Raised By Wolves Review - Hbo Max - Season 2 update!!

 Raised By Wolves Review - Hbo Max - Season 2 update!!

EDIT: Season finale Shaved off generously only 1 star for the dumbest season finale I've seen in a while. Ragnar is fading away into oblivious irrelevance like he did in Vikings.

Sci-fi. Drama. Horror. Family. AI. Fantasy. Religion. and now, add Jurassic Park to the already convoluted theme.

This is what happens when Ridley Scott is involved with the 2 first episodes, and then all the writers start getting confused/lazy as the series progresses. Are the same writers that started to mess up Westworld into one convoluted mess trying to disguise itself as an intelligent series are involved in this series? This has to be probably one of the worst season finales to a new series I've seen. It sure is a good way to lose your audience after only 10 episodes, so they better come up with one heck of an impressive first 2 episodes in the second season if they want to save their audience - and the series. Down to a generous 7/10

-----------------

End of S1E7:

Right from the start - outstanding cinematography, colors, sets, score, and directing. The casting and performances are decent, and I'm hoping the characters develop more. Travis Fimmel needs to stop playing Ragnar Lothbrok. Amanda Collin as Mother is starting to grow on me.

The conceptual story is very creative, but I feel it's already starting to bite off more than it can chew. Sci-fi, drama, fantasy, horror, religion, and family dynamics hasn't been done before, and for it to succeed, the writing needs to improve.

The 1st episode set the stage nicely and was epic. The 2nd episode had so much happening in the first 10 minutes, it felt rushed and lacked depth and character development. It needed to be split in two episodes. The 3rd episode had some nice back stories added to it. By then, I was getting a little tired of the constant rolling clouds over the mountains. Episodes 4 and 5 could've been combined into one, and felt unorganized with the new "find" in the desert - it's warm, gets cold, burns, let's leave for another adventure. The plot and technical issues are becoming more frequent. Episode 6 was more exciting with better pacing, but the story got stagnant in E7 - again, probably could've been combined with E6. I hope the writing improves, becomes more evenly flowing, instead of feeling like each episode was written the day before filming.

Androids Mother and Father flee Earth to settle on the planet Kepler-22b. However, when their mission doesn't go as planned, Mother shows that she is not the same as Father when confronted with threats - both human and unhuman.

Ridley Scott's Raised by Wolves is pretty mesmerising. Expands on the Artificial Intelligence themes of Blade Runner and Alien. It's edgy with high production values from the outset. Although the music, topography and holographic technology aesthetics mirror those in Prometheus and Alien Covenant, Raise by Wolves has it own identity. Scott's touch and DNA is all over the screen elevating it to another level.

Actor Amanda Collin's Mother is one of the creepiest and most dangerous memorable AI's to grace the screen. But Abubakar Salim steals many scenes as likeable Father. Travis Fimmel is a welcomed addition and there is more to his character Marcus as the episodes proceeded.

The visuals are outstanding for a television show, following in the footsteps of the likes of Game of Thrones and Westworld. Yes there's alien creatures and dangers on Kepler but the triangle of conflicts, namely AI, atheists and faith deliver plenty of drama. There's story twists within the welcomed metronome pace and there's plenty of nods to other science fictions littered throughout, even a (possibly unintentional) homage of sorts to Class of 1999 in the 2nd episode with the medic robot.

It's scary, emotional and intriguing, the apocalyptic flashback imagery echo The Terminator. Like many TV shows that have explored AI and religion, Caprica; Westworld, Battlestar Glacticia and Almost Human to name a few Scott's offering has its own memorable legs. Highly recommended.

As of now, it's an 8/10 from me. I will update as the season/s progress.