Raised by Wolves - Sci-fi TV series by Ridley Scott

[Tor Lugosi]

The first three episodes are available. I foresee it being polarizing because it's incredibly weird and alien. Also, don't worry about what you see in the trailer spoiling anything -- 99% of it is in the first episode. So far I'm enjoying it, though I think the scripts could be better and I'm more interested in the lore of the universe than I am the main plot.

Spoiler

The lore for the Neromancer androids doesn't make much sense to me thus far. If they're made by the Mithraic faction why didn't they bring any with them onto the ark and why don't they have any way of counteracting their sonic scream? I'm sure we'll learn more about them and maybe they're one of the reasons why everyone had to flee Earth but so far it feels like a plot hole.

 

[Goodbye Horses]

I really enjoyed the first three episodes, show has a really cool 60s/70s British sci-fi vibe to it. Only downside is that all the child actors are fucking appalling.

 

[Mariposa Electrique]

Great show. Really good.

 

[дядя Боря]

I am kind of surprised about only few post so far. There are 5 episodes already out. I binge watched them last night.

I'm not sure about the whole religion as a main conflict of the plot. It feels like Prometheus all over again, full of plot holes, but having the potential there. In the current political climate it's fairly controversial, but religious side seem to be far more technically advanced than "atheists" which has always been the other way around. Religion never pushed technical progress.

Spoiler: to op's question

The lore for the Neromancer androids doesn't make much sense to me thus far. If they're made by the Mithraic faction why didn't they bring any with them onto the ark and why don't they have any way of counteracting their sonic scream? I'm sure we'll learn more about them and maybe they're one of the reasons why everyone had to flee Earth but so far it feels like a plot hole.

It's probably along the lines of developing an ultimate weapon against your enemies that turns against you.

also, the amount of colored in this series will allow it to sweep Oscars or whatever.

 

[murdered meat bag]

i thought this thread was about the lovely wolverhampton family getting a third season.

 

[Defensive Ella Purnell]

I'm not sure about the whole religion as a main conflict of the plot. It feels like Prometheus all over again, full of plot holes, but having the potential there. In the current political climate it's fairly controversial, but religious side seem to be far more technically advanced than "atheists" which has always been the other way around. Religion never pushed technical progress.

When has that ever actually been the case historically?

Biggest example I can think of of an atheistic society Vs a nominally religious society would be the USSR Vs the USA & the USA was more advanced. Also Catholic monasteries preserved basically all philosophy & technological knowledge during the Dark Ages & the Catholic church actually sponsored & paid for a lot of scientific research that led to the Renaissance where they opposed some theories that they felt would take away their monopoly on knowledge. As well as that, Islam was manual and responsible for many breakthrough's during the middle ages. They're lagging behind now but an exception rather than the historical rule.

The idea that religion stunts technological development is just a trope they use in fiction. It's interesting to me that people are surprised the religious faction pulled ahead with tech in this show tbh.

Aside from that it's a good show so far, but it's pretty schizo with it's mythological references. Romulus & Remus is obviously referenced in the title & maybe Campion & Paul are meant to represent them? The new episode where the giant stone roasted the priest is a reference to Moses striking the rock for water but being cursed by God. Christianity did supplant the Cult of Mithras in Rome so maybe they're going to do something with that? Idk but I'm enjoying it so far.

 

[дядя Боря]

When has that ever actually been the case historically?

Biggest example I can think of of an atheistic society Vs a nominally religious society would be the USSR Vs the USA & the USA was more advanced. Also Catholic monasteries preserved basically all philosophy & technological knowledge during the Dark Ages & the Catholic church actually sponsored & paid for a lot of scientific research that led to the Renaissance where they opposed some theories that they felt would take away their monopoly on knowledge. As well as that, Islam was manual and responsible for many breakthrough's during the middle ages. They're lagging behind now but an exception rather than the historical rule.

The idea that religion stunts technological development is just a trope they use in fiction. It's interesting to me that people are surprised the religious faction pulled ahead with tech in this show tbh.

