Earth Abides

Todd Komarnicki

Mario Valento

“Earth Abides” is a miniseries that squanders the vast potential of its source and emerges as a confused succession of narrative half-measures—but with earnestness visible beneath the surface. 

We follow Ish (Alexander Ludwig), who survives a civilization-ending pandemic because he’s immune. Ish finds Emma (Jessica Frances Dukes), also immune, and the two marry. They have children, adapt to a world of scarcity and struggle, and invite others into their community. The series ends over 20 years after societal collapse and delivers a message of hope through Ish. Not hope the status quo can be restored, but hope the species can engage with the natural world deeply, meaningfully, and sustainably, with the awe and reverence this pale blue dot deserves. 

Sometimes this message is palpable. The greatest threats are environmental (storms, predators, disease, drought), and facing these threats gives Ish’s group solidarity and community. At its best, “Earth Abides” is a welcome departure from the unimaginative Hobbesian arenas of other post-apocalyptic works, in which man is man’s gravest danger. At its worst, “Earth Abides” relapses into that paranoid dogma. It spends far too significant a share of its limited runtime on a power struggle between Ish and the charismatic newcomer Charlie (Aaron Tveit), a struggle that ends with no real growth for Ish. The miniseries—like the burgeoning human society in its source material—is torn between retracing the familiar and starting fresh from zero, and suffers for it.

I admire the message of “Earth Abides.” There are alternatives to the way we live now, and it's vital to know them if we’re to effect change. But the miniseries, unlike its source, written before the oversaturation of its genre, clings to the shore. I’m sad to say that the golden rule of film and television adaptations abides: “Just read the book.”