When COVID-19 spread from its
original stomping grounds in China across the world, countries buckled down in
hope that any infections would soon pass. When the outbreak became a global
pandemic and cases began to skyrocket, humanity went into enforced isolation to
stem the tide. In some corners of the mind however, there have been fears that
the virus would overwhelm all safety protocols and the death toll would surpass
any damage control, like a zombie apocalypse but without zombies. That
worst-case scenario thankfully never happened, but one wonders how life might
have changed otherwise. Now an HBO Max miniseries adapting a 2014 novel might
give streaming viewers a glimpse.
Entertainment Weekly has it that HBO Max has released their first
teaser for “Station Eleven,” a limited series based on a book by Emily St. John
Mandel. The story follows the viewpoints of several characters over the span of
two decades after human civilization is laid low by a super-flu pandemic. If
that is not eerily similar to the current COVID pandemic, but with a worse
outcome for the world, then nothing is. One of this miniseries’ several executive
producers and episode directors is Hiro Murai, who worked on the 2016 FX
comedy-drama series “Atlanta.”
The teaser starts with a scenario
immortalized in the early stages of the real-life COVID pandemic, a person
engaged in panic-buying of plentiful foodstuffs and supplies from a department
store. Unlike with COVID, the reaction to the “Georgia Flu” pandemic in this
show is more subdued. As a result, the effects are more devastating, with
communities being cut off from the outside world. In this post-pandemic
setting, various characters – some of whom were too young to remember a “time
before” – try to survive in a world where few people remain.
“Station Eleven” stars Himesh
Patel as Jeevan, a journalist-turned paramedic, who encounters relatives and
friends of film and stage actor Arthur Leander, whose super-flu death he
witnesses. Among these people is Leander’s child costar in a production of “King
Lear,” Kirsten, with whom Jeevan does the panic-buying scene at the trailer
(Matilda Lawler). Kirsten also appears as an adult (Mackenzie Davis), whose
viewpoint is set in the decades after the start of the pandemic, living with a
community of survivors. Other “Station Eleven” cast members include David
Wilmot, Nabhaan Rizwan, Lori Petty and Daniel Zovatto.
The limited series is due to
premiere on HBO Max streaming next month, December 16. For some viewers living
in a COVID world, this show might come across as “too soon,” but it still
promises to be an engaging story, as written years before the current pandemic
became a reality.
Image courtesy of ELLE.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment