Stream It or Skip It: ‘Oasis’

An adaptation of the 2014 sci-fi novel The Book of Strange New Things by Michael Faber, Amazon Video‘s pilot episode of Oasis—directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) and streaming today—follows a once-rebellious clergyman to the great beyond of outer space. Written and executive produced by Bridge of Spies scribe Matt Charman (collaborating with The Night Manager‘s Rob Bullock, The Crown‘s Andy Harries, and Lila Rawlings), the prospective series unfurls in an anti-Utopia that few would want to visit. But would you watch? 

A Guide to Our Rating System

Opening Shot: The opening of a pilot can set a mood for the entire show (think Six Feet Under); thus, we examine the first shot of each pilot.
The Gist: The “who, what, where, when, why?” of the pilot.
Our Take: What did we think? Are we desperate for more or desperate to get that hour back?
Sex and Skin: That’s all you care about anyway, right? We let you know how quickly the show gets down and dirty.
Parting Shot: Where does the pilot leave us? Hanging off a cliff, or running for the hills?
Sleeper Star: Basically, someone in the cast who is not the top-billed star who shows great promise.
Most Pilot-y Line: Pilots have a lot of work to do: world building, character establishing, and stakes raising. Sometimes that results in some pretty clunky dialogue.
Our Call: We’ll let you know if you should, ahem, Stream It or Skip It.

OASIS

Opening Shot: The sun is out over the London skyline in 2032, but its rays cast the buildings in a slightly sewage-y hue and you hear an anguished drone that sounds gong-cum-police siren. Several spokes are missing from the ferris wheel overlooking the Thames, and a newscaster’s voiceover informs us there’s a state of emergency.

The Gist: Chaplain Peter Lee (Richard Madden, aka Robb Stark from Game of Thrones) watches his sick wife, Bea (Flora Spencer-Longhurst)’s euthanasia. Then the glamorous Vivian Hades (Aislín McGuckin, in most unusual under-eye make-up) bribes him with a church donation and a videotaped plea from her boss, USIC founder David Morgan (Jonjo O’Neill) to join the once-secular “project” on a newly-colonized planet, Oasis, which Lee and his wife long castigated as “a life raft in space for the one percent.” Also making the $100 million trip is a dyslexic botanist, Sy Phillips (The Sixth Sense‘s Haley Joel Osment). However, the Oasis crew was not expecting Lee, and thus are immediately suspicious. Lee learns that Morgan is missing, and three additional inhabitants of the water-strapped Oasis have killed themselves (four by the end of the episode, as construction worker Paul Halloran (Mark Addy)—the first person to visit Lee’s makeshift chapel—walks into a well drill while hallucinating about his dead horse). During Lee’s meeting with Oasis CEO Vikram Danesh (Slumdog Millionaire‘s Anil Kapoor), former police detective Sarah Keller (Antje Traue) locates Morgan’s truck in a sand dune—there’s a bloody, cracked windshield and a box of antibiotics, but no Morgan. She relays her findings to Danesh, who declines to send out a search party, declaring himself Morgan’s successor instead. Unsettled by Halloran’s death and Morgan’s disappearance, an Oasis official named Alicia Reyes (Maureen Sebastian) sneaks Lee into Morgan’s room, where he discovers a glow-in-the-dark map. Keller says nothing to Danesh as Lee steals a truck in search of Morgan (although Lee will undoubtedly be followed, since he’s been implanted with a tracking device and trailed by drones).

Our Take: Despite Lee’s grief, he is too easily swayed to abandon his principles and planet. All of London—and probably the world—is suffering, so it’s dubious Lee could be convinced that he’s more useful lightyears away. Especially after the Rorschach-like test he undergoes before boarding the rocket ship, where he’s rattled (and given no explanation) when asked to give a one-word response to footage of Bea at her healthiest.

With the current political, social and environmental realities of Earth, shows and films about life far, far away remain appealing. Keller’s visions of her daughter while in space remind you of Sandra Bullock in Gravity, and Lee’s body art is very Blindspot. But really, Oasis tries to evoke Lost—What epidemic decimated mankind? What is USIC? and Why is there a cat in the cosmos? are stand-ins for the mysteries of The Island (Why isn’t John Locke paralyzed anymore? What is the Dharma Initiative? Why are their polar bears in the tropics?)

Sex and Skin: In an Oasis locker room, Lee is stripped and sprayed with car wash-style “blue goo.” He flaunts his butt crack and several snaking tattoos in the shower, and we see another man’s backside and two naked woman, full-frontal. Later, there are a couple quick post-coital flashback frames from his marital life. Lee also spies on Dr. Severin as she does a lusty, spastic modern dance in the Earth Room, a place people visit, high, to reconnect with oceans, trees, and other life forms they’ll probably never see again.

Parting Shot: Lee follow’s Bea’s disembodied voice into a cave, where he discovers several glittery robed figures standing in water. One lifts its hood: hello, Bea! Lee is stunned.

Sleeper Star: One of the few black people on Oasis, B.G. (Michael James Shaw of Limitless) is cursing, candid, quick to speak up about all the weirdness afoot—“I ain’t dying on this motherfucking dust bowl, you hear me?” When not teaching Lee the post-Earth basics, he’s trying to unsee phantoms of his father and maybe bedding Dr. Severin. He also boasts biceps full of raised tattoos resembling Signs crop circles.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Traveling to the edge of the galaxy can be physically demanding, so we need to run a few tests.” This line was pretty self-evident and unnecessary. To recruit crew members, Morgan recorded a series of quasi-informercials touting Oasis’s amenities. Along with news reports, these function background babble, giving the audience authoritative, jargon-filled information that they might not necessarily need, yet in a fairly unobtrusive way.

Our Call: Stream it. While this pilot doesn’t leave you clammoring for more, you’re intrigued enough to keep watching, thanks to the committed cast, sweeping visuals and charmingly on-the-nose soundtrack (Lee’s first meal on Oasis is set to Patsy Cline’s “Crazy,” and Rag’n’Bone Man’s “Humans” accompanies the mystical opening montage). In addition, Lee’s character is often called “priest,” and I’m wondering if the characters are misspeaking, or if the Church loosens up about marriage and such between now and then.

Watch Oasis now