“Nightflyers” wants to scare you in deep space. It mostly succeeds for about six episodes, then it runs out of steam and settles into a slow, repetitive crawl. The premise is strong: a team of scientists in 2093 travel on the Nightflyer, the most advanced ship ever built, to make first contact with alien life. Instead, they find terror already aboard their own vessel. That setup deserves a tighter, sharper execution than this show delivers.
Trailer, via Still Watching Netflix.
The Setup
The first few episodes establish the crew and their mission with genuine dread. The ship is claustrophobic, the stakes are high, and the tension between the characters feels real. Brían F. O’Byrne plays Auggie with a weary resignation that grounds the show’s early stretches. Maya Eshet’s Lommie brings a sharp intelligence to her role, and Jodie Turner-Smith’s Melantha Jhirl commands every scene she walks into.
Then the show starts repeating itself. The threat on the ship remains vague, and the writers lean on jump scares and shadowy figures rather than building a sense of what the danger actually is. The result is a middle stretch that feels padded rather than tense.
The Middle Stretch
The show’s biggest problem is pacing. The final episodes drag badly, with revelations that arrive late and feel rushed. The mystery of what is on the ship should have been the engine of the whole series. Instead, it becomes a footnote to a story about interpersonal conflict and betrayal that never quite lands.
Sam Strike’s Thale and David Ajala’s Roy Eris get some of the best material in the back half, but their scenes often feel disconnected from the larger narrative. Gretchen Mol’s Dr. Agatha Matheson is the closest the show comes to a true villain, but even her presence feels thin next to the promise of the premise.
Angus Sampson’s Rowan and Eoin Macken’s Karl D’Branin round out the ensemble, but neither gets enough to do beyond serving as foils for the main players. The show’s reliance on its cast is its strongest asset, but it never fully uses them.
The Verdict
“Nightflyers” is a show that knows how to set up a horror premise but struggles to pay it off. The first half is genuinely unsettling, with a claustrophobic setting and a sense of creeping dread that works. The second half loses that focus and turns into a mess of unanswered questions and half-baked answers.
The show was canceled after one season of ten episodes, and the ending leaves the story unfinished. That is a shame, because the bones of the show were promising. The cast is talented, the premise is solid, and the early episodes demonstrate what the show could have been.
What it became is a middling effort that never quite lives up to its potential. The jump scares lose their power over time, and the mystery of the ship’s true terror never gets resolved in a satisfying way.
Key Facts Box
- Title: Nightflyers
- Creator: Jeff Buhler
- Network: Syfy
- First episode: December 2, 2018
- Last episode: December 13, 2018
- Episodes: 10
- Seasons: 1
- Premiere date (US): December 2, 2018
- Premiere date (international): February 1, 2019
- Canceled: February 2019
The show is worth watching for its first few hours, but it does not hold together as a complete narrative. Its ambition exceeds its execution, and that gap is the difference between a scary start and a disappointing finish.
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