Extant premiered last night on CBS, and like most people, I was intrigued to see how the first episode of this show played out. Was the show unbelievably awesome?... No. But Halle Berry kept me glued to it. Berry plays Molly Woods who just returned to Earth from a 13 month mission in space. When she returns, life is a little off, but she is getting the hang of it. Her husband, John, and son, Ethan, are all adjusting to the changes as well. The show starts off fairly calm, but then major plot twists are dropped. Spoilers Ahead!
The marriage isn’t as happy as it seems. Unable to have children, John creates a robot that Molly and him take on as their son, Ethan. One minute Ethan is cute and adorable and the next he is creepy as fuck. The whole show is based in the future and does do a good job of blended normal life experiences with a science fiction element. We also learn that John isn’t exactly Molly’s first choice. She was in love with another man. His death is a mystery for now, but John is well aware that Molly is still attached to this man. On top of all this, Molly finds out that during her examination back from space she is somehow pregnant. The mission was completely solo, so Molly asks her friends with the pregnancy record to hide the information for a bit so she can figure everything out. She still has many evaluations to go but for now she puts on a smile and thinks her boss, Alan Sparks, believes her. In actuality, Molly is being watched by them for 13 hours of missing tape footage. We get small flashbacks of why Molly would lie about the missing footage. We get snippets of what is on these missing hours, and it makes for one hell of a ride.
My only concern for the show is that too many questions will be posed without any answers. This always seems to happen to these type of shows. The first episode was a good teaser, but you can’t continue to tease us without some clarification.
On the up side, besides for Ethan played by Pierce Gagnon, and his creepiness, Halle Berry takes the cake. She plays the role of a reluctant mother, a clever liar, a badass science nerd, a nervous wreck, and a lover perfectly. She is so cool in this show and women can relate to her problems. This show may tank, but for now take some time to enjoy Halle Berry and all her glories plus a cool hair-do in Extant.
