When you watch an apocalyptic drama, would you rather see who the enemy that has killed off humanity? We actually think it’s creepier to not see who or what is killing everyone, because that foments the same disconcerting feeling that the character has. In a new Argentinian series, a mysterious toxic snow is covering Buenos Aires, and the survivors of that snow really don’t know what they’re up against.
Opening Shot: We look down on a sailboat. Three women are on the boat celebrating the last summer night they’ll be together. Suddenly, the power goes out and the wind kicks up. When one woman goes below deck, she sees a light snowfall, and one of her friends on deck immediately collapse.
The Gist: In Buenos Aires, Juan Salvo (Ricardo Darín) is on his way to a friend’s apartment for a card game. With him is his friend Ruso (Claudio Martinez Bel) and Ruso’s brother-in-law Omar (Ariel Staltari), who is visiting his hometown after years in the United States. During the card game, where Juan and Ruso play with Alfredo Favalli (Cesar Troncoso) and Lucas (Marcelo Subiotto). Favalli’s wife Ana (Andrea Pietra) and another woman named Inga (Oriana Cardenas) are also there.
During the game, the power goes out, as does everyone’s phones. Then, light snow starts to fall, which is strange, since it’s summer. When the men hear cars crashing, they all go upstairs. People have collapsed in the street. As tempers flare, Ruso decides to venture outside. He doesn’t get more than three steps into the open air when he collapses, a victim of the toxic air outside. This is when the group realizes that they are trapped inside, not knowing who else outside is still alive.
Salvo, though, decides he needs to go see his ex-wife Elena (Carla Peterson) and their daughter Clara (Mora Fisz), who is the young woman who is currently trapped on that sailboat almost a mile off shore. While the group thinks he should stay in the building, Salvo fashions a protective suit from various clothes and tape, and a gas mask that Favalli happens to have in his basement. As morning dawns over the city, Salvo goes outside and finds out that the mask and suit are working to protect him from the toxic snow. But as he walks to Elena’s home, he realizes that he and the group he left behind might be among a very small number of survivors.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Created by Bruno Stagnaro and based on a 1957 comic of the same name by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López, The Eternaut has the same beats as any number of apocalyptic series, like The Walking Dead, Sweet Home or The Last Of Us. It’s also quite similar to The Rain, the Netflix original that ran for 3 seasons, if you substitute toxic rain for toxic snow.
Our Take: It’s rare to see the beginnings of a particular series’ apocalypse, but The Eternaut isn’t shy about showing at how mysterious and confusing this deadly snow is. We especially liked the power of the scenes where Salvo walks through the snowy streets, seeing all the dead bodies dressed in summer clothes, all of whom dropped dead where they stood almost as soon as the snow started.
As with most shows about apocalyptic events, there will be a small band of survivors who will figure out the specific “rules” that will enable them to survive. Did it seem that the group at Favalli’s house learned not to go outside a little fast? Maybe. But once they saw one of their group immediately collapse and die as soon as he went outside, they seemed to get the message pretty quickly. And seeing Salvo survive outside in an improvised hazmat suit and mask will also give them more information.
What we do know about the original comic that this series is based on is that the snow is just a first attack from some unknown enemy. So just as this group figures out how to deal with the snow, something else is bound to happen to throw them all into chaos again.
Apocalyptic shows where the enemy isn’t seen are always weirder and creepier than shows where people are killing zombies or mushroom-headed monsters, and The Eternaut is pretty damn creepy, because at first the only real enemy is a strange middle-of-the-summer snow, and we don’t figure to see any physical manifestation of the enemy at all. What Stagnaro and co-writer Ariel Staltari will hopefully do is show people banding together and figuring things out while at the same time continuing to show just how bewildering this whole situation is.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: A wide shot of Salvo walking down a snow-covered avenue in the city, with bodies strewn everywhere.
Sleeper Star: We’re intrigued by Staltari as Omar, who is essentially an outsider in this group, and isn’t a character from the original comic.
Most Pilot-y Line: Not sure why Favalli and Lucas are able to survive as they watch Salvo exit the parking garage, with the gate wide open. It makes us wonder if the toxicity has more to do with the snow than the air, like as soon as a flake touches your skin, it kills you.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The creepiness of the unknown enemy in The Eternaut is what drives this show, even as Salvo and other survivors get together to try to fight whoever it is they’re fighting, and we’re here for it.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.