by Mike Hilty, Contributing Writer
I took a psychology class in college, and when we talked about memories, someone asked about amnesia. This set our professor off on a giant rant about how Hollywood’s use of amnesia, among other mental illnesses, was so far off from the truth that they are mainly used to serve the plot and shouldn’t be taken seriously. As someone who loves movies and TV shows, I know how often memory loss is used as a trope that can help push a story forward. I certainly get it, but it seems like an easy device to use to get the characters where you need to be, when you need them to be there.
Surface, created by Veronica West, tells the story of Sophie (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). She survives a traumatic injury that leaves her with extreme memory loss. The people around her, including her friend Caroline (Ari Graynor) and husband James (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), have to help pick up the pieces of the terrible accident. One day, Sophie has an encounter with Baden (Stephan James), and her whole life is turned upside down as she tries to figure out who she is and what happened to her. Surface is eight episodes and is currently streaming on Apple TV+.
Trigger warning for Surface. This show involves a lot of elements like mental health, domestic disputes, and suicide. The suicide elements are particularly hard to watch, potentially for those who are struggling. So if this is something you are potentially struggling with, think about it long and hard before picking up this show. As weird as it sounds to say, viewer discretion advised, I did find it a little weird Apple didn’t give more trigger warnings about this when the show came on. Maybe it’s just me, but if things like flashing lights and frightening images can get a notice in front of TV shows nowadays, something about suicide should be there too.
Surface is a mystery through and through. There are certain elements of the mystery I found really compelling and strong. Anchored in this mystery, though, are a lot of layers that do require some paying attention to, to keep everything straight. I found myself rewinding this a few times to make sure I was keeping everything on the correct path. Maybe this is a testament to the story, but maybe it’s also a testament to the mystery being a little bit of a mess.
As always, Mbatha-Raw gives a solid performance. She’s carving out a pretty great television résumé as of late. Sophie is a complicated character, but Mbatha-Raw helps the audience find empathy with her so we can root for her to be successful in her treatment. She has great chemistry with most of the cast, particularly Baden. I bought their chemistry more than I bought the chemistry between her and her husband. Throughout the course of the series, Sophie’s backstory and what happened to her come into better focus. This invites more questions and keeps the mystery going. Whether or not you buy into it, is an entirely different story.
Mbatha-Raw unfortunately can’t save everything in Surface. There’s a lot that isn’t great about the show, starting with the distracting dialogue. This is reaching full-on soap opera levels of bad dialogue. It also doesn’t help that a lot of people are definitely overacting. The performers make choices about how much to get emotional during certain parts, and it’s distracting with how bad some people are during the series.
Certain characters aren’t developed enough or aren’t given enough to do to justify their existence in the show. Caroline, for instance, should have more to do; however, she’s mainly there to get the money. No backstory or context about her relationship with Sophie is given. Baden also doesn’t get a lot of storyline besides his interactions with Sophie. Once we figure out who he is and what his role is, no other context is given as to how he came to be in his current situation.
Perhaps what that bothered me the most was the role of Sophie’s psychologist Hannah (Marianne Jean-Baptiste). For a psychologist, it feels like she’s not supportive, and is almost gaslighting Sophie with some of her statements. It’s distracting how bad she is. The other thing that bothered me a lot was the ending. The end jumps into a storyline teased earlier in the episode, but isn’t set up well enough for me to remotely care. I was frustrated because it’s a storyline that felt unnecessary and detracted from the focus of Sophie’s injury. The other thing about the end is that Sophie makes a choice to do something in order for her to get where she needs to be. I found that really distasteful and even a little disrespectful. What she does is treated like a prop, and it just felt a little crass.
Surface has a little too much drama and too many layers to the mystery to unpack, and is filled with characters who are wasted or unlikeable. I was on board for the first few episodes but by the end, it lost me. It got to the point where I probably won’t be investing in season two if it does get renewed. The direction the story goes in felt lifeless and weird. Not even Mbatha-Raw could save this, despite the fact that she’s generally fine in the role. This is a miss for Apple TV+, and one that could have been better, had there been some tweaks. There’s appeal here, just not for me.
Score: 6/10
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