The Eternaut Review: Netflix Series With Visually Powerful and Full of Emotional Tension

The Eternaut Review: Amid the blackout that paralyzed the Iberian Peninsula, Netflix launched The Eternaut, a series that seems born to tell precisely this type of catastrophe. We have been waiting for this series for two years, since Netflix, in May 2023, announced the beginning of the filming of a new post-apocalyptic series that would have adapted for the first time one of the most popular Argentine graphic novels of the sci-fi genre: The Eternaut. A mix of science fiction, drama, survival story, and much more. In short, a series that should have made a bang on paper. Botto, unfortunately, has not been there. And now we explain why. With Ricardo Darín in the role of Juan Salvo, the series, inspired by the legendary Argentine graphic novel by Héctor Germán Oesterheld, brings a cold and silent apocalypse to the screen, capable of killing with a simple snowflake. To adapt The Eternaut, it has always seemed an impossible undertaking. The starting material is too rich, the expectations of readers are too high, and the Argentine audiovisual industry is too fragile to face such a project without compromise. Still, Netflix and K&S Films have succeeded. The series directed by Bruno Stagnaro not only exists it is also one of the most significant products ever made in Argentina for the small screen.

Six episodes, a total of 321 minutes, a cast led by Ricardo Darín and a technical blockbuster system, but above all a personal and layered vision which manages to restore the essence of Héctor G’s graphic novel Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López, reinventing it without ever betraying it. The Eternaut. A name that perhaps will not say much to most, but that for fans of the ninth art is a sort of mantra since it falls into those untouchable cornerstones that have changed the history of comics, not only locally, in this case, Argentine, but also worldwide. Since the announcement of a television transposition by Netflix of a fundamental title like this, written by Héctor Oesterheld and designed by Francisco Solano López, it is easy to understand how fans have not only straightened their antennae but also grabbed the hair of the skin at the idea of what result the platform could have pulled out. On the other hand, already The Sandman, it seemed like a titanic feat to get to the small screen, moreover, in binge watching, yet we had (happily) been denied. Will the streaming giant succeed once again?

The Eternaut Review: The Story Plot

The story told by The Eternaut is a survival story. Suddenly, in Buenos Aires, a mysterious snowstorm arrives that instantly kills anyone who comes into contact with it. There are only a few people who were, casually, at home or in sheltered places and who understand that the only way to survive is to never be touched by toxic snow. By building waterproof diving suits, some of the survivors go out in search of supplies and help until they realize that the world as they knew it no longer exists and will face a far greater threat than a toxic snowfall: monsters in the form of insects ready to kill, and not only that.

The first sequence is not taken from the comic but is already perfectly consistent: three teenagers on a sailing ship in the Río de la Plata observe a strange northern light while the city lights go out suddenly. It is the beginning of an apocalyptic blackout that soon becomes toxic fog, lethal snow, and panic. From here on out, The Eternaut follows (and reinvents) the story of Juan Salvo, a common man who finds himself at the center of a struggle for survival in a Buenos Aires devastated by a silent alien invasion. The city, covered by a white blanket of salt and cellulose that simulates toxic snow, is a character in itself. The use of virtual production, real locations (over 50), and visual effects, with over 2,000 digitally manipulated shots, makes dystopia credible, familiar, and almost documentary. Yet while targeting an international audience, The Eternaut never renounces its identity as deeply Argentine, both in detail (the streets, the dialogues, the music) and in its political and social message.

The Eternaut Review and Analysis

Unlike many genre products, The Eternaut is not a clash-based science fiction series. Aliens – the disturbing “cascarudos” and the other entities of the second half of the season – arrive slowly, leaving room for the characters, the interpersonal dynamics, and the psychological tension. Juan Salvo (Darín) is a man marked by the Falklands War, devoured by flashbacks and guilt. He has a teenage daughter to save, an ex-wife to mend with, and an entire Buenos Aires that collapses on him. He is a reluctant hero, an imperfect father, and a survivor. Next to him, a heterogeneous and well-built group: Horses (César Troncoso), paranoid and brilliant engineer; Omar (Ariel Staltari), returned from the United States in full Argentine blackout; Elena (Carla Peterson), rational doctor and central figure in the story; is Lucas (Marcelo Subiotto), frustrated banking. They are imperfect, multifaceted characters, mirrors of a country that has always lived on the verge of crisis.

The great strength of the series lies in its balance between respect and freedom. The soul of the comic – that reflection on collective resistance, on the fragility of the individual in the face of the unknown, on the value of solidarity – remains intact. However, Stagnaro is not afraid to intervene; he changes the era, modifies family relationships, updates political references, and introduces a theme dear to his poetics, that of urban and social stratification. Toxic snowfalls, barricades in neighborhoods, struggles between condominiums, episodes set in pharmacies, shopping malls, stations, and churches: everything evokes the collapse of an already fragile social fabric. The references to Argentina in 2001, to its economic and political crises, mix with the echo of the pandemic and contemporary wars. It’s a science fiction story, of course, but also a parable on the present.

