The Astronauts

The Astronauts is novel and captivating for a Nickelodeon audience, say ages 6 to 12. Together with Mom and/or Dad it likely makes a bonding entertainment experience. But if watching solely as an adult, depending on your frame of mind it could be quite cheesy.

Nonetheless, I feel this show gives Nickelodeon prime credit for helping bring kids into a more responsible age.

The wife and I tuned in to the first couple episodes after finding it by accident while scanning the cable offerings. It is definitely a tweens/teens kid show but we became addicted to it as it is good fun - no sex, no swearing, no murder, no mayhem, but lots of fun 'OMG!' moments for the kids to deal with.

If you can offerings like The Goonies and Super 8 as a break from 'adult' movie fare, you'll enjoy this.

I had no idea what i was getting into when i saw the title, "The Astronauts," but anything about space travel is going to catch my attention.When i saw it was a Nickelodeon show, I was very much prepared for possible over acting and maybe sickeningly too cute kids. That isn't what I got. What I got was an intriguing, but simple premise with a great twist. I was hooked from the first episode. I like that the kids are having to question their parents and not for just rebellious reasons. I can't wait for new episodes next week. Definitely worth your time. I'm in my 50's, btw.

I saw this advertising for a while and had no interest as I thought it would be some small production kiddy show. It ended up premiering while I was cleaning and I started glancing at the show here and there.

10 minutes into the show I was hooked! I didn't even realize I stopped cleaning and was sitting down watching the show until almost 30 mins later.

The shows is amazing quality!!!!! HBO production quality. I was surprised. The acting and cast is really great so far. There is a great story line with a small twist I didn't see happening. It's definitely not a kiddy show. The only criticism I have is that the parents really under reacted when it came to their kids getting shot up into space. I made my 30 year old bf watch it and he enjoyed it as well! We can't wait for the other episodes!

Nickelodeon's last great show was Avatar the last air bender. I hope this show gives Avatar a run for its money! So far so good!!

Apart from a rare few of their comedies I am normally not very impressed with Nickelodeon productions. Too 'happy, colorful, perfect world stuff': children series lack some grit nowadays.

Whit that mindset The Astronauts really surprised me: the kids are not all perfect, their relationships with each other and their parents are strained. The people on the ground have no better idea what to do then they have. The AI genius is a loose cannon and as much a danger as a help. There is real danger, real bravery. And it is not some 2 day trip but a serious deep space mission. Some very good visuals as well: the launch sequence was awesome.

On the flip side: finding a scenario that gets kids launched into space will always a bit convoluted / tricky, but I think the script writers did as well as could be expected.

Sammy reminds me a lot of 'April' in the book series of Mackey Chandler.

All-in-all I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be watching it again. I hope it gets a second series as the story is far from finished.