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- National Geographic
- Nov 13, 2016
- National Geographic
- Nov 13, 2016
Summary Produced by Ron Howard, the hybrid fictional miniseries/documentary set in 2033 as the first mission to Mars with humans begins includes documentary vérité interviews with experts such as NASA administrator Charles Bolden, X-Prize Foundation head Peter Diamandis, Elon Musk, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and The Martian author Andy Weir.
Created By: Ben Young Mason, Justin Wilkes
- National Geographic
- Nov 13, 2016
- National Geographic
- Nov 13, 2016
Summary Produced by Ron Howard, the hybrid fictional miniseries/documentary set in 2033 as the first mission to Mars with humans begins includes documentary vérité interviews with experts such as NASA administrator Charles Bolden, X-Prize Foundation head Peter Diamandis, Elon Musk, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and The Martian author Andy Weir.
Created By: Ben Young Mason, Justin Wilkes
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Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 14 Critic Reviews
59
36% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
57% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
7% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 14 Critic Reviews
59
36% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
57% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
7% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
The series deserves considerable respect for deftly balancing the two seemingly contradictory storytelling devices.
The format is ambitious, and if some parts don’t entirely work, there’s still a lot to like and learn in Mars.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 70 User Ratings
5.6
46% Positive
32 Ratings
32 Ratings
20% Mixed
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
34% Negative
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 70 User Ratings
5.6
46% Positive
32 Ratings
32 Ratings
20% Mixed
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
34% Negative
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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SEASON 1
Seriously inspiring~!
I dreamed of being an astronaut as a little boy but as I grew up I realized how unlikely that would have been.
However, this show has reinvigorated my interest in astronomy and Mars colonization and I find myself reading news about space exploration and keeping up with space news in general almost every week!
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SEASON 1
The talking-head portion plays like a video Kickstarter pitch for Elon Musk’s SpaceX, his private rocket company determined to get man to Mars and keep him there in a sustainable community. The drama plays like a low-budget Ron Howard film, which it is, sort of.
[Mars] sounds compelling, but it suffers from some of the same problems as big screen flops like John Carter and Mars Needs Moms: There's just nothing especially appealing about an endless red desert. [18 Nov 2016, p.52]
The six-part event series obscures a reasonably engrossing, science-star-studded documentary about future exploration of the Red Planet with a far less interesting scripted drama about Mars travel that plays as basically The Martian without the personality or poop potatoes.
Mars feels somewhat familiar, but combining the fiction and nonfiction elements is an interesting attempt. Give NatGeo credit for trying something different. Whether this hybrid satisfies fans of either genre remains to be seen.
A weird attempt to blend documentary and sci-fi, Mars is an exquisite botch of both. Its only real accomplishment is to set back the reputation of executive producer Ron Howard to the days when he was murdering the mommies of adorable little baby birds on The Andy Griffith Show.
Just had the PLEASURE of watching "Mars" on the National Geographic website and have to say it was wonderful experience and made remember why I first love hearing about Man going into Space as a child during the late 60's and 70's.
I remember the Apollo 11 - 17 Moon missions and following Pioneer on its journey to Jupiter and Skylab onto the Space Shuttle missions and the heartache of those missions.
That's what "Mars" invoked and I am glad to share these feelings, experiences and remembrances with the world.
Bon Voyage!
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SEASON 1
Definitely different, this TV series shines a light to the fascination many of us have with the idea of earth people forming a colony on Mars, but... this show lacks heart. The pacing is wrong. It seems too quick and jagged. The scenes lack detail, often just skimming the surface. However, the parallels between documentary-style 2016 and fictional 2033+ show an interesting comparison to what may be in our near future, based on factual events that are happening today. Today's facts, which are revealed in the documentary by interviews and actual news footage, foreshadow the fictional future in a way I've never seen depicted with a television series.
I admire the boldness of this series. It's just misses the mark and lacks emotion. It's as cold as space.
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SEASON 1
The trailer of Mars wasn't getting me excited to be honest.
But I have to say episode 1 entertained me.
It didn't look as fake as I expected it to be, and the docu/sci-fy combo wasn't that bad... I like the effort.
Too bad it's almost only Space-X reallife footage, hopefully that will change.
But **** the other hand, there is only 1 company really rocking the space-show nowadays right? :)
Looking forward to the rest of the season.
Hopefully it can enlight the flame of space-travel and mars in particular even more.
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SEASON 1
I only needed 1 episode to stop watching "Mars". Unlike other negative reviews here, I find the format appealing. The interviews are good enough, probably the best part of the show, although not deserving more than a 6/10. The absolute disaster is the actual 2033 Mars mission. Only people unfamiliar with good sci-fi literature can somehow like this. It pretends to be realistic and scientific, and, despite having several excellent sci-fi books to draw inspiration from (Red Mars trilogy, The Martian...), the show runners decided to write a "plot" which can only be described as an idiot plot: "a plot which is kept in motion solely by virtue of the fact that everybody involved is an idiot". Unfortunately an absolute waste of money and time.
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SEASON 1
