Not Just a Re-boot: Netflix’ Lost In Space Launches Family Dynamics In Gripping New Sci-Fi Series

If you’re a teenager considering what it would be like to escape home and wipe the slate clean on a new planet, then consider what the Robinson kids are going through on Netflix new Lost In Space.

Taking a page, and only a page from the original 1960’s series that followed the space family Robinson on a doomed expedition to Alpha Centauri (Earth’s nearest star neighbor), this version of Lost In Space respects not only the original version, but also teenage viewers who are not pandered to – in fact, Lost In Space explores family dynamics put under stressors that might seem familiar to earth bound teens.

Of note is Molly Parker (Maureen Robinson) whose strength of character does not suffer fools gladly.  She is not the June Cleaver* of the space age, as originally portrayed by June Lockhart.  Instead Parker is a role model whose responsibilities to her children (she made a promise to a struggling, non-thriving infant Will Robinson in his incubator that if he pulls through for her, she’ll pull through for him) stands resolute during the events that not only choose her family for planet reassignment, but also enables the teenage characters to explore their new world and meet their new challenges head on.

Young actors Maxwell Jenkins (Will Robinson), Mina Sundwall (Penny Robinson), and young mission doctor Taylor Russell (Judy Robinson) all give memorable performances.  In once scene that takes place in a hyperbaric chamber during a cognitive test, Jenkins character Will Robinson’s physical and mental struggles are well played, and leave the viewer as breathless in anticipation as if we were actually there in the chamber, performing at an atmospheric level of 14,500 feet.

Lost In Space is the perfect binge watch no matter what age you are.  However, what it holds for teens is an intellectual respect that should show other writers and producers of the sci-fi genre that there is an audience for smart, well-written sci fi that is more science than fantasy.

By Richard Stellar for The Dreidel

*June Cleaver was the mom in the popular 1960’s series “Leave It To Beaver”.  She will forever be known as the archetype for American moms, and a standard that nobody was ever able to live up to.