Brave New World (TV series)

Brave New World is an American science fiction drama television series loosely based on the classic novel of the same name by Aldous Huxley. It premiered on the NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock on July 15, 2020. In October 2020, the series was canceled after one season.

Premise
The series "imagines a utopian society that has achieved peace and stability through the prohibition of monogamy, privacy, money, family, and history itself." In an update of the original novel, an artificial intelligence system named Indra connects citizens via a wireless network.

Summary
The series unfolds around John, who relocates from the Savage Lands to New London. New London's citizens live an anti-monogamous, anti-solipsistic, hedonistic existence. His mother facilitates their escape from the Savage Lands but dies in the process. She wishes for a better life for her son, but John's subversive influence infects and ultimately destroys New London society, by disrupting its citizens' acceptance of its immoral caste system. He never takes responsibility for the consequences of his actions. In the aftermath, the New London AI (Indra) now embodied in John's ex-best friend (Bernard) is free to make the citizens of the Savage Lands less "savage" and John's now ex-girlfriend (Lenina) is promoted to make New London more "savage".

Cast and characters

 * Alden Ehrenreich as John the Savage
 * Jessica Brown Findlay as Lenina Crowne, a technician who works at the Hatchery. She is a B+ who is a patient of Bernard.
 * Harry Lloyd as Bernard Marx, an A+ who works as a counselor
 * Kylie Bunbury as Frannie Crowne, a close friend to Lenina
 * Nina Sosanya as Mustafa Mond
 * Joseph Morgan as CJack60/Elliott
 * Sen Mitsuji as Henry Foster
 * Nicholle Hembra as Alpha Female
 * Hannah John-Kamen as Wilhelmina "Helm" Watson
 * Demi Moore as Linda, John's mother who lives in The Savage Lands in a house with her son
 * Jimmy Winch as Young John the Savage
 * Ed Stoppard as the Director of Stability

Production
In 2015, Syfy announced development of the series, with Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey producing. In 2016 writers Les Bohem, Grant Morrison, and Brian Taylor were attached to the project. On February 13, 2019, the series was moved to the USA Network, with David Wiener replacing Bohem as a writer and Owen Harris directing the pilot.

In April 2019, Ehrenreich was cast as John the Savage and Lloyd was cast in the series regular role as Bernard Marx. In May 2019, it was announced that Jessica Brown Findlay was cast in the role of Lenina Crowne. In June 2019, Kylie Bunbury, Hannah John-Kamen, Sen Mitsuji, Joseph Morgan, and Nina Sosanya were added to the main cast in supporting roles, with Demi Moore set to appear in a recurring role. On September 17, 2019, NBCUniversal announced that the series would be moved to Peacock. The series premiered on July 15, 2020.

Dungeness Estate in Kent is the location for the "Savage Lands"; the Old Lifeboat Station there doubles as John and Linda's house.

On October 28, 2020, Peacock canceled the series after one season. It marked the first major TV series cancellation for the streaming service.

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 46% based on 56 reviews, with an average rating of 5.70/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "'Brave New World is sleek and seductive, but not very daring, only skimming the surface of Aldous Huxley's dystopian epic without plumbing its philosophical depths.'"

On Metacritic, the series has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100 based on 26 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Sonia Saraiya of Vanity Fair gave it a positive review: "'The new series is a clever modern adaptation, engaging deeply with the source material while dispensing with Huxley's glaringly racist themes and some of the misogyny, too.'"

Judy Berman of Time suggests the show owed more to Westworld than Huxley, but said the series looked gorgeous and the performances were solid. Even so, Berman found the show lacking: "'Television thrives on rich characters, but, in large part because it's set in a realm devoid of eccentricity, I struggled to get invested in this bunch. ... Brave New World feels [inert] as serialized TV.'"

Daniel D'Addario of Variety gave the series a mixed review: "'So many of the characters we meet in this series are not merely loathsome but have so completely had the character trained out of them through a lifetime of sloth that we grab onto what little signs of life are there elsewhere. ... Both Brown Findlay and Ehrenreich seem frustratingly tamped-down here. ... No wonder the actors seem exhausted; their project, deep into its first season, doesn't know what kind of show it wants to be.'"

Release
Brave New World premiered on July 15, 2020, on Peacock in the United States, and Sky One in the UK on October 2, 2020. Internationally, the series was originally scheduled to premiere on Amazon Prime Video in Oceania and New Zealand on August 21, but the series was instead released on September 18, 2020. In Canada, the series was released on Showcase on September 13, 2020. In Russia, it was released on July 16, 2020, on the streaming service KinoPoisk HD. In Germany, the series was released on the streaming service TVNOW at the end of September 2020. In the rest of Europe, the series was released on the streaming service Starzplay on October 4, 2020. In Australia, it was released on the streaming service Stan on October 16, 2020.