This past Saturday, September 9th, 2018, Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center on Florida’s Space Coast held a special event for it’s annual passholders, in which the online streaming service Hulu, in conjunction with Boeing, premiered the exciting first episode of Hulu’s newest show, “The First“.
The First is created by Beau Willimon (who attended the event live), and also stars Natasha McElhone, along with the show’s lead, Sean Penn. The First is set to debut this coming September 14th, 2018, as part of Hulu’s original programming, with all eight of the first season’s episodes becoming available to subscribers.
For Space enthusiasts as well as for general audiences, The First will seem a little like peeking behind the veil of Nasa, while also entertaining its viewers with a great story and a dynamic drama that is easy and fun to watch. The premier episode succeeds in capturing the spirit and dedication to both the ideals of Nasa and the pursuit of the human need to explore the universe around us.
While the first episode was a testament to the human journey and spirit of the space program, it was also a story of how the journey to space comes with an unknown human cost of space travel. The episode wasn’t just a great story because of the drama it portrayed and the ideals it strove to attain, it succeeded because it also explored the pain and sacrifice those in the Nasa program, along with their families go through and pay for their bold vision, daring spirits, and vulnerable dreams.
Following the showing of The First’s premier episode, the Kennedy Space Center hosted a fun Q & A session following the show’s screening, which included the show’s creator, Beau Willimon, executive producer, Jordin Tappis, as well as actress, Hanna Ware, along with the Chief of launch and recovery operations for Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program.
“One of the things you have to get right if you’re going to tell a story of Space Exploration is the risk and danger involved.” said Willimon, before continuing, “This was a really heavy and pretty intense episode to take in a lot of ways.“
What Willimon was referring to was the way in which the first episode exposed the viewer to a gripping and catastrophic event, which literally had a physical and palpable effect on many of those in attendance. Many of whom lived and worked on the Space Coast and even Nasa when similar events transpired in Nasa’s past.
Along the same lines, the show’s executive producer Jordan Tappis spoke about the creating the show with an eye to keeping the experience real for the viewer, “We made a commitment early on that we weren’t going to make a show about science fiction, it was really about science fact, and to do that we had to be rigorous about the science and rigorous about the technology.”
Hulu’s The First delivered an exciting and real to life human drama that both entertained and inspired the audience in a way that made myself as well as my companion, Torie Lazaros, star of Netflix’ Space Dealers, want to subscribe to Hulu and binge the entire first season that very night.
Share this:
