I loved Lost in Space as a kid. I forget what channel it was on when I was growing up, but I had Lassie, Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and I love them all.
So I was giddy when Netflix announced a reboot.
What a fucking Turd it turned out to be.
The original 1965 series was hopeful. We were in the space race and so that was mirrored in the show, with a space race to be the first to colonize another planet.
The 2018 series had to be dark and gritty so it’s not space race, the Earth is/was destroyed and we have no choice but to colonize another planet. This isn’t ambitious hope, this is desperation.
They also did a major rewrite of the characters, in a really awful way.
John Robinson is no longer a professor of astrophysics. He’s a Marine of undeclared rank. In typical Hollywood fashion, he’s casually stupid and barely scientifically literate. He doesn’t know his kids, especially Will, and is gruff with them.
Maureen Robinson is no longer a biochemist. She is now an aerospace engineer. She is a miserably, ball busing woman who dislikes her husband. She filed for divorce before the Jupiter mission, but canceled it so not to leave her children’s father on earth to die.
The girls Penny and Judy are teenage girls. They fight a lot.
Will is not a child prodigy. In fact, he failed the test to qualify for the Jupiter mission and his mom had to do some sort of string pulling to get him on the mission.
That alone really makes the show something awful, that whatever world they lived in, the powers that be would break up a family of colonists. “Sure, we will save you and two of your children from extinction, but you have to leave your son behind because he didn’t pass a test.”
Don West isn’t a major. He’s a criminal who crashed on a different ship.
The Robot is an alien the find on the planet they crash on. It also caused the crash.
Dr. Smith is actually Parker Posey having stolen a real doctor’s identity.
I don’t know which writer(s) at Netflix Studios have a minor in Women’s Studies, they need to be fired.
Every male character in the show is awful. Flat fucking awful.
Sure, the 1965 show was Leave It To Beaver in space. In the original show both parents were scientists. Why did dad have to be turned into an idiot, estranged from his kids? Couldn’t Maureen’s role as a biochemist in the original show been more enhanced?
Why does Will have to be the only kid not cut out for the mission?
Why should I care about a dysfunctional family lost in space? What is entertaining about a super smart ball busting wife resent saving her borderline estranged idiot husband from an apocalypse?
And this show is recommended in Netflix Kids. Yeah, it is.
Bright was fantastic. Stranger Things is worthy of all the praise heaped upon it.
Lost in Space is a big, fat turd that ruined a beloved show from my childhood.
It actually makes me appreciate how much closer the awful, awful 1998 move was to the original show than this.
Please Netflix, don’t renew this crap fest for a second season.
I knew to avoid it just by the preview. Good thing I trusted my gut.
I’m willing to give it one or two more episodes, but this first one was poorly written.
This is the new normal in Hollywood: Strong, smart women, and the men are all stupid and abusive.
Supposedly “strong” and “smart” women. They come off just as stupid and abusive as the men.
Remember: they think they’re being original when they make the men stupid and the women superior. It’s not like every other show for the last 30 years didn’t do it.
Question: I’ve just gone through the whole “cutting the cord” and dropping cable TV, so I’m naive. Is Netflix an all or nothing thing? Is there anyway besides dropping them entirely to not pay for this abomination?
Like I say, we just dropped cable, except for high speed internet and one streaming service (YouTube TV) I didn’t subscribe to Netflix because I just don’t care enough about watching fiction.