"The future is not what you expected" in Tribes of Europa. This German sci-fi television series created by Philip Koch. 2074. In the wake of a mysterious global disaster, war rages between the Tribes that have emerged from the wreckage of Europe. Three siblings from the peaceful Origines tribe - Kiano, Liv and Elja - are separated and forced to forge their own paths in an action-packed fight for the future of this new Europa.
By early September 2019, it was announced that Henriette Confurius, Emilio Sakraya, David Ali Rashed, Melika Foroutan, Oliver Masucci, Benjamin Sadler, Ana Ularu, Jeanette Hain, James Faulkner, Sebastian Blomberg, and Jannik Schümann were cast in a German science fiction series with Koch as creator, showrunner, co-writer and co-director. Koch was inspired to create the series after the January 31st 2020 Brexit announcement, which saw the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in late December. Filming took place throughout Croatia and at Barrandov Studios, Prague, Czech Republic.
The series stars Confurius, Sakraya, Rashed, Foroutan, Masucci, Sadler, Ularu, Hain, Faulkner, Blomberg, and Schümann. Despite the cast's best efforts, I'm still struggling to find a single character whose fate I'm even vaguely invested in, but my outright antipathy towards some of the characters ha[s] begun to fade.
What is disappointing is that the series, not an adaptation of any Young Adult, Sci Fi, Apocalyptic novel, is poorly conceived, plotted, and not quite exciting. The series raises potentially interesting questions, and though the beginning of the episode may have been dragging because of informational purposes, towards the end I really did feel intrigued to find out what will happen next. The show has a lot of interesting things to play with in terms of its narrative and world-building, but it chooses to gloss over them. There's a reason why Netflix's new sci-fi drama is called Tribes of Europa - because it rips off about as many sources, from Lord of the Flies to The Hunger Games, for this messy young adult sci-fi stew. It's more like another CW teen drama in different clothes with hot girls and boys, cliched talk and staged fights. Though that it's not based on any series of books gives it more heft than most such CW dramas, but it's almost drowning in backstory. There are, to be sure, some suspenseful moments and effective sequences. (Homemade knives occasionally give it the air of a 2000s juvenile delinquent film.) There are luminous butterflies to marvel at and strange beasts to contend with. The show won't make any must-see lists, but with some tweaks here and there, it could at least have been harmless fun for an underserved demographic. Our attraction to Apocalyptic TV runs deep, as our culture plays out different futuristic possibilities. That's still no reason to clone material, nor is it a reason to deliver characters who are little more than stereotypes.
Simon says
Tribes of Europa receives:
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