Anna review: AMC’s new sci-fi show is like a darker, deeper Star Trek plot

This dystopian series of sci-fi about an easily transmissible illness which disproportionately affects adults, and that throws reality into chaos is close at hand in 2021. AnnaAMC Plus’ latest international streaming bet,, is strong due to the surprising timeliness that led to the acquisition. Once puberty is reached, the mysterious disease causes red bruises and other wounds. Surviving children form roaming gangs to pillage and browse, in fear for what might happen when they turn 18.

It’s a plot out of the original-series Star Trek episode “Miri,” However, it lacks the same energy. Between the jarringly split timeline, the sparse development of its central character, and the series’ inconsistency regarding how fantastical it wants to be, AnnaIt grabs the attention of viewers quickly, but then it loses its grip.

Author Niccolò Ammaniti adapted his own 2015 novel AnnaThe miniseries was set for 2020. He’d been filming for six months when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. Giving authors control of adapting their own material into a new medium can go a couple of ways, and Stephen King’s involvement in his recent TV adaptations is a useful example. An author can return to characters and craft new stories and endings in order to highlight the themes and ideas they were writing. A story might gain additional resonance in a different form, like the well-cast recent version of King’s The Stand did. Alternately, a writer might revisit the work to highlight flaws and tediousness. You can also see it here already there, which happened with King’s messy adaptation of Lisey’s Story. It’s a real touch-and-go proposition that can end in creative triumph or catastrophe. AnnaYou end up with a bit of each.

Anna This story takes place in Italy. 13 year old Anna Dragotto (the steely Giulia) cares for her brother Astor (Alessandro Pecorella). She lives in an isolated section of woods with a border of barbed wire, rags and wires. World has become a more unhinged and empty since the outbreak of Red Virus. Anna warns Astor that there are monsters, ghosts, giant birds, and other dangers in her attempt to save him from harm and bring him back the childhood she had. “The outside’s all black. They’re all dead, Astor. You and me are alive because the woods protect us,” Anna says. Anna looks for food in nearby neighborhoods and churches while he remains inside their shelter.

Danger is everywhere, both internally — if Anna begins menstruating, her life is literally over — and externally, in the form of twins Mario (Danilo Di Vita) and Paolo (Dario Di Vita), who take to cruelty easily and enthusiastically. Bully Angelica (Clara Tramontano), a mini-tyrant running a cult for practically cannibalistic kids, adds to the danger. Even friendly Pietro (Giovanni Mavilla), is trouble when Anna’s light flirtation with him distracts from her responsibilities caring for Astor. Anna splits its time between the threats of the present day and recurring flashbacks to Anna and Astor’s memories of their mother Maria (Elena Lietti), who wrote them a journal of instructions about how to care for each other and stay safe in a world without adults as she was dying.

This division of attention provides context and contrast to show how an apparently well-functioning society fell so rapidly and completely. The flashbacks leave a trail of breadcrumbs: Anna’s parents arguing about how to care for her as infection rates rise, news coverage about the spread of the disease, overhead snatches of conspiracy-theory sharing. (Think of Cittàgazze in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series.)

However, this approach can lead to episodes that struggle to find a forward rhythm and frequently stall out in connecting preteen Anna and child Anna. Dragotto and Viviana Mocciaro, who play the younger Anna, have similar admonishing glares. But the miniseries is too slow to show their similarities and how they grew. Although young Anna is a presence in the series from the beginning, the finale episode is the first time we see at length how she cared for Astor in their parents’ absence. If it had been available earlier, this material might have given Anna an even more fundamental understanding of her character. Without that, Anna’s older version feels a little less real. With that vacuum left at the show’s center, what instead stands out are the most garish aspects of each episode.

Photo: AMC+

Sometimes children can act out against each other. AnnaDon’t be too quick to realize the savagery that comes with being too old. As the Red Virus threatens Anna’s life, each episode brings new characters to battle her. Children are known to cheat, abuse and chase one another. It is particularly disturbing to see the trio of young girls pretending to be Disney princesses torturing Anna. It is hard to see Anna being led and crated around by a collared leash. Angelica keeping a hostage nude and in chains, then speaking casually about burning someone alive and eating their ashes, works because of how coolly Tramontano plays the character’s nearly sociopathic self-absorption. AnnaYou swing for the fences and careen from one evil development to the next, even though the series seems at first to be a. HookYou can use this to your advantage Lord of the FliesDuality is a dark side of reality that can quickly turn to darkness.

However, at some point the show’s wildness becomes a disguise for a six-episode plot. For book readers, the series’ abandonment of certain characters, its tweaking of various motivations, and its different ending might feel like a betrayal of the source material’s messages about forgiveness, violence, and survival. The extremely changed tenor of the series’ final scene completely shifts the novel’s originally bleak conclusion, and the novel’s ambiguity might have been a stronger way to end.

It certainly fits in better with the source material’s overall fascination with the illusory nature of happiness, and warnings about avoiding the cruelties of an unsentimental reality. There are other improvements. AnnaNew narrative possibilities are possible. It is possible to show the many ways that people responded to Red Fever, whether selfishly or in a humanist way. There is more than a whiff of exploitation and even fetishization in a subplot involving a character who in the Before might have been judged and rejected for their physicality, but Roberta Mattei’s thoughtful, vulnerable performance is worth watching.

An intriguing way forward is possible because of a mysterious loophole in Red Fever’s spread. Visually, the unpredictable nature and evil of Red Fever disease is apparent. Anna comes to life in the series’ thrilling chase scenes through abandoned churches, overgrown plazas, and crumbling bridges; in the demanding chants and desperate cries of feral children; and in the rituals of decoration and adornment that the children turn to stave off adulthood.

Ammaniti was also the director of all six episodes. She has a talent for creating tension and a great eye for extravagant decrepitude. A 2D animated sequence showing hulking creatures stalking through fields to hover above a young boy is a fascinating mix of mediums. This brings out the all-black, thickly written illustrations of the fantastical beasts Anna calls formidable foes.

In each episode AnnaThere are many extremes when it comes to lighting and colors. From the darkened interior of a store that has been converted into a basement, to the bright, colorful display of rainbow-hued fabric hanging from the walls of the mansion. The series’ willingness to embrace surreal, grotesque, and marvelous images does somewhat make up for repetitive scripts and perpetual sidelining of the protagonist. But by the end of the series, those latter elements matter more than the visual interest found in a bedazzled human skull, a pile of rocks atop a grave, or the inky midnight blue of a vat of paint used to signify children’s allegiances.

Anna’s second-half stretch of episodes, in which Anna and Astor’s bond is tested and it becomes clear that neither older sister nor younger brother is exactly well-defined enough for their separation to resonate, the shortcomings of the series’ visuals-over-characterization approach becomes clear. AnnaIt is often captivating in its enchanting. Retire to OzIt might not be aesthetic but it may prove to be more difficult than finding a remedy for Red Fever.

Anna Premiered on AMC Plus, Nov. 18th. New episodes stream every Thursday.