Animation
Good Times
Netflix takes a classic sitcom, Good Times, and turns it into a vulgar, violent, sexually-charged TV-MA show.
About three years ago, humanity found evidence of a destroyed alien ship moving through the solar system. And for the past six months, debris from that wreckage has been falling to Earth, causing all sorts of strange phenomena and chaos wherever it lands.
One particularly large piece evaporated an entire lake in Minnesota. Another large chunk somehow communicated telepathically with a grieving mother and brought her little boy back to life.
There’s a lot of questions hanging in the air, too: where did the debris come from? Was it sent to Earth on purpose? And, perhaps most importantly, what all can it do?
Ordinarily, intelligence agencies aren’t the people you call in to handle alien artifacts. But considering the dangerous nature of the debris—not to mention foreign parties interested in using it for nefarious plots—the CIA and MI-6 have joined together to create a task force called Orbital to track down the scattered pieces of debris before they fall into the wrong hands.
Heading up Orbital are British agent Finola Jones and American agent Bryan Beneventi.
Finola has a closer connection than most to the debris. Her father, George Jones, was the first astrophysicist who was told the truth about what the debris was—pieces of an alien spaceship. And after her first direct contact with the debris shows her a vision of her deceased mother, she’s especially motivated to find out exactly how it works.
Bryan, on the other hand, is doing this more out of obligation to continue serving his country after retiring from the military. And it’s that special ops expertise that makes him the perfect guy to figure out who else is searching for the debris, what they plan to do with it and stop them before they can succeed.
Although the cooperation between the CIA and MI-6 seems like a good idea, it’s also not completely functional. Both agencies have given specific orders: protect your own country’s interests and don’t share information that isn’t crucial to the mission.
Which, of course, immediately becomes an issue when Bryan’s American supervisors discover that Finola’s dad (who she believes is dead) is actually helping the people they’re trying to stop.
The source of the debris is a mystery. Characters are both intrigued and terrified at the thought of life beyond our solar system. It can seemingly be used for good or for evil depending on who’s got their hands on it. And sometimes, even when it’s doing a good thing—like bringing people back to life—it does so in such a chaotic way that the cost far outweighs the benefit.
The show itself is less of a mystery. At this early juncture, there’s no foul language or gratuitous sex scenes to be wary of. However, some audience may not want to explore the concept of life on other planets—be it for good or for evil.
And while the show isn’t gory, it’s also not bloodless. Characters who come into contact with the debris react in different ways. Finola sees harmless visions of her mom, but other characters bleed from their eyes and fall into a coma-like state. One man uses the debris to teleport and winds up trapped in a concrete pillar. A woman falls 14 stories to her death after touching it. And then there’s human-on-human violence involving guns.
It’s certainly not the worst show out there, but watching something that compares alien anomalies to miracles may be more of a stretch than some families are willing to make.
Finola and Bryan track down a large piece of debris in Kansas that apparently brought a boy back to life.
Debris causes people to teleport. It also causes people and objects to defy gravity. One woman sees visions of her deceased mother after touching it. The debris brings a young boy back from the dead after his grieving mother comes into contact with it. The reincarnated boy then drains people of their life forces to keep himself alive. The affected people bleed from their eyes, fall into a coma.
Two people die after falling 14 stories. A man starts to suffocate after teleporting into a concrete pillar and his colleague shoots him in the head to put him out of his misery. We learn that a boy died in a car crash after getting hit by a drunk driver. We learn about a single mother of two dying after touching the debris. We learn that a woman’s mom died of cancer and her dad allegedly killed himself a few months later in his grief.
People buy and sell pieces of debris on the black market. People lie and steal. We see an empty wine glass on a table. A girl says she blamed her mom for her brother’s death. She also says that when therapy didn’t work for their family, she elected to attend a boarding school to avoid arguing with her mom.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
Netflix takes a classic sitcom, Good Times, and turns it into a vulgar, violent, sexually-charged TV-MA show.
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