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[Spoilers] Station Eleven


Ser Scot A Ellison

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Read the book.  Love it.  I’m watching the series, it is a completely different story with echos of the novel.  I’m 4 episodes in and it is interesting.

I really wish Emily St. John Mandel would write the titular graphic novel that is the center of the novel and the series.

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Another thing I like about this show is that I go into every episode mildly disappointed because it's switched focus to another character, and I come out when its finished very disappointed because the episode is over and I don't want to stop! That it can tell all these different stories and keep me gripped is a testament to its quality.

For example
 

Spoiler

I groaned when episode 5 started and it was clearly about Clark, who at that point seemed like very much a side character not integral to the plot. I wasn't sure I could be bothered to watch it. But I loved the episode, and I loved that Tyler was the prophet and that it was a sort of backstory. 

Also noticing that Elizabeths odd entourage friend on the plane was in fact the 'guy on the bike' from the museum intrigued me. 

 

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6 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Another thing I like about this show is that I go into every episode mildly disappointed because it's switched focus to another character, and I come out when its finished very disappointed because the episode is over and I don't want to stop! That it can tell all these different stories and keep me gripped is a testament to its quality.

For example
 

  Hide contents

I groaned when episode 5 started and it was clearly about Clark, who at that point seemed like very much a side character not integral to the plot. I wasn't sure I could be bothered to watch it. But I loved the episode, and I loved that Tyler was the prophet and that it was a sort of backstory. 

Also noticing that Elizabeths odd entourage friend on the plane was in fact the 'guy on the bike' from the museum intrigued me. 

 

I noticed that Elizabeth's assistant and the guy on the bike were the same actor, but I missed when he apparently came back to the airport since he had left with the fake Homeland Security agent. I honestly believed that the actor was playing two different characters.

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43 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

I noticed that Elizabeth's assistant and the guy on the bike were the same actor, but I missed when he apparently came back to the airport since he had left with the fake Homeland Security agent. I honestly believed that the actor was playing two different characters.

It seems he ended up getting amnesia due to trauma or a stroke, and foreign language syndrome led to his losing his Italian accent. It was funny when I realized he was the same guy.

 

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2 hours ago, Ran said:

It seems he ended up getting amnesia due to trauma or a stroke, and foreign language syndrome led to his losing his Italian accent. It was funny when I realized he was the same guy.

 

It’s easier to notice these things when you recognise the actor from something else. In this case I had to go through his IMDB to work out how come he’s so familiar to me. Sadly I think I recognise him from David Spade Crapcom Just Shoot Me. I can’t have seen anything else he’s been in.

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4 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Sadly I think I recognise him from David Spade Crapcom Just Shoot Me.

Oh right! His brother who was faking being mentally disabled was the first time I saw David Cross. I haven't thought about that show in years. It's weird to remember the days of watching the least shitty thing on the six channels we got.

He was also on Person of Interest. 

 

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55 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

He played “Mathasar” on Galaxy Quest.

He even did a laugh in one of the episodes that was very reminiscent of Mathasar.

I've seen him in various Canadian/American SF shows. He played the antagonist in season 2 of Travelers.

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I ran into a Twitter thread a week ago going on and on about the actor who plays Elizabeth's assistant / Italian boyfriend and this was just deja vu.  Apparently he has a dedicated fan base.

One thing that I think the series did well despite a couple important changes is maintaining the tone of the novel.  

"I stood looking out over the damage, trying to remember the sweetness of life on earth".  Current favorite quotation.  I've been captioning random pics from my camera roll with this and posting them on social media since I finished the book last week.  

Like Scot, I want to read Miranda's graphic novel /comic whatever the fuck very badly.  Would do horrible things to be able to do so.  

Love the way that Miranda is portrayed, as an artist, and the travelling symphony as well.  Art for art's sake.  This hit really close to home, my mom is a 'professional' artist who doesn't make money off her art but her job allows her to make it, and the world I was raised in had a huge emphasis on the arts and trades and creating things instead of just living.  She always talks about people "living in this world and not just on it" and when the travelling symphony showed up this was my first thought.

Cannot remember the last time a book or tv show moved me as much as both the book and series did.  

I can see why the show changed the prophet, and I think it's a better show for it. 

Wish show Clark wasn't turned into a bumbling insecure mess but I understand why they did that (and it was probably necessary to deliver show Tyler).  

Stoked to check into rest of EmSJM's stuff.  

