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“Station Eleven” or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Apocalypse

author
Adrian Pennington
Mackenzie Davis, Daniel Zovatto in "Station Eleven," photograph by Ian Watson/HBO Max
Mackenzie Davis, Daniel Zovatto in “Station Eleven,” photograph by Ian Watson/HBO Max. Flipping many of the conventions of the post-apocalyptic world, the HBO Max dramatic series confounds viewer expectations.

In the movies, the before and afters of an apocalypse usually has the post-event world looking desaturated, burnt out, drained of color. Not so Station Eleven, which flips that convention on its head.

In the 10-episode series that just finished on HBO Max, the apocalypse results from a flu that has no incubation period and causes near-immediate death.

In adapting Emily St. John Mandel’s 2014 novel, writer and showrunner Patrick Somerville (The Leftovers) traced three story worlds: a traveling Shakespearean troupe, a cult of kids led by the prophet Tyler (Daniel Zovatto), and a group of survivors living in an airport.

The series alternates between past and present timelines to show the pivotal hours leading up to the crisis, the immediate aftermath, and those who have adapted to the new circumstances of their world 20 years later.

  • Himesh Patel as Jeevan Chaudhary and Matilda Lawler as Young Kirsten in season 1 episode 1 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Himesh Patel as Jeevan Chaudhary and Matilda Lawler as Young Kirsten in season 1 episode 1 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Andy McQueen as Sayid and Himesh Patel as Jeevan Chaudhary in season 1 episode 1 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Andy McQueen as Sayid and Himesh Patel as Jeevan Chaudhary in season 1 episode 1 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Gael García Bernal as Arthur Leander in season 1 episode 1 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Gael García Bernal as Arthur Leander in season 1 episode 1 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Himesh Patel as Jeevan Chaudhary and Gael García Bernal as Arthur Leander in season 1 episode 1 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Himesh Patel as Jeevan Chaudhary and Gael García Bernal as Arthur Leander in season 1 episode 1 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Matilda Lawler as Young Kirsten in season 1 episode 1 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Matilda Lawler as Young Kirsten in season 1 episode 1 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media

This could be a set up for a “puzzle-box” of elements that fire up fan communities in shows like I, Robot, Westworld and Yellowjackets, but Station Eleven sidesteps this.

“It isn’t that the post-apocalyptic drama doesn’t supply answers — it does, in increasingly rewarding layers as it unfolds — but rather that the questions that really matter can’t be addressed through plot mechanics,” Lili Loofbourow suggests in her review for Slate.

  • Prince Amponsah as August and Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde in season 1 episode 2 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Prince Amponsah as August and Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde in season 1 episode 2 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Joe Pingue as Dieter and Lori Petty as Sarah in season 1 episode 2 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Joe Pingue as Dieter and Lori Petty as Sarah in season 1 episode 2 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde and Daniel Zovatto as The Prophet in season 1 episode 2 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde and Daniel Zovatto as The Prophet in season 1 episode 2 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde and Daniel Zovatto as The Prophet in season 1 episode 2 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde and Daniel Zovatto as The Prophet in season 1 episode 2 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Philippine Velge as Alexandra in season 1 episode 2 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Philippine Velge as Alexandra in season 1 episode 2 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media

“We are not interested in how the pandemic started, or who engineered it, or even how exactly it works. We don’t even especially need to know the particulars of the ‘Station Eleven’ graphic novel within the show. What matters far more is the feeling the book creates and what that feeling does.”

That feeling is evoked most strongly in an aesthetic that acts an antidote to the dour color palette and mood of other post-apocalyptic motion picture narratives on television and in film.

  • Danielle Deadwyler as Miranda Carroll in season 1 episode 3 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Danielle Deadwyler as Miranda Carroll in season 1 episode 3 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Caitlin Fitzgerald as Elizabeth in season 1 episode 3 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Caitlin Fitzgerald as Elizabeth in season 1 episode 3 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Danielle Deadwyler as Miranda Carroll in season 1 episode 3 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Danielle Deadwyler as Miranda Carroll in season 1 episode 3 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Gael García Bernal as Arthur Leander in season 1 episode 3 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Gael García Bernal as Arthur Leander in season 1 episode 3 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Gael García Bernal as Arthur Leander and Caitlin Fitzgerald as Elizabeth in season 1 episode 3 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Gael García Bernal as Arthur Leander and Caitlin Fitzgerald as Elizabeth in season 1 episode 3 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media

“Laced with humor and heartache, it’s perhaps the brightest, most fanciful end-of-the-world drama you’ll ever see,” says Joshua Meyer at Slashfilm.

While Nicole Clark at Polygon insists that the “Beautiful, lush cinematography gives scenes a sense of contemporaneousness — resisting the dour tones that often mark the apocalypse genre.”

  • Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde in season 1 episode 4 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde in season 1 episode 4 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • David Cross as Gil in season 1 episode 4 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    David Cross as Gil in season 1 episode 4 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Philippine Velge as Alexandra in season 1 episode 4 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Philippine Velge as Alexandra in season 1 episode 4 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Lori Petty as Sarah in season 1 episode 4 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Lori Petty as Sarah in season 1 episode 4 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Season 1 episode 4 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Season 1 episode 4 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media

The visual (production design + cinematographic) concept was have the present feel like the future, and the future to feel like the past.

READ MORE: Station Eleven found a silver lining in the post-apocalypse (Polygon)

“In many ways, we were trying to invert the post-apocalyptic genre,” Somerville tells Emily VanDerWerff at Vox.

“Hiro Murai [who directs the pilot] always said he wanted to be there when we were talking about year 20 [after the plague that kills most of humanity]. Quiet, big, expansive, beautiful, green. Not destroyed. Just still.”

In postproduction the filmmakers actually deemphasized color in scenes set before the apocalypse.

  • Caitlin Fitzgerald as Elizabeth in season 1 episode 5 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Caitlin Fitzgerald as Elizabeth in season 1 episode 5 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • David Wilmot as Clarke Thompson and Julian Obradors as Tyler Leander in season 1 episode 5 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    David Wilmot as Clarke Thompson and Julian Obradors as Tyler Leander in season 1 episode 5 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • David Wilmot as Clarke Thompson and Milton Barnes as Miles in in season 1 episode 5 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    David Wilmot as Clarke Thompson and Milton Barnes as Miles in in season 1 episode 5 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Julian Obradors as Tyler Leander and Caitlin Fitzgerald as Elizabeth in season 1 episode 5 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Julian Obradors as Tyler Leander and Caitlin Fitzgerald as Elizabeth in season 1 episode 5 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Milton Barnes as Miles and David Wilmot as Clarke Thompson in season 1 episode 5 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Milton Barnes as Miles and David Wilmot as Clarke Thompson in season 1 episode 5 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media

“Year 20 is very naturally lit with lots of bright sunlight and lots of colorful greens and flora and lots of saturation,” explains DP Christian Sprenger, who set the series look with Murai in the pilot.

“We wanted that world to feel welcoming, and we wanted to push against that concept of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road’s very gross, dirty, almost monochromatic future, that sad apocalypse aesthetic. Where that led us was that year zero, the world we’re currently living in, wanted to feel a little bit more subdued and slightly desaturated.”

He also told VanDerWerff that they deliberately chose locations with artificial lighting: subway stations, a theater, even the streets at night. “Everything has this stark, manmade aesthetic. We intended to let that be what the sci-fi future aesthetic normally feels like. And when you jump forward to the future, that almost feels like 200 years ago.”

  • Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde in season 1 episode 6 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde in season 1 episode 6 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Alex Friesen as Tarantula and Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde in season 1 episode 6 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Alex Friesen as Tarantula and Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde in season 1 episode 6 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Andy McQueen as Sayid in season 1 episode 6 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Andy McQueen as Sayid in season 1 episode 6 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Matilda Lawler as Young Kirsten in season 1 episode 6 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Matilda Lawler as Young Kirsten in season 1 episode 6 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Prince Amponsah as August in season 1 episode 6 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Prince Amponsah as August in season 1 episode 6 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media

Sprenger told Robert Lloyd at the Los Angeles Times that the inspiration for shooting with an ALEXA Mini Large Format camera was to help tell a story “about a few seemingly insignificant people up against these giant man-made and eventually natural landscapes. This idea led us down the path of putting our small little characters against these large-scale wide frames — feeling the contrast of scale to significance.”

READ MORE: Meet the cinematographer whose ‘controlled naturalism’ is changing the face of TV (Los Angeles Times)

Station Eleven is not the only show to imagine the post-apocalypse in a vivid color palette. Mad Max: Fury Road, for instance, is full of crisp blues and burnt yellows, highlighting its desert setting. I Am Legend and The Walking Dead have been set in worlds where greenery has overtaken what once were human spaces.

  • Matilda Lawler as Young Kirsten and Himesh Patel as Jeevan Chaudhary in season 1 episode 7 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Matilda Lawler as Young Kirsten and Himesh Patel as Jeevan Chaudhary in season 1 episode 7 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde in season 1 episode 7 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde in season 1 episode 7 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Matilda Lawler as Young Kirsten in season 1 episode 7 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Matilda Lawler as Young Kirsten in season 1 episode 7 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Matilda Lawler as Young Kirsten, Nabhaan Rizwan as Frank Chaudhary, Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde, and Himesh Patel as Jeevan Chaudhary in season 1 episode 7 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Matilda Lawler as Young Kirsten, Nabhaan Rizwan as Frank Chaudhary, Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde, and Himesh Patel as Jeevan Chaudhary in season 1 episode 7 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Nabhaan Rizwan as Frank Chaudhary and Himesh Patel as Jeevan Chaudhary in season 1 episode 7 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Nabhaan Rizwan as Frank Chaudhary and Himesh Patel as Jeevan Chaudhary in season 1 episode 7 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media

“What sets Station Eleven apart is its willingness to push those vibrant colors to an extreme,” VanDerWerff writes at Vox. “Every time the series drops us into a world where humanity is rebuilding, despite the devastation of the Georgia Flu, that world feels almost inviting.”

