"Station Eleven" is Something Special

I chickened out of watching the recent adaptation of "Y: the Last Man" after the reviews came in, and a major complaint was that its post-apocalyptic world was too depressing.  Frankly, it's a bad time to be any kind of depressing media.  I've been having a rough time just getting through the gloomier Oscar films this year.  HBO miniseries "Station Eleven," however, bucks the trend.  While the characters do live through a worldwide pandemic that kills off 99% of the population, the point of the series is that they do, in fact, live.

"Station Eleven," based on the Emily St. John Mandel novel, follows a collection of loosely connected characters at two different points in time.  First, we begin at a theater performance of "King Lear," where an audience member named Jeevan Chaudhary (Himesh Patel), decides to escort a child actress named Kirsten (Matilda Lawler) home, after the outbreak kills the lead actor, Arthur (Gael Garcia Bernal), and leaves the troupe in disarray.  After a few misadventures, Jeevan eventually brings Kirsten to his brother Frank's (Nabhaan Rizwan), to wait out the crisis.  Twenty years later, the adult Kirsten (Mackenzie Davis), travels a slowly rebuilding Great Lakes area with a different Shakespearean theater troupe, the Traveling Symphony.  Her found family includes other artists and performers like her mentor Sarah (Lori Petty), and youngster Alexandra (Philippine Velge).   

This is one of those shows, like "Lost," and "The Leftovers," that tells its story from multiple perspectives, and parcels out important information a little at a time.  After the first two episodes centering on Kirsten, she barely appears in the third, which is about the relationship of Arthur and his first wife Miranda (Danielle Deadwyler), and not at all in the fifth, which is about a group of survivors sheltering in an airport, including Arthur's best friend Clark (David Wilmot) and his second wife Elizabeth (Caitlin Fitzgerald).  We don't learn what happened to Frank and Jeevan until the seventh and ninth episodes respectively, with little flashes of them from Kirsten's memory in other episodes to provide foreshadowing.  However, everyone's story is told to my satisfaction, and I like the show's messages about connection and survival, and how the dead and their art can influence us long after they're gone.   

  

Created by Patrick Somerville, best known for writing on "The Leftovers" and "Maniac," the show is definitely a genre piece, but a far more thoughtful and grounded one than the majority of post-apocalyptic fiction.  There is a villain, a cult leader named Tyler (Daniel Zovatto), but he's probably the weakest part of the show.  Where "Station Eleven" really shines is in its worldbuilding and character building.  We really get to know all of these people intimately, and it makes their victories, their sacrifices, and the tenuous, precious relationships they form with each other all the more moving to witness.  Once you work out how certain people and places are linked, it's so satisfying to see the whole, remarkably detailed tapestry of their growth and development, and the hardy little communities that they're able to create.  Rewatch some early episodes after the finale, and you'll find more connective tissue everywhere.

The direction has some lovely, fantastical touches.  A recurring element is a comic book called "Station Eleven" that both Tyler and Kirsten are obsessed with, and is eventually revealed to have been written by Miranda.  Its main character is a lost astronaut, who keeps appearing throughout the show, unseen by anyone else, like an angelic witness.  There are several other instances of dreams and visions colliding with reality.  Sometimes it's not clear whether something is happening literally or figuratively or in memories, such as adult Kirsten's reminiscences.  I'm not a big fan of the hippie junkyard aesthetic of the Traveling Symphony players, but it sure adds some wow factor to their Shakespeare adaptations.  The visuals are just the right mix of the odd and the familiar, and no surprise that Hiro Murai had a hand in the look of the show.    

Honestly, when it comes down to it I just like this set of characters, and the actors performing them really give it their all.  This is the best thing I've seen Himesh Patel do yet, Miranda Lawler is an irresistible newcomer, and Mackenzie Davis remains one of my very favorite actresses working today.  And it's so nice to see Lori Petty again, and Danielle Deadwyler is a stunner, and Gael Garcia Bernal gets just as much screentime as he needs to make an impression.  It's a rare thing these days, in this kind of show, that we get characters and performances this good.  And "Station Eleven" is one of the rare ones that absolutely shouldn't be missed.

