Beacon 23 review: An enjoyable, if wildly uneven, sci-fi series
Lena Headey and Stephan James go head to head in this MGM+ drama set in an intergalactic lighthouse
TV Reviews Beacon 23
In the world Beacon 23 imagines, humankind has reached the farthest corners of the universe. Beacons—intergalactic lighthouses designed to help spaceships navigate treacherous terrain in outer space—have been erected all over. It’s in one of those that this adaptation of Hugh Howey’s same-titled novel is set. The arrival of a strange visitor disturbs what appears to be the lonely and alienating life of the beacon’s sole keeper, who’s only had his AI to keep him company for perhaps way too long. With an intriguing premise that splinters into a rather fragmented first season made up of plenty of self-contained episodes, this MGM+ series, which premieres November 12, is an enjoyable if wildly uneven ride.
When a ship crashes near Beacon 23 (due to what appears to be a system malfunction), its keeper has no choice but to retrieve the one person who survived the improbable wreckage. But when Aster (Lena Headey) awakes aboard this sleek-looking outer-space post, she’s immediately wary of the man (Stephan James) who introduces himself as the beacon keeper. We soon learn, though, that the two are not who they appear to be. Moreover, their arrival at Beacon 23 unearths hidden agendas that pit them against one another—and against the beacon’s AI, BART (voiced by Wade Bogert-O’Brien), who’s intent on getting justice for some bloodshed that predated Aster’s arrival.
The mystery surrounding why Aster has wormed her way into this beacon and why this keeper (who may not be who he says he is) has found himself stranded right alongside her makes for an intriguing proposition. Their mutual mistrust lets Headey and James color in much of the wounded solitude that’s kept these two figures alive amid a world run by a craven corporation that, with the help of AI all over the universe, has let many a planet (like Aster’s own) starve and die in the process. By the time the two are forced to work together to fend off increasing threats from the outside world (from wreckers, former allies, powerful AI, and, curiously, an “Artifact” that may prove there is alien life out there after all), this unlikely pair come to anchor a provocative new entry in 21st century TV sci-fi fare.
Beacon 23 is at its best when its laser focus stays on its two protagonists as they try to figure out if they’re friends or foes—and while, in the process, they interact not just with BART but with Aster’s personal AI, Harmony (Natasha Mumba), both of whom feel like prescient characters amid ongoing conversations about the role artificial intelligence can play in our day-to-day lives. Indeed, all four actors here are truly engaging. Headey rightly captures the wearied frustrations of a woman who can only depend on herself to survive, while James (in a bit of a Homecoming echo) imbues his character with wounded frustration that makes him equally irascible and vulnerable. And Bogert-O’Brien (using only his voice) and Mumba (appearing as a hologram throughout) carefully color in their respective AI with enough personality to make them welcome heirs to HAL. At times, you almost forget they’re facsimiles of people and thus perhaps not as trustworthy as they appear.
But no sooner has Beacon 23 set up such interesting discussions about who you can trust and what you may be pushed to mistrust that it begins weaving in a decidedly ambitious mythology that involves previous beacon keepers, blue-hued rocks made up of an element not yet discovered, and political fighters with pseudo-spiritual inclinations—all of which point us to the importance of the titular lighthouse and those now housed there.
The scope of the show, then, spirals outward quite quickly—especially as episodes soon introduce us to folks whose fate has set the very plans in motion Aster finds herself in the middle of, even if she can’t quite piece it together all by herself. And some of those storylines are much more intriguing than others. Any series, for instance, that gifts us an entire entry where we get to witness the talents of one Barbara Hershey, for instance, deserves our compliments; hers is a brilliant episode-length meditation on the dangers in forgetting AI is a tool and not, in fact, a friend (or a child). Others are less successful. And so, from episode to episode—perhaps echoing the short-story format of Howey’s novel—Beacon 23 can’t escape a sense of fruitless fragmentation—even if, as the final installments of its freshman season suggest, there is indeed a well-laid plan and a well-reasoned purpose for this shuttling back and forth between past and present.
