''The Man Who Fell to Earth'' is an American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

television series created by

Jenny Lumet Jenny Lumet (born February 2, 1967) is an American actress and screenwriter. She is the daughter of director Sidney Lumet and granddaughter of Lena Horne. Lumet is perhaps most known for writing the original screenplay of the 2008 Jonathan Demme ...

and

Alex Kurtzman Alexander Hilary Kurtzman (born September 7, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for his work on the ''Star Trek'' franchise since 2009, co-writing the scripts to ''Transformers (film), Transformers'' (2007), ''Transformers: Revenge ...

based on the 1963 novel of the same name by

Walter Tevis Walter Stone Tevis (February 28, 1928 – August 9, 1984) was an American novelist and short story writer. Three of his six novels were adapted into major films: ''The Hustler'', ''The Color of Money'' and ''The Man Who Fell to Earth''. A fourth, ...

. It is a sequel to the

1976 film The year 1976 in film involved some significant events. Highest-grossing films (U.S.) The top ten 1976 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows: Events *January – Paramount Pictures sets up a separate motion pict ...

starring

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

. The series stars

Chiwetel Ejiofor Chiwetel Umeadi Ejiofor ( ; born 10 July 1977) is a British actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a BAFTA Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, an NAACP Image Award, and nominations for an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy A ...

as an alien who arrives on planet Earth and

Bill Nighy William Francis Nighy (; born 12 December 1949) is an English actor. Nighy started his career with the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool and made his London debut with the Royal National Theatre starting with ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy, The Illuminatu ...

, playing the role originally played by Bowie in the 1976 film. It debuted on

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...

on April 24, 2022. A portion of the series was shown at

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

on March 12, 2022. In October 2022, the series was not renewed for a second season.

Premise

The future of the planet is in the hands of an alien who arrives on Earth at a pivotal moment in history.

Cast

Main

as Faraday *

Naomie Harris Naomie Melanie Harris (born 6 September 1976) is a British actress. She started her career when she was a child, appearing in the television series ''Simon and the Witch'' in 1987. She portrayed Selena in the zombie film ''28 Days Later'' (2002 ...

as Justin Falls * Annelle Olaleye as Molly Falls *

Clarke Peters Peter Clarke (born April 7, 1952), known professionally as Clarke Peters, is an American-British actor, writer, and director. He is best known for his roles as Lester Freamon in the television series ''The Wire'' (2002–2008) and Albert Lambrea ...

as Josiah Falls *

as Thomas Jerome Newton *

Jimmi Simpson Jimmi Simpson (born November 21, 1975) is an American actor. He is best known for his work on television, which includes recurring roles as Liam McPoyle on ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'' (2005–2013), Lyle the Intern on ''The Late Show ...

as Spencer Clay *

Kate Mulgrew Katherine Kiernan Maria Mulgrew (born April 29, 1955) is an American actress and author. She is best known for her roles as Captain Kathryn Janeway on '' Star Trek: Voyager'' and Red on '' Orange Is the New Black''. She first came to attention ...

as Drew Finch *

Sonya Cassidy Sonya Cassidy is a British actress. Career Cassidy is known for her roles as Clara in the BBC period drama '' The Paradise'', as Celine Ashworth in the police detective series '' Vera'', as the Oracle in Syfy fantasy series '' Olympus'', and as ...

as Edie Flood *

Joana Ribeiro Joana Isabel de Alvim Rodrigo Pereira Ribeiro (born 25 March 1992 in Lisbon) is a Portuguese actress. Biography Joana Ribeiro was born on 25 March 1992 in Lisbon, Portugal to an engineer father and veterinarian mother. She studied first at the ...

as Lisa Dominguez *

Rob Delaney Rob Delaney (born January 19, 1977) is an American comedian, actor, writer, and activist. He was the co-star and co-writer of the TV show ''Catastrophe'', and has appeared in comedy films such as ''Deadpool 2'' (2018) and ''Tom & Jerry'' (2021). ...

