Series Talk: Another Life

Over the last week a heat wave struck The Netherlands (and the rest of Europe) and it hot people. Heat records got shattered and at one point it was almost 42°C. Well if you didn't want to burn alive, the smartest thing to do was stay inside and since I am in the middle of my summer holidays I did just that. But what to do inside? Luckily there is a little streaming platform named Netflix! When I opened it, there was a trailer for a new series called; "Another Life" and I decided to check the trailer out. It turned out to be a new Sci-Fi series, starring Katee Sackhoff ("Battlestar Galactica" , "24") and I decided to check it out. The season has 10 episodes and I watched them all, now let's talk about "Another Life".

What is it about?

Selma Blair in Netflix' "Another Life"
Selma Blair in Netflix' "Another Life"

"Another Life" life is set in the future, while we do not exactly know when, I think it must be somewhere between 2150 and 2200. It appears that all the major cities suffered massive floods. The story starts with Harper Glass (Selma Blair), a big media influencer, with a massive group of followers. She is ready to shoot some footage for her channel, when an unknown object enters the earth's atmosphere. When it lands it turns into a large alien artifact and no one seems to know why it is there. Then Niko (Katee Sackhoff) and Eric (Justin Chatwin) enter the story. They are a couple and have a daughter named Jana (Lina Renna). It becomes clear that Niko is an astronaut and Eric is a scientist at USIC (United States Interstellar Command). As so he dedicates his work to find intelligent life in the universe. When USIC finds out where the artifact came from, they decide to launch a mission to this planet to find out what the aliens want and to make first contact. While Eric tries to make contact with the Alien artifact on Earth, USIC wants Niko to lead the mission into space. During this mission she commands a crew of youngsters and it soon becomes clear that this mission will not be a walk in the park. When the whole crew awakes from their stasis sleep way too soon, things seem start to go terribly wrong.

About the actors

Katee Sackhoff in the 2019 Netflix series "Another Life"
Katee Sackhoff in the 2019 Netflix series "Another Life"

Katee Sackhoff plays the role of Niko Breckenridge. This 39 year old American actress is mostly known for her role as Lieutenant Kara "Starbuck" Thrace in the remake of "Battlestar Galactica" (2004-2009). Katee also played the role of Dana Walsh in 20 episodes of the eighth season of "24".  Although she is mostly known for her TV work, Katee also played in movies and she is a very versatile voice actor. Fun Fact: In an interview Katee  stated that she was addicted to the original "Star Trek", when she was younger. 

Another big name in "Another Life" is Selma Blair as popular media influencer Harper Glass. You might know Selma from movies and TV shows, like:  "Cruel Intentions" (as Cecile Caldwell, 1999), "Zoe, Duncan, Jack&Jane" (as Zoe Bean, 1998), "The Fog" (as Stevie Wayne, 2005), "Hellboy" franchise (as Liz Sherman). 

Besides these two "veterans", there are a lot of young actors in the show and I will list some of them below.

  • Justin Chatwin as Eric Wallace (Niko's husband and the scientist who is supposed to figure out what is going on with the landed Artifact on Earth.)
  • Samuel Anderson as William (the holographic interface of an A.I.  and Niko's trusted right hand on the ship.)
  • A.J. Rivera as Bernie Martinez (Bernie is the microbiologist on board of the ship.)
  • Elizabeth Ludlow as Cas Isakovic (Niko's second-in-command and pilot of the ship.)
  • Blu Hunt as August ( August is the youngest crew member and lead engineer.)
  • JayR Tinaco as Zayn Petrossian (The ship's Medic)
  • Jake Abel as Sasha Harrison (The spoiled son of America's Secretary of Defense. He is on the mission as the government's representative.)
  • Tyler Hoechlin as Ian Yerxa (The former captain of the ship The Salvare, who loses his first place in command to Niko.)

My Opinion

I thought "Another Life" was pretty OK. Sure, it is very stereotypical, some parts of the story seem a little far fetched and at some points it seems like you are watching a high school movie in space, but it did entertain me. The makers of the show seem to have drawn a lot of inspiration from movies like:  "Arrival", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "Alien"  and "Lost in Space". However, "Another Life" never really meets up to the high expectations. Having said that, I think Katee Sackhoff does a great job in portraying Niko and because of some very smart cliffhangers the show did keep me intrigued enough to keep watching. All in all, "Another life is not very good, but it isn't bad either. Sometimes it's nice to watch something just for the entertainment value of it and "Another Life" for me is the small screen version of a 'popcorn movie'. Don't think...just sit back and relax.

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