Lost In Space: The Most Boring Show I’ve Seen Since Iron Fist

By Dave B.

​Don’t let its current 71% critic rating and 70% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes fool you. Lost in Space (Netflix) isn’t good. From subpar acting though terrible dialogue and onto its predictable plot, Lost in Space is a failure and there’s little that it’s high budget and fairly impressive special effects can do to salvage this show. 

​To be fair, Lost in Space isn’t as unambiguously terrible as Iron Fist. It has some moderately redeeming qualities. It LOOKS good. A lot of money clearly went into its production. It took me several months to finish Iron Fist, while I was able to (just barely) finish Lost in Space in a couple of days, so it’s “binge-able” even if it’s not “binge-worthy”. The use of flashbacks as a narrative device largely (but not always) work in this show. I don’t feel as if there are many annoying unanswered questions by show’s end. I literally have nothing else positive to say about the Lost in Space.
 
The biggest problem is that Lost in Space is BORING! In large part, this is because the plot largely revolves around, and is driven by, children. Imagine taking the worst YA novel that you can conceive of and having it turned into a 10 hour movie. That is Lost in Space. Disasters are rampant and ridiculous. For example, an earthquake causing the trail that a rover is on to become unstable leading to said rover becoming submerged in a tar pit is the kind of scenario that every episode is based upon. Cue the miraculous save. Over and over again for hours and hours and hours.
 
Further, I understand that kids aren’t exactly known for their rational decision-making abilities, but for a genius child to be incapable of making even a single rational decision throughout the course of the show stretches and then breaks the bounds of believability. It’s hard to feel any tension in a show when you kind of want to slap every character and know that they will be saved by a miracle regardless of what ridiculously dire, avoidable, and contrived situation they find themselves in.
 
The only reason that I don’t personally consider watching Lost in Space to be a waste of time is because now I’m able to warn you about what a disaster it is. If you have kids, they may get a kick out of it. Otherwise, avoid this show at all costs. Season 2 will likely be better, if for no other reason than I don’t see how it could be much worse. 4/10