Perhaps this is the kind of series that would, in a different television landscape, have benefited from a longer first season. (Its second season, announced and shot already, will be coming soon enough.) The heady slow burn of its first few episodes is a balm compared to the hectic, expository-heavy ones that follow and get bogged down in the kind of messianic plotting that’s sure to give Battlestar Galactica fans a bit of painful deja vu.
Beacon 23 premieres November 12 on MGM+
19 Comments
Sounds like it has very little to do with the book outside of using some of the structural concepts.This isn’t necessarily a bad thing given it wasn’t particularly deep until the twist at the very end, but it’s not a good sign for the show when the mythology that appears to have replaced the world building is what draws criticism from the reviewer here.
Speaking of new sci-fi series, you guys should be doing reviews of Scavengers Reign (on Max). That show is fantastic.
The AVClub doesn’t review much of anything anymore
Yeah, I know that asking for reviews of series is now a “yelling into the void” proposition with AVClub now, but just thought I’d throw that out there. When they stopped doing episode reviews of popular stalwart shows like It’s Always Sunny and South Park, I knew we were entering a new age…
Yep I caught up with it over the weekend and it’s damn good. Reminds me a lot of the Area X trilogy.
I hope they got The Waifs for the theme song.
That reminds me, I need to read the next two books in that trilogy after Annihilation! Only became aware of it after loving the Annihilation movie. But yeah, I can definitely see some similarities there. I’m loving all the weird flora and fauna on that planet in Scavengers Reign, and how the survivors are learning to use them in various ways.
Oh yes read the rest of the series, the first book works as a standalone but the series as a whole is outstanding. When you’re finished with the series just turn around and start reading it over again, it’s well worth it.Protip: The series as a whole is a character study, not a sci fi story as such.
Never heard of it, but it sounds interesting. Thanks for the heads up.
And I’m guessing the AV Club has done some demographic research and knows that the majority of their readership isn’t that into anime.
It’s not really ‘anime’ exactly, more of an adult animated series. It’s an American production and I wouldn’t say the art style is anime.
God, Scavengers Reign has been so. good. The art is such a fabulous mix of Michael Deforge-style body horror and Metal Hurlant weirdness and the kind of weird landscapes from Brandon Graham and Xurxo G Penalta comics…. all my favorite stuff. And the voice acting’s been excellent, and the story appropriately minimal. Just unexpectedly, completely amazing..
SPOILERS
I’ve really been missing Alia Shawkat’s characters the last couple episodes though….
I am pretty up to date on the streaming offering and even I do not know what the fuck MGM+ is
It’s what used to be called EPIX (which was a thing for several years yet would also surely elicit a “what the fuck is EPIX?” response from most people).
I genuinely surprised you hadn’t heard of MGM+. It got tons of publicity, at least in my feed. But maybe it’s the algorithm. I do tend to click on a lot of “What’s new on _____ this month” links
And it’s hard for me to imagine that very many people in 2023 are clamoring for an episode synopsis of the 26th season of South Park.
But I’m 56. I haven’t been part of the AV Club’s demographic since before the turn of the century.
You know—and I know this is crazy, so you guys should probably sit down—but times change. 😉
Why bother yelling at the 21st century to get off your lawn? It’s not listening.
It’s a Chinese electric car, right?
It sounds like its an adaptation in name only since it sounds like absolutely nothing from the book was adapted other than the idea of setting it on a space lighthouse. That’s not necessarily bad, but was the book really so popular that the studio thought they could cash in slapping the name on an unrelated project?
The very high-level description (space lighthouse with a sole keeper until someone else shows up) sounds familiar to me. Was there a Doctor Who or Black Mirror episode like this? Maybe I’m thinking of the beginning of “World Enough and Time”, but that wasn’t a lighthouse.
It is the plot of every non-space lighthouse movie, so there’s that.
I might give this a watch when MGM+ collapses and its library sold off to a bigger streaming service.