Dispatches from Elsewhere

After watching the first episode I found it intriguing yet chaotic. I kept wondering where it was going but at the same time wanting to find out. I can however now see why David Lynch loved Philadelphia so much as the city comes off as quirky as this presentation. The jury is still out for me as maybe I should smoke something before I watch the next episode?

It started off slow, got to a really interesting place and then meandered....

Off a cliff.

It's based on an interactive game that was played in SF a few years back. See the documentary THE INSTITUTE for more details.

The premise interested Segal enough that he wanted to make a series about it. Kudos for AMC to breaking out of the Zombie and vampire hell they've created for themselves but still.

If only someone had been brave enough to tell him to throw out the last episode, never to be seen again, this would've rated as high as an eight.

Instead it changes into something else entirely.

So as of yet, I don't know what to think of this one. As to what star rating I'd give this, my place holder is a 7. I hope it turns into something interesting and different, but I don't know right now. Watching this, for me, is like making a wrong turn down a road I've never been and seeing some interesting things that are a bit off and make absolutely no sense.

Do I turn back, or do I keep going? That's sort of how I feel after watching the first episode. I think I'll keep going a bit further and see where this leads.

If the story delivers, or doesn't, I'll re-edit this review. But I'll watch the next episode and see where that leads. If you like off-beat fantasy type stuff you might like this one. It's certainly off-beat. It kind of reminds me of movies like The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Brazil, and maybe even a little bit like a modern take of Alice in Wonderland thrown in. At this point. I can't decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing just yet. The writing is ok, and the story is at least intriguing, the characters are somewhat cookie-cutter at this point, but hey Sally Fields is in it playing Sally Fields again, so there's that.

Everything about this felt like it felt to "play the game" in San Francisco". We went to the "jejune Institute" ~10 years ago for "Nonchalance" and played 2 rounds of the game and never quite figured out what was going on, but it was amazing and fun and quirky, just like the show. Very well thought out and imaginative. I'm hoping the show continues and we can finally reach an understanding of what on Earth we were doing and where it was leading...

What is extremely difficult nowadays is to find something original. And for sure this is most definitely original. I love the storyline. I love the pace. Tried to cover many aspects and many flavors, such as adventure, conspiracy, romance, depression, the feeling of wanting more, etc. The only thing to critique is I found that there are certain parts of the show that focused only on one aspect for too long and didn't blend as smooth as it possibly could have. It has a lot of odd and weird things in there which is awesome for sure, but then it spent almost an entire episode only on romance. The adventure needs to continue! Oddness needs to continue! And then there were certain parts I was a little bit lost. But overall, definitely a wonderful watch.