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Raised By Wolves is not a new version of the Channel 4 sitcom from shout-a-lot Caitlin Moron, but it’s what happens when two android siblings arrive on planet Kepler-22b after Earth is long since gone after the war, in a bid to restart the human race, soon landing their craft on a precipice, and having to jump out quickly, otherwise they might be brown bread.
Not quite sure why they chose that planet because it doesn’t look the most hospitable place, especially since it seems stacked full of stuck-in-the-ground dinosaur bones, but the pair – who call each other Mother (Amanda Collin) and Father (Abubakar Salim – Black Mirror: Nosedive) – they set up camp. Then after some fancy wiring, 9 months have passed, Father has built a village, and Mother is about to give birth to six children – as you do when you’re an android. Well, they’re ‘born’ in containers, rather than the traditional way.
In a drama that’s narrated by one of the children looking back, there is a fair bit of humour at times, as Father has jokes programmed into his system, and the couple are even aware of The Chuckle Brothers’ “To Me To You“s! However, they do have darker sides, as one of them can howl like a wolf. In fact, little is as it seems, since every character seems to have something to hide.
But nothing ever goes to plan, and as several years pass by, not all the children have survived. So, with android systems failing, and the number of children decreasing, can anything save them? Or are we destined to spend the remaining 9 episodes staring at a barren planet? Can they somehow summon for help, when their ship crashed and fell down a hole upon landing in the first instance?
Either way, this is very weird, but I love futuristic “What if?” stuff like this, so I’m rather enjoying it.
I’m not entirely sure what exact year this is set in when it tells us ‘today’, but there’s also a flashback to the beginning of the story in 2145, when we learn of the Mithraic crowd who are a bunch of religious nutters. At one point, we’re told that the individuals have been in hibernation for 13 years on a spacecraft, so that would make ‘today’ the year 2158. Either way, with the first of this pairing directing the first two episodes, we’re in a period at some point inbetween Ridley Scott‘s Alien (the year 2122), and James Cameron’s Aliens (2179).
I don’t want to go into any further detail because everything you find out is detailed bit by bit, changing your viewpoint on certain things the more you watch it.
So far, I’m only two episodes in, but I want to see the rest ASAP. I can see it being quite ‘Marmite’, in that some will love it and some will hate it, but it’s really drawn me in.
Raised By Wolves starts on Sky Atlantic on Friday December 4th at 9pm, and with all episodes available from day one.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but for FREE you can buy the HBO Max/Raised by Wolves Comic Book on Kindle.
Episodes 1 and 2 Score: 9/10
Directors: Ridley Scott, Luke Scott, Alex Gabassi, Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, James Hawes
Producer: Jon Kuyper
Creator: Aaron Guzikowski
Writers: Heather Bellson, Karen Campbell, Sinead Daly, Donald Joh
Music: Marc Streitenfeld, Ben Frost
Cast:
Mother: Amanda Collin
Father: Abubakar Salim
Campion: Winta McGrath
Marcus: Travis Fimmel
Sue: Niamh Algar
Tempest: Jordan Loughran
Paul: Felix Jamieson
Hunter: Ethan Hazzard
Holly: Aasiya Shah
Vita: Ivy Wong
Dorian: Clayton Evertson
Cassia: Loulou Taylor
Lucius: Matias Varela
Justina: Susan Danford
Bartok: Litha Bam
Den: Garth Breytenbach
Kroni: Anlia van Rensburg
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.