Wife and I just watched the last episode of the 10 part miniseries Station Eleven last night on HBO Max. We started the series a week or so ago as my wife had read the novel over the summer. After watching the first episode I had to stop as I wanted to read the novel first, which I did, then we resumed viewing. In many ways, I wished I had not read the novel first as it clouded my viewing and the adaptation was very different. Not good/bad, just different. Did anyone else have this experience?
I thought the miniseries was very well done. I'm sure it will not be to everyone's liking and there are elements/details/events that will mess with your head. I believe they are meant to. The situation is catastrophic and everything that happens in a catastrophe cannot be explained.
This is actually one series that I plan to watch again as there are many threads and time jumps that offer connection that may have been missed on the first viewing.
I'm curious... The trailer:
I read the book and did not enjoy it that much. The trailer isn't very enticing other than an opportunity to look at Mackenzie Davis.
BenB
HalfDork
1/14/22 2:57 p.m.
My wife and I thought the series was great. Haven't read the book, yet.
Just picked the book up last week. I'm a sucker for dystopian fiction, and I enjoyed it overall. From what I've heard the miniseries may be one of those rare cases where the book was good but the movie was better.
In reply to ProDarwin :
Spoiler: The series gives more resolutions than the book.
In reply to psteav (Forum Supporter) :
Wormhole required reading
Yeah, it's one of the better series I watched recently. Well done, and good acting.
I listened to the audiobook on my way to the Challenge this year. I'm about 1/2 way through the miniseries. Honestly I feel like I'd be pretty lost just watching it cold. There are a lot of time jumps and such.
The post apocalyptic parts seem somehow bleaker on the screen than I'd imagined.
In reply to KyAllroad :
Who did the reading on the audio book? That had to be very interesting. The use of time (and location and character story arc) jumps is a lot to keep up with. I think a 2nd viewing in the future will be warranted. When you are DONE with the series I found THIS article and THIS discussion with the show's creator.
From the book, I was fascinated by how they fairly realistically dealt with the planet losing 99.99 of it's people in a very short period of time. All production stops. Existing resources start to age out and be unusable after some period of time, etc. I feel like the show translated that fairly well although some things made me scratch my head.
It was narrated by Kirsten Potter. Checked it out from my local library and listened on the Libby app (free is my jam).
I agree, losing a huge proportion of the population quickly would be bad. Not to derail your thread but it's a topic I've given some thought in the past few years. I suspect we could take a 50% die-off and while it would be a demarcation point in human history and things would be disrupted for a few years, our general lifestyle would continue. But a 90+% herd thinning? Anarchy and a decent into the dark ages. Gotta get our plague right!
This is the whole difference between Station Eleven and The Stand. Station Eleven kills off 99.99% of everyone, and it's anarchy.
The Stand kills off (IIRC) ~99% of everyone, and society immediately starts to clump back together.
