Television

Science Fiction Shows

This Backrooms Star's Short-Lived Series Was Based On A Must-Read Classic Sci-Fi Book

By Witney Seibold

Aug. 23, 2026 7:00 pm EST

Aimee Spinks/Showtime

Walter Tevis' tragic sci-fi novel "The Man Who Fell to Earth" was first published in 1963, and it has been periodically capturing and recapturing the popular consciousness ever since. It tells the story of Thomas Jerome Newton, a humanoid extraterrestrial who hails from the planet Anthea. With most of his home world's population having been wiped out amidst wars and natural disasters, Thomas has come to Earth to cobble together enough resources to construct a massive starship that can transport the planet's survivors to Earth.

Using his advanced alien knowledge, Thomas invents new gadgets, takes out patents, and earns millions of dollars on Earth. To the public, he's an inventor and industrialist, as no one knows about his true origins. Unfortunately, his newfound wealth brings lots of problems with it. Thomas becomes an alcoholic, loses sight of his mission, is stymied by governmental scrutiny and medical tests, and eventually finds that he is stranded. It's a sad story about corruption, addiction, and losing one's way.

Tevis' novel was famously turned into a cult 1976 movie starring David Bowie, and it piled despair, drugs, and media addiction on top of the original story's alcoholism. The book was also adapted into a largely forgotten 1987 TV movie (which changed the ending for the worse) and even became a short-lived stage musical in 2015.

Later, Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet developed a "Man Who Fell to Earth" TV show inspired by Tevis' book. The series, however, is more of a sequel to the Bowie film and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor (himself having only just appeared in "Backrooms" at the time of writing) as an alien named Faraday, with Bill Nighy playing Thomas.

The Man Who Fell to Earth TV show is a sequel series

Showtime

The "Man Who Fell to Earth" TV show skews away from Walter Tevis' novel and wears its connection to David Bowie's film adaptation on its sleeve. The show only ran for a single 10-episode season in 2022 on Showtime, and each episode is named after a Bowie song. Its story follows Faraday as he tries to find Thomas, who's been missing from their home planet for years. Faraday also hopes to save Anthea with some help from Justin Falls (Naomie Harris), a human scientist whose recent work on cold fusion may just hold the answer. Having been disgraced in the scientific community, Justin is understandably astonished to learn that an actual alien has requested her by name.

Early episodes of the TV series focus on the relationship between Faraday and Justin. Upon reaching the planet, Faraday is enticed and tempted by the sensory pleasures that Earth has to offer, whereas Justin is beaten down and cynical, seeing no pleasure or wonder anywhere. Faraday is more like Jeff Bridges' alien from "Starman" than anything else, and Chiwetel Ejiofor plays the alien as a quirky fish out of water who comedically doesn't understand how Earthly things function.

In time, Thomas appears to serve as Faraday's mentor on Earth. It seems that Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet, who were concurrently working on various "Star Trek" shows for Paramount+, wanted to add an element of wonder to "The Man Who Fell to Earth." In doing so, they made it less of a tragedy and something closer to an uplifting allegory for the immigrant experience.

What did critics think of The Man Who Fell to Earth?

Showtime

Critical responses to the "Man Who Fell to Earth" TV series were generally pretty good. /Film's own Rafael Motomayor gave the show a positive review, describing it as a fish-out-of-water story that is, in fact, decidedly brighter in tone than either the 1963 novel or 1976 movie of the same name. Heck, the TV show opens with a flash-forward to the Faraday character giving a Steve Jobs-like press release/rally, showing that he becomes a listened-to celebrity. That's definitely a happier place than where Thomas wound up. Chiwetel Ejiofor, however, is a talented enough actor to make it all work.

Writing for Polygon, Robert Daniels praised the series' performances and found the main character's wonderment to be a benefit rather than a detriment. That said, he noted that Faraday often interacts with local New Mexico cops who just sort of let him be. This, Daniels observed, is problematic, given that Faraday, while being an alien, looks like a Black man. In other words, there's a racial element to the show that its creatives failed to interrogate.

Elsewhere, writing for Slant, Will Ashton argued that the series is a bit too familiar and lacks the alien (adjective) aspects of its source material. In short, it's not nearly odd enough. "Where's a space oddity when you need one?" (as he put it).