Recommended Sci Fi TV: Science fiction and fantasy shows from the past couple of years or so that we believe are worth checking out.
What Is It?
A bullied teenager starts receiving strange messages online, and she discovers that they are from her father who died two years ago but had his intelligence uploaded. She seeks the help of others to gain custody of his U.I. (Uploaded Intelligence) but discovers that the company that possesses it has other plans for the U.I. and the technology that made it happen.
Starring: Katie Chang, Paul Dano, Aaron Eckhart, Rosemarie DeWitt, Chris Diamantopoulos, Daniel Dae Kim, Ron Livingston
Created By: Craig Silverstein
Bottom Line: This series delivers an interesting bit of hard sci fi with a dose of cyberpunk that poses some challenging questions on mortality as well as how far we should go with our technology.
Why Is It Worth Watching?
Epic sci fi and fantasy has become all the rage these days on the streaming services with tons of money poured into productions like Stranger Things, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Sandman, The Boys, Foundation, Andor, and more. Not all the streamers have that amount of money to throw at their originals, but that doesn’t mean that a good story might not be lurking around there on the second-tier services that could verge into epic territory as well. AMC+’s Pantheon–which is based on the series of stories The Apocalypse Triptych by Ken Liu–goes the Anime route in order to keep costs manageable, but it still tells a story with a pretty grand scope while also presenting some challenging questions on mortality and technology run amok.
This one gets off to a slow start, and I am going to recommend that you give it some leeway and stick around through at least the second episode in case you waiver on the premiere. It starts out in typical Anime fashion with a young girl having troubles at school and at home and finding herself captivated by strange messages she receives online. You might think that it will veer into angsty teen drama or cringe-worthy encounters with a cyber-stalker, but this show starts taking some twists and turns early on as it takes a roller coaster ride through an intriguing cyberverse while remaining grounded in reality throughout.
As the story progresses, so does the scope of the narrative as it tackles some pretty grand concepts amidst battles between corporations, governments, and cyber-beings with immortality as the ultimate stake. It does cover some familiar territory by throwing in unscrupulous companies and overeager antagonists along with some copy-and-paste dialog, but it never feels like a retread as there is enough unique about the show to allow it to overcome its swipes from the genre. And the first season builds to a pretty epic conclusion that rivals anything the big-budget streaming originals have delivered so far.
The show does wrap up many of its storylines, but still has plenty more packed away that could cover multiple additional seasons. Whether we will get more of this one, though, remains to be seen. AMC+ just back-tracked its renewal of the well-received Moonhaven amidst shakeups across AMC Networks. Pantheon did not receive much promotion and has not stirred up much buzz even though it has been well-received by critics. For fans looking for full-on science fiction, this certainly fits the bill. And those looking for some epic sci fi will not be disappointed either. It may not have the money or promotion that the top streamers can afford, but Pantheon is certainly a genre entry worth checking out.
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