TV Review: “Raised by Wolves”

The sci-fi series from HBO Max discomforts audiences by asking the big questions with no clear answers.

I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a television series quite like Raised by Wolves, the HBO Max series that aired back in September. If I had to describe it to someone who hadn’t seen it, I’d say that it’s a strange amalgam of Alien, Prometheus, and Annihilation, all three films that have a similar blend of science fiction and horror and existential philosophizing.

It’s also a very hard show to summarize, for while the plot is actually quite simple, the issues that it raises, and the enigmas that it presents and refuses to resolve, are not easily conveyed in a traditional plot summary. Nevertheless, here goes. The series takes place about a century from now. Two rival factions on earth, the militaristic monotheists known as the Mithraics and the Atheists, have torn apart the planet and must flee. The Mithraics board a giant space ship destined for the planet Kepler-22b, even as the Atheists send two androids — named Mother and Father — to the same planet with a group of embryos that they will raise. Inevitable conflicts arise, as Mother and Father become increasingly human-like, their remaining child Campion (named after their creator) struggles with his own destiny, and the Mithraics…