Station Eleven, Don't Look Up, and grab bag
Station Eleven, Don't Look Up, and grab bag
Hello!
On this week’s episode of Criticism Is Dead, we discuss Station Eleven and Don’t Look Up, two visions of the end of the world.
Click here to listen to the full episode on the web
Or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Pocket Casts, Google Podcasts, or other podcast apps.
03:33 Station Eleven, streaming on HBO Max, is a compelling miniseries about what it meant to not just survive, but to live and rebuild.
Critics are right when they call this a frontier story more than a typical apocalypse story. The mantra that rings through is “survival is insufficient” — an answer to the existential question of what is truly important for humanity in the wake of devastation and beyond. Storytelling is, the Traveling Symphony suggests; stories, music, drama, community, found family. These are ways to transcend the brutality of living, especially in a world that has been flipped upside-down by a pandemic and collapse even more deadly than the one we are currently experiencing.
There’s some unevenness to this series, but overall, it’s still quite strong, with character-driven episodes shining through as standouts. The world presented within Station Eleven — and the novel on which it is based, with several deviations — is fascinating, and the emotions are real. Really good show so far.
23:22 Netflix’s star-studded Don’t Look Up is a perfectly okay Movie With a Message that has attracted far more discourse than anyone needs.
Sorry this is going to be annoying, but truly, the thing that is most notable about this film is the sheer amount of controversy it has provoked. On the one hand, the filmmakers aren’t doing themselves any favors by accusing all naysayers of being climate change deniers or cynics or what have you. On the other hand, there are definitely viewers out there who have probably gone a bit overboard with declaring this movie is awful because it isn’t going to stop climate change — yeah, no shit. Both of these viewpoints are victim to the same fallacy: the conflation of art/film/Hollywood with meaningful, material, political action.
You can say that Don’t Look Up wasn’t ambitious enough from a political storytelling point of view because it chose easy narrative targets (on that front, I found this thread by Richard Estes smart). But I don’t expect a particularly comprehensive articulation of anti-military, anti-imperialism, anti-capitalist theory from a work like this; nor do I expect it to prompt the action and awareness that its filmmakers seem to believe it will. At the end of the day, it’s a fine, mildly entertaining movie with some genuinely moving parts. No more, no less.
43:17 Plus, instead of our normal culture notes, we do a little grab bag on things we’ve watched recently but haven’t had a chance to mention.
Pen15 (this is for you, Hanna!)
Insecure finale
The Matrix Resurrections
Emily in Paris season 2
Selling Tampa
Queer Eye season 6
Bonus links
As Pelin referenced during the episode, here’s Bolu Babalola on Insecure and the messiness of love.
I hope you’re keeping up with Yellowjackets — and if you’re not, reminder that you can find free trials all over the place!!
You wanna be on TOP??
A nice essay about being offline and then being on again.
That’s it for now! See you next week.
— Jenny
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram!
Please rate/review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Pocket Casts, Google Podcasts, WHEREVER, and tell a friend about us!
Inquiries, complaints, and recs for what to watch can go to criticismisdead@gmail.com.
Some credits:
Music: REEKAH
Artwork and design: Sara Macias and Andrew Liu