Drama
The Gilded Age
A Downton Abbey-like show migrates across the pond and introduces us to new characters, new money … and new content issues.
It’s a hot summer evening in Buenos Aires.
Juan looks forward to spending a night playing cards with his best buddies. As the men smoke and strategize, he almost forgets about the heated power outage protests throughout Argentina. And Juan can almost ignore his abrasive friend Omar, too.
Suddenly, the lights go out.
But this isn’t a normal blackout. Flashlights and cell phones don’t work either. And as the men creep cautiously toward the window, they hear loud crashes. When they look outside, the men are shocked by what they see.
Snow.
And more alarmingly, dead bodies line the streets.
“There’s something toxic in the air,” suggests Ana, one of the men’s wives.
Ana is right. Something about this strange snow kills all living things with a single touch. The men resolve to remain indoors, but Juan can’t stop thinking about his daughter, Clara.
So by taping together scraps of old, waterproof clothing from around the house, Juan constructs a snow-proof suit, determined to brave the snowstorm and save Clara.
Unfortunately, snow is only the beginning of his troubles. As Juan embarks on his quest to save his daughter, he discovers that the snowstorm is the first wave of several extraterrestrial attacks—the first step in softening them up. A mysterious alien force wants to control the human race, and it will do anything to weaken them.
Based on the 1950s graphic novel El Eternauta created by Héctor G. Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López, Netflix’s TV series The Eternaut was met with generally positive reception. After all, the Spanish-speaking (English-dubbed) cast presents compelling performances, and the visual world-building is vast and convincing. And while the problems faced by the protagonists aren’t necessarily groundbreaking in the world of dystopian fiction, the overall story manages to feel mostly unique.
The same cannot be said for the show’s content.
Like most dystopian and apocalypse-based movies and shows, death and violence permeate the story. Terrifying bug-like creatures maul and kill humans. Dead bodies (both human and animal) litter snow-covered streets. People fight and shoot at other people, causing bloody outcomes. And a man stabs his close friend before he throws himself from a building.
In addition to these concerns, characters use profanity including the f-word, the s-word, “b–ch,” “a–hole” and misuses of God’s name. Furthermore, Juan and his friends frequently smoke and drink alcohol. There is also a subplot in which alien creatures control humans, forcing them to submit to their will.
According to Time magazine, The Eternaut broke ground as a work of Argentine fiction for its resonant themes and intriguing plot. Still, its content warrants the same consideration as its other dystopian counterparts.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at [email protected], or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Juan’s summer night in Buenos Aires gets a rocky start when protestors block he and his buddies’ ride home. But the night turns deadly when people outside their house start dropping dead. The cause: an unexplainable snowstorm.
When the snow falls, people begin dropping dead, and their corpses are seen throughout the episode. During a heated riot, a crowd creates a bonfire in the middle of a city. A car crashes with someone inside. A man threatens his friends with a gun.
Characters use profanity, including nine uses of the s-word, five uses of the f-word, along with uses of “a–,” “d–n,” “b–ch,” and “h—” and misuses of God’s name. Men make a crude reference to male genitalia. Someone also uses crude bathroom humor.
Characters, including teenagers, smoke cigarettes. A group of men drinks alcohol during a night of playing cards, and one of the guys claims he needs alcohol.
A Downton Abbey-like show migrates across the pond and introduces us to new characters, new money … and new content issues.
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