Steven Spielberg returns to CBS, following the success of his production company Amblin Entertainment’s Under the Dome last year, with Extant. The sci-fi thriller stars Oscar-winner Halle Berry in her first major television role in nine years and premieres Wednesday, June 9 at 9 p.m. The following are reviews from TV critics around the web, compiled by B&C.
"If Extant wants to be vague, it's doing a great job. Most of the hour seems like a murky dream without much technical assuredness — just visuals that hints at 'something sci-fi like in the future."
— Tim Goodman, The Hollywood Reporter
"It’s way too soon to say whether this jumble works, but it’s promising that Extant‘s premiere seems confident enough to play it cool and mysterious rather than hammer us with holy-crap moments."
—James Poniewozik, TIME
"But, as is the case with Under the Dome, the new series dilutes its own mystique with too many plodding plot devices and stock characters."
—Alessandra Stanley, New York Times
"It's hard to know from hour one where the story — which can read like an anthology of themes and motifs from the Spielberg canon, executed with a splash of the director's own steely sentimentality — is headed."
—Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times
"[Berry’s] a huge star, of course, but never crowds the screen and instead delivers a performance that's surprisingly layered and nuanced."
—Verne Gay, Newsday
"Extant looks well suited to making some noise, despite a pilot that’s heavy on tantalizing threads and not much else."
—Brian Lowry, Variety
