Missions-Space Exploration that Asks Good Questions

[Yowza]

Missions is a French TV show that debuted in France on OCS (for more on the OCS direct to home satellite service that's now up to 5 stations in France see here: OCS (TV channel) - Wikipedia).

Synopsis:

In the near future, the first manned space mission to Mars, Ulysses 1, is a European mission funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) and William Meyer, a billionaire Swiss philanthropist. The crew is made up of the best astronauts and European scientists, including French, Italians and Germans. Jeanne Renoir, the crew psychologist, monitors the mental health of the crew. After ten months travelling through space, a few hours from starting the landing procedure, the astronauts learn from William Meyer that they will not be the first astronauts to land on Mars. They were overtaken by a US mission with a faster vessel funded by NASA and a multi-national computer company (Zillion owned by Ivan Goldstein). The only sign of life from the American mission is an alarming video and the European mission decides to investigate. On Mars the European astronauts do not find the Americans but a Russian, Vladmir Komarov, who died aboard the Soyuz 1 spacecraft in 1967.

Release Timeframe: The show so far has run for 2 seasons debuting in 2017 on OCS City with the 2nd Season showing in 2019 on OCS Max (Public Broadcaster BBC4 in the UK debuting about year later for each season as well as RTL Passion on German Pay-TV channel as well as Danish Public Broadcaster DR). Shudder has both seasons which is where I watched them these last few days (1st debuting in 2017 and 2nd just about a few months ago). Being on Shudder in the U.S. seems to imply the show is horror but it's not as it's a mystery/sci-fi show.
In the U.S. it can also just be rented from an App store too (Shudder's user reviews won't show anymore if they delete one they don't like but allow you to change change your username but it just deletes every single past review if do this but not matter much as not like can search for reviews made anyway.)

Formatting: The formatting is unique in that each episode lasts about 20 minutes in the 1st season while being slightly longer in the 2nd for 10 episodes each. There was no lag plotwise and felt like 1 long movie.

Inspiration:

The director Julien Lacombe told the Swiss newspaper 20 Minutes that he was inspired by his love for science fiction, particularly Isaac Asimov's writing, but also for genre cinema including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Interstellar and Alien. He was also influenced by the Lost TV series: "We tried to reproduce the same fascination for this series, being careful not to open too many doors to answer every question"

The show posits the questions of humanity's origins and a lost paradise. What is behind the veil of space/time?

 

[Yowza]

Design: Some great illustrations of the exterior layout of the craft as it appears in Season 2 I found at links below (Season 1 crafts are a bit different but I can't find the artwork so here's some screenshots: Missions - Saison 1 : Affiche):
Season 2 Orbital SpaceShip: Behance​

Season 2 Pegasus Rocket: Behance

Season 2 Nausicaa Spacecraft: Behance


Soundtrack: The soundtrack really amplifies the show that feels a bit haunting and melancholy yet full of possibility. In absence of a good link, I'd suggest Spotify as the best way to sample the soundtrack. I really like the haunting Komarov score perhaps the best.

 

[Yowza]

Trailers: The French trailers for both seasons can be seen on Allocine.fr (the French equivalent to Youtube) while the different English dubbed trailers released by Shudder can be seen on Youtube.

Edit: I found the better French trailers for both seasons English captioned on Youtube as well shown below (spoiler alert on 2nd season trailer of course):




Season 3: It was reported last fall as supposed to begin filming this spring in 2020 as linked here: Google Translate

However, due to the Covid-19 situation this'll probably be indefinitely delayed but OCS has already ordered the season so hopefully adequate funding can still be found.