Solos

This is a fascinating and superb piece of experimental drama. I recall the first time I ever saw something similar as a child. Whoopi Goldberg did The Telephone in 1988. I was mesmerised, as a love of both screen and theatre, it was the perfect presentation and merging of both mediums.

Then in 2002 Johanna Lumley did Up in Town. It is seldom we see performers of this calibre doing theatrical work on screen like this and living in South Africa makes is difficult and expensive to travel. So now we get to see these performers at their best as well. This might be a product of Covid, but I sure hope that we get to see more of this in the times to come.

This series is not for the average audience, but for an audience who are more discerning and enjoys higher end drama. If during these times, if we can't have anything else, we can at least have some culture.

It's essentially a series of philosophy class lectures dressed up with sci-fi fixings. The sci fi factor is definitely secondary to the philosophical factor here. Way too much time spent on famous actors pontificating about a mix of contemporary social issues under the guise of science fiction, and not in a meaningful or poignant way.

Being a science fiction fan I just had to check out "Amazon Prime Video's" "Solos" series as it's an anthology that involved different characters and different stories. Most episodes involved life struggles that involved family, future, time travel, memory, loss, and dealing with pain. The stories and episodes are written well and they twist some you the viewer have to pay attention and it featured well known stars as Anne Hathaway, Morgan Freeman, Anthony Mackie, Helen Mirren and other up and comers and known stars. However watching thru each episode as the characters memory loss and time problems are related and you see things are tied up and a conclusion is reached in the final episode(Note: watch the Morgan Freeman episode last!) Overall okay good decent anthology series that was different as you the viewer can make your own call as it's spin on life, space, time, future, past, connection, and memory experience that was an interesting watch.

Those of you who don't want to watch past episode 1, I say keep going. Anne Hathaway's ridiculous overacting along with I consider to be a poorly written story was a bad lead in. The second episode with Anthony Mackie was a nice, well written episode, but the third with Helen Mirren fell a little flat with me, but was not awful and was helped by Mirren's acting ability. Then we hot another speed bump with episode four. A nice concept, but poorly executed especially when we hit the main monologue by Uzo Aduba that is just so cringeworthy it ruined anything it may have been building to. Episode five with Constance Wu was well acted, but poorly written to me. And you could see the payoff coming from a mile away. It was not smart, it was not clever, it was just predictable. Episode six with Nicole Beharie was by far the worst segment. She gave a nice performance that was ruined by a bad story, with bad writing.... Then we have episode seven with Morgan Freeman which to me was absolutely brilliant. It made it worth sticking it out, because you have to watch it last. Why? Because regardless of what others have said in reviews, the stories are connected. Freeman does narrate the beginning of every episode after all, if you did not notice. So all in all, I say watch all the segments. The end if worth the journey, the good and the bad parts.

Not sure why people make reference to Black Mirror. The only similarity is that each episode presents a stand alone story.

Anyway. I thought these were mostly interesting tales that make you think. 7/10 is an honest review but marking it 10/10 just because I think the reviews achieved so far are undeserved. I also think where you are in life will change how you feel about each story. I would be curious to see the demographics of the poor reviews. Watch them. They really are entertaining and thoughtful.