In recent years, space epics have dominated streaming and the small screen. Shows like The vastness, For all humanityAnd Foundation have won awards, sparked deep conversations and turned skeptics into sci-fi fans. Building on the legacy of previous series such as the critically acclaimed 2004 reboot Battlestar GalacticaThese space operas prove that science fiction can be prestige television.
But science fiction can also be garbage (for free), and if that’s what you’re looking for, The Ark delivers. Unlike recent dramatic space operas, the Syfy show offers the camp, the humor and the kitsch. Currently in its second season, The Ark fills a gap in the current science fiction landscape on screen, recalling a time when the genre wasn’t afraid to laugh at itself.
In a story as old as Star Trek, The Ark follows a ship carrying human refugees from an uninhabitable Earth in the future who unexpectedly wake up mid-flight and must work together to reach their destination: the planet Proxima b. Everyone in the core crew fits a sci-fi archetype perfectly: There’s the sober, level-headed captain, Sharon Garnet; the right-hand man, Lt. Spencer Lane; the witty pilot, Lt. James Brice; the geek chick, Alicia Nevins; the guy who knows how to grow food in space, Angus Medford; the overworked doctor, Sanjivni Kabir; the security chief who’s secretly a softie, Felix Strickland; and the gifted engineer with something to hide, Eva Markovic. Together, they fix many nasty ship malfunctions, uncover secrets about what happened to humanity during the crew’s interrupted stasis, and discover that they’re not the only people to have escaped into space.
The ArkThe showrunners of , Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner, are no strangers to science fiction. Devlin wrote and produced Stargateand Glassner created Stargate SG-1 In addition to writing for Star Trek: The Next Generation And The outer limits. So it is no surprise that The Ark uses every sci-fi cliche in the book. But it feels fresh because it modernizes the sensibilities of the past (the cast is diverse, with queer characters whose queerness is just a fact, not an act) and because it isn’t afraid to be lighthearted. It’s retro fun and it all works; rather than feeling stale, the series is familiar and comforting. In a Syfy Wire Interview 2023Devlin confirms: “If you love real classic science fiction, the kind of stuff that Jonathan and I fell in love with, then our show is a love letter to those kinds of shows.” With The ArkYou know exactly what to expect and that’s part of the appeal.
One reason the series is so successful is because it relies on a tried-and-true formula: Each episode begins with a clichéd sci-fi problem for the crew to solve. (Oh no! Everyone on the ship is hallucinating! Oh dear, someone is stuck in the airlock!) Our heroes solve the mystery and find a solution in the last five minutes of the episode. (The crew accidentally drank contaminated water! The tech-savvy Alicia opened the airlock doors!) And then a new mystery is introduced in the last 30 seconds, ending the episode on a cliffhanger. (A new ship just shot into the sky!) The Ark always makes the audience want more.
The show sometimes falls into the category of “it’s so bad it’s good.” The theme music is comically upbeat. The acting is somewhere between pretty good and hilariously bad. And some plot points literally made me laugh out loud – a big reveal in season 1 is that a main character has a condition called “Klampkins.” But most of the time, the show is Goodsimply a different kind of good than its more self-serious counterparts.
The Ark is fundamentally optimistic, which many contemporary sci-fi epics are not. The point of this show is human connection, not necessarily deep, existential exploration. And the series pulls that off really well, especially in season 2. In episode 4, “The Other You,” the crew of Ark-1 encounters an alternate reality where viewers meet different versions of the main characters. “Parallel universe” episodes in sci-fi are usually fertile ground for exploring weighty themes, but not for The Ark. The writers play the alternate reality scenario for laughs (despite a heartbreaking performance by Christie Burke, who plays Captain Garnet), and the episode is fun fun, not a self-crisis. Will the alternate universe ever be mentioned again? Probably not, and that’s OK! In the 2023 Syfy Wire interview, Glassner talks about the show’s optimism: “What’s the point of fighting for your life when life is no fun and no good anyway? I think that’s kind of the attitude that our characters have.”
The ArkThe magical combination of a great formula, lightness and kitsch brings people back again and again. The first season reached 6.5 million viewerssuggesting that while the show’s critically acclaimed counterparts can certainly draw viewers, science fiction fans also crave a show that’s just plain silly. If you’re looking for a new science fiction show with intricate world-building that challenges your point of view, The Ark is not. But if you want a series without any big surprises that will make you laugh and scream in front of the screen, The Ark could be your new favorite show.
The Ark is now streaming on Peacock.
