What I'm Watching and Why: Forever - Season 1 - from Amazon Studios
The story of breaking away from the dissatisfaction of mundane life in the suburbs is nothing novel. It’s a fairly common theme because once your life settles into its trajectory, and the basic “what happens next” questions have been answered, there can be a lull of excitement. This is why we have the age-old midlife crisis, after all. New cars, affairs, jumping out of planes—people look for thrills when life might be less thrilling. We still have the afterlife, with all its glory and excitement, to look forward to though, right? But what happens when the afterlife is no more exciting than your current living life? What happens when you join the afterlife only to find there is no one to even address the “meaning of life” questions? What happens when you escape all of this earth-living to only find that in the afterlife, you still have to cook chicken, mow your lawn, and drawers get stuck. But there is no death in sight this time. This is forever. (And this is… “Forever.”)
Amazon Studio’s 2018 series, Forever, expresses this notion. And I say “expresses” because that is really what it does. It lays it out there. Quietly. Taking its time. Expressing itself. If you ever watch a show with subtitles on, you’ll see music is labeled; the amazon subtitles for this show call the music “pensive,” “thoughtful,” serious.” That is what this show is. It’s funny, sometimes, yes. Darkly and poignantly so. But it’s quiet. Very quiet. And slow. The show has no qualms about letting characters take pauses before they speak (isn’t that the beauty of writing for online networks? No 22-minute strict formula, right?).
While the show is quiet, it is not dull. The quietness is haunting and suspenseful. Where I’m at in the series, about half-way through, nothing that bad has really happened yet (except a few deaths, of course—we wouldn’t be in the afterlife without that), but I keep waiting for the other suspenseful shoe to drop. I haven’t quite figured out how dark it is going to get. There are times when I feel as though I’m being led down a path that is going to lead to some grotesque or dangerous moment, but each time I feel that way, I’m brought back before anything truly dark happens.
I’m not going to spoil too much of the plot yet. I’ll let you explore at the same time. But this show has held my interest. It’s piqued my interest, in fact. You enter the series like a lukewarm bath of familiarity, but with an ominous feeling that much more is underneath. Let’s see if what I feel are set-ups have their deserved payoff by the end of this season.
Forever’s creators are Matt Hubbard and Alan Yang (well done to these two, as I also love their writing in Parks and Rec, Master of None, and 30 Rock) and the show stars the talented Maya Rudolph, Fred Armisen, and Catherine Keener. You can find season 1 of Forever on Amazon Prime.
Now, I’ll answer some key questions which determine whether I keep watching a show or not, because there have been many a series which I drop after 1 episdoe. So, let’s ask…
Does this show entertain me/keep my interest?
Does this show surprise me?
Does this show make me think?
Do I need to shout from the rooftops about this show?
Does this show entertain me/keep my interest?
Yes. The series image (above) piqued my interest right away when I first saw it popping up on my amazon prime page. I am curious about the characters and care about them. They are relatable but interesting. The acting, direction, writing, cinemotography, music, design elements—they all work together to bring a polished, somewhat intentionally unassuming show. It’s all well-crafted and I’m never bored. As the show progresses, more and more oddities happen which leave me wondering what is next. It might be slow at times, but I’m totally with it and in it.
Does this show surprise me?
Yes. I knew nothing about this show when I started watching it. I still have read no reviews and even now, I have talked to no one about this series! There were many rom-com type set-ups in the first episode (stop reading if you don’t want to chat about the first episode or two): Will the pastor play a love interest? How will the best friend keep helping? Will June end up with the guy from Vancouver? As it turns out, these questions have no payoff. No answer. The church sequence is just a church sequence. The co-star best friend was just a cameo. Bam. Done. New Story. And just as the characters eventually admit in the afterlife, their lives as “currents” begin to fade away, these first couple episodes of the series fade away for us too. They show us that life only matters when it matters. Now we move on. So the not only has the plot surprised me, but the genre, itself surprised me at first. The music intrigues and surprises me, now and then too.
Does this show make me think?
So what themes are we chewing on here? What is the overall theme of this series? From what I’ve seen, let’s ponder…
-Nothing is as amazing as you think it is.
-When you try to reach for something amazing, and when you stretch yourself, expand, look for new experiences—time and time again, you are disappointed. Or you die.
-Contentment vs. thrills. What makes life exciting? What makes living exciting? How far will you go to find excitement? Why do some people need thrills and other can be content to just be content?
Do I need to shout from the rooftops about this show?
Not yet…I’m still chewing on this show. I have a feeling it will be one of those shows where some people will hate it. They will think it is too boring, too slow, too mundane, quiet, too unassuming. I am not one of those people. I like it. Maybe I will love it. But I’m intrigued by it.
Please note that I recently signed up as a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. I already was linking to amazon enough just for reference, so I figured I might as well participate. This just means that when you purchase my plays, or other related products, through amazon links (that I would link to anyway, whether participating or not in this program or not) that I could receive a tiny referral fee.