We started this about a week ago and just finished tonight. I think Mackenzie Davis tends to overact and feels a bit typecast at this point as the emotionally childlike adult, but I could deal with it because I loved the rest of the show.
Matilda Lawler was incredible as young Kirsten. The first episode would’ve made a riveting short film on its own. The adventures of the traveling symphony took me a little longer to warm up to, but it was mostly effective as well.
I’ve never read the book, I guess now I want to go find a Wikipedia summary or something to find out what’s different.
This is a show that pretty much requires surrendering to it to enjoy it. I can certainly see other folks not being able to bridge that gap; a large leap is required to get to “the solution to rebuilding a family torn apart by massive trauma is … a play … namely, Hamlet.”
I thought the finale was bittersweet and hopeful and contradictory and utterly unbelievable (in the real world I would put all my chips on Tyler going full Jim Jones in short order, art therapy or no.) But I dearly wish that stories were as powerful in real life as they were in this world, so I was happy to surrender myself to it and suspend disbelief.
We have a whole forum devoted to stories that are even more powerful in real life than they are in station eleven called politics and religion, and I’d argue that it’s not especially great that stories have so much power in real life.
I finished it. I almost gave up after the first two or three episodes. It’s well made enough, but I couldn’t see the point. People kept telling me how good it was, so I kept going, and… well, I did end up liking some of the middle episodes more. I like Clark. Maybe it’s the accent.
But this show did a thing which I hate. So, we see that Tyler turns 7-year-olds into suicide bombers.. That’s just unforgivable. That’s not a thing you can just walk away from. But then… the show basically never mentions it again. He’s redeemed!
And then again at the end, the Undersea is converging to suicide-bomb the whole airport. But then Kristen shows one of them a comic book, and crisis is averted! How does the rest of the Undersea know that this happened? No idea!
So, basically, a 10-episode series with 2 or 3 good episodes in the middle. I don’t get the hype.
That is my major gripe with the show. How is that what he has done is never mentioned again in the show, as it never happened? It really was unbelievable, no matter the circumstances. If someone is a “good person” that act is unredeemable. So I guess all the people in the show who know what he did and let him get away are assholes or bad people. I was expecting someone to confront him about that in the last episode at least, but no.
Maybe I remember it wrong, but after the first time Tyler was away from the Undersea for a while — when Kirsten stabbed him — we are explicitly told that when Tyler is away, other older kids among the Undersea try to take his place and they’re the ones turning kids into suicide bombers. My impression is that this isn’t what Tyler wants at all; that it happens because he’s programmed these kids but then given them nothing to do, so when he goes away they find something to do.
This doesn’t really explain WTF he was doing with the kids in the first place, but I don’t think we are supposed to think that blowing people up was part of his plan.
In any event, I think the value / quality in the show is all about some of the performances, and not at all about the plot, which only just holds together.
I feel pretty lucky (having read the rest of the thread) that I was able to surrender. The last episode really affected me.
I would recommend it, but for the emotional journey, not to learn something about how to play Days Gone more effectively (which oddly I’m also playing right now.)
I had mixed feelings throughout but I agree that the ending was really satisfying. I wasn’t expecting to be so moved.
Once I had that throughline, I was able to look back and better appreciate the extravagant narrative choices, odd characters, and big ideas being explored.
Again, I think the performances were top notch, believable and affecting. I cared about the characters and found the resolution emotionally satisfying. All of that more than made up for the plot holes, at least for me.
I’m currently watching this (Took a loooong break), and is at the second episode with the Prophet - Thats a major detour from the books. One of the strengths of the books, to me, was that this was a very small part of the story - in this version, they have amplified it, because…well, its voilence and all good stories needs that? So silly, and makes both me and my GF not really interesting in continuing the show.
Based on this change, I would not be surprised by a “season 2”…
Well I just finished this series. Overall I thought it was very good. It’s interesting to contrast it to shows like TLOU. I call it post-apocalyptic fiction for progressives. It was sometimes uneven and I have to say I really preferred watching the “before” parts of the story. Really loved the soundtrack. Someone mentioned that the TV version is better than the book. Is the book still worth reading?
Really? The TV show better than the book? I STRONGLY disagree - The book was one of the finest books I’ve read, and it was so subversive to me in how I was thinking the plot was progressing, but always in a positive way.
Get it, read it! Its not long - and you will not regret it. I promise.
