“Every generation thinks it’s the end of the world,” as Wilco sang, but the last couple of them really, really think so. Television has practically become a post-apocalyptic landscape itself; so many groups of survivors have banded together, bickering and betraying but always, of course, revealing the best and worst of humanity in the process and blah, blah, blah. Silo, Fallout, The Last of Us, Snowpiercer, Falling Skies, The Colony, The Last Ship, The 100, Twisted Metal, Station 11, Earth Abides, Z Nation, The Handmaid’s Tale, Y: The Last Man, The Last Man on Earth, Alice in Borderland, Sweet Tooth, seven different Walking Dead series — the past decade of non-stop dystopian TV has practically willed the apocalypse upon us, and it’s not nearly as fun as fiction.
Add Netflix’s latest sci-fi series, The Eternaut, to the list. Like many of the aforementioned titles, the series milks the apocalypse cow and creams the typical catastrophe cocktail with it — antagonistic people shacked up with each other as chaos reigns outside; someone who uses the apocalyptic opportunity to unleash their inner authoritarian; the gruff man with a plan (and probably a painful past) who becomes quietly heroic; a clash of personalities and ideologies; someone who slowly loses their marbles; a vague military plot in the background; a roving gang of violent a-holes who prove “humans were the real monsters all along.” Add a jigger of romance and a dash of human bitters and voilà — your dirty apocalyptini is served.
Moody & Minimalist Sci-Fi
3
/5
- Release Date
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April 30, 2025
- Network
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Netflix
- Directors
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Bruno Stagnaro
- Writers
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Ariel Staltari
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Ricardo Darín
Juan Salvo
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- Ricardo Darin gives a soulful, determined lead performance along with some fine supporting actors.
- The production design is well-done and creates an immersive world that’s both real and surreal.
- The political, historical, and cultural specificity adds a lot of depth.
- The show feels too small and minimalist for what should’ve been an epic, incredible adaptation.
- It takes half the show until the plot really kicks off.
Netflix’s The Eternaut is a somewhat minimalist twist on the recipe, so you’ll find no olives here. You need a great memory to remember anyone’s name, and beyond their archetypes, there’s little character development to mention. The series doesn’t even provide many plot details until the fourth of six episodes. Long swaths of the show lack action and consist of characters staring or walking.
These elements actually make The Eternaut more of a cinematic mood piece, at least for its first 150 minutes, and help it stand out from the pack. Unfortunately, that will probably be what keeps people from sticking with the show, which is ironic considering its second half almost feels like a different season in the way it includes more action, settings, and characters.
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The show begins in one setting, the Buenos Aires abode of Alfredo and Ana Favalli, who have invited their friends over for poker, music, and whiskey. Lucas, Polsky, Juan Salvo, and an uninvited friend of theirs arrive after navigating traffic caused by blackouts and protests. Juan is played by the sexy and sauve Ricardo Darín, basically the Argentine George Clooney, and he brings a sense of calm determination to the role, becoming the show’s guiding light. First, the power shuts down (along with all devices based on batteries or the internet), and then it begins to snow in a strange way. Everyone who is outdoors quickly dies; anyone who goes outdoors dies in less than a minute. Welcome to the new world.
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The rest of The Eternaut is mainly concerned with Juan’s quest to find his daughter, Clara, and how other people both help and hinder that mission. It’s fairly hypnotic, watching Juan trek through the blizzard outside while he (perhaps) hallucinates specific sounds and images. Showrunner and director Bruno Stagnaro (an important figure in New Argentine Cinema, largely thanks to Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes), does a great job creating a desolate post-disaster Buenos Aires akin to London in 28 Days Later. Stagnaro actually took advantage of COVID-19 to create a cityscape that’s at once realistic and utterly surreal.
The use of CGI and virtual production is ambitious but not quite Hollywood level, especially in the fourth episode. Mainly, though, The Eternaut is highly evocative and tactile thanks to many smart details. The production team created five different types of ‘snow,’ for instance, depending on what was needed; kitchen salt was used to help create footprints on the ground, dried foaming soap was used for falling snow, etc. The way glass is broken and structures are damaged is meticulously detailed. Cars, bodies, and detritus are strewn about realistically. The ramshackle protective suits and gas masks that people make have a DIY cyberpunk feel to them. The production details add up to create a real sense of place that helps form the mesmerizing mood.
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Of course, Argentina is crucial to this sense of place, and its history informs The Eternaut in fascinating ways. It’s perhaps impossible to dislocate a text from its national origin, but even more so in Argentina, where art and politics have been intertwined for 200 years. The Malvinas (colonially known as the Falkland Islands) and the 1982 war over them, especially the Battle of Mount Longdon, looms over Juan. The specter of the turn-of-the-century Argentine depression (and the winter of 2001, specifically) haunts many of the characters and adds to the lingering theme of the individual versus the Peronist collective. You don’t need to know this history to enjoy The Eternaut, but it adds interesting shadows to the characters.
Not ‘The Eternaut’ That Could’ve Been
While moody and well-done (and eventually gripping in a traditional way), Netflix’s The Eternaut was almost doomed from the start. Francisco Ramos, Netflix Vice President for Latin American Content, said the series was “one of the most ambitious Latin American projects in Spanish ever made” and told Clarín it would be “a turning point for the film industry in Argentina” when it comes to “technological advances, audacity, entertainment and film language.” This, after decades of trying to get the title made.
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The Eternaut was originally a comic strip from 1955 to 1957 by writer Héctor G. Oesterheld and illustrator Francisco Solano López (and its one English release is out of print and very expensive, unfortunately). The brilliant Oesterheld was deeply influenced by Argentine history and politics, and The Eternaut was a subtle political allegory decorated with an incredible plot and art. His later graphic novel about Che Guevara would be banned and burned. During the Dirty War, Oesterheld, his four daughters, and their husbands were all murdered by the military junta.
The Eternaut only grew in stature as an Argentine treasure, with numerous attempts from the country’s greatest filmmakers (Fernando Solanas, Adolfo Aristarain, Lucrecia Martel). The price tag was always too large, or the filmmakers wanted to change too much, or the producers wanted to make it English-language in America (to get American financing). The family and estate of Oesterheld refused to let anyone adapt The Eternaut unless it was in Argentina and were faithful to the source.
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While Bruno Stagnaro (and co-writer Ariel Staltari) do create a largely faithful adaptation, it simply can’t live up either to the original or to the envisioned ideal version. After all, The Eternaut is the rare title that deserves a nine-figure budget and a director such as James Cameron or Christopher Nolan. Unfortunately, that adaptation simply couldn’t exist, and what we get feels too small, too minimal, for what The Eternaut deserves. That’s not exactly anyone’s fault, and it’s perhaps better to have this Eternaut than no Eternaut, because it is well-made and authentic. It just leaves you wondering what could’ve been.
If anything, hopefully it will prompt a publisher to re-release Oesterheld’s original in the English-language so that more people can experience this unique, important tale. In the meantime, The Eternaut is as good as it gets. The Eternaut begins streaming on April 30, 2025, on Netflix through the link below:
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