Station Eleven (HBO Max)

I must admit I gave up on the book...but might go back this looks pretty good

Wierd.. trailer feels similar to Y the last man.

If it follows the book, he's one of the five-ish main ones, and he's really key to the second half.

This is starting to appear on best-of-the-year lists and getting tips for awards based on the advance screeners. It starts on Thursday with 3 eps in the US, but over here it's being carried by Starzplay (?) on Rakuten.

Slightly mystified by that if it's an awards contender because it doesn't look cheap.

First three episodes are out and about and I haven't enjoyed 3 eps of anything this much since The Terror. Phenomenally well made. Just a little bit weird, but so confident it makes it work, that and all the space and quiet. It's thoughtful and ponderous rather than Walking Dead grimdark action but that just gave some stuff more impact IMHO.

Also, Idk how David Wilmot feels like he's somehow extra Irish in this but he does and it's class.

Raging I have to wait another week for more now though.

Has anybody else caught up with this yet? Mad to rave about it with somewhere.

Watched episode one.

I like it! I actually don't mind the little flashes back and forward which I usually am not a fan of. It felt very personal and intimate given the large scale of some set pieces, the child actress is excellent. Looks to be one to stick with!

01: Wow! That was some damn well written world-ending right there! Definitely need to know more!

So yeah, I guess the story is main strength that has pulled me in so far.

03: Well.. somehow this show had me rooting for a Conference Pitch meeting on Logistics! 🙂 Air and Sea Unite!

Two good episodes so definitely this director Hiro Murai is one to watch! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiro_Murai

Experience with Barry, Legion on wiki, also Atlanta which I don't know but scored high on RT: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/hiro_murai

Also Danielle Deadwyler's performance as Miranda Carroll. That was really good. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danielle_Deadwyler

Alright, so.. the halfway point.

What's the show? Well it's an end of the world (disease) situation. Not actioney, more story about the characters.

Set in the before times and after times using flashbacks/flashforwards. It's kinda half how-the-world-ends-and-people-cope but also half actors/acting/directors/cast/crew/theatre as those are the professions of the people the story revolves around.

Early, it goes fast and has some decent hooks. Getting to be a bit dragging out in the middle but could change again.

Checked the wiki to get a feel for how the rest episodes as the directors/writers seem to matter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_Eleven_(miniseries)

A couple of hard-to-tells coming up but then looks like the final episodes will be back to the people from the early ones so might be setting up to end on a high.

05: Ah! Well, that explained a bunch. Episode did drag a bit again. Maybe because I was guessing the reveal from very early on.

This Irish guy 😁 The Dubliner theathrical businessman who used to go boating in the mouth of the Shannon.. I assume outta Limerick or off of Kerry. Can't beat having an Irish guy for drinkin and saying F*ck a bunch 😁 and

06: Okie..

Oop! There's a bit at the end of the credits in 07. It's just a voice line.

Just rechecked the other episodes just in case but nothing at the end of their credits from what I could tell.

Will be very pissed off if they do a bait and switch and this show gets renewed - on episode 7 and it's tough to stay engaged with it, better be some payoff

Has to be. I'm pretty sure

I finished episode 2.

It is definitely an acquired taste it will be too slow and ponderous for many people, it's probably why I gave up on the book!

I will admit I do prefer the sections set at the start of the pandemic so far (ther child actor , but Lori Petty (great to see an upturn in her career since orange is the new black) and Mackenzie Davis are always hugely watchable.

I'm up to date now and absolutely love it. Reminds me of something like The Leftovers - huge background concept, but really boils down to just being a very grounded and exceptionally well-made production about the people left behind.

Favorite episode so far was either the opening episode, or the one which had David Wilmont front and centre. Terrific performances.

I would agree that while MacKenzie Davis is pretty good, the future stuff is really not remotely as engaging for me either. For me it's at least partially due to the casting, I can't take to Lori Petty and I think David Cross was a poor choice here as well.

But the overall quality of the future segments is lagging behind. Overall though, superb drama so far.

I

Remember

Damage

08: Oh.. I don't think things are going to end well

Had a bit of a google for the Ave Maria used at the end of this but couldn't find it. Search results for Ave Maria are not exactly thin on the ground 🙂

Ah! That's the one! Such a distinct sound compared to the others I found on my search.

Really fits the feel of Station Eleven too.

Found a youtube version:

Right...so we had a meetup of the past and present storylines then in episode 9 we go back in to the past again

Some really bad editing/scripting on this show

Checking the shows writers - Emily St. John Mandel (listed first) one credit! Patrick Somerville - a few shows but not much under his belt

Executive story editor/written for television by - some unknown who has a couple of tv episodes behind her

Needed better pedigree for this show to work

Have you read the book?

Mandel was the book's author. She was not involved in the day to day writing. Cord Jefferson, ex Watchmen, Good Place and Succession was though.

Somerville worked on The Leftovers for two seasons and Maniac (which was a bit Marmite) and was a novelist before that. Several episodes as well as the overall direction were steered by Hiro Murai (director of, among other very hypey things, Donald Glover's This Is America video) and also by Jeremy Podeswa, who's a veteran director of stuff like Game of Thrones, True Detective, Boardwalk Empire, Handmaids Tale and Homeland.

Most of the rest of the episodes were directed by Helen Shaver, who at 70 something is both a former actress and a veteran director of decades, notably for Orphan Black, Westworld, Vikings, Person of Interest and Dead Like Me.

Whether you're down with the show's nonlinear style or AV tricks or whatever or not, it has about as much pedigree as it is possible for a show to have.

I genuinely don't find it difficult to follow the sequence of events if you pay attention. Ep 5 should have made it clear why they were heading for the airport - having been invited to the Museum twice at that point by a character we see then see in the airport flashbacks, and seeing Clark begin the Museum.

Ep 8 was the weakest of an otherwise excellent show though, and although Ep 9 was far stronger that has me worried about how the final episode is going to pull off the finish. That was an awful lot of time to waste on Clark, Elizabeth and Tyler, likely the least interesting members even of the 2040 cast, and I'm concerned that what I'm enjoying isn't what the show thinks I'm enjoying. There's a huge ton of stuff to close out in only an hour, including, inevitably, more emo Tyler stuff, and the second half of the season has had a lot less momentum than the really compelling first half.

Not so much here, but on twitter etc I think people are mistaking "Not having all the info yet" for being "confused". There are a lot of things the show deliberately presents out of context or out of order, particularly in relation to Kirsten's memories, so that you're shown firstly how she thinks about it and then how it actually happened. The show does sometimes ask you to trust that if it leaves something unexplained for now it'll come back around to it and that seems to throw people off.

It's not just regular viewers though, as an aside, the AV Club reviews in particular have been very odd. For example they complained it felt creepy that Kirsten was sleeping with the Conductor - something that at absolutely no point was implied - and thought a character died who hadn't, even though we saw them alive onscreen and people talked about them surviving later in the same episode.

I think maybe the show asks people to pay closer attention than we've gotten used to sometimes, but by ep 9 I don't think there are any major questions left about the timeline to this point.

Watched episode 9 ,there seems to be an awful lot of loose ends to tie up in the last episode.

Is it longer episode ?

I don't think that's fair, Patrick Somerville has some great credits like writing episodes of the leftovers and think he is involved with made for love which is terrific, he also created Maniac which was insanely well received.

In fairness I think it is beautifully directed and I would say it is a really difficult book to adapt. It has grown on me as a show.