“To the monsters, we’re the monsters,” says a creepy stranger to Kirsten, adding, “…I guess” in a failed attempt to make himself less creepy. Then again, she knows, and he wanted her to know. Something is not right. Something unknown is known. This intrusion of potential danger is, of course, set up with the first shot — a feral Young Kirsten, holding a knife, looking like she’s survived all kinds of hell but still young and fragile.
If you have a few minutes to play the audio you’ll hear some of my thoughts on this episode that, on first viewing I liked quite a lot — more Jeevan and Young Kirsten, the introduction of the Traveling Symphony (although I can’t say that’s my favorite element to the series, though it’s unique), and the realization that, what, roughly 99 percent of people who got the flu died? Yikes. But as Jeevan says, “Not everybody.” And our post-apocalyptic tale moves forward.
Loved all the participation in the comments last week. Keep it up and feel free to “like” another person’s comments, which gives some validation to their key points or thoughts that you liked (and it also, in a weird way, helps the newsletter since Substack seems to rank them not just by paid subscribers — it’s way to early on that count for me — but also by popularity, which seems to at least partly be based on user activity, and The Bastard Machine is, for the category of television, No. 1 there, which is nice).
As ever, I’ll continue to swoop into the comments and to add new thoughts. But the audio above is my longer take. So, what did everyone think? And a reminder for those who have already seen “Station Eleven” to confine comments to this particular episode. It can sometimes be tricky, I know. OK, have at it through next Friday. If you know anyone else who might be interested in The Box Set viewing club — or who might need a prod to come over to Substack, by all means tell them we’ve got room.
The Box Set: "Station Eleven."