The Lazarus Project Is Absolutely Incredible

The Lazarus Project Goes To Unexpected Plotlines

The Lazarus Project looked like it was going to be exactly my favorite type of show. Despite a lot of media like REDACTED not holding up to their concepts, I was hopeful about this show on the premise alone. I love high-concept secret organizations that have to solve weird problems. I love “everyman accidentally discovers the secret world” stuff. It’s often cheesy, often predictable, but it’s been my jam since I was a little kid reading Percy Jackson.

And for a few moments, The Lazarus Project was that story. It’s about a secret organization that can reset the world to the most recent July 1^st, whenever needed, and often does because the world keeps ending. Plagues or wars almost kill everyone on Earth basically once or twice a year, and they have to figure out a way to stop it. Everyone else forgets the events even happen except for a select few either born with or given the special ability. You could basically write an infinite number of seasons with that premise, as long as you kept coming up with ways for the world to end that aren’t just nukes again.  

The Lazarus Project Could’ve Been Quite Different

But that’s not what The Lazarus Project becomes. Instead, it turned into a completely different type of show that I also love. It turned into a bleak science fiction story that explores all the horrible ways that this technology could end up hurting the people who use it. By the end of the truly haunting episode three—the last episode I’ve seen at time of writing—the series has gone to several nightmarish places that I hadn’t considered. I won’t spoil much, but this universe isn’t deterministic. Stuff does not play out the same way each time after a reset, even if individuals aren’t aware of the loop, and the reset is very strictly a reset back to July 1^st. If they reset it at the end of June, everyone else gets thrown back a year. And they do not reset for anything short of the world ending. Or at least if certain people think the world is ending.

To describe the actual plot and not just the cool science fiction concepts, The Lazarus Project is a tragedy about what it costs these people to save the world. They objectively prevent humanity from dying out. What they are doing is necessary—but the costs keep getting higher. A lot of the plot is told non-linearly even without considering the time loops, and we get vignettes and flashbacks and a shocking number of montages for a wide group of characters all with devastatingly sad backstories.

This Series Is Only More Upsetting As It Continues

So, it’s not exactly a cheerful show to watch. But it is excellent. I do recommend it generally, but I do have some caveats. Two big ones to start. First off, with the sheer number of sociopolitical scenarios that are needed for this show to have convincing world-ending scenarios, a lot of things are very quickly glossed over. One country will be trying to kill another country. Fascism will have taken over a government. People will have assassinated some leader. I cannot see how The Lazarus Project isn’t going to accidentally allude to something offensive, somewhere. The characters travel all over the world. They directly get involved in world events. I’m not equipped to examine every possible stereotype or historical reference or parallel to real events that a single episode of this show might evoke, either before or after its airing. There are just too many possibilities.

The second is fridging. Now, The Lazarus Project has a lot of people lose someone. Like I said, it’s a brutal tragedy. But the main character is still being primarily motivated by the shocking multiple deaths of his girlfriend. It happens in the very first episode. It is the main plotline of the series so far, with almost everything else being flashbacks (albeit often extended ones) or vague world-ending stuff happening in the background. Though it’s buried under science fiction concepts and such, and it is possible for the girlfriend to be resurrected from the dead, the show is still using the trope, and I wish it wasn’t used like this in so many goddamn shows.

The Lazarus Project Defaults To A Bad Story Trope

The other issues are less holistic. There’s a gay joke that I can’t tell if the show’s telling us a character is LGBTQ+ somewhat organically or not. There’s the now-ingrained (but deplorable) pop culture concept (especially present in a lot of spy media) that torture is effective and necessary. And a few other random moments throughout that made me raise an eyebrow.

Besides that, and switching back to praise, the series is remarkably well written, and incredibly well acted. God, the acting is impressive. The Lazarus Project would not work if it weren’t for how distinct each character is, and how much you believe they are going through these things. And despite the show being totally able to be mostly talking and looking at screens—and would’ve been enjoyable as such—we do get big action moments. They go in and have gunfights. There are battles. I have no idea what the budget is for The Lazarus Project, but they really went all out.

I recently said that Pluribus had the best science fiction concept I’d seen in a long time, but now it has a contender. The Lazarus Project isn’t what I thought it would be—and won’t necessarily go where you expect it to—but you should give it a watch. You should see this series.

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