On the streaming service Netflix, it’s hard to find anything family-friendly. Gratuitous nudity, violence, bad language, gender confusion, and political diatribes are the rule. But there is actually a Netflix series parents can watch with their children that’s entertaining and exciting, and even teaches good values.
“Lost in Space” began in 1965, when producer Irwin Allen (“The Poseidon Adventure”) set the often-filmed Swiss Family Robinson story in outer space. Appearing a year before “Star Trek,” the series pioneered small-screen science fiction and is still beloved today. In it, a family escapes the overpopulated earth to colonize a far-off planet. When an asteroid storm sends their spaceship off course, they careen from planet to planet, encountering alien monsters and other interstellar threats.
The network ordered Allen to lighten it up. He filmed the following two seasons in color and made the show more whimsical to compete with the tongue-in-cheek hit “Batman.” Actor Jonathan Harris’s effete, scheming Dr. Smith was a viewer favorite, so Allen let him make up his own lines. He soon took center stage with a repertoire of baroque insults directed at the family’s robot: “You bubble-headed booby,“ ”You rusty Rasputin,“ ”You metallic monstrosity!”
Harris’s pseudo-Shakespearean accent was made-up, too. He actually hailed from the Bronx. The show’s theme music is credited to “Johnny Williams.” Later, as John Williams, his scores for “Jaws,” “Superman,” “Star Wars” (a surprise bestseller on LP), and many others made him the movies’ most successful composer, with over 52 Oscar nominations and five wins.
Some New Characters, Some Reprised
Fast-forward to 2018, when Netflix debuted its big-budget, high-tech “Lost in Space” reboot. From here on, spoiler alert:The new show finds many ways to respectfully pay tribute to its predecessor. The characters have the same names: John, Maureen, Judy, Penny, Will, Don (now a bumptious mechanic), and, of course, Dr. Smith. The ship is still the Jupiter 2, heading for Alpha Centauri. The rover is still a “chariot.” Incidents from the original series are re-created or riffed on. Even Don’s pet chicken is named after the 1965 show’s alien pet: Debbie.
This time, colonists are fleeing the earth after a meteor devastates the planet. Widening the scope of the story, the Robinsons’ Jupiter is one of several ships that crash on an unknown planet, allowing the family to find other survivors.
The show is well-cast and the leads get new backstories. John, an underutilized Toby Stephens, is a Navy SEAL who volunteered for an overseas deployment that kept him away from his wife and children for years. The importance of fathers is underscored by his family’s lingering resentment over his absence.
The teenage sisters, who don’t always get along, are Judy, a physician-in-training, and Penny, whose smart mouth masks her insecurity.
In the first episode, their little brother Will finds a robot that will soon learn to utter the immortal catchphrase: “Danger, Will Robinson!”
As the series proceeds, the family learns that unconditional love requires letting go of grievances. Every family deals with conflicts, old ones and new ones. The Robinsons show us how loyalty, communication, and forgiveness can heal division. John and Maureen’s reconciliation and rediscovery of their love for each other is surprisingly moving.
The reboot’s only concessions to Hollywood P.C. are a more ethnically diverse cast and a preponderance of female scientists and authority figures that goes a wee bit over-the-top when we learn that Maureen not only commands the spaceship but that she actually designed it. Talk about girl power! It helps that she’s played by Molly Parker (“Deadwood”), a skilled actress who earns our respect without whitewashing the character’s flaws. For all her good points, Maureen can be harsh and arrogant, and a lie she tells to keep Will with the family has dire consequences down the line.
But there’s another woman on board: the show’s cleverest innovation. A drug-addled, nihilistic hippie, she steals her sister’s identity to stow away on the mission. Recognized by a crewman, she murders him and steals another identity, that of a gravely wounded officer named … Dr. Smith! The officer is played in a nifty cameo by Bill Mumy all grown up.
As the new Dr. Smith, Parker Posey shows unexpected range. So funny in Christopher Guest comedies like “Best in Show,” here she’s ruthless, never at a loss for a lie or an excuse, more deadly than Jonathan Harris, yet still somehow a comic villain. Called upon in medical emergencies, she smirks, “I’m not that kind of a doctor.” Posey’s self-pitying sociopath, by turns lethal and hilarious, is the perfect foil for the virtuous Robinsons and deserves a bouquet of Emmys.
The introduction of the robot is so ingenious, I won’t ruin it for you. As in 1965, the machine makes friends with Will and Dr. Smith tries to take control of it, but when new, malevolent robots appear—another example of the series expanding the scope of the original—things get dicey.
It’s All About Family
The series gets better as it goes along. The breakneck pace of the first two seasons slows a bit in the third, making room for more mood and characterization. John finally gets his due as we see him risk everything, even his own life, for his children. His deep desire to make amends for being gone when they were young is touching, and the show’s most moving scene may be the one where he entrusts the safety of a shipload of children to his daughter. Judy, only 19, fears the responsibility until her father’s unshakable confidence in her helps her to believe in herself. A child with a parent like that can move mountains.
If one word can sum up both versions of “Lost in Space,” it’s family. “We’re Robinsons,” the characters often say. “We look out for each other.” The parents expect grown-up honesty, responsibility, and courage from the kids and from themselves, but the story shows that upholding these virtues can be difficult. We see why Dr. Smith’s amoral, me-first philosophy is tempting, and why it must be rejected.
Nostalgic viewers may prefer the low-tech creativity and charm of the original series, but I hope they’ll give the reboot a look. It’s a big improvement on the 1998 movie and can easily compete in quality with big-screen sci-fi epics, only without the f-bombs and other unsavory material.
If you want to know what families should avoid on Netflix, well, pretty much everything else.