as Hatch Flood

Recurring

Tanya Moodie Tanya may refer to: * Tanya (Judaism),an early work of Hasidic philosophy by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi. * Tanya (name), a given name and list of people with the name * Tanya or Lara Saint Paul (born 1946) * List of Mortal Kombat characters#Tany ...

as Portia *

Juliet Stevenson Juliet Anne Virginia Stevenson, (born 30 October 1956) is an English actor of stage and screen. She is known for her role in the film ''Truly, Madly, Deeply'' (1991), for which she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leadin ...

as Sister Mary Lou Prescott *

Art Malik Athar ul-Haque Malik (born 13 November 1952), known professionally as Art Malik, is a Pakistani-born British actor who achieved international fame in the 1980s through his starring and subsidiary roles in assorted British and Merchant Ivory tel ...

as Henning Khan *

Josh Herdman Joshua Colin M. Herdman''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com (born 26 March 1987) is an English actor and mixed martial artist, best known for playing Gregory Goyle in the ''Harry Potter'' film ...

as Terry Mannch *

Laurie Kynaston Laurence Stephen Kynaston (born 24 February 1994) is a Welsh actor. He won an ''Evening Standard'' Theatre Award for his performance in '' The Son'', as well as receiving a WhatsOnStage Award nomination. He starred in the BBC Two sitcom ''Cradle ...

as Clive Flood

Guest

Martha Plimpton Martha Plimpton (born November 16, 1970) is an American actress. Her feature-film debut was in '' Rollover'' (1981); she subsequently rose to prominence in the Richard Donner film ''The Goonies'' (1985). She has also appeared in '' The Mosquito ...

as Officer K. Faraday *

Zoë Wanamaker Zoë Wanamaker (born 13 May 1949) is a British-American actress who has worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. A nine-time Olivier Award nominee, she won for '' Once in a Lifetime'' (1979) and '' Electra ...

as Watt *

Victoria Smurfit Victoria Smurfit (born 31 March 1974) is an Irish actress. She is known for playing Orla O'Connell in the BBC television series ''Ballykissangel'', Detective Chief Inspector Roisin Connor in the ITV police procedural ''Trial & Retribution'' and ...

as Penny Morgan

Episodes

Each episode is named after a

song.

Production

A television adaptation of

's novel ''

The Man Who Fell to Earth ''The Man Who Fell to Earth'' is a 1976 British science fiction drama film directed by Nicolas Roeg and written by Paul Mayersberg. Based on Walter Tevis's 1963 novel of the same name, the film follows an extraterrestrial (Thomas Jerome Newt ...

'', moved from

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

CBS All Access Paramount+ is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand service owned by Paramount Global. The service's content is drawn primarily from the libraries of CBS Media Ventures (including CBS Studios), Paramount Me ...

in August 2019. It was created by

and

. It had been in development at Hulu for over a year, and was moved as a result of the

acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney The acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney was announced on December 14, 2017, and was completed on March 20, 2019. Among other key assets, the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by the Walt Disney Company included the 20th Century Fox film and ...

, as disagreements over co-production could not be resolved. In February 2021,

was cast to star in the series, playing the role of the alien/Faraday. The next month, the series moved to

, with

and

added to the cast.

, and Annelle Olayele would join in April. In August,

joined in a recurring role. In January 2022,

was cast to play Thomas Jerome Newton, the role

played in the film. In October 2022, it was reported that Showtime would not renew the series for a second season. Filming began on May 3, 2021, in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Release

The series was initially planned for a 2021 release on

Paramount+ Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

. It premiered on April 24, 2022 on Showtime and on Paramount+ internationally.

Reception

Critical response

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported a 86% approval rating with an average rating of 6.7/10, based on 29 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "''The Man Who Fell to Earth'' may not be out of this world, but a commanding

gives this space oddity an earthy gravitas."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 68 out of 100 based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Ratings

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Man Who Fell to Earth (TV series), The 2022 American television series debuts 2022 American television series endings 2020s American drama television series 2020s American science fiction television series English-language television shows Showtime (TV network) original programming Television series about alien visitations Television series by CBS Studios Television series by StudioCanal Television series created by Alex Kurtzman Television shows based on American novels Television shows shot in London Patricide in fiction