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Reviews
Dispatches from Elsewhere (2020)
A surreal series that shows human connection through meta-narrative
TL;DR: I love how this series constantly changes perspectives and recontextualizes the story. Also I love the hyper-realness of the whole thing.
I came to this series already knowing about the ARG portion of the series. For those unaware, the series was accomopanied (before its release) with an Alternate-reality game that introduced several elements of the plot. Look up "Elsewhere ARG" on youtube and you'll find out more about it. Since the series itself centers around an ARG this works quite well to support the underlying themes of the story.
I watched the series in 2 days, fascinated by the way it interweaved meta-narrative through the story. Some elements in the show are directly linked to the ARG such as the white van and several secret messages that where hidden in plain sight. The thematic messaging was quite on the nose some-times and the acting wasn't superb from everyone but real when it needed to be. The music from Atticus Ross was quite good.
The story itself isn't always clear, we switch perspective from person to person and there is an untrustworthy narrator (despite what he might have said) that is carefully manipulating the information the viewer knows. Once you switch to another person the perspective on the story changes and the 'game' changes to support the character. The story has a different drive since the characters want different things. Each of the characters is working through some internal strife about a personallity trait. Fredwin wants to know all of the truth, Peter doesn't like anything, Simone feels apart from this world and flees from it and Janice feels she has no identity without her husband. Further on in the series the perspective is changed drastically when the 'game' ends. Clara is actually a story Lee told herself and isn't real. She is played by an actress within the game. When the truth about that is revealed a mysterious boy that has appeared throughout the story is shown to be a black-and-white version of 'Jasons' past self. Then at the end the world changes and all of the main characters are recontextualized within a new world (closer to the real Jason Segal) where they have different stories. Jason is writes the story for this series at the end and pitches it. The whole thing has brought up ideas surrounding the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and how we tell our stories to others. It tries to show that the surreal and real are much closer than we'd like to think. That we are connected to each other in ways we cannot see.
The 'game' within the series tries to be seen as real but simultaneously has a taboo about people taking it too seriously. I thought it was fitting that the jejune institute has a profit motive that forces Lee to sacrifice personal ideals. This combined with the many different versions of Octavio Esq. throughout makes me think of hyper-realism. The veil of realism that is realistic and fake at the same time.
At the 'end' of the game when Peter has his breakdown he is obviously still enchanted by it. He believes in the veil and it turns out that even though it wasn't completely true there was some truth to the whole story. Just like even though the series isn't your story there is some truth in it that can be translated to you.
Sorry for my rambling. This story had a lot for me to digest and I will be rewatching it in the future.