Maybe I'll give it a shot. For me the premise occupies a sort of uncanny valley of realism: there's no space wizards or wormholes or FTL or aliens, but it's also not realistic enough to be something that could happen. It's kind of like that movie The Day After Tomorrow. It felt like there should have been some kind of mystical or supernatural force behind it all because it could never happen as presented, but they want it to come across as plausible.
No, it's nothing The Day After Tomorrow; the characters in sunshine aren't paper-thin stereotypes. I'd say it's a lot more like Interstellar - though all three involve "do or die" threats to the character to propel the plot, it's much more a drama working within the constraints of a proposed system, rather than a dumb big-budget thriller.
