by Mike Hilty, Contributing Writer
Everyone has a moment when COVID-19 became real. Mine happened one night when I was hosting trivia at a local bar where I live (still do: Egghead Pub Trivia at The Mill in Mundelein, Illinois at 7:30pm on Wednesdays). It was the night that a lot of stuff came to a head. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson got COVID-19, the NBA shut down their season after a player tested positive for COVID-19, and air travel was restricted into the US. I made all of these announcements so nonchalantly on the microphone, and everyone in the bar had two main questions: why are we all here, AND was it even safe to be here anymore? That would be the last time I hosted trivia in 2020 and I wouldn’t go back to hosting trivia until July 2021, you know right on time for the delta variant surge. Shortly after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, I started processing the news by watching movies like Contagion and Outbreak. Had it come out by then, I probably would have watched Station Eleven as well.
Station Eleven, based on the novel of the same name by Emily St. John Mandel, deals with the aftermath of a devastating flu strain that wipes out most of humanity. We follow Kirsten, the young version played by Matilda Lawler and the older version played by MacKenzie Davis, a young actress who finds herself in a tricky situation when one of her co-stars in King Lear, Arthur Leander (Gael García Bernal) collapses on stage. She meets Jeevan (Himesh Patel), and as the world is turned into chaos, they set out to survive the onslaught of death and disease. These two main timelines are during the very early days of the global flu outbreak and then jumps 20 years into the future after humanity has adapted and grappled with what’s next after dire circumstances.
There’s a lot to pack in this miniseries. I didn’t read the book, so I don’t have a whole lot of perspective from that point. I’ll strictly be focusing on the show. Station Eleven has a very diverse cast of characters, both during the early days of the outbreak and during the time jump. There’s a bit of a small world vibe because there’s a lot of interconnected stories. This takes place at first in Chicago but then expands to the entire upper Midwest.
On this show, the performances are top notch. Particular shout-outs go to Davis and Lawler for their adaptations of Kirsten, who is a complex character, filled with lots of trauma and nuance. She has had a lot thrown at her at a particularly tough time for humanity. She grows to be a strong and capable young woman with a talent for acting. She’s also a strong and fierce heroine and loyal to her groups, both in the early days and in the time jump. I was particularly impressed with Lawler, who’s in the infancy of her acting career, but is perhaps the best performer for the show. Davis is no slouch either as she is asked to carry a lot of scenes by herself. She is one of the best performers we have today, and she was a joy to watch in this. Patel and Nabhaan Rizwan, who plays Jeevan’s brother Frank, have great chemistry and their relationship with Kirsten is really sold throughout the series. Their storyline and episodes together were by far my favorites of the season. Particular accolades go to the pilot, episodes seven and nine, and the finale as outstanding television. There are also some people I haven’t seen in a while that were great to see.
The story is a bit all over the place. It’s sometimes hard to keep track of the story because it’s not linear, but rather interwoven together between the past and the present. I have to admit, I much rather would have wanted to stay in the early days rather than the time jump. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the stuff in the future though. However, the chaos of the early days when society is falling apart and people are struggling to survive yielded more interesting results. Some of the story choices that they focused on in the future were a bit odd. The big issue that comes up with such a wide story like this is that some characters do feel underdeveloped and shafted for time. I wanted to learn more about Station Eleven (within the context of the show, rather than the show itself), but rather than hearing the entire story behind Station Eleven, I think the point of it is rather how it helped others get through a tough time (more on that later)
From a technical standpoint, the cinematography and the music were great. A lot of time is spent in winter and outdoors, so there’s a lot of natural beauty that is shot on film, particularly the scenes in the future when people are mainly outdoors and walking around. There’s a specific aerial shot in a sea of people outside the hospital in the first episode, and I can’t imagine that much traffic in a situation like that. But it was also a jarring visual to show the gravity of what is happening with this flu strain. It definitely gave me trigger feelings. The music was great as well. Not only the score, but also the use of certain songs, was effective. There were lots of recognizable songs, particularly from the ‘90s, which I greatly appreciated.
The themes in this show gave me a lot to think about, particularly since we as a society are currently going through a pandemic. There’s a real focus on the time after tragedy; what do you do then? Do you (or we as a collective group) remember the past, or do we completely live in the now and future? One thing that is said frequently in Station Eleven is, “there’s no before.” People are so desperate to move on that we can’t (or perhaps won’t) encompass what our scars mean in a healthy way, and have it become a part of us. This comes at a time when COVID-19 has destroyed a lot of aspects of our life, but has also irreversibly altered the stories of many people. How can we put our trauma behind us in a way that is healthy, but also becomes a part of our story? These are things that Station Eleven wrestles with. There’s also joy to be experienced in tragedy. There are new relationships you build, new skills you learn, new developments, and new personal growth. How someone gets through trauma can come for a variety of sources, too. I really wanted to hear the entire story of Station Eleven, but I think the point is that it was used to help get people through a particular tough time in someone’s life. All these themes are triggering in a way because unfortunately, these are all things we will have to grapple with soon enough.
Greatest Hits: here are my favorite moments of the season in no particular order (shoutout to the show Lost for giving me the idea). I will make these as spoiler-free as possible:
- That entire first episode is terrifying, but sets up the situation so well. I watched it a few weeks ago and didn’t realize how much of a trigger it could have been due COVID.
- Today… we celebrate our Independence Day!
- When Kirsten is surrounded by the Undersea and there’s a wide shot of her in the woods — this really did have great cinematography.
- Shakespeare play props.
- Jeev. Little white girl.
- The First Noel.
- Excursions.
- Jeevan walking from person to person during the winter solstice.
- Kirsten’s play with Frank and Jeevan… in fact that entire episode was fantastic.
- I remember damage.
- The flu took everyone. It matters when you get someone back.
- Raising kids is hard. Going in and out of sync. It’s like a yo-yo
- You walked her home.
This could have been a little tighter, but I greatly enjoyed Station Eleven more than I thought I would. I watched the first episode right around the time the Omicron surge in the US started to become a thing. I was really triggered, but I’m glad I stuck with it. I also hope this will be standalone and there won’t be any additional seasons. Let this stand out as it is. The characters are great and it’s a rather hopeful message in terrible circumstances. If you’re having a hard time with the pandemic, this one might be worth a watch.
Grade: A-
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