‘Raised by Wolves’: Faith-embellished twist fuels sci-fi series about nature vs nurture

Abubakar Salim plays Father in “Raised by Wolves” —PHOTOS FROM HBO MAX

It has been 51 years since legendary filmmaker and four-time Oscar nominee Ridley Scott last helmed an episode for a TV series—and that was for 1969’s “Mogul.”

The fact that the 82-year-old director of such revered big-screen classics as “Alien,” “Blade Runner,” “Gladiator,” “Black Hawk Down,” “Thelma & Louise” and “The Martian” has been convinced to direct the first two episodes of HBO Max’s 10-part sci-fi series “Raised by Wolves,” which begins streaming on HBO Go today, was good enough reason for us to eagerly sit through the first three screeners that arrived in our inbox last week.

Set in the middle of the 22nd century, the noirish and stylish series brings to life an enticing fable that mulls as much about man’s relationship with faith and organized religion as it does about nature versus nurture. More than a decade after Earth is destroyed by two great wars, two androids, called Mother (Amanda Collin) and Father (Abubakar Salim), arrive on a mysterious extrasolar planet called Keplar 22b.

The androids have been programmed by their human masters to “give birth” to six human embryos, then nurture them into a thriving civilization. Thereafter, the kids are raised as atheists—to “believe in themselves, not on any imagined deity”—and taught that “while belief in the unreal can comfort the human mind, it can also weaken it.” They’re told they will never advance as a race unless they resist the urge to seek solace in fantasy.

Twelve years later, only one of the children, Campion (Winta McGrath), survives the planet’s harsh wintry weather and the string of diseases their “inhuman” parents are unable to cure.

Winta McGrath

Mother (Collin) and the young humans she is tasked to raise and nurture in a strange new planet.

Amanda Collin (center) portrays the android Mother in the HBO Max Originals series.

The survival of the remaining trio, as well as five new human recruits from the space ark called Heaven, is further threatened by the arrival of the Mithraics—who aren’t as friendly as their spiritual persuasion suggests.

The newcomers are a sect of religious humans, among them Captain Marcus (Travis Fimmel), that has exterminated almost all atheists on Earth, encouraged by a messianic prophecy that an orphan boy will eventually come to lead their race in the next evolution of humanity.

Campion isn’t the only one that needs Mother and Father’s attention and protection from conquerors and the perpetual danger of contracting an incurable illness. In fact, two of the five new members of their beleaguered team are just as important in the story: Teenage rape victim Tempest (Jordan Loughran) and Paul (Felix Jamieson), Marcus’ tweener son who has been “forcibly rescued” by Mother from the Ark of Heaven!

Marcus isn’t the only thing standing in the way of Mother and Father’s grand plans to develop a new breed of atheists. There are other deadly creatures that lurk and crawl in their midst as they stand guard against the charge of the Earthling invaders!

But we soon discover in Episode 3, directed this time by Luke Scott, the little-discussed functions and concealed skills of Mother and Father that soon change the way their war with humans plays out—and, as far as we’re concerned, it makes the viewing experience worth the binge!

Travis Fimmel is a Mithraic leader from Earth.