SCREENCRUNCH: A YouTube original series you can binge this Halloween
Space, as the iconic line from that sci-fi classic goes, is the final frontier. It’s a line that really summarizes how the typical space flick goes. Humankind ventures into the unknown in search of the unknowable: Is there life out there? Is there a place for humanity out there?
Origin, a YouTube original series that first streamed in 2018, is about this and more. It’s a show that’s worth a binge during this season of scare on, perhaps, a free trial of YouTube Premium.
Created by Mika Watkins, Origin explores the story of the survivors of an interstellar human colony ship called Origin, bound for a habitable planet outside the solar system. As with most space faring films, nothing goes right in the journey to humanity’s supposed second home in space. The show immediately introduces viewers to passengers of the Origin who have found themselves stranded on the ship, nine days away from their destination.
It turns out, the Origin has been abandoned by its crew and the other colonists, save for the unlucky group that got left behind. The show then turns into an interstellar version of Among Us, as the abandoned passengers realize that one of them is not who they claim to be.
As far as space thrillers go, Origin doesn’t disappoint. Sure, you could say that its plot is not really original, and there are a lot of elements borrowed from other space thrillers or survival films. But Origin, thanks to its impressive cast led by Natalia Tena (Game of Thrones), Tom Felton (Harry Potter), and Sen Mitsuji (Altered Carbon, Man in the High Castle), is able to take all these cliches into a space horror-mystery story that is worth binge watching.
Think Among Us and Lost… in space.
If you’re not convinced, you can actually check out the first episode of Origin for free. Then you can decide if it’s worth the YouTube Premium subscription, which is only P209 per month (P239 for a family plan). It certainly was for me.
For an interesting enough cast and a passable take on the space thriller genre, we give Origin a 4 out 5.