War of the Worlds (2019-2022)

Creator: Howard Overman
Starring: Gabriel Byrne, Léa Drucker, Daisy Edgar-Jones
Unique Angle: A 3-season series set in present time, focusing on human survival and relationships after an alien attack. Survivors navigate a post-apocalyptic world while unraveling alien motives rooted in time travel, human biology, and quantum theory.

⚠️ Spoiler Alert!
These reviews contain major plot and character spoilers for both H.G. Wells’ original novel The War of the Worlds and the adaptation being discussed.

If you’re new to the story and want to experience it spoiler-free, consider reading the book or watching the adaptation first.

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True Adaptation Checklist Evaluation

Martian Invasion Essentials

Cylinders (Martian Landing Pods)

⚠️ Sort of

The arrival mirrors Wells’ story, with fireballs crashing into the Earth. However, the objects are spherical devices that emit a deadly EMF pulse—there’s no emergence of aliens or machinery. The first ship shown appears oblong or cigar-shaped, while later ones are distinctly ring-shaped. These visual callbacks feel largely superficial.

Tripods

❌ No

The aliens deploy small, dog-like, biomechanical hybrid robots. They’re menacing but lack the towering, three-legged form that defines Wells’ Martian machines.

Tentacles

❌ No

The aliens are revealed to be a branch of humanity from the future. They are advanced in intellect but not biology.

Red Weed

❌ No

No alien plant life—just urban decay and societal collapse in its place.

Black Smoke

❌ No

A lethal EMF pulse replaces the novel’s chemical weapon.

Heat Ray

❌ No

Alien tech leans toward EMPs and robotic assaults, lacking the iconic fiery destruction of the heat ray.

Snatching and Feeding on Humans

⚠️ Sort of

Instead of draining blood, the aliens harvest human stem cells, a subtler but chilling echo of the original theme.

Martians Destroyed by Microorganisms

❌ No

Aliens are defeated (in part) by a human-made virus, undermining Wells’ point about nature’s dominance.

Martian Intelligence

✅ Yes

The aliens display immense intellect through time travel, quantum manipulation, and strategic assaults.

Essential Characters

The Narrator

⚠️ Sort of

There’s no singular narrator. Instead, emotional depth is shared across the ensemble, with Bill and Catherine being closest to central observers.

The Curate

❌ No

No religious figure or breakdown arc present.

The Artilleryman

❌ No

No delusional survivalist. Living underground becomes a collective necessity, not fantasy.

The Astronomer (e.g., Ogilvy)

✅ Yes

Catherine, an astronomer, studies the alien signals; Bill, a neuroscientist, investigates their biology. Both parallel Ogilvy’s scientific curiosity.

The Brother (Secondary Perspective)

✅ Yes

Characters like Sophia and Jonathan offer strong parallel arcs.

The Wife (Emotional Anchor)

✅ Yes

Several characters are emotionally driven to reunite with loved ones, particularly Catherine’s cross-dimensional journey to find Sophia.

Atmosphere and Allegory

Appropriate Era & Setting

⚠️ Sort of

The modern-day update forgoes the Victorian era but preserves Wells’ existential and societal dread through relevant sci-fi.

Societal Collapse

✅ Yes

Mass panic, displacement, and the collapse of civilization are vividly portrayed.

No Human Victory

❌ No

Humans defeat the aliens with a lab-created virus, time travel, and quantum technology. This triumph through science shifts Wells’ message of helplessness.

Atmosphere of Horror and Helplessness

✅ Yes

The slow, eerie dread and quiet devastation echo the novel’s tone.

Narrator’s Psychological Decline

❌ No

While several characters experience trauma, grief, and moral conflict, none undergo the kind of deep, isolated psychological unraveling that defines Wells’ narrator.

Cinematic & Immersive Details

Martian Sounds

⚠️ Sort of

Distinctive, eerie sounds are key to the aliens’ presence, though different from Wells’ original. Instead of the iconic “ulla” cry, we hear a pulsating “whoosh” during alien arrivals and the mechanical whirring of their robotic dogs. It’s an unsettling soundscape, but one reimagined through a modern, technological lens.

Visuals of Red Weed and Black Smoke

❌ No

No plant or smoke equivalents; the visual focus is on decay and alien tech.

Heat Ray Effects

❌ No

No fire-based weapon or visual stand-in for the heat ray.

Desolate Landscapes

✅ Yes

Abandoned cities and a decaying world are grim and haunting, capturing Wells’ post-invasion ruin.

Decay and Rot

✅ Yes

Rotting bodies, ruined spaces, and post-virus alien decay carry the tone of grim aftermath.

Bonus Features

The Thunder Child (Naval Resistance)

❌ No

No equivalent to the Thunder Child’s heroic futility.

Adaptation-Specific Creativity

✅ Yes

Bold reinterpretations—future humans, time travel, EMF attacks, near-sentient robotic dogs, parallel worlds, black holes—introduce fresh twists while retaining the spirit of invasion fear and survival.

Observations and Analysis

Strengths:

Quiet dread and emotional weight are sustained across the series, capturing the tone of helplessness and survival.
Ensemble cast adds emotional texture, especially through grounded, science-driven characters like Catherine and Bill.
Uses speculative sci-fi elements to raise big questions about humanity, ethics, and identity.

Weaknesses:

Strays far from the novel’s core elements—no tripods, red weed, or true Martians.
Visual continuity issues—alien ships appear oblong in early scenes, then ring-shaped later, with no clear in-story explanation.
Some stretches feel slow or meandering, especially mid-season, which may test viewer patience despite the emotional payoff.
By focusing on human resistance and experimentation, it deviates from the core theme of humanity’s powerlessness.

Creative Deviations:

Aliens reimagined as a branch of humanity from the future.
Small, canine-shaped, near-sentient robots replace the towering, mechanical tripods of the novel.
EMF pulses and gravitational waves from a black hole replace black smoke as the primary threat.
Time travel creates parallel worlds and alternate outcomes.

Faithfulness Rating

Inspired By

This series reimagines the alien invasion premise with a modern setting, ensemble cast, and sci-fi twists like time travel and human-engineered victory. It captures societal collapse, dread, and desolation, but ditches Victorian roots, Martian classics, and Wells’ helpless humanity for a modern, character-driven sci-fi saga. Its three-season sprawl allows for bold experimentation, but it’s more a new story than a true adaptation.

Our Verdict

Well, that was a wild ride. The robot murder dogs were tiny but terrifying. And when it turned out the invaders were actually a branch of humanity from the future, I found myself asking, “Wait—am I watching War of the Worlds or Terminator?” Threads of Wells’ original are scattered throughout, but mostly this feels like a bold, tangled blend of modern sci-fi concepts: time travel, quantum theory, and post-apocalyptic drama.

As a purist, I should probably hate it. But I didn’t—not entirely. It drags in places, and the astronauts’ fate was upsetting, but I found it surprisingly compelling on its own terms. It captures the emotional toll of survival and the eerie silence of a world undone—even if it abandons most of Wells’ signature elements.

While rich in innovation, this adaptation veers far from the source. Think War of the Worlds by way of Black Mirror: cerebral, unsettling, and wildly different—but not without its own merits.

Want to see it for yourself? You can watch the MGM+ series on Amazon Prime.

Curious how other adaptations stack up to our True Adaptations Checklist? Check out these popular adaptations below:

Featured image via TMDb – Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0