The show tells the story of a bunch of different people and their lives before, during, and shortly after the onset of the pandemic; and the story of a few of them 20 years after the fall of civilization. The main characters in both eras are connected to each other, some obviously and some not so. The show skips back and forth in time and place, so that sometimes you’re following the troupe of actors and musicians on an annual path to different post-fall settlements to present Shakespeare to the survivors, and sometimes you’re learning about what happened to one character or another just before the fall.
I’ve read the book so I mostly know what’s coming, but I’m not going to do spoilers here.
It’s not (so far) particularly violent or explicit, but it is sometimes grim, especially the scenes relating to the fall. But the focus is on the people, how they feel; how they cope, or fail to cope. What brings them together or causes them to fall out. It’s not Mad Max or The Road; it’s something lighter than those extremes. But it isn’t Little House on the Prairie, either. Lots of people are going to die, both in the pandemic and after, and there is conflict waiting ahead for the troupe as well.
I would say the performances are very good, as is the story-telling, though I was more than a bit put off by the most recent installment of the story of the troupe. I found the personal interactions between the principal characters in that installment a bit too strained and over-the-top. It surprised me, because up to now the best thing the show had going for it was the sense of quiet strength in the face of disaster that some of the principal characters exhibited. But it isn’t so bad that it put me off the show, which overall has been executed at a very high level.
I don’t remember the end of episode 4 from the novel, but it’s been many years since I read it. The whole prophet subplot feels contrived in a way I don’t recognize from my remembered impressions of the novel. We’ll see how it goes. Weird to see David Cross in that role.
I’m not sure I like Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten. She’s trying too hard to steal scenes, which I guess fits Kirsten, but is a bit much. I really like Lori Petty as The Conductor though.
There’s some really interesting stuff regarding how they’re weaving the story going on here. We see past scenes in a new light based on the current arc, for example, and the different timeframes can sometimes be confusing, which I think is on purpose.
I like it. It feels like a very personal story in the context of something happening to the entire world.
Finished ep7 and now I can’t tell if I like or am annoyed by the show switching between a grounded, realistic portrayal of a group of people living through a post-apocalypse and a fantastical story-book interpretation of the same. It’s a weird mix for me, but I find myself captured by it while I’m watching.
I’m caught up now and feel even more strongly that the ‘early’ scenes — Jeevan and Frank and Kirsten — are far better written and played than the ‘later’ scenes. I’m not sure why so many lines of dialog have to be shouted in the latter. Even when some characters are just talking, they shout.
Watched episode 7 and I think I might be done with this series. More and more I’m annoyed that the characters continuously do things that make no fucking sense. This isn’t an apocalypse where people fight over scarce resources. There’s plenty! Why didn’t Jeevan and Frank and Kirsten just go find a house somewhere? Why didn’t they burn furniture for warmth? Why couldn’t they raid any grocery store for unperishable food there? Where the fuck did they get water after the power went out? Why would a dude risk attacking two adult guys to try to take their high-rise apartment from them when there are literally hundreds of unoccupied ones in the same building, probably well stocked with food and other stuff that their previous inhabitants left behind?
It’s a gorgeously shot mess of a show. Not on my to-recommend list at all.
They didn’t leave the apartment right away because they were afraid of the flu. This explains the house and grocery store. I would be too. Who knows how long it would hang around.
Burning furniture for warmth in an apartment seems silly without a fireplace. May as well just burn apartment buildings for warmth and live outside. Or did they show that they had a fireplace?
I think the fight in the apartment gets to one of the main themes of the show. What would be our relationship to death and other people in this type of situation? If I was un-trusting, damaged, or just plain evil, I would also root out anybody else in that apartment. Make a little fortress for myself. I might not even want neighbors in the next apartment over. Of course, most folks would form a social group, and we see plenty of that. Warrior groups or individual warriors in those social groups being ready to kill people from other social groups.
Got no answer for the water. Haven’t read the book yet. Was it explained there?
Overall enjoying the show greatly. I love the post apocalyptic genre and this is the first I’ve come across that isn’t 99% dystopia.
I don’t really like judging adaptations by how well or poorly they reference the source material, but I will say the Frank and Jeevan scenes in the novel play out in a way that makes more sense in the context of this kind of apocalypse.
