma weeks later, he comes out into a world that has dramatically changed from the one he left. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.   

Now, a lot of shows have this set-up where the protagonist is somehow taken out of the action and wakes up to a dramatically changed world. However, how they could make it through that time is usually handwaved away. I liked that here they went out of their way in a couple of quick moments to set up how he could survive a couple of weeks stuck in his bed in a delusional stupor. Also, why could no one get to him, or why didn’t they loot his house during the civilizational collapse. I also liked how they acknowledged Covid and wrote it into the explanation as to how a virus could wipe through an entire population that understands about social distancing.

I should say before we move on that this is not how you treat a snakebite in real life. In fact, the CDC explicitly recommends explicitly not to slash the wound with a knife or cut it in any way and not trying to suck out the venom. This is just something that irks me because I live near Eastern Brown Snakes, the second most venomous snake in the world on land, so you must be constantly aware of this. Also, the production dressing is a bit inconsistent as to what would and would not have died/wilted during those three weeks. And you better believe, in real life, there would be dead bodies on those slot machines. These were minor frustrations, but thankfully, they didn’t take away from the episode.

What I liked about this first episode was Alexander Ludwig’s performance, in which he bared his soul, and a lot more during the proceedings. There is not that much spoken dialogue in the first episode, so you have no choice but to focus on his performance. You can feel those thoughts of denial, grief, trauma, frustration, and more as he tries to understand the world that he has woken up into. There are some harrowing moments in this first episode like I will be thinking about ‘I watched my daughters die on Zoom’ for a long time. They even go out of their way to frame the series by using their opening titles in a manner reminiscent of Sense8 but then giving a completely different vibe given the context of what is about to come. There are a lot more esoteric explorations during the episode, part of this is framed through the narration, which did get a bit much in places, but I think it helped set the mood.   

So, in the end, do we recommend Earth Abides: Alone? While it was an interesting start, most of the episode was just getting our character to the place where the rest of the series will take off from. This means that we have not yet had a chance to see what the series metal is like entirely, but I am interested in seeing how it goes.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Earth Abides yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Earth Abides
Directed by – Bronwen Hughes
Written by – Todd Komarnicki
Created by – Todd Komarnicki
Based On – Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
Production/Distribution Companies – Bright Light Pictures, Lighthouse Productions, Peak TV, MGM Studios & MGM+ & Stan
Starring – Alexander Ludwig & Jessica Frances Dukes with Leah Gibson & Martin Donovan