TV-MA, 2017
WISE Score
Avg. Tomatometer
A priest goes to space to save humanity’s soul, but finds a corporate nightmare instead—too bad it’s just a pilot that never got a full season.
7.975%
Oasis is a frustrating masterpiece. It's one of the best sci-fi pilots ever made, which makes the fact that it's a dead-end even more annoying.
If you're a fan of 'Interstellar' or 'Arrival,' you'll love the vibe, but go in knowing you're watching a prologue to a book that was never finished on screen. It’s smart, it’s dark, and it’s definitely not a family-friendly space adventure. Watch it for the ideas, but keep the younger kids far away from the 'drill scene.'
Best for ages 16 and up. It’s slow-burn, high-concept sci-fi that deals with heavy grief and theological debates—plus that one really gross accident scene is definitely not for kids.
It's a bleak look at a dying Earth and a desperate colony. While the lead character is a priest trying to do good, the tone is heavy, grief-stricken, and psychologically taxing.
Based on Michel Faber’s 'The Book of Strange New Things,' it offers a refreshing take on sci-fi that prioritizes linguistics and theology over laser beams. The world-building on the planet Oasis is visually distinct and eerie.
This is strictly for adults or older teens. There is a visceral, stomach-turning accident involving a industrial drill early on, and the psychological 'hallucinations' are effectively scary and disturbing.
It tackles massive questions about the intersection of faith and science, the ethics of corporate-led colonization, and how humans carry their trauma into new environments.
Oasis is a relic from the era when Amazon used to let audiences vote on which pilots became full shows. It is one of the few times the crowd got it right, even if the studio eventually got it wrong by never finishing the story. If you are looking for a quick, high-IQ hour of television to watch with a teenager who thinks they have seen every space trope in the book, this is a weirdly perfect weekend pick.
Peter Leigh is not your typical space hero. He is a priest, and the show treats his faith with a level of sincerity that is rare in modern sci-fi. Usually, religion in space is portrayed as either a cult or a punchline. Here, it is a tool for survival. Richard Madden plays Leigh with a quiet, simmering grief that makes the supernatural elements feel earned rather than cheap. The colony itself looks like a construction site in the middle of a desert. It is dusty, orange, and genuinely miserable. It is the total opposite of the clean, white-plastic future we usually see in big-budget adventures.
The psychological horror here is not about jump scares. It is about the uncanny. Characters see people they have lost, and while the pilot does not get to explain the "why" behind these visions, the tension is thick. If your teen enjoyed the cerebral, "why are we here?" energy of Arrival or the lonely, haunting atmosphere of Moon, they will be hooked.
Just be prepared for the accident involving the drill. It is a sudden, visceral shift from philosophical pondering to body-horror reality. It serves as a brutal reminder of how inhospitable this planet actually is. It is the kind of scene that makes you lean back from the screen, and for some younger viewers, it might be the only thing they remember.
The biggest hurdle for a parent isn't the content; it is the ending. You are essentially watching the first chapter of a brilliant novel that was burned after ten pages. There is no resolution. There is no season two.
If you have a kid who hates unresolved mysteries, you should probably skip this. But if you want to spark a conversation about corporate ethics, the necessity of faith, or what humanity actually deserves when we have ruined our first home, Oasis is a masterclass in atmosphere. It is a "what if" that lingers long after the credits roll, even if the answers never come.
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