British sci-fi hit The Lazarus Project arrives across the pond as a complex thriller with familiar themes. A top secret organization continually resets time on a specific date to thwart apocalyptic events. Its agents face personal losses and emotional turmoil as they relive devastating trauma. A new recruit with a unique gift questions their tactics as manipulators of fate when unthinkable tragedy strikes. The series blends existential crisis, pandemics, and nuclear explosions like a morning coffee run. It's initially a lot to digest but finds firm narrative footing once the overall plot takes shape.
George (Paapa Essiedu) wakes up in bed with his beloved girlfriend. Life with Sarah (Charly Clive) has been domestic bliss. She cheers him on for an important day ahead. George is applying for a loan to expand his business development app. Sarah, a teacher with a fawning coworker (Chris Fulton), sees a bright future together. They ignore headlines of a new virus emerging in different parts of the world.
Months pass and their relationship grows as MERS-22 explodes into a deadly contagion. Everything that George and Sarah have built together becomes threatened. Their happiness is shattered by sickness when something truly bizarre occurs. George leaps out of bed on the same morning he went for the loan.
Paapa Essiedu as George
A perplexed George doesn't have a clue what's happening. He's somehow been transported back to July 1st. He terrifies Sarah with predictions of the coming plague. She thinks he's lost his mind and needs psychological help. Their bond crumbles when George transforms into a doomsday prepper. His anxiety and paranoia reaches a fever pitch ... until everything starts over again. A mysterious woman approaches George as he wanders and questions his sanity. Archie (Anjli Mohindra) gives him a card with an address. Come here when you're ready for the answers.
The premiere unloads a torrent of exposition in fast fashion. George's Groundhog Day experience is a whirlwind of montages that signify the passage of time. The screen blurs, reality resets, and he's back in the sack with Sarah. It's déjà vu all over again. This methodology plays out similarly in the next episode, but documents another catastrophe involving Archie and her previous partner in 2018. Their inability to stop World War III forces numerous resets. We then see the toll that changing time takes on those tasked with repeatedly saving humanity from extinction.
The Lazarus Project doesn't get granular with scientific details. The time travel tech isn't a main focus. You get a simple explanation, George joins the gang, and the mission proceeds. Let's just say they're not piling into a DeLorean and racing to 88 mph. This is a smart tactic that keeps rapidly evolving storylines on a specific path. The protagonists try to develop new possibilities to known dire outcomes.
Godlike Power
George learns early on that comprehending the time displacements is a curse. The titular Lazarus Project uses its godlike power on a macro scale with no concern for the individual. They literally make life or death decisions for everyone. An inherent conflict brews when that authority is challenged. What right do they have to dictate the future?
A rushed opening settles into a thoughtful exploration of thorny possibilities. There's sufficient action, but it's far from a guns-blazing title like Edge of Tomorrow. The Lazarus Project requires commitment and an appreciation for the abstract. It's not for the casual viewer.
The Lazarus Project is a production of Urban Myth Films in association with Sky Studios. It will have a June 4th US television premiere on TNT and has already been renewed for season two.
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