A hush descends over Buenos Aires as flakes of snow begin to fall from the sky — in a haunting, delicate shimmer that feels like a dream, and a phenomenon so rare that it’s only happened three times in the city’s recorded history. Within moments, however, the beauty is shattered. Natural has turned cruel, and the sky is complicit: Each snowflake is actually a silent killer, dropping bodies in the streets and blanketing the city in death. So begins the nightmare that unfolds in Netflix’s six-episode The Eternaut, a grim new dystopian thriller that rivals survival-based dramas like The Last of Us and The Walking Dead.
The series reimagines one of Argentina’s most iconic science fiction stories — El Eternauta, originally penned by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and illustrated by Francisco Solano López in the late 1950s. In that serialized comic, readers saw everyday citizens transform into desperate survivors beneath a deadly snowfall that evoked Hiroshima’s black rain and Cold War-era dread. Decades after its publication, that same atmosphere of creeping doom and resistance has been brought to life with Netflix’s considerable firepower — resulting in one of the most ambitious TV projects in the history of Latin America.
As of this writing, the series is the #6 most-watched TV title in the US, and also one of the streamer’s most-watched TV releases in the world (in its first week, it racked up millions of views and shot into the Netflix Top 10 in 87 countries). Shot over 148 days in Buenos Aires, with a crew of nearly 3,000 people, production sprawled across more than 50 physical locations and 35 virtual ones. Over 500 masks were crafted for the show’s characters, and post-production alone took more than a year and a half. In terms of economic impact, Netflix says work related to The Eternaut injected nearly 41 billion Argentine pesos (the equivalent of almost 40 million US dollars) into the local economy.
As a consequence of all that work, the visuals alone in this breakout hit are a marvel. The Eternaut, which Netflix quickly renewed for Season 2, is filled with shots of desolate cityscapes buried in snow, streaked with the eerie blue glow of alien light; close-ups of frostbitten faces stiff with grief and resolve; and scenes of quiet resistance in candlelit basements that pulse with tension. In the story, a small band of survivors emerges from the nightmare. They don gas masks and makeshift armor to ward off the snow’s instant lethality. At the center of it all stands the Rick Grimes-like Juan Salvo, a grief-stricken man who becomes a reluctant warrior. As the world crumbles around him, Salvo steps forward not just as a survivor, but as a leader. He organizes a ragtag resistance to confront an unseen threat that seems to be orchestrating humanity’s collapse.
“Y’all should watch the eternaut on netflix,” raves one viewer on X about the show, which has a near-perfect 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
It’s also important to note that The Eternaut isn’t merely a survival tale — it’s a story forged in real-world tragedy. Oesterheld, the story’s original writer, paid dearly for his art. A vocal critic of Argentina’s military regime before the country’s return to democracy, he was abducted during the dictatorship years; likewise, his four young daughters were also “disappeared.” None of them were ever found. In that context, the story he created — of people resisting an incomprehensible force, of citizens fighting back against faceless domination — transforms into something deeper: It’s a haunting echo of the lives lost to tyranny, and a tribute to those who fought back.
Legendary game designer Hideo Kojima has sung praises for The Eternaut, proving that it might finally have a worthy rival to The Last of Us. Riffing on many familiar tropes from the post-apocalyptic genre, The Last of Us unfolds like a typical end-of-the-world thriller. However, what makes it a unique addition to the genre is its brilliantly written character beats, memorable performances, and commendable VFX. Even with its second season, The Last of Us seems to be going strong, making it one of the best post-apocalyptic shows of modern times.
All major streaming platforms seem to have their set of acclaimed and commercially valuable post-apocalyptic shows. While Apple TV+ has Silo, and Amazon Prime Video has Fallout, a new non-English show from Netflix has seemingly joined the competition by adapting a 68-year-old sci-fi comic. While only time will tell whether The Eternaut will rise in the ranks to become a worthy rival for the best series in the genre, Hideo Kojima's glowing review of its visuals and storytelling highlights how it holds immense potential.
Kojima shared a detailed review of the series on his official Twitter handle by highlighting how its "art design (especially the depiction of snow and the wall of cars), and VFX were all outstanding." He commended the show's themes of “an invisible enemy” and “a vast, lurking force behind it all,” which seem reminiscent of some of the greatest 20th-century sci-fi flicks that emerged from Cold War-era anxieties. He also compared it with Jack Finney's novel The Body Snatchers before calling attention to the original The Eternaut comics and the immense cultural and political significance they hold even to this day.
The show has a limited budget of just $15 million. However, it effectively immerses viewers in its harrowing alien-invaded world by walking through abandoned, snow-clad cityscapes and featuring eerie, never-seen-before extraterrestrial beings. While it may be a little too soon to call The Eternaut a worthy replacement for The Last of Us, the Netflix show's season 1 highlights the potential of what it could eventually become if its creators carefully capture the depth of ideas presented in its source material.
The Eternaut premiered on Netflix on April 30 and has become an instant success. The show is based on the Eisner Award–winning graphic novel The Eternaut (El Eternauta) written by Oesterheld and illustrated by Solano López, which was published from 1957 to 1959. For the week between April 28 and May 4, The Eternaut took the No. 1 spot globally in Netflix's non-English shows, receiving 10.8 million views, with 58.3 million hours viewed. The show became the No. 1 show in 13 countries, including Argentina. In the U.S., The Eternaut debuted in sixth place.
Producer Matías Mosteirin revealed they have plans for just one more season, "We believe that we will manage to close the whole story in a beautiful way, with probably eight more episodes." With its gripping narrative and stunning visuals, The Eternaut continues to captivate audiences globally, proving once again that compelling storytelling truly has no language barrier. The Eternaut is streaming now on Netflix.
