Constellation

Constellation leans into depicting motherhood as a negotiation between a mother and her child while also entertaining the nightmarish suggestion that space itself could be sentient, and Rapace is riveting as the link between these two ideas.

The twists and turns are brilliant (and we're keeping completely quiet about the jaw-dropping ending), but it's how grounded the show is that sets it apart. .... All of this is not to say that Constellation is a completely flawless series – the pacing in the middle could definitely have been improved. .... For this series, though, I can almost forgive it.

Thankfully, the finale provides some legitimately earned answers, while also keeping things open for a potential second season. With a challenging premise, smart writing and strong performances, “Constellation” is well worth the eight-episode investment.

It’s a twisty conspiracy thriller with a confusing, complex scientific theory at its center.

When streaming services inevitably start cutting back on original productions, meandering and mundane ventures such as this will be first on the chopping block.

As it exists, “Constellation” is a couple of strong performances stranded in an uncanny vacuum, not unlike Jo left dangling in an abandoned ISS.

The problem is that Constellation is the latest streaming drama trying to stretch out two hours worth of plot so it will take up an eight-hour bag. Every idea is repeated, elongated, and then repeated again, until all that marvelous tension from the early chapters is gone long before the finale arrives.

Movies and TV series about space and science fiction with the wonderful Noomi Rapace can't go wrong. It eased my longing for Dr. Shaw a bit. The series as a whole is quite enjoyable, worth your time and suspension of disbelief.

Started out strong with an interesting plot and a rather nice and strange atmosphere to it. But after a while the plot repeatedly hints about the rather obvious conclusion and keeps too much attention on minor details. It feels like a series that could be done in 3-4 episodes rather than the 8+ it has. Shame, it had really good potential.

Two episodes in and the jury remains out - though the overall feeling so far 'hopeful'. The plot is quite interesting and relatively fresh - something that is very, VERY unusual in today's trope-based SF on TV and in the movies. The acting is decent enough with some stronger than others but there's plenty of talent on display. Unfortunately, there are some faults too. The scenes on the ISS were tacky at times (oh dear, here we go again, dark corridors and mysterious noises/shadows etc.). Some of the writing also has holes and feels a little like it was put together by a committee. Some of the howlers that arise from this are unintentionally hilarious - notably a Russian controller constantly repeating into his microphone the same immortal phrase "this is a recorded message..." - something that should go down in TV history! Perhaps their recording devices had run out of batteries. The opening two epsiodes were also a tad slow but that is now a common factor in a lot of streaming-based productions, as people desperately try to get the full 6-10 episodes out even if there's not really enough material. For all those faults though, it is quite interesting and a pleasant change to a lot of the truly awful stuff pumped out these days pretending to be original SF. Fingers crossed.............SERIES END UPDATE - having now watched the full series, I've pulled my initial score down somewhat. As more episodes passed through, the series started to get bogged down in its own gravitational mire. It became increasingly sluggish and indulgent with it eventually succuming to the trap of spending more and more ime on emotional analysis and character relationships with insufficient energy being left to devote to progressing the plot. Towards the end, I found at times I was thinking "get a move on!", which is a pity becuse this started well.

I am a hardboiled SF fan, but I can appreciate a good, solid SF story of diverse genres. This one is of a demential SF sub-genre, meaning that under the umbrella of a quantistic physics experiment gone awry the very stressed and creativeless writers have put any/everything forgetting the minimum quantum (pun intended) of internal coherence and stretching the suspension of disbelief beyond any possible tensile strenght. Actors were good and scenography acceptable, but all in all a waste of time.

It has a weak story line that bores the audience. The slog was too much for me. Either deliver a plot, or don't develope the story and push a weak as hell script to production.