TV REVIEW: War of the Worlds (2019)

Although I have a fondness for Victorian literature, War of the Worlds is one of those classic novels that I regrettably never experienced. Nor did I ever discover the Welles radio drama, the 1951 film, or even the 2005 Spielberg version. So when I discovered this latest remake from Fox and Epix, I came in with very few real expectations beyond the fact that it would deviate from the source material. That“s not necessarily a bad thing, depending on how it“s executed, especially with actors like Gabriel Byrne involved. Unfortunately, while this show sounds like good quarantine viewing, this version of War of the Worlds doesn“t live up to its promise.

In fairness to its cast, this is not the fault of the actors, who do as well as they can with the material they“ve been handed. Gabriel Byrne is an actor I“ve always respected, and he does the best he can to make Bill Ward a sympathetic science hero. Sometimes he succeeds, especially when acting as a mentor to the younger characters. However, even Byrne“s strong performance can“t save the writing, where Ward comes across as an obsessive stalker who accidentally kills his ex-wife“s boyfriend and covers this crime up for most of the season. Elizabeth McGovern likewise is quite good, and her Helen even one of the more likable characters until she“s taken out of play pointlessly in the late season. Lea Drucker has good emotional moments as scientist Catherine Durant, and she“s a good focal character for the arc involving the French military. I can even see some promise in the younger actors, especially Ty Tennant (the stepson of Doctor Who legend David Tennant) and Daisy Edgar-Jones as the Gresham children. The casting is generally quite solid, and to the extent this show falters, it“s not in the performances.

The real drawback of the entire show is largely in the writing, and it unfortunately never relents even by the end of the season. The pacing is slow and tedious, and it can often be a difficult show to watch, especially if you have problems watching the subtitles. Two of the major subplots are largely delivered in French, which makes it very difficult to follow at times to an English-speaking audience without appropriate subtitles. The characters are also largely not that interesting or memorable, though there are a couple of characters with good, well-defined arcs. The revelation about the fate of Catherine“s sister Sophia is quite well handled, and I felt that Sophia became a well-rounded character by the end of the first season. Emily Gresham also becomes much more interesting by the end, going from one of the weakest characters to one of the strongest in a gradual, logical way. The revelations about Chloe and her family are probably among the strongest moments as well, being both twisted and horrifying. Still, the ending doesn“t give the season a particularly strong resolution, offering more questions than answers while keeping the same tedious pace. We also don“t get enough of a sense of humanity coming together to face a crisis, one of the main themes of this show; towards the end of the season, it seems like humanity is fracturing more than they“re coming together in solidarity. All in all, the storytelling comes across as inconsistent, disjointed, and poorly paced, bringing down the strong points with this show.

Moreover, the aliens just don“t come across as a serious threat to humanity, nor do they offer enough of a scare factor to be convincing. I suspect some of this is due to budgetary reasons, as special effects are kept to a minimum. That“s not necessarily a bad thing, and good directors have been known to get around this. A few times, this show even succeeds by not actually showing the aliens; the battle in the forest between the military and the aliens especially works because we don“t see the monsters. However, when we do see them, all we see are small robotic dogs, and not enough is done with them to make them look frightening or dangerous. Contrast this with the iconic tripod ships in other versions, which are large and menacing when they’re depicted. This is really an instance where less is more, and seeing the aliens works to the detriment of this kind of show.

While I didn“t come away disliking War of the Worlds, I also can“t recommend it either. There is potential here, and the acting generally is quite solid when the show works as it should. Unfortunately, this is a show that“s let down by poor, slow-paced writing, and an alien threat that doesn“t inspire much fear or wonder. Assuming there is a second season, hopefully the creators can improve these issues, because there is some promise in the idea and these characters.

Score: 2.5/5

Executive Producers: Howard Overman, Julian Murphy, Johnny Capps, Gilles Courier

Starring: Gabriel Byrne, Elizabeth McGovern, Lea Drucker, Adel Bencherif, Ty Tennant, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Stephen Campbell Moore

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Steve Sellers

Steve Sellers had been a fan of superheroes ever since Superman: The Movie. But it took the JSA, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Dragonlance, Lord of the Rings, Twilight Zone, and Chris Claremont's legendary run on the X-Men to make him a writer and a longtime fan of comics, fantasy, and science fiction. Steve is the co-creator of WHITE DRUID & MICHAEL NERO and GUARDIANS OF ELAYIM for Omen Comics, and he is also the creator of BLITZ and SHOCKWAVE for Revelation Comics (an imprint of Omen Comics).