Three episodes deep into Station Eleven, I used to be furious. Livid but in addition extraordinarily bored.
Not solely had I fallen asleep attempting to look at the present (twice) however I’d additionally rapidly grown pissed off with its self indulgence.
From the outset, Station Eleven is a present that spells out grand ambitions in clear phrases.
A post-apocalyptic HBO Max mini-series set within the fast aftermath of lethal viral flu, Station Eleven is a present a couple of fictional pandemic, shot, produced and launched throughout an precise pandemic. But in lots of ways in which pandemic is subservient and unimportant. Station Eleven is a present about issues. About massive concepts and themes. It’s a present about survival. About trauma. About taking refuge within the transitive energy of artwork and the connective tissue of our shared humanity.
In different phrases: Urgh.
This is a present that opens with King Lear. A present that makes flagrant use of Shakespeare as a story and framing machine, but in addition has the goddamn gall to position itself on the centre of a grand literary canon.
Once once more: Urgh. The largest urgh I can muster.
Three episodes deep I jumped into considered one of CNET’s many Slack channels and unloaded on the present to my coworkers. It was self indulgent. It was boring. It took itself approach too significantly. It was excessive by itself provide. It was essentially flawed compared to a present like, say, Yellowjackets – which masked its personal themes of trauma below the guise of a crafty and compelling thriller field present.
“Station Eleven sucks.” I feel that is what I typed. I used to be improper. I could not have been extra improper.
Just seven episodes later, on the present’s conclusion, I went crawling again into that workplace Slack, on my fingers and knees, to inform everybody that – really – Station Eleven is likely one of the greatest TV exhibits I feel I’ve ever seen in my life and each human being alive ought to make efforts to look at it.
So pretentious
Jeevan and Kirsten.
Parrish Lewis/HBO Max
My favourite second in Station Eleven happens midway by way of episode 9.
Jeevan, one of many present’s major characters, has been taking care of Kirsten, a toddler actress obsessive about a comic book e-book – the titular Station Eleven, a comic book e-book she carries along with her in all places she travels within the put up pandemic world. A comic book e-book that provides her hope in determined circumstances.
After trekking again to their dwelling base, Kirsten realizes she’s dropped the comedian e-book within the snow. Frustrated, not fairly understanding why it issues, Jeevan angrily stomps again into the wilderness to retrieve it. During the search, a wolf assaults him, mauling him half to demise. As he crawls on his fingers and knees, preventing for survival in excessive sub zero temperatures, he stumbles throughout the comedian e-book, buried within the snow. In full agony he begins studying it, earlier than tossing it apart, screaming: “IT’S SO PRETENTIOUS!”
It’s an extremely cathartic second. To start with, it is humorous! A wonderfully timed second of comedy within the midst of a darkish, visceral second. I laughed out loud. But it is also an acknowledgement, a crystalized second of self consciousness. The present is speaking about itself, on to its viewers. Yes, Station Eleven is pretentious. It is a present actively wrestling with massive concepts – swinging for the fences, navigating the worth of artwork in a world crammed with struggling.
But Station Eleven can also be self conscious sufficient to know it is asking loads. Of its viewers, of itself as an leisure product. That’s essential.
An enormous ask
Why ought to we care a couple of tv present? Why ought to any form of artwork matter? In a world the place I discover myself drifting away from so-called “status TV”, Station Eleven compelled me to ask myself that query.
Recently I’ve been extra more likely to devour limitless, disposable anime, or binge watch really feel good actuality exhibits like Old Enough and The Great British Bake Off. Given what we have all gone by way of during the last two or three years, it has been tough to summon the large mind power required to take pleasure in a present like Station Eleven. A present that forces us to reckon with massive questions and large concepts.
Station Eleven goes in instructions you won’t anticipate.
Photograph by Ian Watson/HBO Max
That’s exactly why I discovered Station Eleven so repulsive to start with. In the midst of COVID 19, a interval of floor shaking political strife, you are actually gonna ask me to interact with a TV present a couple of touring troupe of Shakespearean actors performing Hamlet in a post-pandemic wasteland? That’s an enormous ask.
But Station Eleven works as a result of it guidelines on each doable stage. It’s so simple as that. It’s a nicely written present, with nice performances and soundtrack that may proceed to hang-out you lengthy after you’ve got completed watching.
Station Eleven swings for the fences however hits the ball clear. It takes time to ship on its daring imaginative and prescient, however for those who stick by way of that preliminary sluggish burn – combat by way of that preliminary repulsion – you may be rewarded with a present that has nuanced issues to say on each “Serious Topic” it dares to broach. This is a present about households – each actual and inherited. It’s a present concerning the legacy of shared trauma. A present about artwork as a refuge. If that provides you the ick, I get it. But in a really actual universe the place we’re deep within the wilderness of our personal ache and struggling, Station Eleven is as important as tv will get.