Station Eleven Finale: Hope and Plaudits

What a glorious, hopeful finale to the masterful television series known as Station Eleven.  An ending so uplifting, in a story of humanity beset by a virus that kills 99% of the population, that it can serve as beacon of hope, a map to a better world, in our own world, also beset by a deadly virus, but far less lethal than the deadly flu in Station Eleven.

There were so many wonderful parts of this finale.  Kirsten and Jeevan hugging near the end.  If that wasn't satisfying to the soul on the deepest level, I don't know what is.    Tyler aka the Prophet telling his mother to join him.  Even the passing around of the book that is Station Eleven -- the illustrated book within the illustrious watercolor television series -- well, that was inspiring, too.

The performance of Hamlet was great, too, especially Tyler as Hamlet not stabbing Clark as Claudius with the knife.   That knife, of course, hadn't done Tyler any real harm when Kirsten stabbed him with it, so maybe he knew that in some sense it just was a symbolic knife not a real cutting edge at all, except that it cut to the emotional core.

The music once again, in Hamlet and throughout the episode, was just superb.  I've never heard a better performance of "Midnight Train to Georgia," even from Gladys Knight and the Pips.  Georgia, the state that has become a symbol and a beacon, to use those words again, in our own democracy in our off-screen world.

Big plaudits to Dan Romer for the music.   Accolades to the brilliant acting of Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten and Matilda Lawler as her younger self and Himesh Patel as Jeevan at all ages.  In fact, every scene was boosted to admirable heights by the performances of everyone.

Station Eleven has redefined the presentation and staging of a post-apocalyptic story .  It will take its place alongside of A Canticle for Leibowitz (I read the novel but haven't seen the adaption) as a standard-bearer of portraying humanity on and after the very brink.  Kudos to Emily St. John Mandel for writing the novel (which I haven't yet read) on which the series is based and  Patrick Somerville for bringing the series to life.

See also Station Eleven 1.1-3: "Looking Over the Damage" Well Worth Seeing ... Station Eleven 1.4-5: Shakespearean Prophet ... Station Eleven 1.6-7: Time, Blake, and Bosch ... Station Eleven 1.8-9: Before and After

Station Eleven 1.6-7: Time, Blake, and Bosch

First, let me say in this review of Station Eleven 1.6 and 1.7, up on HBO Max today, that I thought episode 1.7 was the best so far in this superbly powerful series.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

The vehicle of the adult Kirsten, poisoned by darts in the present, going back to Frank's apartment in Chicago to interact with her younger self, as she observes her younger self along with Frank and Jeevan, was brilliant and brilliantly executed.   My single favorite of moment of that:  Kirsten assuring her younger self not to worry, she'll see Frank again, because, the person who is saying that, the older Kirsten, is right there in Frank's apartment, was a perfect meta-gambit to make this point.  A close second was discovering at the end that the adult Kirsten may have actually been there, in the physical apartment in the present, with Frank's dessicated corpse in the bed.

If truth be told, I've liked these earlier-set episodes, from the first episode through the airport last week to tonight's episode 7, a little more than the episodes that take place in the future (or the present, depending on how you look at it).  Probably because the near future day-after-tomorrow story is just easier to relate to.

The troubadour future, though, has its tapestry and its moments.  Episode 1.6 tonight felt like a new William Blake poem, wrapped in a Bosch painting (mostly the Dutch painter with a bit of the Amazon Prime series), with lots of choices for appropropriate music.  (Back to 1.7: The rap song by Frank was off-the-charts great.  Dan Romer gets credit for the music -- I have no idea if he wrote it or chose it.  Either way, kudos!)  If I could choose a song to add to that 1.6 tapestry, I think it would be "You Know My Name" by the Beatles. I can't exactly tell you why.  Maybe because it's at once such a negation and triumph of a song.

And my favorite moment of 1.6 was learning that that airport was the Museum.  That's a clever stroke, too.  If you think about it, airports and museums have a lot in common.

At this point, although there is a lot of competition, I'm thinking Station Eleven is up there or down there with best post-apocalypse narratives I've seen on the screen.

See also Station Eleven 1.1-3: "Looking Over the Damage" Well Worth Seeing ... Station Eleven 1.4-5: Shakespearean Prophet