I have not yet seen anything here on Station Eleven, is it just not watched that much? I binged it over the past two days and was quite, quite impressed.
It's on HBO (max or whatever it is now) here, but that seems to sometimes vary from country to country. Also, the last few episodes didn't have subtitles yet, but that is probably because they just came out.
They actually started filming before the pandemic, I had assumed it was someone's lockdown project, as so much of it is just about that.
The IMDB reviews are surprisingly muted, am I just inordinately moved by this thing? Having studied Hamlet a little 25 years ago might have helped, but I doubt it is a prerequisite.
My daughter says she read it a few years ago and liked it well enough. I cannot vouch for her taste though, as she also likes some absolute YA tripe.
But I personally found the show well done; jumping between timelines in a non-confusing can be hard to do really well and the whole thing kept me riveted. Almost all the actors were unknown to me which is also a bonus.
I was late-ish to the party, which was perfect because it meant we could binge all of Season 1 at once. Melanie Lynskey, Juliet Lewis, and Christina Ricci are absolute fucking treasures. (I feel like ML may be the least-well-known of the three, but I have been in love with her since 1998, when she played the awesome step-sister opposite Drew Barrymore's Cinderella in Ever After.) Also, no shade intended at Tawny Cypress, Jasmin Savoy Brown, or any of the other incredible actors in this thing. It's an embarrassment.
- An airplane containing a high-school girl's soccer team crashes in the Canadian Rockies in 1996, and they struggle to survive. Some of them do, and we follow their stories in parallel in 2021 (where there appears to have been no pandemic, which is something we have to track now?). There are major Lost vibes, with the flashback/flash-forward framing, plus just general plane-crash-ness.
As I approached the end of the season, I kind of wanted it to be one-and-done, so we could wrap up all the mysteries and plot threads satisfactorily. I love the Lost vibes, but it also makes me justifiably nervous about potential payoffs (or lack thereof) in the future. However, it is what it is, and now that I have finished the first season, I am excited there is going to be more. But when?
Some mild Season 2 speculation, based on the Season 1 finale:
I am fixated on the altar that Simone found underneath her and Taissa's house. She was still such a skeptic in the 1996 timeline, what changed? WHAT HAPPENED TO VAN?! I choose to believe that Van is alive and well, and is part of the group that abducted Nat. I'm not as optimistic about Javi, but we haven't found a frozen body yet, so I guess that door is still open.
So this altar. We have Manny the doll, Biscuit's head , and a heart. That must be Adam's heart, right? Tai was responsible for disposing of the torso, and it's too big to be Biscuit's heart. So I feel like the three items parallel stuff from the on-island timeline. Adam's heart and the bear heart, obviously. Biscuit's maybe represents all the wolf stuff that Tai deals with. And Manny represents ... Shauna's baby?
Seriously, what is going to happen to the babby? I am so fucking concerned about this. Callie is too young, and there's no other older sibling in the picture. :nervous: Presumably Jeff knows, having read the journals, and he's still around, so how bad could it be? I honestly thought it was the fate of the baby that had Shauna so worried when he read the books, but I think the show eventually implied it was Jackie's demise, so again, what is going to happen to the babby? It's killing me.
My daughter says she read it a few years ago and liked it well enough. I cannot vouch for her taste though, as she also likes some absolute YA tripe.
I watched the first five minutes and thought, "This sounds like something I read once." Then I searched on GoodReads and found I'd read it two years ago, giving it 3 stars.
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But I personally found the show well done; jumping between timelines in a non-confusing can be hard to do really well and the whole thing kept me riveted. Almost all the actors were unknown to me which is also a bonus.
Similar to Yellowjackets, lots of flashbacks and layered story telling. I don't think I liked it as much as yellowjackets, but it's well worth watching.
Less horror elements in the Wilds than in Yellowjackets. ES heard on a podcast that the Wilds feels a bit more network tv. I agree with that assessment (although the language is decidedly cable tv), the show feels network, perhaps in the way they push boundaries and which they choose to push. The stakes seem a bit smaller somehow moment to moment.
There are fewer people in the plane crash in the Wilds, but the show does a deeper dive on each of the characters.
There is fun character development in the Wilds, but the first season gives no closure, so go in expecting none.
We have now watched the first 8 episodes of Station Eleven, due to this thread. It's different than I expected, even though on a re-read of this thread, it has been described pretty well.
I can't get enough Lori Petty, so it gets one million bonus points from me just for that. Kirsten is a bit of a Mary Sue, but I have no problems with Mary Sue protagonists. Why the fuck wouldn't I want to watch a show about a talented, capable, interesting girl with a tragic backstory?
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Originally Posted by Miisa
But I personally found the show well done; jumping between timelines in a non-confusing can be hard to do really well and the whole thing kept me riveted.
You're doing better than I am with the time-jumps. Some of the edits are confusing as hell. I literally yelled at bey that there were two guys in Frank's apartment when Jeevan and Kirsten showed up. "Look, there's one guy in a red shirt, and another guy in the green and white stripes. Frank's in the kitchen while the other guy answers the phone and buzzes them up. What happened to the guy who answered the phone? How the fuck am I supposed to I know why they're both walking with a cane?"
