( CNN ) -- Halle Berry 's reason for returning to TV in CBS 's `` Extant '' are simple : She goes `` where the work is , '' as she told the network . And lately -- especially amid the rise of streaming original series and creatively compelling cable dramas -- an actress looking for strong material looks to TV just as often as she looks to the silver screen . In the past , an Oscar winner trading in a movie script for something airing on a broadcast network might have signaled a dwindling career . Now , `` the lines are blurring , '' Berry said . `` I have never looked at TV as a negative . As I was doing well in my movie career , I always came back to do television movies . I go where the work is . I go where the characters are . And I 'm happy that other people are starting to do the same thing . '' `` Extant , '' created by Mickey Fisher and executive produced by Steven Spielberg , is set in the near future and stars Berry as Molly Woods , an astronaut who 's returning home after a 13-month solo mission . As Molly tries to readjust to her terrestrial family -- which includes a husband ( Goran Visnjic ) and an android son ( Pierce Gagnon ) -- she 's hit with the news that she 's somehow pregnant . ( In case you were wondering , Spielberg says he `` read the script long before I knew about [ 2013 's ] 'Gravity ' or had ever seen 'Gravity . ' `` ) Already picked up for 13 episodes , `` Extant '' sets itself up to ponder how Molly got pregnant if she was on a mission by herself , especially with a history of fertility issues . `` You find out but slowly , '' Berry told CBS . `` It 's very mysterious , it 's very suspenseful , and there are many twists and turns along the way getting to that resolve . '' After viewing the pilot episode , critics are cautiously optimistic . ( Many , it seems , still have bitter feelings toward CBS for the bait-and-switch of `` Under the Dome . '' ) `` A movie star has descended to television -- network television no less -- and she is not putting on airs , '' says Slate 's Willa Paskin. `` 'Extant ' ... tosses sci-fi films from '2001 ' to ' A.I . ' to 'Sunshine ' in a blender , and serves up a psychologically minded speculative smoothie , complete with impregnating aliens , emotional robots , and vast conspiracies . No one element of this show feels original , and yet I would totally watch more , even if just to peep at the sleek futuristic garbage cans again . '' Variety too thought that `` Extant '' `` feels a bit like a Steven Spielberg greatest ( and not-so-greatest ) hits album '' but does n't view that as `` an indictment so much as a road map to this CBS summer drama . ... It 's certainly an intriguing launch ; but then again , so was 'Under the Dome ' before that narratively ran into a brick wall . '' HitFix 's Alan Sepinwall found `` a genuine sense of tension to the first episode , '' adding that `` it feels like the characters live in a fully-realized science fiction world . ... Berry provides ( pardon the pun ) enough gravity to make 'Extant ' feel like a genuine work of science fiction , rather than a soap opera dressed up in sci-fi drag , which happens too often on the broadcast networks . It 's a good start , at least . '' Not everyone sees `` Extant 's '' potential . The New York Times ' Alessandra Stanley thinks `` the creators deserve credit for trying to revive this kind of classic science-fiction mystery , '' yet she found that `` the premiere , while entertaining and expertly produced , does n't hold out a lot of promise . '' For USA Today 's Robert Bianco , Berry herself is `` Extant 's '' trump card . `` She brings a dignity and gravity to Molly , a projected intelligence that allows you to buy her as an astronaut and to see what has happened to her as frightening rather than ridiculous , '' Bianco observes . `` Berry 's all in , and you float along . ... ( L ) et 's hope 'Extant ' does n't let her , and us , down . '' CBS 's hour-long `` Extant '' premieres at 9 p.m. ET/PT today . Stevie Nicks joins 'The Voice ' 'Better Call Saul ' will take place before , during and after 'Breaking Bad ' 'Community ' gets new life on Yahoo .
Halle Berry returns to TV in CBS ' `` Extant '' The actress says the lines between movies and TV are blurring . By Michael Rothfeld, NBC News contributor Actress Halle Berry, who has been a regular on television since her days as an MTV VJ in the 1990s, is returning to film with a new role