REVIEW: "STATION ELEVEN" ON HBO MAX
Prior to the arrival of "Station Eleven" -- an adaptation of a novel by Emily St. John Mandel that I have not read -- I'd come to feel fatigued with the post-apocalypse as a setting. It's not even the lingering COVID pandemic that has prompted these feelings, though it probably hasn't helped. It just feels like, post-"Walking Dead," we've had a glut of international shows about survivors in a world where some kind of plague or disaster has wiped out much of the human population, leaving everyone emotionally shattered and the world chaotic and deadly.
Beyond the immediate genre trappings, many of these shows take on a similar format and tone, and even messaging. Everyone character is traumatized, motivated exclusively by finding a new place to hole up, gathering needed supplies and resources, and looking out for unpredictable strangers. Every lesson about conventional morality and ethics is reconsidered as the protection of the core tribe becomes the primary concern. Humans, in this world, are the REAL monsters, you see.
So I was hesitant to even jump into "Station Eleven," yet another story set in the aftermath of a global pandemic that killed off almost everybody, leaving stragglers behind to form new societies amidst the ruins of the old world. I was relieved to find that this story -- adapted by "Maniac" and "The Leftovers" vet Patrick Somerville -- veers off into an entirely different direction. Here's the rare post-apocalypse in which the endless scavenging quests take a backseat, leaving space to explore the group psychology of people restarting civilization in their own small way. "Station Eleven" isn't asking questions about what you'd do if the world suddenly ground to a halt, but what you'd do after the immediate danger had passed, and it was time to start living again.
The story is all interconnected but unfolds -- especially in the initial episodes -- almost like an anthology, relating individual stories from different points in the apocalyptic timeline. We meet Jeevan (Himesh Patel), who's attending an ill-fated production of "King Lear" on the night on that people begin dying from a mysterious illness, and winds up looking out for a young actor (Matilda Lawler) who can't find her parents. Then there's Clark (David Wilmot), who finds himself trapped for weeks at an isolated airport after the pandemic reroutes his flight to Chicago. We also follow Kirsten (Mackenzie Davis), an actress traveling with a troupe of performers 20 years after the fall of civilization, who encounters the creepy leader (Daniel Zovatto) of a mysterious new cult. Then there's Miranda Carroll (Danielle Deadwyler), a quirky artist and writer in the Before Times who's dating a noted actor (Gael García Bernal) and working on a graphic novel -- also called "Station Eleven" -- that will ultimately tie all of these narratives together.
It sounds heady and complex, but most of the episodes really zero in on the immediate circumstances facing the characters, the day-to-day reality of life during times of extreme crisis, rather than forging connections between all of these disparate narratives. If no help arrived, and it was clear that the civilized world was disappearing outside the walls, how long would it take a group of people stranded in an airport to actually become a real community? If you were on a trip, and suddenly realized that everything you knew and cared about back home was gone, would you go back anyway? If not, where would you go next? And if you thought you were the only person on Earth who had read a book, and then you heard someone else quote it, how would that make you feel? These are the kinds of questions "Station Eleven" poses, rather than the usual post-apocalyptic pragmatism. "What kind of weapon would you use to clear a cluster of zombies?" or some such thing.
It also may be wishful thinking at this time of COVID and climate change, but I appreciated the relative optimism of "Station Eleven," which imagines a ruined world in which there's still enough of a break in the action to care about things like graphic novels and Shakespearean plays. Even outside of the world of "Walking Dead," when there isn't an immediate zombie menace to worry about, this genre typically allows for only fleeting moments of pleasure, before a new crisis arrives. The recent Tom Hanks sci-fi drama "Finch" on Apple TV+ is a good example. There will be a few scenes where Hanks and his dog and his robot experience kinship and joy, but only for a second, until the next deadly dust storm arrives. "Station Eleven" posits a more dangerous and unpredictable world, post-flu, but one that remains tolerable, and even potentially has a few semi-advantages over the way we live now. It's not exactly hopeful, but it's also not exactly bleak, and that alone makes for a nice change of pace.
THE BASICS
Title: "Station Eleven"
Where to Watch: HBO Max
Episodes: 10 total (5 so far)
Running time: About 60 minutes each
Genre: Sci-fi drama
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