So you’ve made the artistically questionable but potentially profitable decision to produce a “Lost in Space” reboot for Netflix. (“Fuller House”: four seasons and counting. Enough said.)
You can now expect to be asked which iteration of the curiously bifurcated 1960s original will be your model: the clunky, earnest space-action show it started out as, or the scary-monster camp fest it morphed into?
The obvious, if perhaps disappointing, answer is neither of the above, and that’s the choice made by the new “Lost in Space,” which arrives Friday on Netflix. Instead, its 10 episodes are a distillation of several generations’ worth of family-adventure and science-fiction blockbusters, with Steven Spielberg as guiding spirit and “E.T.” a primary model, along with aspects of the “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” “Alien” and “Jurassic Park” films.
The show’s creative team — the writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless and the showrunner Zack Estrin — has assembled these spare parts with more competence than the project really required, and in the first couple of episodes they achieve something that could fairly be called Spielbergian, or at least Spielberg-esque. They get the Robinson family lost in space in tense, tender and stirring ways. The premiere is at least as entertaining as “Terra Nova,” the 2011 space-colonization series that counted Mr. Spielberg as an executive producer.
Things subside pretty quickly, though, and the balance of the season is a formulaic and increasingly sentimental family drama. A decent plot twist in the 10th episode sets up the second season that will likely follow, unless Netflix decides to stop underwriting the passably good special effects.
The new “Lost in Space,” set in 2048, keeps the old show’s central dynamic: The Robinsons, mother, father and three children, have adventures in space with the flyboy Don West, the eccentric Dr. Smith and a large robot that likes to say “danger.” But turning a square-jawed, morally uncomplicated adventure into something more contemporary — culturally sensitive domestic melodrama — requires a lot of tweaks.
So the Robinson marriage is now troubled, and John Robinson (Toby Stephens) is an absent father who’s returned for the voyage to Alpha Centauri. Maureen Robinson (Molly Parker) is a brilliant scientist and the family alpha — no more doing the interstellar laundry — though it’s not a total feminist victory, because the father now gets to be both the action hero and the more empathetic parent.
Young Will Robinson (Maxwell Jenkins) is still a pint-size savior, coming up with last-minute solutions to deadly problems, but he’s gone emo, without the breezy self-assurance of the original Will. That confidence has been transferred to his older sisters, Penny (Mina Sundwall) and Judy (Taylor Russell). Diversity is served by the biracial Judy, now a half sister. (It’s startling, for a 2018 ensemble drama, that the show has no demonstrably gay character.)
More radical are the changes to the nonfamily members. The formerly gung-ho Don (Ignacio Serricchio) is a wisecracking mercenary, though he can still be counted on in the crunch. The robot is now an H.R. Giger-style organic nightmare. And Dr. Smith (Parker Posey), in the absence of the old show’s campy jokiness, reads as a full-on sociopath, which can have a deadening effect on the new show’s tone.
These returning characters aren’t the Robinsons’ only company — the formerly solo family is now part of a large mission, and a number of other travelers are stranded with it, giving rise to conflicts and attractions that can be seen coming from a parsec away.
The adult actors acquit themselves well, though Ms. Posey’s character isn’t quite playable — Dr. Smith is so reprehensible that when she’s occasionally, obligatorily allowed to be sympathetic, it makes no sense. The real pleasure of “Lost in Space,” beyond some competently handled action, are the appealing performances of Ms. Russell, Ms. Sundvall and Mr. Jenkins as the Robinson children. If you decide to take the trip, they’re excellent company.
