Brief Story Line
Set in the future, the earth was suffering from lack of water that resulted to humans have to be rationed for taking them. The government of South Korea represented by Director Choi (Gil Hae-yon - In Her Place etc) and Mr. Kim (Heo Sung-tae - Squid Game TV series etc) decided to assign a group of people to the abandoned Galhae station on the moon to retrieve a sample within 24 hours.
The team was led by Captain Han (Gong Yoo - Train to Busan, Seo Bok etc) accompanied by Lt. Ryu Taesuk (Lee Joon - My Father is Strange TV series etc), medical doctor Hong Ga-young (Kim Sun-young - Crash Landing on You TV series etc) and few other crew members. However the most prominent person was the astrobiologist Dr. Song Jian (Bae Doo-na - Kingdom TV series, The Host etc) who was a bit suspicious of the secretive assignment.
What seemed to be a simple enough assignment turned out to different from what they expected. So how would the story conclude? Find them all in this quite intense sci-fi thriller series.
End of Brief Story Line
This series was a bit unclear to me at first, whether it was going to be a survival drama or a suspenseful thriller. Despite the description of Netflix that the show would be suspenseful, I was a bit skeptical, especially when the first episode was having very slow pace. But the episode ended with quite a bang and it raised my curiosity of how it would fare in the latter episodes.
The second episode was still having a bit of detail technological stuff which might be too technical for some. My wife even paused watching the series from this episode as she felt it required full concentration mode to watch in order to better grasp the story (which I agreed). As the story progressed though, I got a better picture of the series whole concept. One thing that I liked about was the rather surprising twist which made it more suspenseful. And by the time I reached the 3rd episode, I felt it became increasingly intense and there was a bit of jump scare scenes as well, to make it more thrilling.
The series had a total of 8 episodes with duration ranging from as short as 39 minutes to a little over 50 minutes. Funny thing about the intensity though was I somehow felt it was a bit inconsistent. At certain times it was full of suspense but at other times, it felt lacking and there seemed to be a loss in momentum. I think it was probably because of the rather extensive use of flashbacks. The last two episodes though were great for me as they were more fast paced and touching too, especially supported by amazing musical score that set up our mood. I am pretty sure that if my wife continued watching this series sometime later, she would be very emotional.
The story's idea was pretty interesting. I understand that it was based on a short film The Sea of Tranquility written and directed by Choi Han-young (who happened to also direct this series). The visual effects especially the moon's surface were top notch as they looked realistic, although other elements might seemed a bit too obviously computerized. In general the special effects were satisfying for me. The actors and actresses here played their roles nicely. In addition to the names mentioned above, there were also some support cast who provided more color, such as Choi Yong-woo (who my wife reminded me as the annoying doctor in Hospital Playlist TV series) as co-pilot Lee Gisu, Lee Sung-wook as the talkative Heesun, Lee Moo-saek as the chief of security Soohyuk and the rest of the crews.
Overall this sci-fi series was pretty exciting. It has a strong Alien movie feel which made it suspenseful, but the inconsistent pace (at least for me), made it a bit less satisfying series as a whole. However, the quite moving ending was a good enough conclusion for story such as this. So if you are looking for a mystery sci-fi limited series from South Korea who have consistently produced plenty of highly regarded series, then you could give it a try. As long as you are patient enough to continue watching, I think you would be pleased with the decision. Not sure if there would be a second season, as there is certainly something they could make based on that ending. Nevertheless, even without a renewal, it should be fine as it did not have a cliffhanger ending.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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