When Juan and Alfredo explore downtown as they search for Clara they finally encounter the alien invaders.

I concluded my review of the first three episodes of The Eternaut by saying that it ‘doesn’t attempt to compete with other apocalypses on scale or spectacle, but engages us with detail and truthfulness’.

While the second half of that summation remains impressively true for the rest of the series, as I sat down to watch Episode 4, The Creed, you might have heard the sound of words being consumed noisily as the show cranked up several gears, and not only matched many other apocalyptic dramas for scale and spectacle, but surpassed most of them. Hats off to the production design and FX teams, as the The Eternaut builds to its alien invasion climax revealing itself as a hugely impressive visual treat. These are some of the best VFX I can remember seeing in a TV show with the wide shots of a snowy, desolated Buenos Aires littered with ruined cars convincing in all but a very few frames.

I’ll admit to a temporary pang of disappointment once the threat emerges from the shadows and comes fully into view, but Ricardo Darín and the rest of the excellent cast hold on tight to the social verité of the series, and the atmosphere is unrelentingly gripping throughout this standout episode. VFX aside the cinematography has genuine big screen cajones. Many of the interiors are lit in sumptuous homage to Goya and Caravaggio, making full use of the super wide 2.39:1 ratio, with visual set pieces distinguished by exhilarating focus pulls.

The penultimate episode, Horizon, still has much to commend it – not least an intriguing flashback to Juan’s combat experience in the Falklands/Malvinas conflict – but then Bruno Stagnaro drops the visual conceit that has so powerfully tied the first four eps together and it feels as if there’s a ‘rule change’ which deflates rather than increases the tension.

The least satisfactory episode of all comes with the season finale, Cold Tomato Juice, as the story heads off in a new direction and I found myself losing the thread of what the central characters were trying to achieve scene by scene, plus there were just too many loose ends from major plot points which we’d been asked to invest in from the very opening of Episode 1. I did feel a bit cheated.

Verdict: Having said that, there are some intriguing set-ups for the promised second season, and as long as it doesn’t make a habit of just changing horses when an idea runs out of steam, I’ll be looking forward to more of The Eternaut in a couple of years’ time.

Episode 4: 9/10  Episode 5: 7/10  Episode 6: 6/10

Overall series score: 8/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com