Aside from that it's a good show so far, but it's pretty schizo with it's mythological references. Romulus & Remus is obviously referenced in the title & maybe Campion & Paul are meant to represent them? The new episode where the giant stone roasted the priest is a reference to Moses striking the rock for water but being cursed by God. Christianity did supplant the Cult of Mithras in Rome so maybe they're going to do something with that? Idk but I'm enjoying it so far.

you are correct but from perspective of money and power, not theology. Prior to middle ages church members were probably most educated and literate compared to the rest of the populace and there were no other places (i.e. public ed) A lot of Alchemists came from church, like monk Roger Bacon whose works advanced medicine. Also servants of church had more time to dedicate to learning, reading, translating and cataloguing than the rest. Until not very recently, historically, being a scientist, mostly independently wealthy people could afford that.

The biggest problem with church were challenging church teachings and assholes. If Darwin's theory went along with church's teachings, he would have an easier time with acceptance and in fact he didn't go full atheist as seen in the foreword. Also, church and money that came with it attracted plenty of simple minded a-holes (like politics) which sometimes can be bad when you are trying to get grants.

There was a time when church played big role and was a powerful institution from a financial stand point. A lot of money may be spent on research, hospitals and other projects. If megachurch rises again, I can see a large flow of money directed to scientific pursuits. There may be problems with ethics, but like in case of Borgia pope, spending money on military was well within reason and could happen again.

 

[Disgruntled Pupper]

This series started out so good and then fell so flat the last 3-4 episodes. Having an asshole character who won't die despite being put in situations where they should have died doesn't make them a super badass villain that everyone loves to hate, it's just annoying. The question of whether Sol exists and is working through/speaking to various characters just reminds me of Lost's "THE ISLAND IS MAGIC... OR IS IT???" bullshit. But most importantly, Ridley Scott really, really needs to move past "parasitic snake-like alien incubates in human or android and then bursts out of them".

I want to say there's enough potential for season 2 to still course correct, but honestly I have very little faith that will actually happen. At least the opening is still really intriguing and haunting.

 

[Feline Supremacist]

This series reminds me of that South Park episode where Cartman is frozen waiting for the Ninetendo Wii and wakes up in the future to find the Atheist Alliance fighting the United Atheist League, there's talking otters and after a trek through a swamp he finds a Nintendo Wii in a museum temple ruin. Go God Go made more sense that Raised by Wolves.

There are many things I can't suspend disbelief for such as why didn't the androids make sure they could sustain a settlement before birthing the embryos, why did the Mithraic not detect she was a Necromancer when they scanned the planet or come in contact with her, why didn't they execute Ragnar and Mary when they realized they were impostors, wtf is a rapist doing with a bucket on his head and is tethered to an android instead of being executed, Mary has a scanner but it doesn't have a rudimentary ultrasound, why does everyone just believe an android grew a human fetus out of nowhere, suddenly there are Neanderthals on this planet no one ever noticed before despite prancing all over the place, Ragnar has gone insane, is physically fucked up yet he kung fu kills everyone in better shape than him who are armed with energy weapons and just came down from the atheist ark so they're physically in top shape, why didn't Mother scream at the lamprey she birthed and omg that part about flying down the hole, into the lava and core of the planet only to come out on the other side and the fucking lamprey is now 1000x the size and a fully grown snake and flies off like thanks for the ride jfc

It fell flat because of bad writing/exposition. I also agree we need to get over the Ridley Scott "Holy shit an alien impregnated someone and burst out isn't that gross and scary!!!" as I'm sure actual aliens would find other, equally scary ways of killing us if need be.

 

[Tor Lugosi]

The execution and the overall quality of the scripts is definitely lacking but overall I enjoyed it.

Oddly, the other show that this one reminded me of most is Hannibal, which often operated on a dream-like logic where practical, logical explanations for things were secondary. Bryan Fuller in interviews talked about how the writers treated Hannibal as the devil and then, when needed, would try to add in more reasonable explanations for the things he did.

 

[Krokodil Overdose]

It's "magic robot wamman is better at everything than everyone" already the plot of Westworld?

