Series: 1; 8 episodes. Watched on Amazon Prime.
Rating: 3.5/5
Sometime in the 23rd century, in some desolate corner of the galaxy, a soldier named Halan lives alone on a sort of celestial lighthouse. One day, a government agent named Aster crash-lands nearby, claiming she’s been sent to study strange rocks recently discovered in the area. Though Halan brings Aster safely on board, neither quite trusts the other. For that matter, neither appears entirely able to trust themselves. The stories they share of who they are and what they want ring false, as if covering up more sinister or tragic truths.
A fair amount of Beacon 23 revolves around Halan and Aster as they’re forced to navigate this new and unwelcome togetherness through crisis after crisis. The structure forever seems to be under threat by scavengers or terrorists or vaguely evil officials, forcing Aster and Halan to resort to knives and guns and, in one case, a charger to power up the military implants embedded in Halan’s body. Aster isn’t the only one looking for those specimens, and the question of what they are exactly emerges as a central mystery.
Meanwhile, the AI who runs Beacon 23, Bart, keeps screeching to anyone who’ll listen that Halan is a villain of the highest order, while Aster’s more level-headed personal AI, Harmony, grows increasingly concerned by her erratic behaviour.
About Episode 4, the series takes an interesting turn by going back to check out previous Beacon keepers. Things then start to make a little more sense and provide some additional information. By the final episode, just as I was starting to think that I had a handle on the story behind the story, it all changed.
Apparently Season 2 will commence filming next month. No doubt by the time it’s released, I will have forgotten what the last couple of episodes were about and have to watch them again.
Interestingly enough, the person who wrote the book on which this is based also wrote “Silo” which I’ve already watched and am already eagerly looking forward to Season 2’s release.
Film & Food 