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Rank 'Em: "Star Wars: Visions"

This is the third one of these anime shorts anthologies based around a Western property I've seen, after "The Animatrix" and "Batman: Gotham Knight."  I'm a little out of date when it comes to anime creators, but I still recognized several of the participating directors and studios.  I think the best way to talk about this project is to talk about each of the shorts individually.  And the best way to do that is with a "Rank 'Em" post.  So, here we go, from best to worst, by rankings of the "Star Wars: Visions" shorts.

Oh, and I watched the English language versions, because I figured listening to the Japanese voice actors try to wrangle "Star Wars" terminology was going to be awfully distracting.  

1. T0-B1 - This short is drop dead gorgeous.  It's a melding of "Star Wars" and "Astro Boy" tropes, featuring a robot boy who wants to be a Jedi.  The animation is on an entirely different level.  I love the storybook quality of the visuals, and the way that the short incorporates so many little nods to its progenitors.  Out of all the "Visions" shorts, this is the one that I want to see a full series for.    

2. The Duel - One of the clear influences on the original "Star Wars" is the work of Akira Kurosawa, so it's terribly fitting to see this short recreate the look of a Kurosawa samurai epic with "Star Wars" elements incorporated into the works.  The mostly black and white world, with its scratched up frames, and bursts of color provided by lightsabers and droids, is distinctive and eye catching, and executed beautifully.

3. The Ninth Jedi - No surprise that one of the most polished shorts would come from Kenji Kamiyama and Production I.G., home of the "Ghost in the Shell" franchise.  This short tells the most complete story, set in a far future corner of the "Star Wars" universe, and does a good job of fleshing out its handful of characters in a short amount of time.  The multiple plot twists and the concept of lightsabers that adapt to their user's needs are a lot of fun.  

4. Akakiri - The shorts in this collection are all kid-friendly, which makes sense given the intended audience.  This is the one that feels the most adult, with its dark ending and creepier concepts.  Eunyoung Choi's  Superflat style suits the Kurosawa pastiche well, and I especially like the villain, Masago, voiced by an excellent Lorraine Toussant.  Along with Henry Golding and Jamie Chung, this one easily has the best vocal performances.

5. Lop and Ocho - I find the story a little half-baked, but there's no denying how fantastic this short looks.  The animation is fluid, detailed, vibrant, and looks amazing on every level.  The characters, however, aren't as fully fleshed out as they need to be to pull off what the story wants to be.  It feels like the first half of one introductory episode mashed to the back half of a concluding one, and we lost the rest of the series.  

6. The Twins - I went into "Visions" looking forward to this short the most, because it's Hiroyuki Imaishi and Studio Trigger.  And while it's wildly over the top, and crazy kinetic, and breathless and does some neat things with "Star Wars" iconography, I also found it a little disappointing.  There's way too much winking at the audience, too many callbacks, and the dialogue is so stylized and hammy, it feels like a parody at times.  

7. The Village Bride - No major complaints with this one, but it's a really generic anime adventure that has little to do with "Star Wars."  This is the longest short, and takes advantage of that by doing a little more world-building and setting up its characters a little better.  However, everything here from the visuals to the action to the story come across as pretty bland and forgettable.         

8. Tatooine Rhapsody - It's different from all the other "Visions" shorts, I'll give it that.  The premise is fine, the music is pretty fun, and the chibi style character designs are great.  However, conceptually it just doesn't come together.  There's not enough to the characters, and something about the humor doesn't translate right.  Some good pieces in the mix, but better luck next time.    

9. The Elder - Well, Studio Trigger clearly put their B team on this entry.  The animation is disappointingly static, the character designs are very derivative, and I can't get over how flat everything looks.  The big fight scene at the end is decent, but really nothing special.  Still, it's always nice to hear from James Hong, who voices the title character.    

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"Orphan Black" Year Two

Spoilers for everything that's aired so far.

Sophomore outings are hard, especially when they're following up to premiere seasons as strong as the one that "Orphan Black" had. That great momentum, fueled by putting its heroine into one hot situation after another, and introducing memorable characters in quick succession, was unsustainable in the long run. Too many players, too many loose ends, and way too many conflicting plot details make Year Two of "Orphan Black" an ungainly thing. We now have four major protagonists with their own separate stories, and it often feels like we're watching four different shows. You can tell that the writers are actively reaching to keep characters like Paul, Vic, and Art in the mix, ignoring past events and past motivations when it suits them. "Orphan Black" has always been a messy, flying-by-the-seat-of-its-pants genre program, where some suspension of disbelief is always necessary. When the thrills are chills are executed well, continuity hiccups aren't a big deal. However, the show definitely stumbles in some major ways this year and makes some mistakes that are too egregious to ignore.