 

[Secret Asshole]

Just have to remind people that the guy who discovered inheritable traits (genes and alleles) was Gregor Mendel. A monk who raised peas and this was before Darwin. So he discovered genetics before evolution.

Monks were also the only way books were ever copied before the printing press. Same with the Church preserving knowledge. The first universities in the world were funded and started by the Church.

And yeah, most scientists were either funded by a patron (Kings for prestige) or worked in the priesthood.

But I just started watching this show. Good to see Ridley Scott hasn't broken tradition of cometely 1fucking up stories past act 1.

 

[CheezzyMach]

Just have to remind people that the guy who discovered inheritable traits (genes and alleles) was Gregor Mendel. A monk who raised peas and this was before Darwin. So he discovered genetics before evolution.

Monks were also the only way books were ever copied before the printing press. Same with the Church preserving knowledge. The first universities in the world were funded and started by the Church.

And yeah, most scientists were either funded by a patron (Kings for prestige) or worked in the priesthood.

But I just started watching this show. Good to see Ridley Scott hasn't broken tradition of cometely 1fucking up stories past act 1.

Yeah people who are "Church bad" are ignorant as fuck of history.

They think every Church was like Frollo from Hunchback just burning witches and apostates when in reality the church was the biggest proponent of the Renaissance and routinely butted heads with corrupt monarchs.

 

[millais]

I've not watched the whole thing yet, but the aesthetic and stylings of the religious zealots seems to borrow a lot from the trappings of the Graeco-Roman mystery religions and pagan cults, all the Mithras and Sol and sun worship and mysteries and prophecy.

Unfortunately, aside from these superficial trappings, the rest seems to be played straight with a Christian-like ecclesiastical hierarchy and organization. Missed opportunity to style the whole thing after the ancient mystery cults and maybe show just how such a form of religion could become so compelling and popular among otherwise educated and advanced people, like in the ancient world.

 

[jorgoth]

Watched just the first episode, and one thing I was wondering was whether or not the Space Republicans would have been in the wrong for trying to take the kid with them if Robot Mary Sue didn't have superpowers. I mean without those Mary Sue powers that kid was as good as dead.

 

[Lame Entropy]

Thread's been dead for a while but what did you guys think about the ending?

Spoiler: Ending spoilers

Maybe I'm just stupid but the baby snake thing actually surprised me? I was expecting a cute little flying android baby. I'm just very confused since I still can't decide whether the voice is some rogue AI, a god, or some alien. I genuinely enjoyed the story despite criticism.
The only thing I'm worried about is Ridley saying he expects 5-6 seasons since plots tend to suffer from being overextended. I like Mother and Father but I'm disappointed that they seemed to survive the ending since that contradicts the human children having to be independent and taking charge of themselves in the long run.

 

[Screamer]

I can barely remember the end, but to me it started out quite interesting and hard sci-fi but just devolved into ridiculous science fantasy.

 

[millais]

I didn't like the part in the ending where the Atheists suddenly showed up in great numbers at the planet. I thought the whole point of sending out an embryo colony mission was due to the Atheists' technological inability to conduct FTL transport of large numbers of their people.

 

[jorgoth]

I'm not even a feminist, but does anyone think it's really insanely sexist that the little kid, Campion, was put in charge instead of the soldier woman?

1. Soldier woman's the only adult in the group left
2. She has military experience, and thus is more suited than average to lead a group that's out on its own in the wilderness
3. Campion's not even that suited to being the leader, he has massive anger issues and mostly just gets captured over and over. The little kid with the mouse was noticeably smarter than him, and that was enough to massively tick off Campion.

I mean, I think Andrea Dworkin's a fucking parasite, and feminism basically exists to justify parasitic behavior from women, but holy shit, this kind of favoritism is why feminism exists in the first place.

 

[MadStan]

I've been watching the 2 episodes of the second season...and a horrible feeling is setting in. I don't want to give away spoilers, but there is the "alien" themes again running around is Ridley's head again and just like he did with Prometheus I'm not sure he can actually make a coherent go of it.

He's obsessed; and Raised by Wolves is turning into Alien in Long-form format at this stage.