One of the major criticisms of Howard Overman’s relentlessly downbeat European co-production of a very contemporary War of the Worlds (which, as we’ve established, is connected to the H.G. Wells original by name only), certainly in its first eight-episode season, was that its pace was tortuous and it seemed to take an age for anything much to actually happen. Season Two has absolutely addressed these criticisms; Episodes 2, 3, and 4 of this season have pretty much completely undermined the established format of the series, uprooting all its key characters and their relationships and left them all in completely different circumstances which are, almost impossibly, even worse than the ones they were in before. A lot happens in these episodes and yet there seems to be something in the DNA of this series that manages to still make it seems slow-paced and heavy-going at times, even when it’s dealing with huge narrative implications and putting its characters even more ferociously through the wringer than before. We have to accept that this is a series that is always going to appear a little pedestrian – perhaps because of its rather drab and colourless visual palette – no matter what happens to advance its story.
Episode Two sees several huge developments in the London survivors’ encampment where Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne) is keen to try out the virus that he hopes and believes will bring the aliens (now in human form) to their knees by testing it on Emily (Daisy Edgar-Jones) who shares some strange connection with the aliens. Bill’s morality makes him question his right to potentially fatally infect the girl but fellow survivor Zoe paints a disquieting picture of the fate of the human race if he doesn’t set aside his concerns. It helps, of course, that Emily has been ‘programmed’ to assassinate Bill by the aliens who know exactly what he’s working on and what he’s capable of. Over in France, the Observatory facility has come under attack by aliens keen to track down their turncoat Micah (Robert Emms), who has already told Sophia (Emilie de Preissac) about the aliens’ mastery of travel in both space and time just before the facility comes under attack. Micah is strangled by his own brother and several other core characters are shot to death and the Observatory is utterly compromised. Back in London, there’s an emotional reunion when Jonathan (Stephen Campbell Moore), who has been struggling to make his way back from France to find his wife and kids (including Emily), finally finds them all alive and well. Unfortunately during his journey, he’s become involved with Chloe (Stephanie Caillard) and her not-quite-right son Sacha (Mathieu Torloting). Jonathan’s stoic wife Sarah (Natasha Little) is thunderstruck but realistic in the wake of all that she and her kids have gone through so far but subsequent episodes have had neither the time nor, it seems, the inclination, to further address the emotional fallout from this new relationship triangle. When Emily attacks and injures Bill, his reluctance to experiment upon her mysteriously evaporates and by Episode Three, the new virus has been surreptitiously introduced into her bloodstream and Bill watches dispassionately as her body starts to break down. But the aliens are on the counter-attack. They catch Scarlet (Donna Banya), one of the rebel footsoldiers, and turn her into a human bomb, which not only devastates their hidey-hole but offs several regular cast members and leaves Bill and a slimmed-down group to take refuge in an abandoned cinema. By now Sarah and Jonathan realise what Bill has done to their daughter and Bill becomes a pariah amongst his own people as a dose of insulin seems to counteract the effects of the virus in her body. The French contingent, meanwhile, is making their way to London to try to link up with Bill Ward and en route, they meet up with suicidal survivor Viktor (Feodor Atkine) who eventually opts to join the group in their journey to London.
Any hopes of the series turning a corner and offering us even the first tiny welcome glimmers of hope are utterly blown away in Episode Four, surely not only this show’s bleakest episode to date but also one of the darkest and most nihilistic episodes of television of the last few years. We’re reminded almost immediately of the ghastly incident in Season One where a young child is brutally shot in the head by one of the aliens’ robot dog creatures in an opening sequence that pulls almost the exact same trick. Not long afterward, Sacha, obsessed with Emily and convinced that there is a bond between them thanks to some bizarre dreams he’s been experiencing, terrorises Bill in the cinema complex and is about to kill him when the likable, warm-natured Ashe (Aaron Heffernan) intervenes and pays the price. The scene where Sacha, clearly now established as a bit of a psychopath, taunts Ashe as he lies bleeding, his life ebbing away but desperate not to die, is uncomfortable and deeply chilling. Bill, meanwhile, is now on the run, putting as much distance from his fellow survivors even as Sacha lays the blame for Ashe’s death at his door when the body is discovered. Things are no better over in France as Sophie and Catherine (Lea Drucker) and her group, including Viktor from the previous episode, arrive at Calais ready to make their way across the Channel. But they come under attack immediately and yes, there’s another victim as the show notches up its third grisly death in one episode.
Back in London, Bill falls in with another group of tooled-up survivors, but this bunch has a very special prisoner chained up in their gaff. Will this development present Bill with another opportunity to mount a biological attack on the ruthless invaders who are quite clearly determined to wipe humanity off the face of the Earth.
War of the Worlds is packing more punch into its individual episodes but those heavy moments of drama, powerful as they are, give the impression that this is still a show that hasn’t yet moved into second gear when it quite clearly has and is now ready to put its foot down hard on the gas. If we’ve any real quibbles then it’s that it’s sometimes hard to keep track of all the characters in their various factions, although the ongoing cull this year is alleviating the problem slightly. But this second series is really proving its worth now as it presents its uncompromisingly dark and downbeat view of a terrible war of attrition where sometimes it’s as hard to root for ‘our’ side as it’s easy to boo and hiss at the determined, genocidal baddies. It can be grim and hard work sometimes, but War of the Worlds is powerful television, not for the faint-hearted or for those who prefer their science fiction with at least a little bit of hope and optimism.
WAR OF THE WORDS Season 2 airs weekly on Disney+/STAR
