Constellation Review: Blasts Off But Crash-Lands In Later Episodes

Constellation rockets off to an intriguing start, immediately pulling viewers into the claustrophobic terror of an imperiled space station. We experience every floating bolt and depleting oxygen tank alongside ESA astronaut Jo Ericsson, played with frantic intensity by Noomi Rapace. As she navigates increasingly bizarre events in orbit, we share her confusion. Is she hallucinating? Or did that decades-old Soviet corpse actually crash into her reality?

Back on Earth, her troubles only multiply. Sudden gaps mar Jo’s memory, while her relationships fray apart. Show creator Peter Harness elegantly braids quantum physics and conspiracy threads into Jo’s unraveling world. Violent delusions bleed into domestic scenes as she struggles for balance with her family.

Harness clearly mapped an ambitious trajectory for Constellation. But after nailing a pulse-quickening liftoff, the show starts to list and spiral. Momentum evaporates as the story drifts into repetitive flashbacks on Earth. And despite Rapace’s stellar efforts, the diffuse plot leaves characters stranded. What begins as a riveting psychological thriller ends up lost in space.

A Haunting Visual Feast

Director Michelle MacLaren, known for Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones, immediately pulls us into an unnerving visual feast. Within the opening disaster sequence, she delivers both emotive closeups of Rapace’s panic-stricken face and sweeping CGI vistas of the damaged station. Sci-fi has never felt so intimate yet utterly isolated.

Cinematographers Maximilien Van Aertryck and Stuart Bentley further magnify this foreboding atmosphere through sharp contrasts between inky blacks and crisp sterile whites. The life support system’s dying crimson pulse heightens the nightmare. Hallway angles turn menacingly askew, augmented by eerie sounds echoing through twisted metal. Harness smartly keeps Rapace center-frame, while playing with perspectives to keep us as confused as Jo.

Back on Earth, dread permeates Jo’s attempts at normalcy. Sudden shifts between past and present keep us reeling through disorienting dialogue and visual cues. Repeated shots of doppelgängers reflected in mirrors and windows emphasize the schism between two worlds. Even a darkened snowy forest takes on a spectral, otherworldly quality.

While tighter writing may have better sustained intrigue, Constellation undoubtedly provides a visual feast for sci-fi fans. MacLaren and her team deliver an enveloping space thriller with enough unexplained phenomena and chilling atmosphere to keep viewers floating along, even as the story itself loses altitude.

A Gripping Start That Crash Lands

Harness immediately rockets us into a high-stakes life-or-death scenario worthy of the best sci-fi thrillers. The opening disaster sequence balances tense human drama with intriguing speculative elements. Rapace’s commanding screen presence sells both Jo’s courage under pressure and her bewildering visions. Then a simple request from her daughter back home snaps the story back to an emotional core we can all relate to.

Early episodes onboard the ISS deliver a masterclass in sustaining nail-biting tension. Restricted sets and special effects heighten the escalating danger as Jo races against oxygen limits, battery drainage, and her own disorienting hallucinations. Harness smartly keeps answers sparse, allowing our imagination to run wild with possibilities.

Yet after an electrifying liftoff, Constellation soon loses momentum as focus shifts back to Earth. The possibility-rich quantum experiment moves aside for repetitive conspiracy thriller beats as Jo navigates gaslighting superiors and strained family dynamics. Standout directing and performances can only carry thin characters and meandering subplots so far.

Harness lays bare the central parallel world concept by the halfway point, abandoning mystery for protracted explaining. Rather than organically unspooling a puzzling chain of clues, the show switches to impatiently holding our hand through belabored flashbacks from slightly different perspectives. Any original urgency or tension deflates.

Standout Turns Stranded in Orbit

Noomi Rapace magnetizes as the anchor of this psychologically turbulent tale. She deftly pivots between steely determination, paranoia-fueled frenzy, and heartbreaking anguish. Rapace grounds even the most bizarre mirages in palpable emotion. When Jo stares quizzically at a piano she supposedly doesn’t know how to play, we share her chilling disorientation.

Unfortunately, skills of supporting players go wasted in underwritten roles. Jonathan Banks simmers with bitter urgency, clearly hinting at undisclosed trauma behind his quantum obsession. Yet after two electrifying episodes directed by Breaking Bad’s Michelle MacLaren, his talents disappear from view. We’re left craving more substantial dimension from Jo’s earthly ties like husband Magnus, played by a constrained James D’Arcy.

The story’s emotional core clearly rests with Jo’s relationship with her daughter Alice. Rising young talents Rosie and Davina Coleman pour fragile innocence into Alice as she grapples with vanishings of her mother across shifting realities. Yet uneven writing reduces Alice largely to staring forlornly while crying “Mamma!” The raw materials hint at an evocative mother-daughter portrait, but the script rarely lets these talents spread their wings.

With richer development of side characters and fewer detours into vague subplots, Banks and D’Arcy could have maximized the show’s human stakes. As is, Rapace valiantly attempts to maintain altitude despite the thin air of Harness’s wayward plotting. Even her tremendous efforts can’t entirely compensate for broadly sketched characters that fail to feel fully three-dimensional.

Heady Concepts Lost in Translation

Harness aims admirably high with thought-provoking explorations of how slipping the earthly surly bonds of gravity might fracture one’s sense of reality. Early episodes dig into quantum physics theories around events simultaneously occurring in overlapping states. Schrödinger’s Cat gets several name checks as characters debate observation and probabilities.

The central high concept asks probing questions about the subjectivity of human experience versus externally verifiable facts. Can Jo trust her own memories and perceptions? Is she the one splintering across parallel dimensions? Or is an indifferent bureaucracy gaslighting her for their own ends?

Regrettably, the show falls short of fully delivering on the heady promise of its influences. We get intriguing snippets in Henry’s ramblings about wave function collapse, matter dual states, and liminal spaces between worlds. But these concepts aren’t woven through with enough clarity or nuance. And housing them within a thinly sketched conspiracy thriller diffuses their force.

When the action leaves orbit for Earth, so does much of the compelling psychological tension. The mother-daughter relationship elicits occasional poignancy, but human connections broadly feel like missed opportunities. For all of Constellation’s lofty aspirations, it only fitfully manages to unite its scientific speculation with moving human drama.

A Short Flight With Long Legs

Constellation opens powerfully, pulling viewers into palm-sweating survival stakes before expanding thoughtfully into quantum realities. Visually resplendent direction immerses us while Rapace compellingly anchors bizarre events in emotional truths. Alongside assured worldbuilding, the show seems flighted for an absorbing balancing act spanning scientific speculation and human intimacy.

Yet Harness apparently mapped out mileage for a cross-country trip while packing only enough story fuel to putter around the block. Promising ideas about collapsing wave functions and probabilities quickly devolve into a conspiracy thriller on autopilot. Beyond Rapace’s empathetic efforts, characters feel automated rather than fully human. Oxygen leaks out of the pacing as later episodes stall into place-holding for a second season that may never come.

With tighter writing and a more restrained runtime, Constellation could have thrilled as a propulsive mental mystery. The shorter this chess match between existential dilemmas and human connections, the sharper its twists would pierce. There’s certainly enough talent to justify repeat trips aboard this venture if it gets an unlikely renewal. Maybe sometimes you have to launch half-cooked to expand possibilities. But you’re still at risk of burning up spectacularly in the atmosphere.