It’s December 2021 and humanity is very much living in the after or, perhaps, the during, of a life-altering pandemic. COVID-19 continues to influence our day-to-day with not only infection concerns, but issues with supply chain and shortages as we try to forge forward in a world that is both the same and different jarringly all at once. It’s in this strange liminal space that HBO Max’s adaptation of Emily St. John Mandel’s massively popular 2014 novel about life after a catastrophic pandemic, Station Eleven, arrives and while it may be a stroke of odd timing and even surreal to be considering a book written before the pandemic about a world more dramatically impacted by a hauntingly similar disease as live-action entertainment, don’t let any of that keep you from tuning in. The Station Eleven adaptation is a haunting, at times beautiful, and quietly uplifting story about more than simple survival. It’s one about hope and the things we hold onto and it is one of the best television series of the year by far.
