麻豆传媒

Amit Bhalla, Lucas Jansen

Apple TV+

THERE is a certain school of thought that says 鈥渞eal鈥� science fiction must be full of ideas about how science and technology might change our world. This is often called 鈥渉ard鈥� sci-fi, and there are those who view any deviation from this style with as bellicose an attitude as possible.

I am not a purist: I prefer to think of sci-fi as a broad church, with the power to imagine almost anything, even the traditional. This is something to bear in mind when watching Hello Tomorrow!, a new entry in Apple TV+鈥檚 growing roster of sci-fi shows.

It stars Billy Crudup as Jack Billings, a telegenic travelling sales rep and regional manager of Brightside, a company that builds holiday homes on the moon.

Set in a retro-futuristic US where the 1950s never ended, Jack and his team trawl for customers in a Stepford-style suburbia with hover cars, mechanical helpers and personal jetpacks. It is a mid-20th century, 鈥渁tompunk鈥� aesthetic most famously seen in later instalments of the Fallout video game series, and every gleaming robot and self-knotting tie screams 鈥渢his is a sci-fi show鈥�.

But, for the most part, that is where its hard sci-fi credentials end. Look past the setting and it is clear that this is a familiar story of family, moral responsibility and the American dream. Jack was born to sell, unafraid to deceive his customers with fake moon rocks and pre-recorded calls from celebrity clientele, but he believes he is saving lives with his message that a better life awaits off-world.

While visiting his mother, Jack learns that his estranged wife Marie (Annie McNamara) was hit by a self-driving hover truck and is now in a coma. Their 19-year-old son Joey (Nicholas Podany), who has no memories of his long-absent father, happens to attend a Brightside sales meeting and purchases his own lunar home, throwing him back into Jack鈥檚 orbit. When faced with an opportunity to reconnect with his son, Jack does what comes naturally to him: he lies, offering Joey a job as a Brightside sales rep rather than revealing their history.

The show鈥檚 thoughts on tech extend only to how a generation of workers might be rendered obsolete and in need of something to inspire them. In fact, Hello Tomorrow! is closer to an Arthur Miller play, albeit with added levity. Jack sits somewhere between Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman and Joe Keller in All My Sons: wistful, yet duplicitous; pitiable, yet charming. And with a theatre veteran like Crudup in the lead role, it is difficult not to see the series as a compelling social drama, particularly once Jack鈥檚 lies begin to spiral out of control.

The larger mystery of what is really going on at Brightside is also intriguing. As more and more launches to the moon are delayed, other characters, such as Jack鈥檚 second-in-command Shirley (Haneefah Wood) and aggrieved customer Myrtle Mayburn (Alison Pill), begin to question how luxurious lunar life really is.

That said, the show takes its time to get going, and it wasn鈥檛 until the sixth episode that I was hooked. It doesn鈥檛 help that there are many side plots involving the Brightside team to get through.

For some, Hello Tomorrow! will disappoint simply because it is the wrong kind of sci-fi. But, by setting a series about obsolescence and identity in a retro-futuristic world, the creators of Hello Tomorrow! have stumbled on a surprisingly potent result: a series greater than the sum of its genres.

Bethan Ackerley is a subeditor at 麻豆传媒. She loves sci-fi, sitcoms and anything spooky. She is still upset about the ending of Game of Thrones. Follow her on Twitter @inkerley

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