It is difficult to underestimate the technical scope of the project: the snow is made with tons of ecological materials, the city was scanned during the pandemic, and filming lasted almost five months. But, surprisingly, all this never stifles the story. Indeed, it enhances it. Effects are not an end, but a means of building a credible, dirty, real world. Also, the soundtrack, which alternates classics like No pibe is Porque hoy nací of Manal in pieces by Soda Stereo and Mercedes Sosa, up to El magnetismo of El Mató to a Policía Motorizado, helps to create that temporal mixture in which generations, experiences, and traumas coexist. Perhaps, the major limit of the series can be seen in some narrative dilations: in particular, in episodes 2 and 5, the rhythm slows down, and some subplots tangle unnecessarily. However, these are secondary trips to a project that manages to do what seemed impossible: to make The Eternaut something alive, necessary, not only for fans, but for a large audience. And above all, for Argentina. Because the main question asked by the graphic novel – “It will be possible?” – finally receives an answer here. Yes, it was possible. And the result is a series that looks to the future with the eyes of the past. A story of resistance that, today more than ever, speaks of us.

The context is different in Argentina today, which, under the chairmanship of Javier Milei from 2023, is going through a period of economic and social changes. The government has launched a very severe plan with cuts in public spending, privatizations, and reduction of state intervention in an attempt to contain inflation and restore public finances. These measures have produced some economic results, such as the budget balance and the slowdown in inflation, but they have also had significant social consequences. The poverty, although slightly down after an initial peak, remains high, and many families live in precarious conditions. Mili’s policies also provoked strong protests, especially in large cities, generating a tense and polarized political climate. And it is precisely this that The Eternaut looks at Netflix, with the inevitable post-apocalyptic themes of the struggle to obtain the rare resources of the social and political contrasts, of the generational clash (explicit by the character of Pablo).

Maintaining the choice to assign the lead role – together with his friends and peers – a middle-aged man, Juan (Ricardo Darín, The Secret of His Eyes) the Netflix series proposes the usual apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic atmosphere themes, but with a sort of “wisdom” given by ’age of the characters main. The clashes with the younger, impulsive, and selfish, but also with peers ready for anything to steal their equipment to get out, make these 6 episodes a reflection on how the contemporary world sees a generational gap increasingly marked. Other than that, and Juan’s “hallucinations” (visions), which anticipate in some way what’s going on, everything is already seen. The attempt to understand, the war for resources, the human cruelty that takes the place of solidarity, selfishness, and a struggle for survival that seems to make lucidity lose, everything we always see, whether it’s a zombie apocalypse, infected with Cordyceps, or whatever.

And again: The Mist, together with many other science fiction films such as World Invasion or the Falling Skies series, will make you have that impression of deja-vu, which, however, must be remembered, in the case of The Eternaut, is subsequent. This is a story born in the late ’50s, in the period of classic science fiction (that of The War of the Worlds and The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, to understand us), which used invaders as political metaphors. Keep this in mind while watching the episodes. For the rest, of course, there is nothing new. Juan wanders around a city full of corpses, stumbling upon characters of various kinds and facing several challenges as he tries to track down his daughter. The rhythm is slow, the girls who open the pilot episode are left on the sidelines until the penultimate episode, while there is no real reflection on the origin of the “snow” until episode 4 … There is also a formal defect: some episodes do not last even 50 minutes, others exceed the hour abundantly, which makes the lack of balance in the narrative rhythm. But the staged is cured, the photography and setting are suggestive, and the interpreters are all good, perfectly in part. If you already know the story, you will be disappointed with this adaptation. But you will probably also be the most qualified “to grasp its positive sides, despite the slowness and poor originality derived from the common science fiction “baggage”.

Another element that characterized the original paper was certainly the meta-narrative of the story, in front of the main character who visits a cartoonist to tell him a story that warns about what will happen – the earthly invasion – and this can help him change the fate of the world. Here too a short circuit is created with the TV series but at the same time, if you manage to overcome the initial disorientation, it could remain a title from which to be surprised and involved, especially at the stage, between direction, photography and surrender of the invaders as well as of the science fiction world narrated. Triggering a sort of oral tradition of a story that must continue spreading. The Eternaut was a comic book impossible to adapt for its historical, political, and artistic importance. Netflix thus chooses to modernize everything by bringing it to the present day and speaking as much as possible to today’s public, also in terms of rhythm and narrative tension, in addition to involvement with the protagonists. Certainly, the only six episodes designed for this beginning, even if some narrative originality of the paper counterpart is missing, maintain a certain visual efficacy. From one medium to another, however, not everything is lost; on the contrary.

The Eternaut Review: The Last Words

With The Eternaut, Bruno Stagnaro realizes an ambitious and deeply Argentine adaptation, which manages to merge loyalty and innovation, memory and dystopia. Visually powerful and full of emotional tension, the story does not just transpose the comic but collects its spirit, updates it, and relaunches it towards new generations. Some narrative slowdown does not scratch a work that manages to be epic, intimate, and necessary at the same time. Adaptation of the iconic graphic novel by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López, The Eternaut, lands on Netflix, transporting one of the most significant stories of Argentine culture to the present. The series tells the sudden apocalypse caused by a toxic snowfall and the resistance of a group of survivors, led by Juan (Ricardo Darín), in the heart of Buenos Aires. If the original of the ’50s was a clear political metaphor linked to the Argentine historical context and its dictatorships, this new version confronts contemporary Argentina, reflecting social tensions and generational gaps. Visually cured and well interpreted, the series alternates successful moments with already seen solutions, and risks disappointing those who know it well symbolic force of the original work, anchored to its context.

Cast: Ricardo Darín, Carla Peterson, Andrea Frigerio, César Troncoso, Alan Daicz, Mora Fisz, Ariel Staltari. Gender: Science fiction, dramatic, dystopian

Created By: Bruno Stagnaro

Streaming Platform: Netflix

Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3/5 (three stars)