Constellation Review: Apple TV+’s Compelling Sci-Fi Horror Show Falters On Both Fronts

Science fiction and horror have often gone hand-in-hand with space being the perfect environment to portray the abject terror of being helpless and alone. From Alien to Event Horizon and High Life, the vast dark unknown has inspired a slew of genre experiments that are equally terrifying and captivating. Apple TV+’s new series Constellation is an addition to this melding of genres, but it often feels caught in the middle between its compelling science-fiction plot and the unsettling psychological horror that Jo (Noomi Rapace) experiences after departing the International Space Station to return to Earth.

Constellation is a sci-fi psychological thriller written and created by Peter Harness for Apple TV+. After facing a crisis in space, Astronaut Jo returns to Earth only to discover nothing is quite the same – and that her sanity may be slowly slipping from her grasp.

Pros

• Noomi Rapace is excellent in the lead role
• Constellation’s sci-fi elements are compelling

Cons

• The series doesn’t fully delve into its horror
• Constellation’s visual language can be muddled

Constellation Is Never More Compelling Than When It’s In Space

But the return to Earth isn’t easy for Jo, either

After an accident leaves one astronaut dead and the rest of the ISS crew scrambling to return home, Jo finds herself trapped with a dwindling oxygen supply while she prepares her own escape vessel. Alone in space, Jo is haunted by what she has seen in the aftermath of the accident — a dead cosmonaut in a dated spacesuit, her dead colleague that she must transport home, and the faces of her husband and daughter, whom she leaves a touching message for in case she doesn’t make it back.

Constellation‘s strongest moments take place aboard the ISS. It’s a claustrophobic nightmare as Jo fights to prepare her escape pod before oxygen runs out, but the show spends very little time in space. Returning with a mysterious device (one that is potentially involved in the accident that damaged the ISS), Jo makes it home, but not everything is as she remembers.

Her husband Magnus (James D’Arcy) is cold and distant, her daughter Alice (Rosie Coleman) doesn’t speak Swedish anymore, and just about everyone else seems to think she’s crazy after Jo reveals what she saw up there. It’s a familiar story as various space agencies attempt to discredit, medicate, and control Jo, just as she’s reconciling with a family that doesn’t fully recognize her.

The Cast Of Constellation Is Stellar

Even when the second half of the show dives into confounding conspiracies

Rapace is Constellation‘s greatest asset here, a mix of assured sanity and, as doubt creeps in, a dash of self-doubt that blooms into full-blown panic. That Rapace’s performance is in service of a half-baked conspiracy doesn’t matter — she sells it with gusto. So, too, does Jonathan Banks as Henry Caldera, another astronaut whose mysterious past is unraveled throughout Constellation‘s eight episodes.

This past and these conspiracies are never quite clear, though. Constellation‘s big twists are undermined by a confusing structure and indistinct visual language and the show itself doesn’t feel fully invested in what’s being uncovered. This is where the split between sci-fi and horror comes in as Constellation splinters into two pieces.

Contellation’s Two Halves Struggle To Make A Whole

Constellation‘s second half becomes an earthbound drama as Jo’s sanity unravels. Despite Rapace’s commitment, though, something about it doesn’t quite work. Most of this lies in the execution, and it’s not something that can be explained without diving into spoiler territory. Constellation seems afraid to go into full-blown horror, something that could have been to its advantage as it abandoned its galactic ambitions, but the conspiracy at the center prevents it from doing this.

It feels like there are two shows within Constellation and those two shows are preventing it from being the show it’s meant to be. Its most riveting elements — the scenes aboard the International Space Station, the dead cosmonaut, evil bureaucratic entities that are hiding the truth from Jo — are all sidelined for a psychological thriller about a woman’s sanity, a story that’s been told far too often with more compelling results.