One might assume Showtime’s The Man Who Fell To Earth to be a series remake of the cult classic sci-fi flick of the same name from 1976, directed by Nicolas Roeg and starring the perfectly cast David Bowie as an alien searching for a water source for his sun-scorched planet.
That basic description of the original holds true in the new series starring Chiwitel Ejiofor. Ejiofor is perfect as the fast-learning alien K. Faraday who has come to Earth to try to find a way to save his home planet of Anthea—the same planet Bowie was looking to salvage over 45 years ago. And then it hits you: this version of The Man Who Fell To Earth isn’t so much an iteration, but a profoundly rendered continuation of the story.
The 1976 film ends with Thomas Jerome Newton (Bowie) gaining significant wealth from the advanced technology he brings from his world to ours, turning into a bit of a Howard Hughes character. Eventually he is experimented on by the US government, becomes addicted to alcohol, and fails to return to his planet. But before becoming a complete recluse, Newton records a series of messages to send to his home planet, hoping that someone else will be able finish what he started.
This is where the Showtime series comes into play. K. Faraday has received Newton’s message and steps forward as his successor. Like Newton (who is played by Bill Nighy in flashbacks) Faraday falls to earth, brings new technology with him, attempts to assimilate (often hilariously) among humans, and begins his mission to save his planet.
The show is full of Easter eggs for Bowie lovers—those that pay tribute to the film that preceded it, and to Bowie’s Starman himself. The Showtime Presents title card is scripted in a font that will likely remind fans of his Diamond Dogs album. Each episode bears the name of a David Bowie song (Hallo Spaceboy is the pilot title). There’s even a sign for a “Stardust Hotel” that appears in episode three. If you worship at the altar of the Thin White Duke, then all of these choices are likely to make you smile.
What really matters, though, is how unique and well-made the series is. All of the care taken to pay homage to Bowie and his film would be nothing more than sweet touches without something substantial to hang them on. Fortunately, the series is not just a compilation of wonderful eccentricities, but a fully-fledged project that showcases some real next-level thinking in terms of script and direction.
One can’t begin to sing the show’s praises without going full bel canto on the performance of Chiwitel Ejiofor. Long one of our most wonderful actors, the role of K. Faraday is without question his most definitive since 12 Years A Slave—and my how he makes the most of it. Arriving in the New Mexico desert, Chiwitel’s Faraday is driven to find a disgraced scientist named Justin (a wonderful Naomie Harris) whose failure to create energy through fusion holds the key to his planet’s future.
While Faraday learns English quickly, the nuances of the language often escape him and his workman-like efforts to enunciate create a number of laugh out loud moments. Justin is often at a loss to explain her companion’s strange behavior, including his odd manner of speaking and his habit of drinking out of water pitchers instead of cups. Faraday’s water consumption can be ravenous, as shown when he is discovered by local police with an open spigoted garden hose inserted halfway down his gullet.
All of this unexpected humor does not detract from the seriousness of what is at stake. There are only a few thousand of Faraday’s kind left alive on Anthea, and earth itself is on a similar trajectory should it not change its ways. Faraday warns that earth has already hit its tipping point, and in just eight years (2030) the planet will enter into the extinction event stage.
Faraday is less interested in earth’s survival than that of his planet (he seems to view our planet as a lost cause), but Justin, in exchange for helping Faraday, makes a deal with the alien for him to leave behind the energy prototype so that earth will get the “same chance” to fix itself as Anthea. Faraday agrees, and then they are off to London to gain access to Newton’s mysterious “tenth patent,” a confounding piece of tech that, when combined with Justin’s dismissed theory, could result in the salvation of both planets.
Unlike the Roeg/Bowie film, Showtime’s series has a lot of money for VFX, and it makes the most of them. A tornado in the desert is filmed with striking immediacy, and when Faraday crashes a tech conference to demo his breathtaking energy-creating prototype, the jaws that hit the floor aren’t just those in attendance, but ours as well.
With six episodes to go, it’s unclear where this journey will take us. Will Faraday succeed where Newton did not? Will he fall prey to the riches and vices that Newton did on earth? Or will he be discovered by the government, taken into custody, and become the subject of experimentation just like his predecessor?
I suppose that’s going to be the fun of watching. Because this is a sequel and not a remake, there’s no roadmap to the end of this series. But with each episode you can feel the weight of the outcome growing incrementally, perhaps even exponentially. This is a show about science, how it relates to the environment, and the strange ability us earthlings have to ignore consequences, even as they approach to take our lives.
The Man Who Fell To Earth may be science fiction, but the most significant part of it doesn’t feel like fiction at all. It feels like the world we’re living in right now. In that sense, The Man Who Fell To Earth isn’t just a show, it’s a warning.