Melanie Lynskey, Juliet Lewis, and Christina Ricci are absolute fucking treasures. (I feel like ML may be the least-well-known of the three, but I have been in love with her since 1998
I literally yelled at bey that there were two guys in Frank's apartment when Jeevan and Kirsten showed up. "Look, there's one guy in a red shirt, and another guy in the green and white stripes. Frank's in the kitchen while the other guy answers the phone and buzzes them up. What happened to the guy who answered the phone? How the fuck am I supposed to I know why they're both walking with a cane?"
I am guessing this is during Frank's POV of them showing up? I never noticed, and not at that point yet in my rewatch, but I will look out for it.
Maybe what impressed me with it was the the fact that the show subverted my expectations, so many post-apocalyptic shows just get into the "humans are shit and are the real enemy" yawnfest really fast, but this focused on the importance of real human relationships that can be completely independent of any blood or other official ties, as well as on the letting go vs. clinging on to "the before", and how culture both stays the same and changes, all the time. On how different people took the same material and had such different takes on it, much like people are constantly re-inventing and re-interpreting the classics such as Shakespeare to fit the moment.
Oh, and I loved so much of episode 9, including
"So PRETENTIOUS!!!"
(not really a spoiler but I lol'd when he said it about the comic book as it could be about the show itself, really )
And yes, Lori Petty is great. One of the few semi-familiar faces, though I hadn't seen her in anything lately.
Meh, looks like Yellowjackets is only on Paramount+ here. Does not look like a great service otherwise, so haven't succumbed to that one.
Will see what can be done...
So I watched Reacher on Amazon, 8 episodes. Was pretty good, actually, a little better than I expected, and a very faithful-to -the-book adaption of The Killing Floor. The lead actually looks the part, might be a little wooden but then I think he is also written that way. A LOT of fights and actiony stuff. Fun, IMO, popcorny.
McQuarrie and Cruises film of the character's name is one of the greatest adaptations of book to screen we've seen in the new century. The changes they made work better than what happened in the book. Setting aside the "controversy" of the lead and all, I think it works well as a movie. (The second movie was a big fat mess.)
I've only seen the first episode of the series and I thought it was okay. I would like maybe one or two more episodes so they can really dig into bits and pieces that can help inform who Reacher is without giving away stuff from/for future books-as-seasons. I liked that they gave at least a couple of scenes with the yoots as boys and I wish there could have been a little more of that before they revealed the driving motivation of why he stays there.
I'm willing enough to see where it goes - I mean, I know where the book(s) go, I mean how they translate things and how Thad fills in the character a bit.
I popped into the reddit community and sort of spoilt myself with one of my favorite characters from the series. But I'm okay with it.
I finished "Wonderfalls" last night. This is a 2004 TV series written by Bryan Fuller of Hannibal fame. It's about a Jaye, a post-college slacker living in a trailer park and working at a gift shop in Niagara Falls, NY. After resisting calls from her high-status family to do something with her life, something happens to her: the curios from the shop start talking to her, giving her instructions, and generally upending her life.
I saw the first few episodes when they aired, but this aired on Fridays at a bad time, so I lost track of it. I could only ever find it on standard definition DVD and put it on my queue back when I was watching "Hannibal" because Dr. Alana Bloom is played by Caroline Dhavernas, star of "Wonderfalls."
The show is very charming, but not great. It's fine. It's a quirky comedy that's not overly funny. The best comedy is when Jaye misinterprets the instructions she's been given, which often leads to her doing odd things and putting her in awkward situations. However, the show also tries to wring humor out of a closeted lesbian sister, or the fact that Jaye's best friend is black, or the "lady of the mist" legend is a fraud for tourists. A later episode features the local Native American tribe and it was really cringe-inducing - I suspect that Bryan Fuller didn't consult any indigenous people before writing this. The show lasted one 13 episode season and faded into obscurity.
It can probably stay there, unless you have a desire to crush on a 2004 Caroline Dhavernas (like I did).
I remember really liking Wonderfalls, been a hot minute though...
I just realised Wellington Paranormal is on HBO Max here, but only the first 3 seasons (that I have already seen via questionable means), not yet the ongoing series 4. Bring it on HBO!
I mean, the S04E04 description is irresistible
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Skeleton Crew:
When workmen disturb a Pakeha burial ground underneath the police station, an annoying old Caucasian ghost possesses Sarge who then menaces his own officers.
It's not on Netflix, obscurity undetermined
Re: It's not on Netflix, obscurity undetermined
..
YELLOWJACKETS 
- An airplane containing a high-school girl's soccer team crashes in the Canadian Rockies in 1996, and they struggle to survive. Some of them do, and we follow their stories in parallel in 2021 (where there appears to have been no pandemic, which is something we have to track now?). There are major Lost vibes, with the flashback/flash-forward framing, plus just general plane-crash-ness.
I choose to believe that Van is alive and well, and is part of the group that abducted Nat. I'm not as optimistic about Javi, but we haven't found a frozen body yet, so I guess that door is still open.
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