Stream It Or Skip It: ‘See’ On Apple TV+, Where Jason Momoa Leads A Tribe Of Warriors In A World Of Blindness

Shows don’t get more high-concept than See, which has this for a premise: What if a disease wiped out most of the human population and left the rest of them blind? And by the time the show starts, sight is so mythical most people don’t believe it exists? Sound ridiculous? Read on to see if it actually is.

SEE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Sunrise over a wooded, hilly area (British Columbia in real life). We see a spider on a web. Then a graphic says that a virus wiped out all but 2 million humans in the 21st century, and those who survived went blind. Centuries later, the ability of sight is considered mythical, and the people who can see are considered heretics. Then we flash to a cave where a woman is giving birth.

The Gist: The woman giving birth, Maghra (Hera Hilmar), came to the Alkenny tribe in need of help, already pregnant. The tribe’s chief, Baba Voss (Jason Momoa), fell in love with Maghra and married her, vowing to take care of her baby as if it was his own.

As she’s having the baby — which turns out to be twins — with the help of Paris (Alfre Woodard), the tribe’s midwife and spiritual leader, Baba Voss and the warriors of the tribe are defending the village, as they’ve heard the rumble of soldiers and horses on the other side of the lake (blindness has enhanced their other senses over the centuries). The invaders are witchfinders, sent by Queen Kane (Sylvia Hoeks) of the Payan tribe because they got a tip that there was a heretic among the Alkenny population. The Witchfinder General, Tamacti Jun (Christian Camrago), is vicious and resorts to all sorts of tactics in order to find his prey.

Through a pitched battle, Baba Voss and his soldiers try to hold off the witchfinder soldiers, but he has to use the last resort of unleashing the stones that make up the tribe’s defensive wall. With no defense, Baba Voss orders the village evacuated for the first time in generations. The tribe wants to hand Maghra over to the queen, but Baba Voss vows to kill anyone who tries. Paris interrupts the potential civil war by mentioning that there is a bridge that no one knows about that will get them off the mountain. They find the bridge and eventually everyone in the tribe who survives the rickety passage over a rocky ravine gets to the other side… including Gether Bax (Mojean Aria), who ratted the tribe out to Jun and has now weaseled his way back in, because Baba Voss couldn’t see that he was with the Witchfinder General.

On the other side Magha tells the tribe that the man who fathered her twins is a heretic who had the magical ability to see, an ability that humans once had but is now so mythical that people can’t even conceive of the concept. “He only told me he has the power to see. And if we follow his instruction, we will find sanctuary.”

Our Take: We give See credit for one thing: creator Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) uses, according to Apple’s press materials, “cast and crew who are blind or have low vision.” So at the very least, there’s a fair number of people who are on the production that can help Momoa, Woodard and the rest of the sighted cast try to make their blindness authentic.

But, come on, the rest of this show is just plain silly. We’re always amazed when we see a post-apocalyptic show that falls back yet again on the trope that everyone has decided to go back to wearing animal skins and feathers in their hair, or leather and spikes and weird haircuts and eye patches. It feels like the humans that were left were unable to utilize whatever technology still worked to maintain something resembling a post-21st century society. Even in the Payan village, where there’s still electricity, there is a sense that everyone there has gone backwards instead of forward.

But the idea that everyone’s blind — except for two people, which we’ll mention later — leads to much of the silliness. Momoa who is a fine action star but not exactly the most skilled actor, so it’s a lot to ask him to act blind while fighting soldiers and wielding a long-handled meat cleaver. Woodard, the most accomplished actor in the cast, also struggles with trying not to make it super-obvious that Paris is blind. Many of the sighted actors don’t know whether they should stare into space or look in the direction of who they’re talking to, given the fact that they’ve adapted to the blindness so well that they can precisely stab anonymous soldiers right where it’s needed to kill them.

Can we handle multiple episodes of people groping and tapping? Probably not. But it doesn’t help that the story itself is muddled, and the characters right now meld together to the point that all we know about them is that they can’t see.

The way we handle shows like this is to ask ourselves if a fan of Game of Thrones would like watching it. And we think a GoT fan would watch See and get so bored he or she would turn it off before the first episode was over.

Sex and Skin: Queen Kane performs some self-love as she prays to whatever higher power she prays to — he calls it “Father.”

Parting Shot: The tribe finds a new spot to settle — right in the middle of a huge clearing, out in the open? — and we see Baba Voss holding his adopted twins. An eagle flies overhead, and one of the babies notices. That’s right, folks; the twins can see!

Sleeper Star: Camargo had a Joseph Fiennesian ability to play evil, menacing, and somewhat suave as Jun. Hoeks plays Queen Kane weirder than she likely seemed in the script, which isn’t a bad thing.

Most Pilot-y Line: When Baba Voss defends Maghra from the tribe, the Dreamer (Tantoo Cardinal) says, “You’re a big man, but we are many. You can’t kill us all!” “No,” he replies, “but I can kill the first six or seven!” Baba Voss, be confident in your ability! Just say seven!

Our Call: SKIP IT. See is ridiculous, which some people may think is a sign of an entertaining watch. But it’s ridiculous, not well-acted, and pretty boring. So it can’t even make it to “love to hate” status.

Your Call:

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, FastCompany.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream See On Apple TV+