This is a rather like a docudrama for the future. There's a fictional story based around the first five years or so of the colonisation of Mars mixed with a talking-heads type documentary explaining the best that we know so far of how things might turn out for such a mission. The talking heads include particularly Elon Musk and there's quite a focus on the first successful landing of a SpaceX reusable stage 1 rocket. But then maybe that is fair and the considerable excitement surrounding this landing (in the last episode of season 1) perhaps does correctly reflect that it is a significant milestone.What happens in the future fiction side of the show seems credible in a way that many other Sci-fi films and series often fail to achieve. And this in itself makes the show interesting. The characters and their relationships do seem a little 2 dimensional though, but again, maybe this is realistic. Or maybe they could have had the nerve to delve a little deeper and to include a couple more plot twists. Looking forward to the second season, though.

I really don't know what to say about it. I really was in thrill to see this, looked really good, pseudo-documentary style mixed with dramatization in future, great ideas, even Elon Musk is here :-)But that's it; instead of good sci-fi futuristic show, I've got babbling idiots (still better than teams in Prometheus, Martian and Covenant), professionals who say basic stuff, non-professional behaviour, odd interviews and messages...For the Dawkins sake, they're meant to be professionals! So why on interviews they are responding like people in "Big brother show" if asked whom to remove from villa? Camera-work is its part for itself; mix of real shots from SpaceX missions with dramatized is a great idea, but... that is not the thing helps show to be great. Because it is the only thing trying to do it so. Otherwise, it's space-opera's-like extreme closeup shows, long shots to eyes, long shots to nearly crying faces... If you want A GREAT example how to do sadness, bitterness, just check Interstellar, when the main guy hears about his daughter as if she's in the same age like him when he left. That was heartbreaking, greatly played. Because the characters were real, as if they can be (praise the Nolan), here -- characters are fairly fine (as characters and people, not scientists), but their inter-person chemistry simply doesn't work properly, so any of artificial-added drama doesn't work, because people don't interact realistically. And that is sad, because it could be a great show, only if they didn't want to make another soap-opera in space :-/

I'll just cut to the chase, this is one of the WORST of television I've ever seen. It's like the Western version of those ridiculous Bollywood movies people laugh about. About 99% of the fictitious story consists of overused, disgusting, cringe-inducing cliché scenes. And I'm not even exaggerating. There is almost like 0% originality in the dialogues or minor events happening. Honestly, I'm not exaggerating, I'm actually shocked, how can a non-mentally- handicapped team of writers come up with a script where every single sentence is extremely banal and cringe-worthy. Of course, there are a few positive things such as the non- fictitious parts with the actual science and interviews, as well as the CGI. Except for some scenes when they film Mars on Earth and it looks absolutely fake and non-believable. If you don't know how to mimic lower gravity, at least slow down the play speed of those scenes so that it doesn't look like lost hikers in a cave.But generally, every single moment of the 2033 made me cringe. I actually think Neil Breen movies are better written and directed in the sense of actor play. The actors kinda sucked, but it wasn't that bad, except for the Asian lady who just annoyed the hell out of me with her fake and stupid slow-talking, and whining about her cliché emotions. Hello, no one cares about a new, undeveloped, unlikable, annoying character's banal feelings towards her sister.Don't let lazy interns write your script and make your series.I really could't watch this without a strong unease, but try and see how it is if you can handle it.

I enjoyed Mars, mainly because I like space exploration and the tech involved. The mixing of documentary footage, interviews of real people and then hopping forward in time to the fictional mission worked quite well. What I didn't like were the implausible series of disasters besetting the crew.During the Apollo era every activity to be undertaken either in the spacecraft or on the surface in EVA suits was meticulously planned and rehearsed hundreds of times. How likely would it be for a situation to arise on Mars where they would bungle sorting out their power supply, and have that happen right when the worst dust storm in history occurs... Like they would not have seen the weather system developing in time to bring forward the power cable work, or have extra people out there for such a mission critical EVA?And the lack of dual airlocks in the plant laboratory for dramatic license when the plant guy goes bananas... Not to mention that no one noticed he was that far over the edge until too late.A real shame they did not focus on the science on Mars and the real issues, rather than trying to make it into a TV movie.