WORLDS WAR II
MORE ACTION AND BIGGER MORAL QUESTIONS IN THE SECOND SEASON OF THE GRITTIEST (AND MOST UNRECOGNISABLE) VERSION OF WAR OF THE WORLDS YET SEEN
WORDS: DAVE GOLDER
MORE ACTION,” SAYS Ty Tennant. “Yeah, more action!” says Bayo Gbadamosi. “Lots of shoot outs,” says Pearl Chanda. The younger cast members of War Of The Worlds taking part in this Zoom press conference for season two present a united front when asked what’s the biggest difference about the show this time round.
Of course, the creatives behind the show, writer Howard Overman and executive producer Julian Murphy, offer a more cerebral overview of the way the series progresses in season two: “To us, it’s about taking these characters on deeper journeys,” says Murphy. “We always think, ‘If we meet aliens, what are they going to do to us?’ Another way to look at it is, if we find aliens, what are we going to do to them?” adds Overman.
So, deep. And intriguing. And amping up the intense human drama that made season one a success. But hey – more action. Can’t be a bad thing, can it?
JUSTIFIED AND ANCIENT
This latest version of War Of The Worlds – a US/French co-production from the creators of Misfits (Overman) and Merlin (Murphy and his co-executive producer Johnny Capps) – immediately made an impact with its first season for two main reasons: its grim, gritty, at times near-cinema verité approach to the alien invasion genre, and its almost complete lack of anything to do with HG Wells’s novel. Initial confusion over the expectations raised by its title soon died away as the series doggedly ploughed its own bleak but compelling furrow.