Away: Netflix space drama/soap opera has Hilary Swank in command and a whole lot of baggage back on Earth

By Jim Slotek

Rating: B

Wondering where Hilary Swank has been lately? You could say she’s been Away.

Part on-the-ground soap opera, part space adventure, Away is Netflix’s second astronaut series to be, ahem, unearthed since the pandemic grounded us all last March. (The first being the Steve Carell comedy series Space Force).

Unlike Space Force, which is firmly attached to the present White House administration and could be an anachronism by November, Away is untethered to present reality except for the fact that everybody still uses what look like 2020 model smartphones. They should be up to iPhone 37 by then.

Hilary Swank exhibits the loneliness of the long-distance working-mom.

Away takes place in some near future where there’s a settlement on the Moon that operates as a fueling station for a planned Mars trip. And the U.S. is friendly enough with other nations that an international crew – with an American woman commanding – is set to make that three-year mission, putting their lives back on Earth on hold.

Well, maybe not as “on hold” as it would be in real life. The phone-calls to loved ones from the Alpha moonbase and from the near environs of space are remarkably crystal clear with spontaneous responses (and I can’t get a proper signal at the cottage). 

For the record, this isn’t possible (unless they’ve invented Star Trek’s “subspace communication”) since signals are limited by the speed of light, and even from the Moon, there’s a few seconds of delay for messages to be received. (And a delay from Mars measured in minutes).

But that kind of verisimilitude would take away from the emotion of a mom, Commander Emma Green (Swank) whispering I-love-you in her teenage daughter (Talitha Bateman) and husband (Josh Charles)’s ears from the Moon, on the eve of departure, or scolding the teen from space for a bad mark in school.

These contrivances aside, Away really is two stories, told side by side, with varying balance in each episode. On Earth, Emma’s family faces a medical emergency that amplifies her feelings of guilt over her history-making mission. Sidelined by his health, husband and former astronaut Matt Logan contributes expertise via phone to the mission and plays single-dad to a teen daughter.

In space, Emma must contend with a crew that doesn’t fully trust her, especially after a potentially deadly fire ignites on route to the Moon. A quick Rashomon-like investigation clears Emma, but intense dislike radiates from Misha and Vivian (Mark Ivanir and Vivian Wu), the Russian and Chinese crew-members, each of whom remembers themselves as being the heroes of the incident.

This is not a good way to start a three-year tour.

Also in the crew, an officious Indian technician named Ram (Ray Panthaki), and an African-born Briton (Ato Essandoh) with the has-to-be-intentional name Kwesi (he is a space-rookie prone to nausea).

There are plenty of Earth stories, given that each of the astronauts has planted seeds of their back-story through flashbacks and sometimes uncomfortable communiques with the folks back home. There’s a married-with-children astronaut with a same-sex lover back on Earth, another with an estranged daughter who blames him for a lifetime of absences in orbit.

But, given the riveting events of episode two, I more look forward to the episodes that take place predominantly in space. Most of the second episode is dedicated to a crucial and risky spacewalk that is as tense as any moment of Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity (and more realistic). The weightless wire-work is especially convincing. 

In a later episode, there’s even a loose virus onboard, which is so uncomfortable to watch now, you’d almost think they shot it at the last minute before the lockdown.

Swank’s character arc requires her to morph from a can-do commander to one with empathy, with many months to make the transition. Misha begins the series as a judgmental jerk, and there’s a passed-over space ace (Martin Cummins) back at Mission Control who presumably would love to see Emma fail.

Put it together and you have the dramatic pieces for something very much like a traditional network dramatic series. Which is interesting, considering Netflix once positioned itself as an alternative to network TV and cable, and often seems like it’s becoming what it replaced. 

Away is entertaining, but not edgy, and seems awfully familiar for something that takes place in a strange new world.

Away. Premier episode directed by executive producer Edward Zwick. Starring Hilary Swank, Josh Charles and Talitha Bateman. Begins streaming on Netflix, Friday, September 4.