The Incredible Sci-Fi Series You Need To Be Watching Feels Truly Alien
A visually stunning and surreal take on humanity's relationship with nature, and die-hard sci-fi fans can't get enough of it.
Max’s Scavengers Reign is making waves in the science-fiction world for brilliantly conceptualizing and constructing an alien ecosystem that feels truly out of this world. Since its October 19 streaming premiere, we’ve been presented with a 12-episode run that places an exceptionally strong emphasis on the series’ setting in a way that makes the environment a more compelling character than the actual characters themselves. Scavengers Reign is a visually stunning and surreal take on humanity’s relationship with nature, and die-hard sci-fi fans can’t get enough of it.
YouTube creator NerdWriter1 posted a short breakdown of the series and grapples with the other-worldliness that Scavengers Reign presents. He likens the series’ emphasis on the environment to Werner Herzog’s documentary Burden of Dreams, in which Herzog suggests that nature is indifferent to humanity. In other words, nature has its own agenda, and the idea of harmony between humanity and nature is something that doesn’t necessarily exist when you consider how punishing an unfamiliar ecosystem can be to humans who are trying to traverse the vast landscapes full of unknown flora, fauna, and critters who rule the land.
Much like the real-life chaos that’s found in Burden of Dreams, Scavengers Reign presents a harrowing world in which its protagonists are tasked with navigating through unfamiliar territory.
What truly sets Scavengers Reign apart from its contemporaries is its vivid animation style that places environmental happenings in the foreground in a way that’s disturbingly ever-present. Though the series is centered on a group of survivors trying to locate and repair their damaged cargo ship while stranded on the alien planet Vesta, its storytelling expertly juxtaposes humanity’s willingness to adapt with nature’s own relentless and unforgiving life cycles.
Nature’s indifference to humanity, and humanity’s evolutionary need to survive become the primary source of conflict in the Joseph Bennett and Charles Huettner created series.
Though Scavengers Reign toys with Vesta’s harsh and complex habitats, the planet isn’t necessarily an enemy or friend to protagonists Azi, Levi, Sam, Ursula, and Kamen. Vesta simply exists, has always existed, and will continue to exist long after humanity visits and departs.
Scavengers Reign is a visually stunning and surreal take on humanity’s relationship with nature, and die-hard sci-fi fans can’t get enough of it.
The concept for Scavenger’s Reign was originally birthed by Bennett and Huettner in 2016 when they produced an eight-minute animated short called Scavengers. This proof of concept had no dialogue and highlights the intricate interactions between a couple of humans and various alien creatures, a theme that is heavily explored in the series. It wasn’t until 2018 that the creators decided to expand the concept and create a series pilot that wasn’t green-lit by Adult Swim but eventually picked up by Max.
Upon Scavenger’s Reign’s release, it was met with critical acclaim. The series’ first season garnered a 10 percent critical score against an audience score of 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and has been universally praised for constructing an alien world that is beautiful, menacing, outlandish, and otherworldly.
If you’re an avid sci-fi fan and want to have your mind blown by an incredibly complex narrative that thrusts you into an entirely new alien world, then we strongly suggest that you log into Max, and see what all the hype is about.
