Summary: The new “Lost in Space” on Netflix deserves your attention. They wrote it to be entertaining and educational. It is both, but in ways they did not intend.
“Humankind evolves. It’s how we survive. Through ice ages, plagues, wars, disasters from above. We adapt our skills, our languages, our very bodies in order to live. ”
— Maureen Robinson, the “fearless and brilliant aerospace engineer who makes the decision to bring her family to space for a chance at a new life on a better world.” From the trailer.
Netflix has rebooted the 1960’s TV show “Lost in Space” (LIS). The plots are slightly more sophisticated. But more interesting are the characters, which reveal much about a core problem of America today. The show’s premise is a dying Earth. The critics’ descriptions unknowingly describe one of the most serious problems facing America today. Who are the people on 2018’s version of the Jupiter II spacecraft?
“Molly Parker brings her usual verve, skill and charisma to the role of matriarch Maureen Robinson …Don West starts out as a relatively irritating presence and doesn’t progress much from there. …John (Toby Stephens) is a standard issue TV father with nothing unique to recommend him.” — Maureen Ryan at Variety.
“Maureen, a scientific polymath, is the effective head of the family, to which John, a former Navy SEAL often away, is trying to return, even as his wife is filing for divorce. Older daughter Judy (Taylor Russell) …is a medical doctor – and also the product of Maureen’s first marriage, and biracial {she never met her dad}.” — Robert Lloyd at the LAT.
Maureen is “an aerospace engineer with a fearsome intellect. A driven and demanding woman both in and outside her home. (source). …Judy Robinson {is} the athletic 18-year-old medical student, driven and brilliant. …Don West {is a} mercenary mechanic and unrepentant booze smuggler.” — From the Wiki.
“John …is the only dumb one, really, and his military track record has kept him away from his brilliant, science-minded family for far too long.” — Sam Machkovech in Ars Technica. In the opening episode, his eleven year old son has to tell dad about the properties of magnesium.
This show is useful not just as a snapshot of modern American, but allows a comparison showing how we have changed. In the original series (1965-1968), John Robinson was the family patriarch. A brilliant scientists, physically and morally strong, brave, and a good father. His wife was beautiful, intelligent, warm, wise, and compassionate. Netflix has taken almost all of John’s strengths (except courage) and shifted them to Maureen – in addition to her original strengths (which included courage). She is now super-awesome. She even has humility and grace. She apologizes to her husband when she did not take his good advice. She congratulates him when he does something well (e.g., driving backwards very fast).
Of course she is the family matriarch. The rest of the plot’s dynamics follows logically from their characters, and leads to the question which might undermine our future.
While the science in this show about the future often makes little sense, the character dynamics are as real as today. Maureen is a Generation Z woman, born roughly around 2000-2003 (the show takes place in 2046; her oldest child is 18). She marries a not too bright SEAL (a high-class bad boy). She was raised to empower her “inner G.I.R.L. – Go-getter, Innovator, Risk-taker, Leader” (™ of the Girl Scouts). She could squeeze in “mother”, but there was not much extra room for “wife.”
Of course she filed for divorce. Her youngest child was in school. She is much better than her husband in almost every way. She is economically self-sufficient (especially with his child support payments). She no longer needs him; whatever he offers is less valuable than her independence.
Of course he spent most of his time away from his family. He was an alpha man lured into marriage by romance. Quite the shock to find himself dominated by his wife (women breaking alpha men is a common TV trope now). She probably took command slowly in their first five or so years of marriage, during which his two kids were born.
Of course they reunited to flee the dying Earth. With millions or tens of millions of families volunteering, they would want to look perfect to make the cut.
Logically, LIS paints the next generation following in the same pattern as the current one. Don West was a strong, brave, bold, spaceship pilot in the original. Now he is a morally weak low-life roguish smuggler (providing occasional comic relief). Of course Judy (awesome like her mother) is attracted to him.
What does LIS teach children?
“It’s important that the children hear us talking with one voice. And that voice is mine.”
— Maureen Robinson (engineer, scientist, wife, mother, commander of the Jupiter 2, matriarch of her family) to her husband (a former SEAL) in episode 2 of the new “Lost in Space”.
Raising two children, I was frequently amazed at the lessons they effortlessly extracted from films and TV shows. Watching the original LIS as a young teen, I learned about the benefits of patriarchy. If he become strong and educated, a man could married a wonderful hottie like June Lockhart – with good odds of a long pleasant marriage. He would be head of the household (with its reality varying depending on circumstances), respected by family and community as a husband and father.
What does the John Robinson of the new LIS get out of marriage? He is a (retired) SEAL, one of an elite among men. He gets a wife who commands him, until she dumps him (of course, he continues to pay for his children). He has a step-child, who does not like him. As for reputation – we can only guess about America in 2046, but today in the entertainment media the role of “father” is synonymous with buffoon. When in Family Court it means even less.
His years as a husband probably have brought him one insight. It was a con when Maureen smiled and said “until death do us part.” She said it fully aware that easy divorce with cash and community property was an option that women like her choose when convenient.
Although travel in constant danger across the universe has given him the opportunity for a new marriage (but still as an obedient spouse), that is the equivalent of the Blue Fairy granting wishes. Nice, but not to be counted on.
What do impressionable young teenage men learn from watching Netflix’s latest “family friendly” show? It is friendly for families to watch, but is it friendly to the institution of marriage?
About women on the big screen and little screen
I occasionally talk to young men about the young women they see in films and TV shows. That is, about the characters portrayed – not the actresses. These women tend to be athletic, beautiful, intelligent, self-reliant (“I can take care of myself”), and kick-ass (the new Lost In Space “is all about the badass ladies“). They are the exemplars of what our parents and schools seek to produce.
I ask them if they would like to hook up with these women, and get predictable answers. I ask if they would like to marry these women. Their response shows that the question was stupid. These are ideal women to have an adventure with. They are great for hookups, as friends-with-benefits, and sometimes even for “relationships”. But not marriage.
I have never had the opportunity to ask young women for their opinion of women on the screens. Or ask if the women on the screens are role models for them.
Conclusions
As I have said in previous posts – the rate of marriage is slowly declining. In the next decade or so it might fall quite a bit. Each new generation is the equivalent of pushing the “reset” button on America. That is because, as the adage goes, “more is caught than taught.” So our young men might have learned unintended lessons about marriage from TV and films. If so, how will the young women of their generation respond?
Like monkeys in the control room of a nuclear power plant, during the past 50 years we have spun dials and flipped switches on the controls of American society. Certain of our ideology, we had no need to test or experiment. Time will tell how this works out for America.
Maureen said “Humankind evolves. It’s how we survive.”
But sometimes we take paths that are dead ends.
Like communism. The price for that is often high.
Trivia note: about the matriarch’s leadership
Maureen Robinson has terrible judgement. She might be the best captain for the family expedition, but why can a picked group of elites not do better as a leader? She withholds vital information from the colonists, which ends badly. She does not punish “Dr. Smith” (in the original, keeping him was somewhat logical, as he was their only doctor – unlike the reboot). She does not take advice from her husband in matters about which he is an experienced expert.
This is similar to Justice League
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Trailers for the Lost in Space TV shows
The original – in 1966.
For the new one – in 2018.