READ MORE: In Station Eleven, the end of the world is a vibrant, lush green (Vox)

Costume designer Helen Huang picks up the theme: “A large part of this project is about optimism and memory,” she says. “Those two things also spark color, because if you look at our world as it is now, if you took away all the people in it, it’s full of color. It’s full of graphics. It’s a memory of our civilization. It creates this world that’s separate from all the other language of the post-apocalyptic world that’s out there.”

  • Julian Obradors as Tyler Leander in season 1 episode 8 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Julian Obradors as Tyler Leander in season 1 episode 8 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde in season 1 episode 8 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde in season 1 episode 8 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde and Philippine Velge as Alexandra in season 1 episode 8 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde and Philippine Velge as Alexandra in season 1 episode 8 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Matilda Lawler as Young Kirsten and Gael García Bernal as Arthur Leander in season 1 episode 8 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Matilda Lawler as Young Kirsten and Gael García Bernal as Arthur Leander in season 1 episode 8 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Milton Barnes as Miles, Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde, and Daniel Zovatto as The Prophet in season 1 episode 8 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Milton Barnes as Miles, Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde, and Daniel Zovatto as The Prophet in season 1 episode 8 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media

Steve Cosens, who shot four episodes, told Slashfilm that his direction from Somerville was to depict a future that wasn’t daunting.

“Even though we’re in this kind of post-apocalyptic, post-pandemic world, he wanted nature to feel that it’s friendly. It’s not like some of these other post-pandemic or post-apocalyptic shows where nature is all burnt out and kind of scary. There would still be some lyricism in the design of the sets or there would be pops of color.”

READ MORE: Station Eleven Cinematographer On Capturing The Post-Apocalyptic World Of The HBO Max Series (Slashfilm)

  • Himesh Patel as Jeevan Chaudhary in season 1 episode 9 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Himesh Patel as Jeevan Chaudhary in season 1 episode 9 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Himesh Patel as Jeevan Chaudhary and Tattiawna Jones as Lara in season 1 episode 9 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Himesh Patel as Jeevan Chaudhary and Tattiawna Jones as Lara in season 1 episode 9 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Matilda Lawler as Young Kirsten in season 1 episode 9 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Matilda Lawler as Young Kirsten in season 1 episode 9 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Rebecca Applebaum as Nancy and Himesh Patel as Jeevan Chaudhary in season 1 episode 9 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Rebecca Applebaum as Nancy and Himesh Patel as Jeevan Chaudhary in season 1 episode 9 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Tattiawna Jones as Lara in season 1 episode 9 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Tattiawna Jones as Lara in season 1 episode 9 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media

The color approach aside, there’s another ray of hope that Station Eleven radiates — that of basic human connection. Instead of going all Lord of the Flies or selfish rogue as elements of humanity are often portrayed in the aftermath of zombie-geddons like 28 Days Later or A Quiet Place II, Station Eleven eases those psychic blows by saturating its plotlines with “excessive, frankly rococo” connections, writes Loofbourow in Slate.


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“The show isn’t following some supernatural principle according to which everyone in its universe is connected. Rather, it makes it seem that the reason we’re hearing this particular set of stories is because they are connected. Station Eleven is obviously and unsubtly interested in art — art as artifice, art as authenticity, and art as a preserver of civilization that stands in opposition to civilization’s less savory aspects.”

READ MORE: What Made Station Eleven So Rewarding (Slate)

  • David Wilmot as Clarke Thompson and Caitlin Fitzgerald as Elizabeth in season 1 episode 10 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    David Wilmot as Clarke Thompson and Caitlin Fitzgerald as Elizabeth in season 1 episode 10 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Danielle Deadwyler as Miranda Carroll in season 1 episode 10 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Danielle Deadwyler as Miranda Carroll in season 1 episode 10 of “Stations Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Daniel Zovatto as The Prophet in season 1 episode 10 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Daniel Zovatto as The Prophet in season 1 episode 10 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde and Caitlin Fitzgerald as Elizabeth in season 1 episode 10 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Mackenzie Davis as Kirsten Raymonde and Caitlin Fitzgerald as Elizabeth in season 1 episode 10 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
  • Philippine Velge as Alexandra in season 1 episode 10 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media
    Philippine Velge as Alexandra in season 1 episode 10 of “Station Eleven.” Cr: Warner Media

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