Eta: show spoilers:

Spoiler

I think the show did an amazing job with Kirsten travelling back through her memories as a way to echo the Station 11 narrative.  The mention of Dr Eleven being a time loop character who is an older version of the rebel undersea leader, and then her going back to rewitness the time in Franks apartment and the play... All amazingly done.

I can see why structurally the added Kirsten / Jeevan story line happened in the show and I think it really works.  

One thing the book and the show both so really well is make the story personal.  In not sure how to explain that objectively, guess it's more of a feel thing, but both we're extremely personal.  Cannot say enough good things about the book or show, they have totally captivated me.

I regret nothing.  I remember damage.  Hell is the absence of people we long for.  

Nothing particularly unique or original about these sentiments, but the phrasing and and everything makes them totally original.  I can imagine Miranda rewriting the "I stood looking out over my damaged home and tried to forget the sweetness of life on earth" until it works .  Throwing away entire colored pages because something wasn't right. 

Super inspired, personally.  

 

 

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7 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

He even did a laugh in one of the episodes that was very reminiscent of Mathasar.

I've seen him in various Canadian/American SF shows. He played the antagonist in season 2 of Travelers.

I saw him in a cafe in Toronto once, he rescued a bumble bee from a woman, or vice versa.

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I know this thread is mainly for the show, but I have to say, this book is great so far. Emily St. John Mandel is playing with a lot of complicated subjects and writing in a fashion in which anyone can grasp them while waxing poetically. 

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6 hours ago, Heartofice said:

The soundtrack for this show is also exceptional. Just finished episode 7 and I cried like a baby, partly the music hit me like a punch in the gut, partly.. well just everything about it. I think I could rewatch that episode endlessly, its so beautiful.

Yeah, that particular piece at the end from Dan Romer is fantastic. It's called "Doctor Eleven":

That episode also features one of the show's two great uses of A Tribe Called Quest. "Excursions" from The Low End Theory is great.

Also, did you watch all the way through the credits on that episode? There's a final line that comes right at the very end:

Spoiler

The older Kirsten emotionally tells Frank's remains: "I wanted to say thank you... for letting me stay here." Basically the end of her farewell to him in her memory of having visited the apartment years later, or her imagined visit to it.

ETA: Oh, so cool. Googled a bit to see what Romer said about "Doctor Eleven", and he revealed that the series showrunner Patrick Somerville was the person playing the banjo for the piece.

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I finished the show. Yep its the best thing I've seen since I watch Succession a couple of weeks ago!! I loved it though, I was leaking tears at so many moments it's hard to even count them. 

So I thought I would look up the plot of the book as so many people seem to be saying how different the show is. Obviously that is not a great way to experience the plot, but just from reading it, its really confusing as it feels like the bits that stayed with me the longest, the most emotionally satisfying parts, were not even in the book? 

 

Spoiler

So Kirsten and Jeevan don't spend the first year together? Is that right? That's so strange. It's their relationship that draws me into the show. That episode with them and Frank in the apartment is maybe my favourite.. and I'm guessing thats not in the book?


Plus giving Miranda much more character and a role in the story.. again one of my favourite episodes.

Ok I haven't read the book, but I seriously admire the bravery of the writers to make such big changes to the source material. It feels quite rare, too often shows and movies are beholden to what is in the pages of the book, and it ends up being clunky. 

I also didn't think the show peaked at the early stage, in fact I didn't find a single bad episode. I loved them all.

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This show wrecked me more than a few times, but particularly E6 or 7 iirc when Jeevan was remembering Kirsten. Christ.

 

So like, did they cover the entirety of the book or will there be more coming? 

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2 minutes ago, JEORDHl said:

So like, did they cover the entirety of the book or will there be more coming? 

They did. Somerville seems pretty sure that's it, but....

Quote

I know this is HBO Max, but with HBO, even if it’s billed as a limited series, we’ve seen them come back for second seasons. Is this the end of the book in your eyes or is there more story to tell?

I think it’s the end. I mean, it’s kind of like [how] I felt about ‘Maniac,’ too, is a tremendous amount of world building, talent, energy, time, love put into making this extremely expansive universe and also editorial language and the costuming and the collection of humans who came together to make this, not to mention Dan Romer’s score. You spend years making these things, and it seems impossible to just sort of not keep going, but at the same time, I don’t know. It feels kind of right, too. Everything ends. So we sold it as a limited series, and to me, it’s a limited series. That said, Year 25 seems like kind of an interesting space, I have to say.

 

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