[Review] Pandora Season 1 Episode 1 – “Shelter From The Storm”

by Qua-niesha

Title poster of the CW network summer series, “Pandora” features the side profile of Priscilla Quintana as Jax, looking up. Image courtesy of TheTVDB.

Clones. Telepaths. Androids. Demons. Electrifying our summer, the CW network lands the promising, planetary romance drama Pandora at our doorstep. It is, indeed, a very mixed pot with several different elements shaping up the series, but at the heart of it, emotional dynamics and relationships shape the story. 

The pilot begins with our protagonist, Jacqueline “Jax” Zhou (played by Priscilla Quintana) as she goes for a jog from her cabin in the woods to a long stretch of road to a much deserted and mountainous region where the town is centered (albeit, this is edited around instead of done in a montage fashion). Jax hikes up a hill and overlooks the town (something that the scene seems to imply that she does daily or weekly), but it is then that she bears witness to an unexpected, invading threat in the sky. One that drone strikes her town. Our traumatized protagonist seeks asylum on a new colony (one that is revealed to be Earth) and lives under her estranged uncle, Donovan Osborn (played by Noah Huntley), who is a professor at Fleet Training Academy, the school where she immediately enrolls into. While the central conflict of the pilot is Jax’s investigation into the destruction of her homeland, we also meet several other characters that bring sub-plotlines of their own for the coming episodes including Osborn’s teaching assistant, Xander Duvall (played by Oliver Dench); Jax’s classmates, Atria Nine (played by Raechelle Banno) and Thomas James Ross (played by Martin Bobb-Semple); medical graduate, Greg Li (played by John Harlan Kim); the mysterious, Ralen (played by Ben Radcliffe); and her roommate, Delaney Pilar (played by Banita Sandhu). As the episode goes on, we start to realize that while Jax might not be as ordinary as initially presented, both intergalactic espionage and theological conspiracies bubble underneath the surface of something much larger than our protagonist. Also starring Tehmina Sunny as Professor Regan, Vikash Bhai as Professor Shral, Tommie Earl Jenkins as Professor Ellison Pevney.

 

Created by Mark A. Altman (The Librarians, Castle), the series is executive produced by Altman, Thomas P. Vitale (Rise of the Zombies, Animal), Steve Kriozere (Femme Fatales, Agent X), Chris Philip (Ghostbreakers, Siberia), and Karine Martin (Maïna, Departure). The episode was produced by Phillip J. Roth (A.P.E.X., Monster Ark), Jeffery Beach (Shark Hunter, Post Impact), and Chris LeDoux (Lodge 49, Stranger Things); written by Altman, and directed by Steve Hughes (Doctors, Creeped Out). The creatives listed here are veterans of a wide variety of scifi projects, and they have worked in multiple departments from directing, producing, writing, and visual effects. Because of that, I expect the rest of the season to meld the beautiful landscape of Sophia, Bulgaria (where the crew filmed) with transformative elements of scifi as the pilot does. I also hope there’s younger talent from non-white, non-male backgrounds in the writer’s room if the show intends on engaging with certain aspects that were brought up in the pilot (e.g immigration, asylum, drone striking, colonialism, fascism, political espionage, experimentation, slavery, etc). 

 

While I actually loved the pilot, I can admit some of the writing felt clunky. The dialogue felt weird at times, and some of the scenes didn’t feel like they landed correctly. They either skipped over information that the audience needed to know, or it extended out something that could have been revealed much more subtly. Greg’s introduction, for example, was missing. I can attest this to time passing, and this happening off-screen, but the audience didn’t learn Greg’s name (or anything about him beyond his college career) until after Jax introduced Ralen to her new friends (which is weird to me because Jax didn’t know Greg’s name?). Speaking of Ralen, it was unclear why Jax went up to him in the first place. This, again, I attested to her niceness, but this felt different from Atria befriending Jax immediately after class. It felt sudden and rushed because Jax just met two new people and barely got the name of one whereas Atria had two great reasons to befriend Jax (1. She is new, and 2. She was humiliated in class and probably felt isolated). Also, it’s not exactly explained who is from Earth and who is not. Initially, I thought Jax was from Earth, but then I realized she was not, but she still presents herself as though she is when she’s around Ralen. Something I do love, however, and I feel should be highlighted, if it won’t already, is Atria and Thomas’s dynamic. Atria, being formally enslaved and emancipating herself from her captor, and Thomas, being the child of a father who was incarcerated and experimented on, both of them have a lot of similarities in their backgrounds, and they also balance each other out in their friendship. Ralen and Xander also hold similarities as well which I look forward to seeing how that plays out.

 

The performances seemed all over the place here, but nothing was too bad in my opinion. I think the strongest performances came from Sandhu, Bhai, Banno, Jenkins, and Huntley. Sandhu only had one scene but already I was mesmerized by her character and wanted to know more. Bhai’s performance of Professor Shral is the exact kind of thing I love in characters. I feel this is more credit to the writers, but the way Bhai delivered made his character more interesting. I’m not one to critic acting performances, but I do know when a performance has me on the edge of my seat. I love characters like him. Banno’s energetic and bubbly performance given to Atria was perfect. Quintana has strong chemistry with every actor on set, especially Radcliffe and Dench (ironically enough, I would not be excited for Jax to end up with either Ralen or Xander, though). Sunny was another underdog in the pilot. She was not given much, but the little bit she did give she excelled. 

 

While the pilot wasn’t exceptional like a few other pilots I’ve seen this year, it definitely did have a strong and promising start with engaging and interesting characters, performances, and plotlines. The cinematography, I think, is stunning. I like it. I think the landscapes of Bulgaria and how the creative team edited in the sci-fi elements into the show was done beautifully. It attracts me most cause it feels very natural while also managing to be scenic and gorgeous. I’m really excited for what the coming episodes will bring. It’s a standout for the CW network. I’ll have to pay extra attention in the coming episodes and rewatch often (but hopefully the clunkiness was just that of the pilot). My final rating is 7.5/10.