I binged Another Life - not because it was amazing, but because I wanted to get it over with.
While the entire concept of the show isn't new, it still provides an interesting scenario to explore - which is one of the main reasons I was looking forward to and decided to watch all episodes, just to see where this was going. I think the general direction is good, there are just many small things all across the board that have been rather disappointing.
My main issue with this show is the writing. It becomes very clear that this mission is extremely important - yet, the main crew's behaviour is quite immature and inadequate, their decision making often is self-centered, emotional and idiotic. At first, one might think this is due to their young age, but it becomes obvious it's actually just them (their backups are way more professional).
The dynamic between characters is really weird at times, the way they react to each other is sometimes quite irritating. Maybe the writers wanted to explore the psychological effects of such a mission - but the way it is portrayed really isn't enjoyable. The acting in some instances feels over the top, then again in some scenes characters are way too tame/indifferent - this random behaviour made it difficult to immerse myself, I often wondered "where is this coming from?" or "why is there hardly any reaction?". It feels like the writers couldn't decide how certain characters should react in certain contexts so they just went with whatever would provide the most drama. It's a lazy approach imho.
The story itself and all the little things that impact the mission are only designed to create obstacles so the crew has something to do during their journey. Most of their issues are self-imposed (due to their behaviour) and while their solutions can be considered realistic, all of it feels forced. It's like the writers had a rough idea how to get to the final episode and then didn't know what to do with the time in-between, so they invented a number of situations to provide some sort of development, all of which is rather irrelevant in the larger context.
In general, the actors have done an ok job - I think they did their best with the material at hand. If anything, the writers weren't really consistent and tried too hard to make this an unnecessarily over-dramatic journey. As a viewer, I haven't really gained any new insights, I haven't really experienced a gripping story, and couldn't really get involved emotionally - all of which made it really difficult to immerse myself. I'm sure that films like Interstellar , The Martian, Arrival, shows like The Expanse, or books like Blindsight (by Peter Watts) have set the bar higher, so maybe that is one of the reasons I felt Another Life was lacking in multiple areas.
Overall, the reason why this show was disappointing: it has so much potential, the foundation for a great series is right there - it's just wasted on silly things or attempts to mimic really popular films/shows, thus it's a mixed bag of everything resulting in an underwhelming experience.
