When it comes to sci-fi series, HBO doesn’t get talked about enough as a network that truly excels at the genre. Apple TV, for instance, gets a notice for its sci-fi series as of late, thanks to shows like Severance, Silo, Pluribus, Dark Matter, and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and for good reason. Those are all great sci-fi series. Netflix also gets some attention, thanks to shows like Stranger Things and Dark. But HBO belongs in the conversation as well, having delivered a number of truly great sci-fi series in recent years. The Last of Us is considered to be a great sci-fi series (even if maybe it’s not the best video game adaptation) while shows like Westworld and Raised by Wolves also enter the conversation when it comes to the greats. But there is one HBO series that might just be better than all of them and while it didn’t get the attention it deserved when it was first released, five years on it’s a streaming hit.
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When Emily St. John Mandel’s novel Station Eleven was released in 2014, It was pretty quickly a hit with both readers and critics alike. The book landed on numerous “best of” lists that year and the book was also a national bestseller that year. With its story about life after a catastrophic flu pandemic, the book captured a lot of imagination and was quickly optioned for adaptation. However, the adaptation wouldn’t arrive until 2021 — during a time when the real world was grappling with a devastating pandemic of its own. The timing for the HBO series may have been a little off leading maybe to a lower viewership than it ordinarily would have gotten, but now years later the series is making its way up the streaming charts on HBO Max.
Station Eleven is the Rare Adaptation The De
For fans of the Station Eleven novel, the HBO adaptation may have come as a little bit of a surprise, not in terms of the show being turned into a miniseries — it had originally been optioned as a movie — but in how the television series differs from the book. The core stories stay the same between both book and series. Jeevan Chaudhary is in the audience at a performance of King Lear when the actor playing the role, Arthur Leander, has a heart attack and dies on stage with Jeevan trying to save him. IN the chaos, Jeevan’s life intersects with child actor Kirsten Raymonde. This also happens to be the night a deadly flu pandemic breaks out of which Jeevan and Kirsten will be two survivors. In the novel, we follow Kirsten as a member of a travelling symphony of artists 20 years later while Jeevan has gone on to be a town doctor in a settlement of survivors in Virgina. In between, we get the story behind the “Station Eleven” comic that is so important to Kirsten and how the lives of all of the primary characters we’re introduced to all intersect with Arthur, including the “Prophet” of a dangerous cult.
The HBO series, however, deviates from the story a bit. Instead of parting ways after a brief interaction at the theater, Jeevan and Kirsten’s story goes on much longer, sheltering in place in the city before striking out into the wider world after tragedy, only to separate later on. The nature of the Prophet is less sinister in the series, but the intersections of the various characters’ lives and how they all tie back to Arthur remains. The series, as is the book, ultimately a story of human connection and what remains when the world comes crashing down. The series’ changes are significant enough that, for purists, it might not be the same story but the way the show actually carries it off, what you get is a richer story that expands on Mandel’s novel. We get a better understanding of the ways in which the trauma of the world quite literally ending has shaped each character, the challenges that they face, and how the idea of survival is simply not enough to make it beyond an apocalypse. It all works, so well that it received almost universal critical acclaim (including from book purists such as myself, who gave the series a 5 out of 5 in my review at the time.)
Station Eleven is the Best Sci-Fi HBO Has Ever Done
Of course, critical acclaim isn’t everything and, to be fair, the idea of something being the “best” is truly subjective. What people like genuinely does come down to taste. But even when accounting for taste, Station Eleven shines just for how well-done it really is. While most sci-fi stories make the technology or the disaster or the “sci-fi” element a huge part of the show, Station Eleven is different. It’s context and background noise, but not really a key element of the story. The pandemic happened, the world changed, and now this is life. The focus is instead not about dealing with the crisis or even the aftermath of what happened. It’s instead about how one lives with the past and the promise of a future. It’s about what we keep, what remains, and what choices we make when it comes to the difference between surviving and merely thriving. It’s that distinction that sets Station Eleven apart from shows like The Last of Us which are also arguably character oriented.
In many ways, “great” sci-fi is about the reaction to things or are cautionary tales. We see this in The Last of Us in how Joel and Ellie’s choices define the tragedy that befalls each of them even on top of the larger zombie-afflicted world. We see this in Westworld, where the decisions of humans when it comes to the sentient robots have serious impact. There is some great challenge or battle to be won. That’s not the case in Station Eleven. It’s just about what hope looks like and what moving forward really is. Sure, there is a bit of a subplot about the Prophet and his cult, but even that is about human connection and hope — something that is admittedly the biggest swing the series takes away from the novel. And it works. You don’t come away with sadness or dread. You come away believing in humanity and the possibility that even in our darkest hours, we can find light. Five years on, that’s what audiences seem to resonate with as the series rises up the HBO Max streaming charts, cementing its place as a sci-fi classic.
You don’t have to take my word for it, though. You can stream the series on HBO Max right now. And if you have seen Station Eleven, what do you think? Do you think it’s HBO’s best ever sci-fi series? Let me know in the comments.
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