Debris Preview: “Solar Winds” 

[Warning: General spoilers ahead.]

If you’re jonesing for a sci-fi TV fix and haven’t jumped into Debris on NBC and Peacock yet, get on that. We weren’t able to preview last week’s episode, “You Are Not Alone” (a wink to X-Files if ever there were one) ahead of airtime, but it, and this week’s episode, “Solar Winds,” have some fun HITG going on, on top of very solid, emotional storytelling.

To catch you up, Jonathan Tucker and Riann Steele are Bryan and Finola, federal agents tasked with investigating phenomena related to extraterrestrial debris from an alien craft that started falling to Earth six months earlier. Its metallic and electromagnetic properties tend to wreak havoc wherever its pieces land.

The twist here is that once humans interact with it, it triggers both a physical response and an emotional manipulation, which makes for really rich story arcs within each procedural episode. I love that. The episodes go beyond connecting the dots to solve a crime and with Bryan and Finola instead rushing in to disrupt the tether between the device and people that’s forcing a really distressing separation. They’re in the reunion business, as it were.

In the pilot, the debris forced families to reconcile in the face of grief; last week, it was about holding on long enough to reconcile while pieces of the psyche warred with a decision by becoming physical clones, and this week, the debris reveals an energy field that’s literally keeping people away from their lives and loved ones.

In the background of the first two episodes, and here again in this one, Maddox is piecing together the debris into one behemoth while working back channels to find out what happened to Finola’s father. He’s been presumed dead of a suicide for several months, yet has somehow just resurfaced in airport surveillance footage.

His insistence that Bryan keep that intel from Finola is making Bryan extremely uncomfortable, especially as she confides more of her story to him, making her more than just the latest in a rotation of partners. We also get a sneak peek that perhaps Maddox has his own personal agenda in keeping those cards close.

On the HITG front mentioned above, last week’s episode had *a lot* of David Alpay, and this week’s episode features Hailey Dean Mysteries‘ Matthew MacCaull as Muntz, a peculiar field team technician who finds out that it’s OK to bend the rules a bit for the greater good. Sarah Desjardins (Riverdale) plays Nicole, a young woman the team is trying to help.

“Solar Winds” was directed by Rebecca Rodriguez (Snowpiercer) and written by showrunner J.H. Wyman. I’m completely digging the softer nuances of the emotional arcs, and after three episodes, I’m all in. I hope the timeshare with Peacock bodes well for a long runway (no jinxies). No word yet on where it’s airing in Canada for our Canadian friends. I hope y’all get it soon, too. I’ll share news as soon as I hear it.

Debris airs Monday at 10 pm/9c on NBC and then is available on NBC.com and streaming free Tuesdays on Peacock. Here’s a sneak peek and an interview Jonathan Tucker did with Mike Massimino, a former NASA astronaut and current professor at Columbia University.

There’s magic in the world. #debris @nbc pic.twitter.com/YIPgIGHTme

— jonathan tucker (@jonathanmtucker) March 12, 2021

Photos and Videos Courtesy of NBC.