When one is dedicated to cinematographic journalism, the informative analysis of feature films, television series and the most significant current affairs of the global industry (provided that the target audience of the medium allows it), one of the things that one does apart to have an archive of viewings is to search for the best works of each season; without ignoring what was released in the previous ones and that could have been lost. To separate the grain from the chaff with honest criteria, in short. And Station Eleven (Patrick Somerville, 2021), without a doubt, is not straw.
The miniseries adaptation of the novel written by Emily St John Mandel (2014) is revealed as one of the juiciest of last year. Its ten episodes build a strange polyhedral drama just like someone putting together a puzzle in which the pieces, always interesting and placed with a non-linear narrative, are decisive moments in the lives of characters as Kirsten Raymonde (Matilda Lawler and Mackenzie Davis), Jeevan Chaudhary (Himesh Patel), Clark Thompson (David Wilmot), the Prophet (Daniel Zovatto) or Miranda Carroll (Danielle Deadwyler).
Thinking about 'The Leftovers' when watching 'Estación Once'
HBO
Those of us who enjoy so much with that wonderful madness that is The Leftovers (Damon Lindeloff and Tom Perrotta, 2014-2017), which is also based on a novel with the same name as the second (2011), we recognize certain ingredients of its essence in Estación Once. Both recount the psychological and emotional consequences of a terrifying event that occurred on a global scale for their protagonists, for example; in the one created by Patrick Somerville, much more devastating despite its luminous spirit to a greater degree.
See Station Eleven on HBO Max
The two fictions deal with the different perspectives of those who remain in the face of what happened. The Leftovers, regarding the terrible courses of faith; and Station Eleven, like the one by Damon Lindeloff and Tom Perrotta, about hope, the weight of the past and what to do with the future. In both there is excessive pain, sectarian elections and amazing proposals in certain chapters: “International Assassin” (2×08) and “The Most Powerful Man in the World (and His Identical Twin Brother )” , in one, and “Goodbye My Damaged Home” (1×07), in the other.
The work of its cast is delicious. Like the one that made Kevin Garvey (Justin Theroux), Nora Durst (Carrie Coon), Matt Jamison (Christopher Eccleston), Laurie Garvey (Amy Brenneman), John Murphy (Kevin Carroll) or the incredible Patti Levin (Ann Dowd) unforgettable. But the most important thing about what The Leftovers and Estación Once are alike is that their writers know how to cause us great astonishment by the eccentric decisions they make and, especially, because both television series, on HBO Max, they have the extraordinary virtue of the unpredictable.
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