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

Yesterday: And I Love It

Well, my wife and I just saw Yesterday, having taped it last week on HBO, and we loved it.  This is contrary to some otherwise worthy critics, but what else is new.

The premise, that some kind of solar flash causes just about everyone in the world to have no memory of the Beatles, except a struggling young songwriter, Jack Malik, who remembers the Beatles and all of their songs, was a nice, even brilliant, piece of science fantasy.  It's a set-up Mark Twain would've been proud of, not to mention all kinds of more recent science fiction and fantasy writers.

And the song delivery was excellent - Himesh Patel, who played Jack, has a fine voice.  Yesterday would've been enjoyable, just because of all of those wonderful Beatles songs, even if the plot was bad or rickety.  As it was, the plot was good enough, with everything from true love to commerciality and its drawbacks as Jack becomes world famous - as a writer of fabulous (Beatles) songs - given a solid workout.

And there were some points of sheer, heart-breaking incandescence.  As I a science fiction writer, I've explored John Lennon not being killed more than once - see my Loose Ends Saga - but Yesterday explored it in a unique way.   They got an actor to look just as Lennon might in his 70s, and even if his voice and accent weren't perfect, just his face was enough to nearly stop your heart.

Back to the plot, there were some good jokes on jokes woven into the story, such as the oft-commented upon pressure by Ed Sheeran (who plays himself) on Jack to the change the title of "his" song to "Hey, Dude".  And the dream sequences were handled very well, including the oddities of Jack's dreams, as when Paul and Ringo show up in Jack's nightmare as the true writers of the Beatles songs.

So, hats off to Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis for creating this movie, to Himesh Patel and Lily James and Ed Sheeran for memorable performances, and to the Beatles for such peerless music.  I predict that Yesterday will become a much-loved classic.