Sure, but this dynamic is already explored in five hundred other apocalypse stories from The Walking Dead to The Last of Us. Crucially, in those other contexts there’s an external threat that forces groups to be constantly wary and on the edge of violence at all times. No such thing here. And there’s no real scarcity, at least not in the short term, except of other humans. What is there to fight about except, I don’t know, religion and sex and medical expertise? Why is everyone living in tents and airports and golf clubs? There are millions of unoccupied houses all over the place, specifically constructed to provide shelter from the elements.
Well, there is some handwaving about the roving bands of bad people that everyone had to protect themselves against at one time. And it’s not unreasonable to think that Frank and Jeevan would have been reluctant to venture out of the apartment while there was no pressing need for food, out of fear of the virus if nothing else. But there isn’t really any need for the intruder trying to evict them, as you say, since there is no shortage of available housing and they don’t really have anything else he needs that he can’t get somewhere else. And the water is a problem. Some of the scenes seem to show empty plastic containers stacked in the background. They could be water bottles, but Jeevan certainly didn’t bring all that water with him when he arrived, and they clearly haven’t gone out to fetch more.
I guess I think that the Frank / Jeevan / Kirsten scenes are technically excellent: beautifully shot, well acted, mostly well conceived. The business of making older Kirsten a witness — and an interlocutor — to the younger Kirsten is a brilliant piece of staging that really sets the tone of the whole piece. Almost Shakespearian. And I’m willing to overlook the plot holes there because it is so much better done than much of the later period scenes.
Has it been though? In this one, the “danger” goes away, leaving the only danger being our nature. The other ones, the danger of zombies, radiation, scarcity, etc. is ever present.
edit: again the apartment, I fully expected Frank to be sniped when he was standing on the table in front of the big window rapping. It made sense to me that somebody scoped them and eventually came for them.
edit, edit: I suppose the Leftovers, or even Marvel dusting touch on a similar thing, but it isn’t put front and center.
So they’re really changing the ending from the novel. I guess I’m interested enough now to see where it goes. Nice but of meta commentary by Frank at the end of episode 8.
I liked the Jeevan episode even though it’s never explained why these women are all pregnant. I’m also willing to bet that Hamish Patel at 50 doesn’t look like a hobo. The aging in this show is pretty awful. It’s an odd apocalypse that doesn’t have scissors.
As am I, but goodness there are a lot of them. As someone who was living in a high rise during the 2003 blackout, the very first thing I said to myself as soon as they headed to Frank’s was, “You don’t want to ride out the apocalypse on the 42nd floor.” (Because no power means 100% chance of no running water, and you certainly don’t want to go 84 stories both ways to get some.) Then there’s the issue of walking 50-some miles across a totally empty frozen wasteland (Lake Michigan) with light jackets, very little gear, and no snowshoes or skis.
And the wolves! There’s only a handful of wolves in lower Michigan, and certainly none at the very southern end. (Coyotes would be more plausible in terms of numbers, if not behavior.) If there were, they wouldn’t have lost their aversion to humans in just a year … and they would probably not be interested in eating humans in the slightest. With us, and our cars, hunters, etc., out of the picture, there would be tons of other tasty game running around.
(Edit: on reflection these are nitpicks rather than plot holes.)
Given they all delivered on the winter solstice and the pandemic had happened 13 months prior (i.e. the women got pregnant 4 months after), I assumed it had to have been some mad science to rebuild humanity on the part of the doctor, aided and abetted by a local sperm bank and a turkey baster.
This is an excellent podcast with Patrick Somerville, the show creator, going over the entire show. A lot of times these kinds of press appearances are awkward and forced and a requirement of the job, but Somerville is a longtime fan of the pod, so he’s loving every moment.
Where you’re questioning the decisions made, these strike me as the questions of someone playing a post-apocalyptic video game, not someone living through the existential horror of civilization and almost everyone they’ve ever known dying in a matter of days. I’m more than willing to empathize with some decisions driven by fear, emotion, and uncertainty, that don’t seem rational to us as the audience.
But yeah, I don’t know how they managed to get water in the high rise either.
