The sci-fi genre has led to numerous shows that are great from start to finish, but a Netflix original series that returned for its second season four years ago today isn’t one of them. With their imaginative worlds and high-concept ideas, sci-fi series are some of the most compelling and thought-provoking shows on the small screen. Shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation, The X-Files, and even Netflix’s own Stranger Things have kept viewers glued to their screens and become cultural phenomena, but one Netflix sci-fi show starring Superman and Star Wars‘ legends still has us asking one question: why was it even renewed?
The series in question is Another Life, Netflix’s Aaron Martin-created series that starred Superman’s Tyler Hoechlin and Star War’s Katee Sackhoff in a story about a massive alien artifact that lands on Earth and a young crew of astronauts on an interstellar mission to track down its source. Two years after its disastrous first season, Another Life was somehow brought back for a second season on October 14, 2021, with today marking Another Life Season 2’s four-year anniversary.
The Rotten Tomatoes score speaks for itself – Another Life wasn’t good. Despite packing some great star power, the series’ debut season only earned an abysmal 6% rating (for comparison, the audience was much more favorable and handed the first batch of episodes a 68% Popcornmeter rating), and Season 2 didn’t even garner enough reviews to earn a critics score, though the four reviews for the season blasted it as a wasted potential that, while slightly better than the debut season, is still riddled with flaws and poor execution.
The series returned for its second season in 2021, a 10-episode season that worked to fix some of the flaws of the first. Whereas Season 1 suffered from a meandering and poorly structured plot, Season 2 was far more focused and used subplots to further the main storyline. The season also improved on its widely criticized poor character development, giving characters more growth and personality, and dived deeper into the sci-fi element, expanding the universe beyond what was seen in Season 1 and introducing more complex sci-fi concepts, like wormholes and alien mind takeovers. All of that led to a slightly higher Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 77%, but the show still suffered from poor critical reviews lambasting weak plotlines and predictable twists, ultimately leading to its cancellation after just two seasons.
In a crowded sci-fi TV landscape filled with other great and critically applauded shows, it’s a wonder that Another Life was the one to get another. There are dozens of other sci-fi shows that have arguably been more deserving of a second season but ultimately failed to make it past the first. Despite having one of the best sci-fi pilot episodes ever and maintaining that momentum in the episodes that followed, Fox’s Firefly was axed after a single season, marking one of the most shocking cancellations in the genre to date. But Firefly isn’t alone in the “one-season wonders” category of sci-fi TV.
Also on the list of sci-fi shows that absolutely needed a longer run is fellow Fox title Almost Human, a series that successfully merged sci-fi with crime drama in a Blade Runner-esque standout debut season. There’s also Caprica, the character-driven Battlestar Galactica prequel that excelled at world-building. Netflix has even gone on to produce more than just a few amazing sci-fi series that deserved more longevity than their single-season runs, including 1899 and I Am Not Okay With This, the latter of which was technically renewed for a second season before Netflix later reversed that decision.
A strong argument can be made that any of those shows deserved a second chance over Another Life, a series with few redeeming qualities that was critically panned from the get-go and bashed as a clichéd and unoriginal story that failed to make much of an impact on the genre. Regardless of the shoulda, woulda, coulda’s, Another Life is the show that Netflix doubled down on.
All 20 episodes of Another Life are available to stream on Netflix.
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