Dispatches From Elsewhere

[phantom_power]

This is a series starring and created by Jason Segal (but don't let that put you off) and was on Sky Atlantic (I think) and now on Amazon Prime

It reminds me of season 1 of Legion; playful, confusing, oblique, emotional. I am up to episode 5 and loving it. It is based on the documentary The Institute about some sort of immersive reality game that happened in LA in the early 2000s. There are some great performances from Segal, Sally Field, Andre Benjamin and particularly Richard E Grant.

It is the sort of series that might struggle to stick the landing (see Legion) but I have hopes that it seems to know what it is doing and where it is going as it is a limited series rather than an ongoing thing

[olliebean]

It is the sort of series that might struggle to stick the landing

Spoiler:

Spoiler alert

it goes a bit skew-whiff at the end, and not in a good way. You will probably cringe.

[close]

[phantom_power]

Yeah I did cringe a bit but in the end I thought that something so self-indulgent was actually pretty brave and very in keeping with the themes of the show.

One thing that I loved about the show, among many, is the depiction of Simone. I think it is the closest you will get in the current world we live in to having a trans character where their identity is not the whole reason for her existence in the show. For the first half of the the season she just is, existing as a fully rounded character the same as all the others. It does then delve into the challenges she faces but in a completely organic way, and completely realistic and sympathetic, to this SWM eyes at least. And then on top of that it has a relationship between a cis man and a trans woman that is not sensationalist or mined for drama, other than what evolved naturally from the characters of the people involved.

Overall I loved the show and the characters. I have a soft spot for that sort of magical realism and characters battling their worries and fears about their life and personality but it also looks fantastic and has some great acting.

[Noodle Lizard]

Only just got round to watching it myself, but I'm surprised it didn't get more attention!

It's an interesting one. I am (or was) fairly heavily involved in the Los Angeles "Alternate Reality Game" scene, most of which owes its DNA to the real-life Jejune Institute, so it was really weird to see that niche sort of thing represented in a major TV show. Some of the consultants and writers were themselves participants in some of the ARGs that came in its wake. That being said, it's definitely "a TV show", and it's not an especially realistic representation of how these kinds of things really operate, both from a participants' and creators' perspective, but I suppose it's not really trying to be.

My first impression was that it suffered from a serious lack of cohesion, as if they changed their minds about what they wanted the show to be several times over during the writing process. The fact that almost every episode has a different writer (despite it being a self-contained miniseries) probably contributes to that. The Fredwynn character in particular suffers from this - he's introduced as an obsessive yet clearly intelligent guy, but in some episodes where he's not the focus, he just becomes a mentally subnormal sitcom character. From the off, the show has a tendency to be incredibly pleased with itself as well, especially in the fourth-wall breaking monologues from Richard E. Grant. Despite how much it presents itself as defying convention and "how deep does the rabbit hole go?" and all that, it's actually very sophomoric and spends far more time explaining itself than it does leaving you to wonder.

Of course, this is all in reference to the main thrust of the series. I'll chat about "the rest" when I can be a bit more forgiving with spoilers.

[canted_angle_again]

I bloody loved that show, the soundtrack is also great. I've watched it three times now through showing it to friends.

[phantom_power]

Yeah it is such a great looking and sounding show that I can forgive it some of its narrative flaws

[olliebean]

I still think it did pretty much the opposite of sticking the landing, tbh. The journey was great, though.

[phantom_power]

I like the fact it tried to do something different, even if it didn't manage it