# The Midwich Cuckoos (2022)

> After an entire village is subdued by an alien presence for a day, a cluster of women discover they are pregnant and the community begins to fracture.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/118901

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 7
- Episode runtime: 49 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: science fiction, drama, mystery
- Created by: David Farr
- Network: Sky Max
- Cast: Keeley Hawes, Max Beesley, Aisling Loftus, Ukweli Roach, Lara Rossi, Synnøve Karlsen, Samuel West, Dexter Sol Ansell
- TMDB rating: 6.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14245846/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: dense
- Violence: mild
- Tone: eerie, tense, unsettling, melancholic

## What critics say

Reviews are mixed: the eerie premise and strong cast are appreciated, but the slow pace and unresolved alien mystery frustrate many viewers.

## Synopsis

The Midwich Cuckoos (2022) is a British limited series created by David Farr for Sky Max, adapted from John Wyndham's novel. Keeley Hawes plays Susannah Zellaby, a mother whose world is upended alongside Max Beesley as Paul Haynes and Aisling Loftus as Zoe Moran, residents of a small English village that falls under an unseen alien presence for a single day. When the residents wake, several women discover they are pregnant, and the community begins to splinter around suspicion, secrecy and the uncanny behaviour of the children being born. The engine of the story is a mother's protective instinct pitted against forces she cannot see or name, playing out across seven episodes of creeping unease, domestic tension and mounting village paranoia. Set in a contemporary English countryside village, the series builds a tense, eerie atmosphere with a restrained, character-driven register that favours unsettling silence over spectacle. Samuel West and Ukweli Roach add further weight as community members caught in the upheaval. Fans of Broadchurch, Twin Peaks and The X-Files will find resonance in its small-town dread, ensemble secrets and slow-building supernatural menace.

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