Animated Drama 'Pantheon' Brings Sci-Fi Nightmare to Living Life: TV Review

For any adult who still eschews animation out of a stubborn refusal to understand its benefits both visually and narrative medium, "Pantheon" displays its ambitions from the start. After the eerie opening theme, marking a string of fluorescent code shattering a Greek statue, the show shifts to a high school classroom, where a candid voiceover lays the stakes bare. "Most of the girls in my class completely missed the moment when the world started to end," teenage outcast Maddie Kim (Katie Chang) tells us, laptops flashing in unison as if they were d 'OK. It's a startling start for this unsettling series, which uses an all-star cast to merge micro-character work with macro questions about technology that may never have a satisfying answer.

Created by Dan Silverstein and based on short stories by Ken Liu, "Pantheon" layers conspiracies on- above the truth even more bitter at every turn. It also makes sense to introduce her increasingly overwhelming world via Maddie's grief for her father, David (Daniel Dae Kim), whose death left her and her mother, Ellen (Rosemarie DeWitt), in a emotional stalemate. In the first episode, Maddie discovers that David managed to survive, in a sense, thanks to the top-secret development of "U.I." (i.e. "downloaded intelligence", both a game and a deviation from the well-honed concept of artificial intelligence). In the fourth episode made available ahead of the show's September 1 premiere on AMC+, Maddie, David and Ellen find themselves at the heart of a crucial turning point in history, with no roadmap or precedent to follow.

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The combination of angular, sometimes surreal animation from production house Titmouse and deeply human performances from Chang, Kim, and DeWitt makes the Kim family feel as real — or at least as personal — as the show's otherwise lofty concept demands. Other plots opt for a grittier, more cerebral style, particularly when surrounding the mysterious microchip conglomerate behind David's regeneration founded by a missing figure in Steve Jobs (played by William Hurt, whose regular voice guides the story). one of his last performances). As embittered co-workers playing house, Taylor Schilling and Aaron Eckhart throw poison darts at each other while Paul Dano, playing their introverted son, leans into a monotonous, teenage tone. Raza Jaffrey, as the brilliant Chanda programmer, has one of the toughest jobs, as her character is caught in a vicious loop beyond her wildest nightmares. Other notable names in the "Pantheon" credits include Scoot McNairy, Ron Livingston, Maude Apatow and Anika Noni Rose, all of whom lend their voices to scripts that, while strong, need that extra jolt of emotion to sustain. the series' ever-expanding mythos rooted in a recognizable reality.

With enough time and patience, the vast network of overlapping ideas in "Pantheon" could solidify into a deeply satisfying sci-fi story. Whether or not he gets the chance, or whether he attracts the audience that might be particularly intrigued by him, is another story only time (and the reach of AMC+) can tell.

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“Pantheon” premieres September 1 on AMC+ and HIDIVE.< /p >

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