Star City Television Show

I only started this series because a trusted friend told me to. The premise, an alternative history to the space race set in a 1960s Soviet Science colony, failed to impress me. Luckily I gave it a chance anyway.

Space with double-crossing spies and all the cruel underpinnings of a totalitarian society. Themes of the kind of camera-ready fakery we know all too well today, but cruder, because surveillance in the 1960s allowed for more wild antics. Performative feminism. Yearning for love and missed connections. Men with pointy shoes and women with silk scarves hiding their bouffant hairdos. Contraband rock and roll.

Star City is based on the very real science cities once found across the USSR, populated by Intelligentsia held captive for their talents, like kids at an eternal STEM camp. My grandfather, who was a Swedish physiologist, told me stories of visiting such cities during the cold war. He pitied the inhabitants, even while being impressed by their seriousness and depth of knowledge.

All this to say, Terry, you were right. WOW, this show! Great drama, gripping cliffhangers, characters that each remain sympathetic even while forced to do horrible things.

All the production values are outstanding. But to me, it is the casting that shines brightest. Rhys Ifans is the only actor I know in the entire series. Each face is new to me, each performance absolutely stunning.