‘Origin’ Early Buzz: YouTube Premium’s New Sci-Fi Show Has Potential
The reviews are in for YouTube Premium’s next big original science fiction seriesOrigin, and almost all of them include a variation of this line: “it’s likeLost, in space.” Puns aside, that’s some high praise – but does the comparison extend beyond the show’s use of flashbacks to explore the backstories of its characters? Read some excerpts from the reviews below to find out.
Origin Early Buzz
Originhas a familiar premise, which /Film’s Jacob Hall laid out well ina piece from this year’s San Diego Comic-Con:
11 of the colonists wake up and find their massive, maze-like, and inexplicably lit-like-a-haunted-house spaceship (shades of bothEvent HorizonandAlienhere) completely abandoned.Somethingbad happened and the vast majority of the crew and passengers took off in escape pods. What happened? Why was this group left behind? And what is on the ship with them? Cue screaming, running, and lots of goo dripping from ceilings.
Now that we’re all on the same page regarding what the show is about, is it any good?
Josh Bell atComicBookResourcessays the show gets off to a mostly strong start, capitalizing on its hooky premise and leaning into its B-movie roots:
Low-budget sci-fi movies fromCubetoCirclehave pitted short-tempered, distrustful people against each other while trapped in unfamiliar, deadly spacecraft, andOriginworks by playing off of expectations for movies like that, following some while subverting others. While the characters bicker and scheme, they also manage to make substantial progress in figuring out their dilemma, and creatorMika Watkinsresists the slow, deliberate pacing of most prestige cable and streaming dramas. While there are no doubt plenty of shocking twists yet to come over the rest of the 10-episode season, the early episodes establish important building blocks for future development…
The performances (especially fromHarry Potter’s Tom Felton as an angry, impatient know-it-all) are a bit broad, and the dialogue is not exactly sophisticated, but that’s mostly what the material calls for. This isn’t complex, cerebral science fiction; it’s the kind of thing Syfy would air to fill the spaces in between its more critically acclaimed dramas with higher budgets. And aside from some swearing and a few moments of excessive gore,Origincould easily be a Syfy series, sitting comfortably alongside the channel’s various Canadian imports. The sets are mostly the kind of monotonous empty corridors recognizable from dozens of low-budget B-movies, although the special effects for the occasional exterior shots are surprisingly convincing.
Merrill Barr atForbespraises the show’s hiring practices, specifically regarding the director of the first two episodes:
The most genius creative decision made byOriginis the one that broughtPaul W.S. Andersonon board to direct the series' first two episodes. The reason this is important is that Anderson is the man responsible for one of the most beloved haunted ship properties in modern history,Event Horizon.
Originis a show that asks Anderson to dive back into that well and, in doing so, has been given a chance to play with a very fertile foundation set up by the end of the second episode.
ScreenRant’s Kevin Yeoman was also impressed with Anderson’s directorial work:
Alexis Gunderson atPastedraws comparisons not only toLost’sflashback structure but also basically saysOriginborrows some key details fromLostcharacters for a couple of characters of its own.
The monsters the stranded passengers face, meanwhile—other than each other, of course—seem to be of a possessive alien type not unlike those recently seen onThe Expanse,Killjoys, andDark Matter. And the desolation of their situation as the only humans left alive (or at least, in contact) in the vastness of deep space? That’s basically a carbon copy of the premise behindBattlestar Galactica,Passengers, and, obviously, the actualLost in Space.Originhits all the right notes, but until it can get a chance to turn them into a new song, all that can be said of it is that it is a compelling mimic.
I think Vinnie Mancuso atCollidercrystalizes the majority of the critical reaction toOriginin this paragraph:
Overall,Originis fine. It’s good, even! The twists come jarring and fast, the gooey, bone-bending body horror is wonderfully executed under the guidance of special effects supervisorMax Poolman(District 9,Dredd), and every episode so far—again, much likeLost—ends on a perfectly thudding cliffhanger that will usher you directly to the “next episode” button. But it could have been more. There’s a moment that even proves it could have been more. Deep into Episode 2, after a series of cheap, sudden-bang jump scares, Felton’s always-surly character yells “Can everyone just stop hurling themselves around corners?”
I love that. I genuinely love that, and it makes me think of a series that not only revels in the tricks and tropes of its inspirations but also worked a bit harder to subvert them.
It sounds like the show still needs to carve out its own identity to move out from the shadow of other, more memorable pieces of pop culture. Will audiences be willing to go along for the ride as it tries to do that? We’ll soon find out – the first season ofOriginis available on YouTube Premium right now.
