Station Eleven (HBO Max)

Slydice · 13-01-2022 9:04pm

Finished! Overall, I liked this show. It's not action and adventure. It's end of the world (and that is handled really well) but it's on-the-other-side looks at survivors/next generation who are theatrical workers. It starts pretty hectic and complicated and works it's way through mysteries into a well wrapped ending.

The jump out performance had to be lil Kirsten (Matilda Lawler)

Danielle Deadwyler as Miranda Carroll also

though she had so much less screen time

They're on the countertop!

Not to discount the solid performances from Mackenzie Davis (Kirsten), Himesh Patel (Jeevan), David Wilmot (Clark, the Irish guy TM 🙂) and Nabhaan Rizwan (Frank)

10: Well, that wrapped the show just fine.

I had a bit of a moment when they teased the possibility of Jeevan and Kirsten not reuniting. It felt great when they did.

I'm glad the kids and Tyler didn't complete their Beacon mission. I'm glad what it meant didn't come up much after the golf club.

They also did the opening scene of Hamlet with the Ghost pretty well 🙂

Me at the start of this series... oh I wonder what the mystery will be all about.

Me at the end... I remember damage!

Also: Woah, look at the undersea! So many! 😲

Future: You know.. I could see possibilities for more in this universe.. just whether it could get much backing from a film/tv studio.. I dunno. I'm not sure it's the type of show that's gonna pull along a huge audience and take in a bunch of money.

yabadabado · 13-01-2022 10:30pm

Finished it .

I was sceptical that they could tie it all together in the last episode but think it was well done .

13-01-2022 10:35pm

So the last one is up, is it?..I've been waiting for it..read the book a few years ago..

yabadabado · 13-01-2022 10:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118470608#Comment_118470608

Yeah all ten episodes available now.

13-01-2022 10:49pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118470715#Comment_118470715

Yabadabadoo!!..

jill_valentine · 13-01-2022 11:02pm

Phew. I have some annoying gripes about the finale itself, but otherwise, wow, what a show. What a raft of performances. I'm going to give myself time to recover and then watch it from the start again, there's so much stuff that meant more than it seemed to at first glance. I haven't seen much like that before.

jill_valentine · 17-01-2022 3:17pm

The soundtrack to this is on Spotify now and its unreal. More diverse than I'd really appreciated in the show too, there's some weird synthy stuff in next to a load of bluegrassy fiddles and folk. It's great.

ObeyGiant · 18-01-2022 4:17pm

I absolutely adored this show.

Have been going back and listening to interviews with the showrunner and the producers and hearing some of the decisions they made really explained that sense I had when watching it that I was in safe hands, that the makers knew what they were doing. E.g. an interview with Mackenzie Davis she said that her first days of shooting were what became episode 7, which gave her a load of powerful emotional context for her character.

And yeah, can't wait to go back and watch it again to pick up on all the stuff I missed first time through. Like

Episode 2, the symphony visits St Deborah by the Water, which has a statue of a lady holding a baby. Terry, from episode 9, is Deborah 🤯

yabadabado · 19-01-2022 2:19am

I think I'll give it a rewatch ,in a few weeks time.

Not something I'd usually do but think it will be worth it with this show.

steve_r · 26-01-2022 2:42pm

I don't think it was great.

There are parts of it that I felt were very good, the scenes in the past with Jeevan, Kirsten and Frank, in particular, were very strong. I also enjoyed the Clark/Arthur dynamic, and the early scenes in the airport.

However the massive stumbling block for me is all the scenes in the future, and I think they torpedo the show, unfortunately.

The Shakespeare group is large and none of the characters are really developed - we see Sarah getting sick but we don't really know her story, we see Gil being presented as this influential figure but then killed off.

The prophet shows up - and adult Kirsten distrusts and stabs him - but then follows him? I thought the play set up at the end was ludicrous and in such contrast to the grounded scenes with young Kirsten (who was fantastic by the way).

There's also the story of Miranda which was bizarre at times - she has a breakdown in the meeting with the client, but they pair her with Timmothy Simmons who is playing a comedic character? They could easily have told her story without him and I think it would have worked better.

I haven't read the book, and maybe the book does a better job on the future part of the story, but I really feel this let the show down.

I was reminded of Lovecraft Country watching this, not in terms of tone/content/plot etc but that's another HBO show where the showrunners fundamentally failed to tell the story well at times. HBO are known to be fairly hands off with their shows so maybe this is a show that could have done with a bit more direction.

jill_valentine · 26-01-2022 4:20pm

The prophet shows up - and adult Kirsten distrusts and stabs him - but then follows him?

