Solos

Being a science fiction fan I just had to check out "Amazon Prime Video's" "Solos" series as it's an anthology that involved different characters and different stories. Most episodes involved life struggles that involved family, future, time travel, memory, loss, and dealing with pain. The stories and episodes are written well and they twist some you the viewer have to pay attention and it featured well known stars as Anne Hathaway, Morgan Freeman, Anthony Mackie, Helen Mirren and other up and comers and known stars. However watching thru each episode as the characters memory loss and time problems are related and you see things are tied up and a conclusion is reached in the final episode(Note: watch the Morgan Freeman episode last!) Overall okay good decent anthology series that was different as you the viewer can make your own call as it's spin on life, space, time, future, past, connection, and memory experience that was an interesting watch.

This series is hard to rate because there are separate dramas and some are absolutely wonderful and others are deadly dull. Episode 1 is wonderful; and one of the best things you'll ever see on TV or anywhere else, for that matter. It's a time travel drama with a big switch, and the acting is great to see. I won't go into the deadly dull episodes but they are there. FWIW - this series is better watched one at a time without binge watching. Try to appreciate each for its own value. Watching several in a row diminishes each of them.

Don't bother with this boring garbage. I managed to make it to Ep3 and that was my lot. There are great actors in there, but even they couldn't keep my attention as they muddled through as best they could with dull and boring scripts.

The themes that echo through each episode, and there are so many, are perfectly timed and toned for an "almost at the end" pandemic release.

While Solos is an anthology-style series, it is not a series of standalone episodes. It is a comprehensive mini-series telling a single, self-contained story with a specific ending.

The writing is really stellar, and the acting is superb, both of those skills coming together to create something that is a series of monologues that rarely feel monologue-ish.

I'd love to go over each of the themes but it would get spoilerish, but I can say that for those who get this and understand what they were doing with it, the themes are poignant and meaningful and deeply emotional.

The tie-together at the end is almost perfect, except that the episode "Nera" is only vaguely referenced, and also didn't seem to share a mini-connection to any of the others, as the rest of the episodes all seemed to do. It is the most isolated of all of the episodes and has had me rewatching and pondering why. Was it editing that removed its connection from the rest or was it intentional? There is so much about it that doesn't fit with the rest. It does contain nearly all of the themes, but it has a really strong "one of these things is not like the others" feel all the way through it.

The final episode is so rich and full of meaning and reference... it's astounding. The acting is perfect. Morgan Freeman's subtle face changes are brilliant.

I think my favorite episode is the one featuring Constance Wu. The emotional journey she takes us on is a gut punch. It is also the first episode that really gives us a clue as to what is happening on the larger scale.

I loved the re-use of specific language in different settings, with different meanings, but meant to echo back to the things we'd previously seen, sometimes casting new light on them and bringing out different understanding.

Two things to watch for that you might not think of on the first watch: 1: listen to the narration Morgan Freeman gives for each episode. Once you realize he's not just a narrator but a character, and what his role is in relation to all of them, the narration takes on new meaning. 2: look at the pictures they selected to fill the letters that open each episode.

Oh, and this is not Black Mirror. It's not meant to be anything like Black Mirror. Comparing it to Black Mirror is like comparing ET to Arrival. Just because they're both sci fi and anthology series doesn't mean they're both apples. You can enjoy both equally without trying to compare them to one another.

It's essentially a series of philosophy class lectures dressed up with sci-fi fixings. The sci fi factor is definitely secondary to the philosophical factor here. Way too much time spent on famous actors pontificating about a mix of contemporary social issues under the guise of science fiction, and not in a meaningful or poignant way.