If David Bowie were still with us, I’d like to believe he’d tell Chiwetel and company that they “really made the grade.” Perhaps he is out there somewhere, sitting in a tin can, far above the world, singing this show’s praises.
What a lovely thought that is.
The Man Who Fell To Earth releases new episodes on Sundays exclusively on Showtime.
I absolutely love love love this show!! Chiwetel, brings such depth and humanity to the part. I love going on this journey with him!
ABC:
MONDAY
8 PM — Bachelor in Paradise
10 PM — The Good Doctor
TUESDAY
8 PM — Bachelor in Paradise
10 PM — THE ROOKIE: FEDS
WEDNESDAY
8 PM — The Conners
8:30 PM– The Goldbergs
9 PM — Abbott Elementary (new night)
9:30 PM — Home Economics
10 PM — Big Sky (new night)
THURSDAY
8 PM — Station 19
9 PM — Grey’s Anatomy
10 PM — ALASKA
FRIDAY
8 PM — Shark Tank
9-11 PM — 20/20
SATURDAY
8 PM College Football
SUNDAY
7 PM — America’s Funniest Home Videos
8 PM — CELEBRITY JEOPARDY!
9 PM — Celebrity Wheel of Fortune
10 PM — The Rookie
DRAMA
ALASKA: “Alaska” stars Hilary Swank as Eileen Fitzgerald, a recently disgraced reporter who leaves her high-profile New York life behind to join a daily metro newspaper in Anchorage on a journey to find both personal and professional redemption. Alongside Swank, “Alaska” stars Jeff Perry as Stanley Cornik, Matt Malloy as Bob Young, Meredith Holzman as Claire Muncy, Grace Dove as Rosalind “Roz” Friendly, Pablo Castelblanco as Gabriel Martin, Ami Park as Jieun Park and Craig Frank as Austin Greene.
THE ROOKIE: FEDS: From the executive producers of flagship series “The Rookie” comes “The Rookie: Feds” starring Niecy Nash-Betts as Simone Clark, the oldest rookie in the FBI Academy. The spinoff was introduced as a two-part event during the current fourth season of “The Rookie,” where Officer John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) and the LA division of the FBI enlist the help of Simone Clark when one of her former students is a suspect in a terror attack. “The Rookie: Feds” stars Niecy Nash-Betts as Simone Clark, Frankie Faison as Christopher “Cutty” Clark and Felix Solis as Special Agent Matthew Garza.
NEW MIDSEASON COMEDY
NOT DEAD YET: “Not Dead Yet” follows Nell Stevens (Gina Rodriguez), a broke and newly single self-described disaster, working to restart the life and career she left behind 10 years ago. When she lands the only job she can find – writing obituaries, Nell starts getting life advice from an unlikely source. The series is adapted from the book “Confessions of a 40-something F**k Up” by Alexandra Potter.
NBC wrapped up their fall schedule:
MONDAY
8-10: The Voice
10-11: QUANTUM LEAP
TUESDAY
8-9: The Voice
9-10: La Brea
10-1: New Amsterdam
WEDNESDAY
8-9: Chicago Med
9-10: Chicago Fire
10-11 PM — Chicago P.D.
THURSDAY
8-9: Law & Order
9-10: Law & Order: SVU
10-11: Law & Order: Organized Crime
FRIDAY
8-9: Capital One College Bowl (until November)
8-8:30: LOPEZ VS. LOPEZ (November)
8:30-9 : Young Rock (November)
9-11: Dateline NBC
SATURDAY
8-9: Drama Encores
9-10: Dateline Weekend Mystery
10-11: SNL Vintage
SUNDAY
7-8:20: Football Night in America
8:20-11:30: Sunday Night Football
NEW COMEDY
LOPEZ VS. LOPEZ — A working-class family comedy about dysfunction, reconnection and all the pain and joy in between. The cast includes George Lopez, Mayan Lopez, Selenis Leyva, Brice Gonzalez and Matt Shively.
NEW DRAMA
QUANTUM LEAP — It’s been 30 years since Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. Now a new team has been assembled to restart the project in the hopes of understanding the mysteries behind the machine and the man who created it. The cast includes Raymond Lee, Caitlin Bassett, Ernie Hudson, Mason Alexander Park, and Nanrisa Lee.
Indefinitely on hold: America’s Got Talent: Extreme, Making It and Family Game Night.
MIdseason (1Q 2023): Blacklist, American Auto, Grand Crew, NIGHT COURT, THE WHEEL, MILLION DOLLAR ISLAND, That’s My Jam, The Wall and Dick Wolf’s LA FIRE AND RESCUE (a reality series about the LAFD).
Fox kicks off 2022 upfronts…by delaying indefinitely their actual fall schedule of what goes where (!). Next Level Chef gets the post-Super Bowl 57 slot.
