Station Eleven

I was not really into the premise of this show. Another show about a pandemic and survival. Ick. But I decided to give it a shot anyway.

The first episode was not necessarily a bad episode. I thought some of the dialog was odd. I got about 15 minutes into the 2nd episode and was still not really getting it albeit I was not paying that close attention. I decided to switch to something else.

Upon discovering that it was made by the same guy that made The Leftovers I decided to try episode 2 again because now the tone of the show made more sense to me. I am glad that I decided to go back to it.

I thought episode 3 was particularly good and I am excited to see what's ahead.

This is first class television. The orchestration and use of sound is phenomenal. The writing while not quite avant-garde does push the envelope for creative thinking and wonderful story telling.

Utterly engrossing and unexpected. Phenomenal storytelling, world-building and character studies. HBO has created something special. Extraordinary casting, beautiful cinematography, and a magical score raises this series well above the ordinary television landscape. Through masterful directing and editing Station Eleven is a slow burn, surreal, and enigmatic. It's clearly not going to be for everyone, but its an intelligent piece cinema worth seeking out .Station Eleven rewards patient viewers with an insightful and thematically rich assertion that , even in the post-apocalypse , the show must go on.

I had to write this just because of the poor reviews on here. Judging from the majority of these reviews, the basic person's attention span is pitiful, at best. No one cares about your quick consumption instant gratification society or your opinions on real art. Real art is thoughtful and unapologetic, it doesn't ask for your acceptance. That being said, I think this series is thoughtful and impactful. It's only made more powerful by Hiro Murai's choices in directing. I didn't know what to expect coming into this series, but I ended up enjoying it tremendously. The premise hits extremely close to home and the main characters and plot are interwoven into an extremely interesting plot. I haven't read the source material, but I love the idea of how the book itself is a plot point. I don't like spoiling things with reviews, but I will say that most of these reviews are from people with a lack of patience. If you can't appreciate a slow burn or a story driven by it's characters more than action or petty drama, you won't enjoy this. The acting is pretty well done, but the show does take it's time revealing details. I felt like the payoff was worth it, though you'll have to be the deciding factor in that.

Still early, but even after Covid I'm still a sucker for a good post apocalyptic series... so far it's definitely kept me interested and seems like it's going to pick up more as the season progresses.

Himish Patel and David Wilmot are both exceptional in this. While the stories of the initial collapse of society are interesting, the silliness of the "Travelling Symphony" really detracts from the the show and really ruin it for me. I was drawn into to flashback stories and then annoyed every time I had to endure the present story line with the Symphony.