To Watch ‘Pantheon,’ I Wouldn’t Ever Promote Piracy…

…but if it were, I might sound like this. About a year ago, AMC+ released what was perhaps the best hard science fiction story I had ever seen: Pantheon. Based on short stories by Ken Liu (a name you may recognize as penning some of the more iconic Love Death + Robots shorts), Pantheon was a fascinating multi-narrative saga surrounding the idea of Uploaded Intelligences, humans who have their brain destructively scanned to live in virtual space. It featured an absolutely star-studded cast including Paul Dano, Daniel Dae Kim, Aaron Eckhart, and Taylor Schilling, and that’s barely scratching the surface.

The eight-episode run completely encaptivated me and was must-watch television. My phone was done, my eyes were glued, it would be paused instantly if I had to look away for even a second. As the credits rolled, the most satisfying thing was knowing that the second season had already been produced which means the story would continue, and I would be happy.  You can see that this is not what happened. Instead, AMC+ announced that the second season would not be airing on their platform which was a weird decision given that again: it existed, it was ready to go, and they were people who wanted to watch. Even if it were just me, I would have very much liked to watch it, and these esoteric business decisions were getting to me. But to add insult to injury, the first season of Pantheon, something that AMC+ definitely owned, was i…