The premiere episode of HBO Max’s Station Eleven offers a few different answers to that question, whether it’s the entrance to a city hospital clogged on all sides by people and cars, or a once-great theater covered in moss and overgrown weeds.
However, much like the book that inspired it, Station Eleven isn’t about fighting to survive in a bloodthirsty dystopian society, but how simply witnessing the end of the world can change a person.
When tragedy strikes, the series turns its focus on its cast of disparate characters, many of whom have some kind of connection to the production at the start of the series.
At the center of its story is the Traveling Symphony, a nomadic theater troupe that traverses the show’s post-apocalyptic landscape performing Shakespeare plays in every human settlement its members come across.
While the series does contain sequences showing overworked hospital workers, overcrowded emergency rooms, and people coughing underneath surgical masks, Station Eleven uses those moments sparingly and rarely returns to them after its opening episode.
Whether it be a character reciting Bill Pullman’s speech from Independence Day or one survivor putting on a clown wig they find in an abandoned home, Station Eleven is filled with moments of humor and levity.
Both shows buck traditional narrative structure at nearly every turn, not only jumping between perspectives but often dedicating entire episodes to the backstories and emotional journeys of single characters.
Like The Leftovers did in its second and third seasons, Station Eleven also presents viewers with a playful and uniquely weird take on an undeniably tragic situation.
A former child actor, Kirsten is haunted by both the profound losses she’s experienced in her past and the fear she has of losing anyone else she holds dear.
Hamish Patel similarly impresses as Jeevan, a normal guy who forms an unexpected and profound parental bond with the younger Kirsten in the early days of the show’s global catastrophe.
Right now, the thought of watching another show about a pandemic ravaging the world might not seem like the most exciting of ideas, and no one could be blamed for choosing to wait to watch Station Eleven.
It’s both a line from Miranda’s comic book and a mantra for her — an acknowledgment and reminder of all the pain and loss she’s experienced.
However, when Station Eleven reaches its inevitable conclusion, the show is less concerned with rehashing the devastation of the past as it is highlighting the moments of kindness and empathy that brought its characters together in the first place.