These showcase episodes, giving interiority to myriad supporting players (repeated references to Hamlet benchwarmers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern aren’t coincidental), along with the pervasive blend of grief and hopefulness, give Station Eleven a very Lindelofian feel - plenty logical since many of the writers, including Somerville, Nick Cuse and Cord Jefferson, have The Leftovers, Watchmen or both on their resumés. Somerville smartly plays to the strength of his medium, wisely combining certain threads and separating out some of the storylines into standalone episodes. It’s a weaving structure that is very literary. Mandel’s book isn’t heavy on narrative, but it builds a series of satisfying reveals out of jumping around through decades and selectively filling in surprisingly relationships between seemingly unconnected characters. The hypnotic quality of the comic - which I think is mostly there to create a throughline of populist artistic forms, capable of providing both escapism and resonant subtext, that the new society must decide whether to embrace or reject - isn’t presented any more convincingly here than in the book. And it would probably only confuse you to mention that the book and show’s title comes from a mysterious graphic novel that everybody finds fascinating for elusive reasons. This might not sound like much by way of “plot,” and I’m not sure it would hook you any further to say that there is a mysterious cult leader named The Prophet who seems to be targeting the Traveling Symphony - nor to say that there’s a differently mysterious Museum of Civilization that is trying to lure the Traveling Symphony. Is it enough to keep playing Hamlet because we’ve agreed for centuries that Hamlet is important? If Hamlet is integral to civilization, but civilization meant technological debris, environmental ruin and the isolation of modernity, should we be rebuilding on that foundation or coming up with something fresh? The connection between past and dystopic present is presented in poetic fashion, slipping backward and forwards in time, by pilot director Hiro Murai. The troupe’s motto is “Survival Is Insufficient,” which refers in micro to the need to protect and perpetuate art, to maintain a grasp on commonly accepted sources of beauty and inspiration.īut in a larger sense, the Traveling Symphony and Station Eleven are preoccupied with questions of what comes next. Years later, Kirsten (now Mackenzie Davis) is part of the Traveling Symphony, a roaming band of musicians and thespians led by the Conductor (a nicely eccentric Lori Petty) and performing the works of Shakespeare in a circuit of survivor communities. In the chaos, Jeevan takes one of the young actresses in the cast (Matilda Lawler’s Kirsten) under his wing, a temporary bit of babysitting that becomes full-on guardianship when a fast-spreading, 99.99 percent lethal virus pushes Chicago and society to the brink of ruin. The only person in the audience to try to help is Jeevan ( Himesh Patel), who reacts on reflex, but without any medical expertise. Well, all productions of King Lear end in tragedy, but this one is onstage, as leading man Arthur Leander (Gael Garcia Bernal in a glorified cameo) has a heart attack. The series begins in Chicago at a production of King Lear that ends in tragedy. On the page, it’s a frequently ephemeral theme, one that has maybe been over-articulated for the screen, without necessarily draining the story of its power. But Station Eleven is much more about contemplating the aftermath, delving into notions of healing and how much any “new normal” should resemble the old. Patrick Somerville’s 10-episode adaptation occasionally mines the visceral terror of a society in the midst of a burgeoning flu and it wouldn’t be unjustified for that to scare some viewers off. John Mandel novel it’s based upon was published in 2014. HBO Max‘s new limited series Station Eleven does an often potent job of splitting the difference between depicting and evoking a global catastrophe that will invariably be compared to our current pandemic, even if the Emily St. Cast: Mackenzie Davis, Himesh Patel, Daniel Zovatto, David Wilmot, Matilda Lawler, Philippine Velge, Nabhaan Rizwan and Lori Petty, with Gael Garcìa Bernal and Danielle DeadwylerĬreator: Patrick Somerville, from the novel by Emily St.
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