What should a tv show ask of me?

do you like me, human?

yeah, and the acting is great too.

It really is. Across the board.

I mean Mackenzie fucking Davis, man.

SPOILERS BELOW

I'm team Malloy on this one, mostly. I found the first episode of Station Eleven compelling and I agree with Joe that the third episode (the Arthur/Miranda one) is very good. I also enjoyed episode seven (when we got back to Frank's apartment) in isolation, though its position within the narrative arc was maddening. So it has its merits. But I found that as the show went on, the world it created was increasingly simple and convenient--how compelling the mythology of Station Eleven is as ur-text of the post-apocalyptic US really fades when you realize it's just the same comic book that two kids who survived happened to obsessively read, and that the fact that these are two of the five extant copies that make it through a pandemic that kills 99% of the population? There's no real mystery to figure out once the lines are crudely connected. I watched most of the back half while passively playing chess on my phone.

Well that explains it then.

It is not a merit of the show that I found myself more compelled by the ancient game than the moving pictures.

I mean, if you like Downton Abbey you might like this one, I guess. It's a nearly identical Upstairs, Downstairs format. I never cared for DA but I figured that my distaste for that vile little isle might have played a role, and the Gilded Age as a moment of social upheaval is pretty inherently compelling to me--the ideal version of this show is something like Deadwood for NYC. But a lot of this presents as melodramatic palace intrigue, the acting isn't very good and the telegraphed sympathy for the complicated position of the wealthy is distasteful, to say the least.

Sure. But choosing not to fully engage is on you.

Do you play chess while reading the toughest parts of 2666?

Maybe you fully engaged for three episodes and then found you didn't want to anymore. Fair enough. But then why even have it on?

Must one sit, eyes glued to the screen, through all nine hours before one is allowed to have an opinion? I did not find it to be a compelling show and, like Malloy, I did not find that it asked much of me.

And yes I 100% play chess while reading.

Alright, well there you go.

Different strokes.

Im not sure i needed more than what i got with this show.

For starters I'd like a compelling reason why the cult leader who was like eight when the pandemic hit and hasn't read a book other than Station Eleven in two decades was able to seamlessly stage lines from Hamlet with his mother (who he hasn't seen in two decades) with no advanced notice, and then is able to compellingly perform the titular role 12 hours later.

i just got to the “capitalism wiki” scene. what a stupid fucking show

Blast? Speak American, damnit.

Oh god don't even remember this

the show is full of weird moments. What i wanted from it was great visuals, great acting and a ton of heart.

Example, im a huge euphoria fan. The scrip is nonsense sometimes. Do i care?

No.

I like the idea of watching a wolf stalk a few hundred head of domesticated cattle across a mountain range that will inevitably become a tourist town and wondering if the whole idea of progress isn't the villain after all. I also just really like cowboy things that get bloody.