The Man Who Fell to Earth (2022)

 

I've found moments of true brilliance in Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet's sequel to the Nicolas Roeg alt-cinema classic The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), whch starred David Bowie.

In both the film and the Showtime miniseries, an alien from a dying planet comes to earth in an attempt to save the home world being desiccated by a global catastrophe involving water. In the 2022 extension, Chiwetel Ejiofor is the alien answering a call from his mentor, the original explorer from '76, who adopted the name Thomas Newton (Bowie) and became a technological magnate who finds himself trapped on Earth.

In the latest installment, the Newton character is played Bill Nighy. His interactions with Ejiofor's Faraday are some of the more intriguing exchanges in a series filled with them, moments of deep existential pondering and examination of the meaning of life.

These are played most effectively by the wonderful British actress Naomie Harris -- Justin Falls, a physicist of international repute who disappeared after a tragic overreach. Her evolving relationship with Faraday offers layers of interpersonal intrigue to a narrative that has no shortage of them, probing climate change, societal fragmentation, governmental corruption and industrial conspiracy.

To my ear, some of the series' best writng is displayed in Episode 5, Changes, in which Faraday narrates in a transmission to his wife on the home world his discoveries about humanity and what makes Earthlings tick. It might seem trivial to some viewers, but the episode's comments about jazz and improvisation are surprising and inspired and neatly woven through the developing narrative.