I thought this was fairly well laid out tbh.

She can’t hurt him again because she doesn’t know what the kids will do this time if she does, and there are still several dozen landmines unaccounted for.

She goes with him because she has no other way to find the Museum - the viewer knows it's the airport but she doesn’t, and even if she did she likely wouldn't know how to find the airport itself. She knows something serious is happening because Sarah is almost blind and would not leave her glasses behind casually.

I have to confess I found Tim's stuff in the finale really moving. He's presented as a clueless gom, but ultimately he was decent guy and spent his last few hours alive trying to save some complete strangers to him, who'd never even realise.

Skerries · 27-01-2022 6:05pm

yeah there could have been a whole episode about what happened on the plane and the turmoil that must have been going on following that call

crushproof · 27-01-2022 7:24pm

Halfway through, I read the book so I remain interested but it's not amazing.

Kirsten keeps on reminding of Tom from Succession, very similar looking. So I'm waiting for Greg to appear at some stage.

lordgoat · 30-01-2022 11:05pm

Loved this show. Really interesting take on the end of the world. Happy as well it's one season and that's it done.

Homelander · 31-01-2022 11:16am

I have to say I thought it was excellent and it all comes together very well in the end. The future scenes definitely aren't as captivating or compelling as the present/past, particularly earlier on, but as it starts to head to a conclusion it starts tying together in a satisfying way.

Great drama.

jill_valentine · 04-04-2022 11:31am

https://mobile.twitter.com/DEADLINE/status/1509992039504510979

The folks who made Station Eleven are developing the author's two subsequent books for TV.

Neither are direct sequels/prequels to Station Eleven itself, but without spoiling too much, there are significant ties to it in both.

Glass Hotel -

... has a lot of stuff about the alternate lives and Sliding Doors moments, and it's mostly about a con man and his regrets, but S11's Miranda and Leon come into it and the Georgia Flu is referenced, revealing it's basically a version of Station Eleven's world where the virus didn't take hold, and these are the paths and regrets the characters have instead.

I would be surprised if they didn't use Danielle Deadwyler again, because she was amazing, but I think there's a strong chance of Himesh Patel and Miranda Lawler making at least poignant missed connection cameos too.

Sea of Tranquility -

...is scifi/time travel, but it features one character who is overtly the author's self examination, an author who is digesting the unexpected success of her pandemic novel and stuff like seeing tattoos of lines from it, and then making sense of the fact her book seems to have leaked into reality, while her story is being adapted for live action. So this would have an aspect of a book/show within a show that's about its predecessor book/show.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 22-04-2022 12:26am

I just finished this tonight, watched it over the space of a week, and I really liked it. I'm not sure how it would have played if I'd been watching weekly though, it does ask its audience to have a lot of trust in it at times, which is easier to do when you can watch the next episode immediately.

Just before I watched it I had been watching Snowpiercer, which is a drastically different end of the world show, and although I enjoyed it too, I did feel like this was a much more thoughtful and human story. Maybe that's why some people struggled to stick with it, it's focused on the small moments with the big stuff in the background, which isn't always the case with shows in this genre. But what even is the genre of this story? When the book came out it was maybe sci-fi? But now it's like ever so slightly left of current events.

I've been listening to the official podcast to go with the show, and I've only listened to 3 eps, but it's interesting to hear different people involved with the show talk about how much changed and developed even as they were shooting. There was a huge break between shooting the pilot and shooting the rest of the series because of our own pandemic. I'm interested to know if that changed the story a lot because I can't see anyone really wanting to tell a story so close to what we were all actually experiencing and have it be dark and depressing. Likewise, I'm not sure any creative types good at their jobs could make this show in the middle of a pandemic and not have the real experiences influence their work.

cdgalwegian · 01-11-2023 5:22pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118877887#Comment_118877887

I'm predominantly a hard sci-fi reader, but I read Sea of tranquility last year - the reviews had intriguing metaphysical issues that science fiction tackles. When I finally got round to watching Station Eleven, I had forgotten it was written by E StJM until reminded by the end credits of episode one. Nearly finished the series now. "The Leftovers" vibes, as a fan, had me hooked - mesmerised, as the pieces fall into place. I'm not expecting a momentous ending - just a satisfying ending to a wonderfully immersive contemplation on how things are connected.

Station Eleven (HBO Max)

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