Showtime’s ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’ Continues the David Bowie Version With Care, But Fewer Risks: TV Review
variety.comCaroline Framke Chief TV CriticMore than 45 years after “The Man Who Fell to Earth” opened with a melancholy David Bowie crash-landing in a Kentucky lake, Showtime’s new sequel series sends Chiwetel Ejiofor spiraling into the New Mexican desert to finish what he started.
The connection between the 1976 film and this 2022 show is clear from the beginning, even before Bill Nighy shows up as the older version of Bowie’s character, Thomas Newton.
And yet there’s not a whole lot that Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet’s more straightforward version shares with its stylish predecessor beyond their shared premise.Some of that stark difference is by design, especially when it comes to the particular space oddity anchoring this continuation.
In the first four episodes of the season, Ejiofor’s Farraday represents the show’s most purposeful and successful deviation from the one at the heart of Walter Tevis’ novel and Nicolas Roeg’s adaptation, not least because there’s no one who can exactly echo Bowie’s ethereal footsteps (though Nighy, probably the best bit of elder Bowie casting the show could’ve managed, gets as close as he can).
Read more on variety.com