The Dyad Corp, headed by the Pro-Clone Rachel and Dr. Leakey, emerged as the new Big Bad at the end of the last season. This year was mostly a tug-of-war between them and the clone club over control of Sarah and Kira, with a deteriorating Cosima stuck in the middle, desperately searching for a cure to her illness. But first, there are all manner of tangents and diversions. Sarah has to go find her daughter, track down the original scientists who worked on the cloning project, and finally goes ahead with her plan to skip town. Cosima, meanwhile, remains in bed figuratively with Dyad to study the clones and literally with Delphine (Evelyn Brochu), her handler and colleague, despite the ambiguous motives of both. Allison and Helena barely intersect with them this year. Allison remains nominally connected to the Dyad storyline through her husband Donnie (Kristian Bruun), but the bulk of her screen time is spent dealing with booze, rehab, and musical theater. Then there's Helena, whose return from the dead I cheered. She gets stuck with a new crop of Proletheans, lead by the supremely creepy Henrik Johnson (Peter Outerbridge), who intends to exploit her biology in a far more more direct fashion than Dyad.

As a result, the show has not only separated out and isolated some of its major characters, but some of the basic elements of its narrative. All the horror seems to be concentrated in Helena's story. The bulk of the comedy goes to Allison, which is a problem when it comes to Felix, the show's best comic relief, because he's still largely interacting with Sarah. Cosima gets the romance and the hard science-fiction. Sarah gets the action. All of these stories more or less work on their own, though Sarah's narrative is wildly haphazard. All deliver moments of fun and excitement. However, the joy of "Orphan Black" was watching the clones interact with each other, and seeing how the various genre tropes could be mixed and matched. There were simply too many episodes this year where everyone was off in their own little corner. Many of the highlights came when the clones crossed paths - Sarah and Helena's road trip, the clones passing themselves off as each other, and of course the dance party.

The new additions to the cast were mostly strong ones, and I especially enjoyed Andrew Gillies as Professor Ethan Duncan and Zoe De Grand'Maison as Henrik's daughter Gracie. Michael Huisman's Cal, Michelle Forbes' Marion, and Ari Millen's Mark seem to be getting set up for meatier stuff next year, so I don't have a problem with their relatively brief screen time this year. However, it felt pointless to bring back some of the existing characters like Art and Paul, who had severely reduced roles. Michael Mando was downgraded to a guest star, but ironically Vic was much better used this year thanks to Allison's rehab stint. I also love what they're doing with Donnie, who has become a great foil for Allison. Tatiana Maslany, however, is still the main event. It's still difficult to get my head around the fact that she's juggling so many such vastly different, distinct performances every week. Rachel is a great addition to her repertoire, a twisted ice queen with some of the year's best scenes to play with.

But then there's Tony, who was only around for one episode, but who I have to bring up because we can't ignore him or what he represents. Tony the transgender clone was one of several ideas that surely looked good on paper, but that "Orphan Black" completely bungled with poor execution. Tony was such a failure of a character on every level, and such a weird digression from the rest of this season, you have to wonder how he made it to the screen. Tony comes across as oddity for oddity's sake, a poorly thought out new twist that was deployed too quickly, and then bundled up and sent away into potential obscurity just as quickly. I'm torn between wanting him to come back at some point, to justify the show spending a whole episode setting him up, or hoping that the creators cut their losses and let him be forgotten as soon as possible.

There were a lot of other Tonys and potential Tonys this season, storylines and characters that fell apart or stopped making sense. What's particularly infuriating is that many of these issues could have been corrected or greatly improved with a little more care and attention. The second season of "Orphan Black" remained very entertaining throughout, and there were a lot of things that did work beautifully, but it was hard to ignore the multiple times it fell flat on its face. In general I like the show's daring and its uniquely female-centric, female-positive genre narrative. However, it's got a lot of work to do to get back to the level of the first season, which I now realize I cut too much slack to begin with. "Orphan Black" is starting to look more and more like a guilty pleasure, which is a shame. I hope that the creators figure out how to reverse course for Year Three.

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