Television series

Away

Name: Away
Genre: Drama, Romance, Science Fiction
Released: 2020
Cast: Hilary Swank, Josh Charles, Talitha Bateman, Ato Essandoh, Mark Ivanir

Away is a space drama about an astronaut commanding a multinational crew on a mission to Mars, balanced against her fractured marriage and relationship with her rebellious daughter. It trades hard science for emotional stakes: the real tension lives in what you're leaving behind, not what's ahead. For people who want prestige sci-fi with real stakes and won't mind the melodrama underneath.

TVMaze rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like slow-burn space stories where the real drama is a mother missing her daughter's milestones while the crew drifts through a year-long voyage.

Skip it if you want hard science and relentless peril, this will feel soft, since its character beats often outrank the mission's technical problems.

What it asks of you: Ten episodes of about fifty minutes each, paced patiently, with long stretches of quiet between the crisis moments and a steady, sober tone.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

For All Mankind2019

An alternate-history series where the space race never ended, offering that same sense of international cooperation and impossible ambition, but with more plot momentum and a richer cast of characters to care about.

But It's longer and demands real investment—four seasons in, and the scope keeps expanding. Not a quick watch.

The Expanse2015

Ensemble sci-fi with a multinational crew solving survival problems in space, grounded in real physics and character work. Tension builds from relationships under pressure, not just external threat.

But Starts slow and requires patience with a large cast before payoffs arrive. The production values in season one are noticeably rougher.

Station Eleven2021

A post-apocalyptic story that's also fundamentally about connection and what we owe each other. Achingly human, beautifully shot, and it trusts its audience to sit with grief and hope simultaneously.

But No action in the traditional sense; it moves at a meditative pace. Some find the fractured timeline confusing rather than illuminating.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Away

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Arrival2016

Both examine the price of ambition when the cost is personal and permanent. Both hinge on a mother's choice and what she's willing to lose.

A linguist makes contact with aliens; the film is actually a meditation on time, motherhood, sacrifice, and choosing to love despite knowing loss. Quiet, strange, devastatingly moving. Away explores what you give up to reach for something greater—Arrival asks what you'd give up *knowing* what it costs.

But It's slow and cerebral; little happens in conventional plot terms. The ending is emotional rather than conclusive, which frustrates people wanting a clear answer.

Interstellar2014

A father leaves his family for an impossible space mission, and the film sits inside both the grandeur and the heartbreak equally. Stunning and emotionally devastating without ever feeling cheap.

But Nearly three hours, operatic in scope, and Hans Zimmer's score demands your full attention. Can feel overwrought if you're not in the mood.

The Right Stuff1983

The original space-exploration epic, following the Mercury Seven astronauts with humor, scale, and a genuine sense of what ordinary people sacrifice for extraordinary things.

But It's long, episodic, and the pacing drags in places. Shot in 1983, which shows—not everyone connects with its aesthetic anymore.

Gravity2013

A taut, terrifying survival story in space with Bullock giving one of her best performances. Stripped down, visceral, and it moves with absolute purpose from the first minute.

But Minimal plot, no dialogue for stretches. If you need narrative momentum or character development, this is too spare.

All Is Lost2013

An astronaut analog: one person, isolation, a series of failures to overcome, fighting against impossible odds. Spare and meditative, grounded in real problem-solving and human resilience.

But Redmond has barely any dialogue; long passages are just survival and silence. Some will find it boring rather than contemplative.

Dark2017

A German sci-fi series about impossible choices and the weight of what we do to people we love. Dense, intricate, and willing to break your heart for the sake of thematic truth.

But Genuinely confusing on first watch—timeline and characters multiply quickly. Subtitles required; some find the plotting overstuffed.

The Adam Project2022

A father-son story wrapped in time-travel spectacle, finding real emotional stakes beneath the action. Lighter than Away but working the same vein of sacrifice and family.

But Relies heavily on Ryan Reynolds' charm. If that doesn't work for you, it feels hollow—the plot is fairly thin.

Anne with an E2017

Both center on isolation as central to their drama. Emma is isolated by mission, Anne by circumstance—but in each story, the people left behind carry the real weight of the story.

Period drama about a girl navigating belonging and becoming herself, but it's also—startlingly—about grief, displacement, and the people who make home possible. Warmth beneath genuine suffering. It sounds nothing like Away until you realize both are about how solitude nearly breaks you until connection saves you.

But It's a coming-of-age show in a small Canadian village in 1890. If you wanted sci-fi, this will feel like genre whiplash—zero space, zero technology.

The Midnight Sky2020

Both explore connection across impossible distance. Away shows what you leave; The Midnight Sky shows what you lose when distance becomes permanent.

An old man alone on Earth sends messages to a space crew returning home, neither knowing if the other exists. Sentimental but earned, with George Clooney quietly magnificent. It's the anti-Away: instead of choosing the mission over family, it's about choosing family after you've lost the choice.

But Deliberately paced, heavy on atmosphere over plot. Some will find it maudlin or too focused on Clooney's face thinking sad thoughts.