The Man Who Fell to Earth Review: A 2022 remake that almost sees a future

When President Grover Cleveland pressed a button to light the 100,000 light bulbs at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the glow that had visitors in awe of modernity finally shone out of the proverbial dark ages into the future. In the Showtime limited series by Jenny Lumet and Alex Kurtzman The man who fell to the ground A slew of tech royalty gaze out windows at a London skyline dazzlingly lit by the power of quantum fusion, capturing a similar sense of promise and wonder. This show understands the tricky balance between mystery and intrigue, madness and clarity, progression and heartbreak. It doesn’t always set its own world on fire in the same way, but it manages to ignite a hearty spark.

Based on the 1963 science fiction novel of the same name by Walter Tevis, the series’ title character, Faraday (Chiwetel Ejiofor), falls naked from the sky in search of water. The police pick him up and he requests the presence of Justin Falls (Naomie Harris), a disgraced MIT quantum physics grad who is now shoveling manure in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Faraday can barely speak. He learns by listening and then regurgitates what he hears in a mass of phrases and profanity that disturbs everyone around him. It’s not the first time he’s faced the police. And if there’s one major failing of the series, it’s the color-blind scenarios of black characters interacting with cops (especially when Faraday throws himself off balance) but largely surviving unscathed and ignored, requiring a real suspension of disbelief.

Faraday finds himself on a mission ordered by Thomas Newton (Bill Nighy), a once-great inventor who is currently missing with little memory of him save for his heirs. Before Spencer Clay (Jimmi Simpson), an annoying CIA agent, can stop him, Faraday must find Justin, the world’s expert in quantum fusion technology, so they can build a machine that will save his planet and Earth from the ravages of climate change. But embarking on a globetrotting adventure with Faraday isn’t easy for Justin. For one, she only knows him as a troubled stranger with no personal boundaries; Faraday often says exactly what he thinks, no matter how casually cruel or odd he sounds. She also has a young daughter, Molly (Annelle Olaleye), and an arthritic father in constant need of care and medication, Josiah (an adorable Clarke Peters).

Faraday stands in a sweatshirt while a police officer looks on in the background

Bill Nighy as Newton standing in a bush wearing sunglasses and a hat

Justin helps her father, who is sitting on a couch next to her daughter in The Man Who Fell Off the Earth

The man who fell to earth insists on Faraday’s quirkiness at first. Ejiofor delivers a flurry of accents in a cadenza by William Shatner. His spasms and kinetic physical energy provide a whole range of emotions that will make you laugh and heartache instantly – if he had the chance, he would have made a great doctor Doctor Who. Simply put, this show isn’t afraid to be silly: In one scene, Faraday sticks a garden hose a few feet down his throat in search of water. In another, he vomits a mountain of gold rings to pawn.

Much like the 1976 film starring David Bowie (who was always like an alien in his own right), Lumet and Kurtzman lean toward Tevis’ meditations on apocalypses and human failure. Enter Justin von Harris, a brilliant woman who hides her genius because of a mistake she made long ago. The emotional Harris usually delivers big wattage, and she doesn’t disappoint here as she crumbles and rebuilds to create a character whose strength lies not in her anger but in her admittedly shaky moral center. Together, she and Ejiofor bring immeasurable power to a series that sometimes slows to a crawl as it dissects the various apocalyptic scenarios around us.

The themes of the adaptation can also often leave a bad taste in the mouth. At one point, it resorts to ableism and depicts a character’s disability as a burden on their family, resulting in a moment reminiscent of The green mile. The authors admirably want to make The man who fell to earth A comment on refugees. The series actually begins in the future, with a successful Steve Jobs-style Tech Master Faraday addressing a fan-filled auditorium. He declares himself the immigrant who will tell his story. But what are the key elements in an immigrant’s story? Certainly there’s the fish-on-water element of being a traveler in a strange land with strange customs and a difficult language barrier. But the series fails to address the political element in a series with multiple layers of American law enforcement. Granted, only four of the show’s 10 episodes have been screened for review, but so far the immigrant component is sparse at best.

Faraday and Justin stand by a truck; he holds up a tech thing and she looks at him with crossed arms while leaning against a truck

For all thematic holes, the series offers visual amazement. Sweeping vistas of desert landscapes emphasizing the repetition of devastation infuse the rugged terrain with a spirit of the inexplicable. In particular, the cinematic lighting, which cuts sharp rays through strict compositions, emphasizes the thriller impact of the series, as does the pounding film music. Calm waters flow through some episodes, like Ejiofor and Peters dueting on “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” (it’s as adorable as it sounds) and Faraday and Falls supporting each other even when everyone doubts it.

There is an unmistakable urgency The man who fell to the ground – not only in Faraday’s mission and his belief that the end justifies the means, but also in the environmental critique that guides his path and ours. Our planet is dying. And the people in power care very little about that fact. Sooner than we think the damage will be irreversible. Faraday hails from a world where the only way to turn back time requires him to literally travel through space and time. Why do we let petty rivalries and grievances destroy our collective future? Most likely because we are human. It is our fault and our strength. We can reach for the future when the light shines clearest, and then smash the switch when the light reveals an uncomfortable truth.

The man who fell to earth is filled with these truths, but doesn’t necessarily smash the switch or even reinvent it. A narrative universe exists where the show could be weirder and more borderline. Instead, the series needs to be bolstered before its thematic investments yield firm results, but good performances fused with an eccentric tone widely embraced for enticing storytelling possibilities make it worth exploring.