WHow could anyone ever want to flee utopia? Moonhaven is a peaceful, green community that nestles in 500 miles of moon. Its purpose? To save the planet. It’s 2201. The year 2201 is a time of great change. Now, the only hope for humanity lies with the so-called Mooners, who’ve spent more than a century building a kinder, more sustainable society. AMC+ science-fi thriller MoonhavenPremiering July 7,, the film will be shown just two weeks ahead of the Bridge event, where the first wave Mooners will return to Earth to aid their terrestrial brothers in healing the planet.
It’s at this moment that the lunar utopia starts to look less perfect. Chill (Nina BarkerFrancis), a young lady, is attacked and killed. Paul Monaghan (a.k.a. Charlie Lost) and Arlo (Kadeem Hardison, a.k.a. A Different World’s unforgettable Dwayne Wayne), discover a strange connection between Chill and a pilot, Bella Sway (a taciturn Emma McDonald), who has just arrived from Earth with the powerful envoy Indira (Amara Karan from Night Of) and Indira’s bodyguard Tomm (True Blood’s Joe Manganiello, playing a sentient snarl) to the moon to aid in final preparations for the Bridge. As an Earther with a violent past and a sideline in smuggling, Bella arouses the suspicion of the colony’s leaders—including Maite (Ayelet Zurer of Losing Alice(), who is a mother-goddess with a lot of energy and is loved by her people. Yet in MoonhavenThe philosophical epic of the near future, where ambitious ideas outweigh sometimes-flimsy execution. Characters are often more complex than they appear.
All of these personalities provide ample research fodder for the show’s all-seeing, yet unseen, main character: Io. Lurking beneath the moon’s surface and described in a commercial by its parent company Icon as “humanity’s self-teaching artificial intelligence,” Io inspires an almost spiritual reverence on the part of the Mooners. After a series of tragic failures, the Mooners have created a society that is based on interdependence, albeit with a sketchy guideline. Couples raise other people’s offspring; children only encounter their biological parents at their own birth and immediately before the parent’s death. Moonhaven encourages its citizens, by hiding their bloodlines and forging unrelated families.
Living in this utopia every day can seem stale by science-fiction standards. This is why it’s easy to understand the lack of any a. Foundation-sized budget but also a bit of disappointment coming from creator Peter Ocko, an alum of AMC’s exhilaratingly odd, prematurely canceled Lodge 49. These are some of the glimpses that we have into culture Moonhaven’s six-episode first season suggest a familiar fusion of the Western canon (spot the literary references), Eastern spirituality (minus all deity worship), and techno-optimism. It is an earnest, heartfelt show. Extremely Dialog can become very precious even in an honest society. You can hear a lot singing and dancing while enjoying bucolic bliss. Mooner fashion is a mix of Comme des Garcons style and Ashram Chic. The mission of saving the poor souls on Earth seems to be a passion shared by everyone. “They are us. We are them,” goes one of the colony’s most frequently repeated maxims.
Emma McDonald at ‘Moonhaven.
Szymon Lazewski/AMC
Yet there’s reason to fear that the Bridge will fail. Many people on Earth are not happy with the appearance of moon elites. Nor are the naive youth of Moonhaven necessarily prepared for the horrors they’re sure to encounter hundreds of thousands of miles from home. Earth forges people like Bella: survivors who can throw a punch, land a kick, and sense when a person’s motives are less than pure. Although Chill’s killer is easily apprehended in a world monitored by an omniscient AI, Bella’s skills make her instrumental in the ongoing investigation by Paul and Arlo, whose goofy Sherlock-and-Watson schtick seems unlikely to detangle the knotty politics behind the murder.
It’s this psychologically rich story line, which takes a few episodes to develop but dominates the back half of the season, that makes Moonhaven It is more interesting and thought-provoking than its expensive predecessors. Westworld To Stranger Things. It is unclear whether or not the lunar community has reshaped human nature in a way that eliminates selfishness and other destructive characteristics, or if it is just holding these flaws back because of the abundance and ease found on the moon. What is the best way for Mooners to navigate Earth’s harsh and difficult conditions? Are they willing to compromise their individual values and collectivism? Is it possible for Earthers to really believe that a small minority of privileged people will sacrifice their security to ensure the survival of billions? Or is one character right to insist that “the strong take what they want and leave the rest to suffer”?
Continue reading: 50 TV Shows Most Awaited in 2022
This is the kind of inquiry that science fiction should answer. It’s all there, despite the tin-eared dialog. Moonhaven poses them subtly—a particular relief at a time when genre fiction more often screams its political allegories from computer-generated mountaintops. It doesn’t gloat over the colony’s multiracial families or overwhelmingly female leadership; if anything, it plays with the assumptions viewers might make about matriarchy. It doesn’t linger over a nonbinary character’s pronouns or explain the complete normalization of same-gender relationships. It is rare to find a story without any use for identity politics. Everybody is an equal member of the society, regardless of external distinctions. That’s refreshing.
And it’s refreshing that MoonhavenFor all of its flaws, ‘The Moon Colony’ trusts viewers to draw their own conclusions between what we see on 23rd century Earth and the geopolitical catastrophes. It is relevant because of the conflict it creates around privilege and power. But the resolutions aren’t simple; in a first season that’s almost prefatory, apparently easy answers often lead to new, more complicated questions. Is it possible to abandon utopia without a reason? Be sure to understand the context before you ask. Paradise This is what it really means.
Read More From Time
