Showtime Series The Man Who Fell To Earth Is An Intelligent, Visually Compelling And Thought Provoking Re-imaging Of Nicolas Roeg’s And David Bowie’s Cult Phenom

How it started. Photo courtesy of Movieweb. com

Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor as Faraday and Naomie Harris as Justin Falls, this new take on The Man Who Fell To Earth is the perfect, modern-day retelling of this unbelievable tale. Faraday crashes into Earth and, when his body finishes mimicking the body construct of homo sapien, begins to seek out the only person who can help him save his people from extinction, that person being Justin Falls, who has enough personal issues to deal with (toxic work environment, aging father without health insurance, single mom status) and doesn’t need anything else on her plate. When the local PD pick Faraday up for trespassing (and for being naked, slimy, and overly thirsty) he drops Justin’s name as a personal contact, and Ms. Falls life will never be the same.

How it’s going. Photo courtesy of Film Book. com

Faraday is struggling to understand this world, and his odd mannerisms and dialect really unnerves everyone, including Falls. With cash he got from a pawn shop (externally he’s an alien but inside, he’s a forge) he convinces Justin to take him to a specific coordinate where he, within the confines of a massive tornado meets his human mentor Thomas Newton (Bill Nighy) who gives Faraday a location for the next step in this mutli-planet goal of saving both Faraday’s homeworld and Earth, at least that is what Faraday believes.

Nighy’s character seems to be caught in an over-emotional yet pragmatic loop of trying to save something, but exactly what that is or will be becomes suspect. Newton tells Faraday to scurry up to Seattle Washington to Origin, a tech lab once belonging to Newton and now, not so much, but the lab does have the technology Faraday is looking for and requires Falls, a former nuclear physicist from MIT and all-around physics genius, to help him develop it and with a quickness. However, Falls is exceedingly put off by Faraday’s odd behaviors, including the whole tornado incident, so she is a little more than hesitant to keep helping Faraday with his quest.

With Seattle firmly imprinted in his thinking, Faraday does everything he can to convince Justin to help him, up to switching physical disabilities with her father Josiah (Clarke Peters) so Justin could safely leave her elderly father behind and take Faraday to Seattle for the next step in the plan. It’s a sign that Faraday is learning human empathy but presumably at great personal cost. Where this takes Justin, Josiah, and Faraday will be fascinating to watch unfold.

Bill Nighy plays homage to David Bowie’s character in a brilliant new way. Photo courtesy of Deadline.

Let’s not forget the new injection of government-financed militants now entering the picture. Thanks to the tornado incident, the US government now has a fix on a few people who were involved in a previous E.T incident and who now might be involved in a new one. Enter Drew Finch (Kate Mulgrew) and agent Spencer Clay (Jimmi Simpson) who are now hot on the heels of the lone survivor of an intergalactic experiment gone horribly wrong, whose encounter with said lone survivor goes horribly wrong because they’re not very nice people and like to kill butterflies (wink wink, nudge nudge.)

New episodes of The Man Who Fell To Earth can be streamed Sundays on Showtime, right here

For those interested, you can watch the original film right here on Amazon