Missions: French... innnnn... spaaaaaaace

(Ok, the guy is Russian, but it’s a historical backdrop scene I think…)

Looks interesting. Debuts in June on OCS. Dunno about U.S. distribution.

Just started watching this on iPlayer. It’s an odd one, as it’s ostensibly trying to be on the hard rather than pulpy end of the spectrum (albeit with a touch of JJ), but whenever it does anything sciencey it either cocks it up royally or does it in the most facile manner (eg let’s establish our character as a psychologist by having them do the marshmallow experiment - the most dumbed down version imaginable). I’m still going to stick around for a bit as the episodes are short and it’s something of a novelty to watch a high production value Francophone sci-fi show, but I suspect I’m going to get angrier and angrier as it continues. It’s possible it could be redeemed by the horror/fantasy elements that are being introduced, which is a shame, as I’m still looking for a good hard-ish sci-fi show other than the Expanse (which is also getting more supernatural as it goes).

I just watched the first episode, and I think the sciencey… vagrancies (I watched it in French, and the thing you mentionned litterally made zero sense, to the point I had no idea what was going on!) may be, in the English translation, the visible top of the original horrible writing’s iceberg. Bad writing is a very common issue that is plaguing almost the entirety of Frecnh productions. I had to force myself to watch that half-hour to the end.
Also the non-stop The Dig soundtrack playing in the back through a bugged MUSE engine (really, who picked the track during the reentry?) pulled me even more out of it.

Which thing?

When they are in orbit and… they are scared to fall, I guess? Because the ship is heavy and would drag them down? Or maybe Mars is flat. I don’t know if KSP spoiled me but I couldn’t wrap my mind around what the hell was going on in that scene. But suspense was intended, that I understood.

Ah, yes, that was one of the bits. It wasn’t even in my top 5 WTF science moments, though.

No. 1 was Kamarov trying to open his parachute while still hurtling through the upper atmosphere at presumably thousands if not tens of thousands of miles per hour. Actually, now that I think of it, No. 1 was a bunch of state-backed Mars explorers being overtaken by a rocket using an entirely novel means of propulsion that they had no inkling even existed, let alone was being successfully implemented (without any unmanned testing, presumably). Because that’s how rocket science works, folks. I was also tempted to try to work out the G-forces involved in getting to Mars in 3 weeks, but decided it wasn’t worth wasting my time on it.

The whole thing was a bunch of manufactured crises, the manufacturing of which made very little sense. And it’s not like space exploration is short on realistic crises!

FWIW, I didn’t notice any major inconsistencies between the English subtitles and the French speech, but my French is only so-so. Not as good as Soviet astronauts’, apparently.

“Condoliences… C’est si musical comme mot. Un de mes favorites de votre langue.”

What? It’s basically the same word in English.