I realize I’m a bit behind the times here as the second season of Lost in Space premiered in January (is that a fact?), but I’m hella slow at watching shows, so I just finished it the other day. I was also just kind of going to quietly go about my way, crying about John Robinson for the next several months, but then they announced that the next season would be the last, and well. It’s not like my little review is going to change anything and keep them around forever, but I’d still like to shout about why it’s such a good adaptation! And, well, we did just literally talk about adaptations on Monday. Now, as far as I know, Lost in Space was never adapted from a book, but the insane 1998 movie was adapted from a show in the ’60s. As a quick note, I’ve never seen the show, and I haven’t watched the movie in a while, so this post isn’t going to be a comparison of all the things they did right or wrong. I’m just over here in my space-loving bubble screaming about the Robinsons, okay.

LISTEN TO DON WEST AND STAY INSIDE FOLKS

Look, pretty much the only thing I remember about the ’90s movie was Don being an attractive, goofy mechanic, Dr. Smith being super duper evil, and the fact that John Robinson also broke my heart as a young girl. Does it help even more that Toby Stephens plays him now? OF COURSE, ARE YOU JOKING?

Okay, okay, okay. The first thing that I have to say is that the graphics/CGI on this show are freaking phenomenal. There’s one episode in the second season where they dive into a gas giant, and I was watching it on my laptop, and I had to have a moment where I paused and considered if I wanted to wait to finish the episode until I could get it on TV. My burning need to keep watching didn’t allow me to do that, but uh, yeah, I might totally rewatch just that episode on a bigger screen because it was beautiful. I’m so used to most space things that are in foreign solar systems and not just really well done renditions of Mars not actually being that great. Think about it, though. Seriously. Pretty much every space TV show/movie that has the characters visiting a brand new, strange planet is just kind of meh, and so I wasn’t holding out a lot of hope. But this scene was truly stunning. The nerves I’d later feel about John & Maureen were definitely dulled by the wow factor. It was just so, so beautiful.

And it’s not an exception to the rest of the show. The water planet was so interesting, visually, to watch. The broken planet at the end of season two is something I’ll never forget. The original planet they got lost on, in season one, when Will finally meets the Robot, is going to forever captivate me with its frozen tundra scenes. If for nothing else but how beautiful this show is to watch, do yourself a favor and watch it.

And honestly? The hands down coolest thing about this show does tie directly back to the way it looks because my dad was in the room for approximately two seconds before he said, “Is that a Jupiter?” Even my mom, who doesn’t watch things that aren’t Hallmark or General Hospital, immediately knew what I was watching when she saw the Robot. I don’t remember a ton about the movie, and I haven’t seen the show, but my parents, who grew up with both, think the new Netflix show is pretty badass, considering they both sat down for a few episodes, so that’s saying something, at least.

Look, don’t even get me started on these three. Not only are we blessed with Bode Locke from Locke & Key and his amazing siblings, but we also get Will Robinson with Judy & Penny, and I’m just here for the sibling love, okay. It’s making me so damn happy. Also, holy moly, Will was so little in the first season! He’s so tall now!

I could sit here and shout about John Robinson for a while, and look, okay, I’m going to for a second. Spoiler alert, he cries in the second season, and John Robinson does not cry. It’s just not a thing he does. He gets a little emotional sometimes, but he’s mostly shouting and being a jerk in the first season, and then he just cries? A lot? In the second season, and I’m still not over it. We love a weepy dad. On the same vein, I also just love that not everything is perfect with the Robinson’s? Like, they could have easily given us this picture perfect family and leaned hard on only the plot elements–side note: my brother asked me what the show was about, but I was super distracted, so I said, are you ready for this, they’re lost in space–but instead, they gave us a really well-rounded cast of characters that had issues with each other, that had to work on both themselves and their relationships with each other, and that had to figure out how to navigate those difficulties while also still banding together while they were, you know, lost in space.

But Will Robinson? UGH. I am forever going to love the sweet, hopeful boy who believes the best in everyone and just wants to see a little bit of magic. All Bode cares about is these cool keys that unlock wild things, and all Will cares about is making sure his best robotic friend is doing alright, and I just cannot stand these two, okay, they’re breaking my heart forever.

And it’s not just Will. Because, again, they could have just leaned on Will, and we all would’ve loved the show as is because he’s a very likable MC, but, instead, they gave us interesting, complex characters in Judy & Penny, as well.

DON’T WORRY Y’ALL I DIDN’T FORGET ABOUT OUR QUEEN AND MATRIARCH MAUREEN ROBINSON

Talk about a Badass™. I love every time she’s like “yeah look I care about this whole lost in space thing, but what I care about more is keeping my family together, so y’all listen up, here’s how we’re going to love each other properly with SELF LOVE AND ACCEPTANCE.” Maureen fighting to take care of herself first before she even entertained the idea of being a power couple with John again is honestly #goals, and I haven’t used that hashtag ever, so there’s a whole lot of weight put into that. The way she fights to make sure her family is okay before she even kind of cares about anything else is just my favorite. The way she literally starts a mutiny to ensure that everyone is safe and not just a select few? GET IT MAUREEN.

Okay, but also, her relationship with John.

They are both such soft nerds that need lots of hugs, and the way they smile at each other makes me want to believe in sunshine on a rainy day, and I just cannot get enough of their cuteness. I’m so glad they figured out how to find a way back to each other, and I’m so proud of them for fighting for both themselves and each other, and I just hope we get lots of tender moments in the third season so I can hold onto their love forever.

At the end of the day, I love Netflix’s Lost in Space for a lot of reasons. It’s got superb characters. The space imagery is amazing. The story is really cool. I mean, there’s so much you can do with lost in space, and they do a hell of a lot of it! And it’s just so fun to watch those different stories come together. The science is badass. It isn’t overtly sexual or weird or any of the other gross things a lot of shows are trying to do these days to get views. It just relies on the fact that its characters are really well done. We don’t need to see Maureen in a skin-tight spacesuit. Instead, we see her with messy hair and scratches all over her face and I am the flight manual vibes. We don’t need to see Penny flirting her way across the screen. Instead, we see her with cute little space buns and sometimes overwhelmed & stressed out and struggling to find where she fits in. We don’t need to see Judy allowing men to hold her hand so she can accomplish something. Instead, we see her demanding to be seen for how capable she is and standing tall as a captain and literally running a marathon & being chased by alien dinosaurs all while keeping a level head. Like, damn. This show just went so hard with its characters. It said to hell with the algorithm of what gets views, here’s some real, flawed, inspiring people.

Alright, I’ve got to wrap this up, or I’m a) going to be here all day and b) going to end up rewatching the entire thing, so like, watch this for the slow motion badass family walks into a spaceship while the sun sets on the alien planet they somehow just survived.