WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Away Season 1, which is now available on Netflix.
In Netflix's Away, an international crew of astronauts embarks on a three-year mission to Mars, while exploring unlikely friendships, the perils of parenting, a moving queer love story, and the importance of hope. But there is another theme at its heart -- the plot has many parallels with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic's effect on the world right now.
Led by American astronaut Emma Green, the team is comprised of Russian engineer Misha, Chinese taikonaut Lu, Indian medical officer and second-in-command Ram, and Ghanaian-British botanist Kwesi. The mere fact that they have been sent to live in isolation, away from human civilizations, echoes the very social distancing rules the world has been following since the coronavirus pandemic hit. From the very beginning, many interactions between the characters and incidents serve as a reminder of the times we are living in.
While Emma is about to launch from the lunar base for Mars, her husband Matt, who has a CCM (Cerebral Cavernous Malformation) disorder, suffers a stroke in front of his 15-year-old daughter and later goes into surgery. Further in the series, Alexis gets into a motorbike accident and is also hospitalized. The incidents severely traumatize Emma, who is desperate to be with her family as they need her but she is unable to go back and is left with the morbid scenarios her mind conjures. As her spacecraft reaches a certain altitude, she also loses the possibility to see Matt and Alexis through their video calls.
On Earth, Matt and Alexis are going through similar emotions as they miss Emma and wait with bated breath for her mission to proceed safely. Throughout the series, their anguish over being apart is palpable and rather similar to the uncertainty and distress people are going through during the lockdown, living away from friends and family.
Sitting close to them and having an in-person conversation feels like an unaffordable luxury now. The situation is such that even when we learn that someone close to us is sick, the fear of the infectious virus spreading doesn’t allow one to go and tend to them. As you see it play out on screen, you want nothing more than Emma to turn the spacecraft around and go home. But even from thousands of miles away, her daughter and her husband continue to motivate her in some form or other, like when Matt sends her a recording of the sound of rain falling, something she has always loved. It allows her chaotic, negative thoughts to find stable ground.
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Away goes beyond simply being relevant when Ram gets infectious mononucleosis and has to be self-isolated. But he is in no state to look after himself and take the antivirals he needs to recover. In his delirious state, he even sustains a deep injury that gets his contaminated blood everywhere in his cabin. But just like when a person goes into self-quarantine, the rest of the family members in the house don’t give up on them; Emma takes every necessary precaution to look after him and gives him hope when he thinks all is lost. Anyone who has waited for a negative on a coronavirus test can relate to the Atlas crew praying for Ram’s fever to break so he can be out of isolation.
In the close quarters of the spacecraft, tempers rise and the crew bicker amongst themselves when they face tough situations, with zero outside help. The pandemic-induced lockdown forcing us to spend 24/7 cooped up with the same faces and left with no option but to solve issues on our own mirrors the dilemma of Emma’s crew. But as Kwesi says, such situations are solved when the ones stuck together have faith in each other because then problems can be resolved and hurdles can be overcome.
The hope that makes recovery from COVID-19 and the long period of isolation possible is reflected in Lu’s wise words to the miserable Emma. Lu advises her to keep up her optimism by looking forward to the best part, which in their case is landing on Mars, and in our real-world scenario it is one recovering from the debilitating disease and finally being with their family.
But the best part, and something we have all learned in these past months, is the art to adapt to a situation that seems unmanageable. In space, the human body suffers many health issues. When Misha starts losing his sight, he is initially frustrated, lashes out frequently, is hopeless, and pretends everything is fine. But he soon adapts to his new “normal” such that despite the uncertainty of whether they will survive the mission, he regains his confidence and even motivates the dejected Lu. In many ways, Away touts the power of human resilience when faced with a difficult situation.
Now available on Netflix, Away was created by Andrew Hinderaker and stars Hilary Swank as Commander Emma Green. The series also features Josh Charles, Talitha Eliana Bateman, Vivian Wu, Ato Essandoh, Adam Irigoyen, Mark Ivanir, Ray Panthaki, Monique Gabriela Curnen and more.