The streaming age operates through a cold and opaque calculus. Many shows premiere unceremoniously with limited promotion, only to be quickly canceled with an equal lack of fanfare. Without real numbers and a few unreliable reports available to the public and creators (slightly less unreliable now, thanks to the WGA strike), a show’s fate can feel like a cosmic joke, with no rhyme or reason as to why. or other soldier goes on and some never get the chance to find an audience. Scavengers rulethe stunning animated series that debuted on Max last year found its numbers skyrocketing when the streamer canceled it earlier in May. In a rare moment of clarity, however, there is a path forward for the show: It just has to be a hit starting today, when it premieres on Netflix.
His new summer house (Scavengers rule is still available to stream on Max). reportedly considering a season 2 renewal ahead of the show’s Netflix debut, though it’s not very clear what a favorable run looks like. Mostly, this is just an excuse to indulge in a rare slice of the streaming era: go check it out Scavengers ruleone of the very best shows of last year and the rare series that earns the superlative of “like nothing else on television” simply because of its stunning visual design.
Image: Max
With visual cues from European science fiction artists such as Moebius and Simon Roy, Scavengers rule chronicles the aftermath of a disaster aboard spacecraft Demeter, following a handful of survivors who have escaped to the alien world of Vesta Minor, a hauntingly beautiful and hostile world. Yet survival is only a secondary concern for series creators Joe Bennett and Charles Huettner. Instead, the pair uses Scavengers rule as an exercise in creating a truly alien world, with all the awe and horror that entails. As our reviewer wrote when the show premiered last fall:
Creature design and worldbuilding are one and the same Scavengers rule. Every animal, from the tiniest insect or docile herbivore to the most hulking and fearsome carnivore, exhibits behavior that serves a function, both within the moment-to-moment beats of an episode and within the larger ecosystem of Vesta Minor as a whole.
Image: Max
Further, Scavengers rule is not only concerned with eerily beautiful tourism. Instead, like Jurassic Park, its xenobiology serves as a powerful metaphor, with each strange encounter a heartbreaking echo of the barely expressed pain each character carries. For example, why is the survivor Kamen chased by his wife when a strange paranormal quadruped has a hold on him? When local flora begins to infect the circuitry of Levi, the robotic companion of the stranded Azi, Levi begins to show signs of real, bona fide life in her synthetic shell – why does Azi seem so reluctant to see it? And Sam and Ursula, the only two people stranded together, struggle to survive while maintaining harmony with the strange new land, but is that possible? Or is their struggle for survival inherently destructive?
Scavengers rule explores heavy questions, lingers on moments of beauty and horror, and does it all with beautifully rendered, slow-paced animation from studio Titmouse. Like all good art, it leaves a lot of room for the viewer to engage with it, reflect on it, and consider the meaning that can be found in it. It’s the kind of story that has done something wonderful and has a good chance of surprising us all again, if given the chance.
Give it a try on Netflix this weekend. Maybe that’s why the show gets another season, and maybe it doesn’t. But what is here is worth celebrating.
Scavengers rule is streaming on Netflix and Max.