Dramas: 9-1-1: LONE STAR, ACCUSED, ALERT, THE CLEANING LADY, FANTASY ISLAND, MONARCH;
Comedies: BOB’S BURGERS, CALL ME KAT, FAMILY GUY, THE GREAT NORTH, GRIMSBURG, HOUSEBROKEN, KRAPOPOLIS, THE SIMPSONS, WELCOME TO FLATCH;
Unscripted: BEAT SHAZAM, CRIME SCENE KITCHEN, DON’T FORGET THE LYRICS!, GORDON RAMSAY’S FOOD STARS, HELL’S KITCHEN, LEGO MASTERS, THE MASKED SINGER, MASTERCHEF, NEXT LEVEL CHEF, SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE.
NEW DRAMAS:
MONARCH: A Texas-sized, multi-generational musical drama about America’s first family of country music, the Romans. They’re headed by the insanely talented, but tough as nails Queen of Country Music DOTTIE CANTRELL ROMAN (Susan Sarandon) and beloved husband, “The Texas Truthteller” ALBIE ROMAN (Trace Adkins). Dottie and Albie have created a country music dynasty. But even though the Roman name is synonymous with authenticity, the very foundation of their success is a lie. And when their reign as country royalty is put in jeopardy, heir to the crown NICOLETTE “NICKY” ROMAN (Anna Friel) will stop at nothing to protect her family’s legacy, while ensuring her own quest for stardom.
ACCUSED: Based on the BBC’s BAFTA-winning British crime anthology, comes a provocative series that takes you on the journey of the defendant. Each episode opens in a courtroom on the accused, with viewers knowing nothing about their crime or how they ended up on trial. Told from the defendant’s point of view through flashbacks, ACCUSED holds a mirror up to the current times with evocative and emotional stories. In ACCUSED, viewers discover how an ordinary person gets caught up in an extraordinary situation, ultimately revealing how one wrong turn leads to another, until it’s too late to turn back.
ALERT: A character-driven police procedural about the LAMPU – the Los Angeles Police Department’s missing person’s unit. When police officer Nikki Parker’s son goes missing, she joins the LAPD’s Missing Person’s Unit to help other people find their loved ones, even as she searches for her own. Six years later, her world is turned upside-down when her ex-husband, Devon Zoellner, shows up with a proof-of-life photo of their missing boy. Or is it? ALERT is a procedural drama with a heart-pounding, life-or-death search for a missing person in each episode, that runs alongside Nikki and Devon’s quest to find out the truth about the person claiming to be their long-lost son. It’s a case-of-the-week show with a case-of-a-lifetime story running through it – a story that alternately brings our two main characters gut-wrenching heartache and heart-pounding joy.
COMEDIES:
GRIMSBURG: Marvin Flute (Jon Hamm) may be the greatest detective ever to catch a cannibal clown or correctly identify a mid-century modern armoire. But there’s one mystery he still can’t crack – his family. Now that he’s back in Grimsburg, a town where everyone has a secret or three, Flute will follow every lead he’s got to redeem himself with the ex-wife he never stopped loving, even if it means hanging out with the son he never bothered to get to know.
KRAPOPOLIS: Set in mythical Ancient Greece, the animated series centers on a flawed family of humans, gods and monsters that tries to run one of the world’s first cities without killing each other. The series’ voice cast features Hannah Waddingham, Richard Ayoade, Matt Berry, Pam Murphy and Duncan Trussell In the series, Ayoade voices “Tyrannis”, the mortal son of a goddess. He’s the benevolent King of Krapopolis trying to make do in a city that lives up to its name. Waddingham plays “Deliria,” Tyrannis’ mother, goddess of self-destruction and questionable choices. Within her extended Olympian family – forged in patricide and infidelity – she’s known as the trashy one. Berry is “Shlub,” Tyrannis’ father, a mantitaur (half centaur [horse + human], half manticore [lion + human + scorpion]). He is oversexed and underemployed, claims to be an artist and has literally never paid for anything, in any sense of that word, for his entire life. Murphy voices “Stupendous,” Tyrannis’ half-sister, daughter of Deliria and a cyclops. Trussell plays “Hippocampus,” Tyrannis’ half-brother, offspring of Shlub and a mermaid, and, obviously, a hot mess, biologically speaking.
REALITY:
GORDON RAMSAY’S FOOD STARS: This time, he’s prepared to put his money where his mouth is, by backing the winner with an investment to take their idea to the next level. But to win Ramsay’s support, it will take more than just a great idea. As he pushes contestants to their limits through a series of relentless challenges, they’ll have to prove they possess the raw ingredients required to succeed – drive, dedication, creativity, passion and talent. Being the last entrepreneur standing will earn the winner a life-changing reward. They just need to survive Ramsay – the only angel investor.