Desperation creeps into your head like tiny bugs. The feeling of hopelessness clings onto your heart like a plant rooting into soil. Nothing but you, a few supplies, and the hope of survival against a lively planet you wish was rather dead.
Landing into the planet known as Vesta, “Scavengers Reign” stretches the endless possibilities of animated storytelling, featuring gorgeous scenery, intricate creature design, and, when it needs to, nerve-inducing grotesque body horror. This 12-episode sci-fi drama follows the remaining survivors of a crashed ship, the “Demeter 227,” and their struggle for survival.
Piecing parts of their environment together like a puzzle, nothing seems to make sense on the planet Vesta. This unfamiliarity perplexes the four survivors: the self-confident horticulturalist named Ursula (Sunita Mani), the ship’s stubborn captain Sam (Bob Stephenson), the lost cargo specialist Azi (Wunmi Mosaku), and the regret-driven and career-troubled Kamen (Ted Travelstead). All of whom survive within the ecosystem on a range of human commensalism to horrible parasitism.
Fears of flora and fauna
However, what makes the series worth watching lies teased underneath questions that start to build up in the first few minutes alone. Though not a crewmember, a survivor worker robot named Levi (Alia Shawkat) begins showing ounces of sentience after being in contact with a strange yellow substance. What else is there to discover on this planet?
Untouched by humanity before the Demeter 227’s fall, the show’s co-creator Joseph Bennett describes the eventual peak conflict of the series best, “You've introduced human greed and gluttony into this animal kingdom, and it's changed the game. What is the ripple effect of that?” he said in an interview with Mashable SEA. The conflict-shedding skin in situations is seen as characters take from the flora and fauna to use as tools for survival.
“Scavengers Reign’s” take on the idea of humanity’s influences on untouched flora and fauna provides a literal otherworldly visual experience. There is nothing but beauty in what the artists have created for Vesta, both in its ethereal moments of serendipity and the aforementioned bodily horrors.
Gifted with careful writing and heart-wrenching performances by its crew, the series stamps itself clear almost like a love letter to the sci-fi alien genre without losing sight of its flavor.
Simultaneously including familiar tropes like space pirates and twisting some like a robot reconnecting with nature, “Scavengers Reign” has all it takes to be a classic.
You can watch “Scavengers Reign” on HBO Max.
