A lot of the reviewers here seem triggered by.. Something. I guess the subject is a lot for people to handle right now. Others angrily use the word 'woke'. It might be one of these shows where critic reviews rave, and audiences will be turned off by the quiet pacing of it all, the time jumping, and others just will not accept that the show has taken the point of view of a female artist as a main protagonist with a global catastrophe as the backdrop.
Important to note it was based on a book, one that was weirdly prescient, and also very surreal and disjointed in its structure. Fans of the book I think will be pleasantly surprised, as many of the qualities here are retained. The adaptation is unique to a lot of current TV, it's haunting and quiet, and I actually appreciated the slowness of pace; I'm somebody who rarely gets gripped by shows unless they have a cinematic quality (the Wire, Chernobyl, and a few others). So it will likely not appeal to people wishing for quick resolution, a faster pace, and exposition to answer their questions. There aren't people screaming and running for the hills. There aren't talking heads on newscasts explaining exactly what's going on. It's all very understated.
Fans of the show Atlanta will notice Hiro Murai's trademarks as a director in its pilot episode; it's nicely shot, and there's a kind of detached humor masking a lot of the seriousness, and sadness. Other very capable hands switch off directing duties for subsequent episodes, retaining that consistent tone throughout.
The show is not about the catastrophe at hand, nor about how the whole world is dealing with it. Instead the show is about a resilient little girl who comes of age during a devastating pandemic, having lost all of her loved ones and protectors as a child, and is doing what she can to stay above water. I thought her character, who is scarred by those events, but remains hopeful, was believable. The younger version of her, played by Matilda Lawler (she's brilliant), and the older version, by Mackenzie Davis are wonderfully drawn and acted. I don't quite understand why users here are not moved by these performances.
The Hunger Games or typical post apocalyptic story this is not. And yeah, COVID will be a part of our lives for the foreseeable future. I won't debate whether it's proper to make material out of ongoing tragedy (shooting began on this before the pandemic), only that Station Eleven is very well made; and I understand why many people will be turned off and not want to be reminded of the hard reality by way of HBO dramatization.
