Some series aren’t so clear on who a person should be rooting for either because they’re ambiguous in the beliefs and goals that drive the various characters, or because they tug at a person’s value system in one way or another. Raised by Wolves Season 1 was an eye-opening look into a far-flung future in which humanity is on the brink. Not only has the earth been destroyed, but humanity has fractured in a way that kind of mirrors what can be seen today. The division between atheists and the Mithraic faith is so great that it’s become death for any of either side to try to exist alongside one another. The beginning of the series sees two androids, Mother and Father, crash-landing on the planet Kepler-22b, where they find themselves in an inhospitable landscape in which they have to try and survive while giving birth to several children that will be used to colonize the world. Unfortunately, only one of them, Campion, survives, as the rest grow sick or are lost to the inhospitable world that surrounds them.
Throughout the first season there are many instances in which Mother ends up looking like the villain, even though she seeks to care for Campion, and the kids she steals from the Mithraic group that threatens their existence. After destroying their ship, one can’t help but think that Mother, who is also known as the Necromancer, is a war droid that was used to wipe people out with a sonic scream that reduces individuals to bloody ribbons of flesh, is a little unbalanced. Father is more of a doorstop since he’s not as specialized of a model as Mother, and it’s very easy to see that Mother has little knowledge of how to placate him. With each episode however it becomes evident that Mother is a very confused and unbalanced individual, and while she might be seen as the eventual protagonist, Mother is still a character that doesn’t inspire a lot of trust.
Unfortunately, the humans that come after the Mithraic children, especially Marcus and Sue, aren’t the obvious protagonists either. Not even Campion can be called a protagonist since he’s a child and his allegiances tend to shift back and forth during the season. The course of this show during the first season became such a maddened series of events that the second season has a perfect base to work from, though it also has a great amount of chaos to account for given what happened to Mother, the fact that she’s no longer the Necromancer, and that Marcus has been outed as an individual that is not who he appears to be. Sue has the same issue, but after parting ways from Marcus, whose faith as an atheist contrasts with the beliefs of the Mithraic religion, sets in motion another list of events that begins to show how season 2 might be starting at a gallop to a run from the start. The fact that the end of the season ends with a failed suicide attempt by Mother and Father to eliminate the ‘child’ that was implanted in Mother by the man that reprogrammed her indicates that things are going to go from strange and messed-up to chaotic and undeniably dangerous as the lamprey-like creature that was born from Mother’s body looks like it might be a real threat.
On top of that, Marcus is still on the loose and is looking even more dangerous than before, while the kids and Sue are bound to have their issues moving forward as well. After all, the season 2 trailer does show the group moving into a more tropical area, which is bound to offer up its own set of challenges that the survivors will need to contend with. The second season will already be given a set of expectations that it will need to live up to in order to bring something that people haven’t seen and to advance the story in a way that will keep people watching. At this point, it feels as though the first season is good enough that people are anticipating the second one, but it does feel as though there needs to be a serious amount of development that can bring this series up a few notches.
Maybe it’s just a personal thing, but at this time it doesn’t feel as though anyone is in the right, but some are now in the wrong, such as Marcus. If Mother is meant to be a developing protagonist it’s fair to say that she needs to keep evolving. One thing that can be said about the show thus far is that it is enticing and more than anything else, it’s telling a story that relates to humanity in a very strong manner, no matter that it’s a little extreme.
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