What I’m Watching: Dispatches from Elsewhere (Series Finale)

Dispatches from Elsewhere: Season 1, Episode 10 “The Boy” (B)

This was a pretty mesmerizing episode in a lot of ways, but it wasn’t quite the finale that I wanted or needed to resolve this particularly story. I’m not sure how it could have ended that would have been fulfilling or appropriate, but this completely changed and redefined the narrative. We already saw that the whole thing was an illusion, with twin actors auditioning to play Octavio and Commander Fourteen, and now it’s all just a story with Jason Segel appearing as himself. That’s certainly an interesting choice, and I liked the roles that Simone, Fredwynn, and Janice had to play in it. What was most mesmerizing was the content that filled the first half or so of the episode, featuring the exceptional young Travis Burnett as The Boy, who we saw glued to the television and taking it all in, dreaming of the bright future he might have in the business. The producer demanding brand-name chocolate milk instead of the “house blend” was a memorable moment that tapped into this show’s unique weirdness. Where I’m left with some disappointment is in the lack of resolution for the characters we did come to know and any sort of epilogue for them. Segel talking directly to the camera and having it pan out so that the entire crew could be seen before snippets of people talking about being them and being you was an intriguing way to end, though I would have preferred more time down the rabbit hole with this invented fantasy. I’ll still be thinking about this show for a while and its marvelous style, even if its resolution wasn’t completely satisfactory.

Series grade: B+
Season MVP: Eve Lindley as Simone

What I’m Watching: Dispatches from Elsewhere (Penultimate Episode)

Dispatches from Elsewhere: Season 1, Episode 9 “The Creator” (B)

Our series of shifting narrators continues with Fredwynn as the one telling the story now, focusing on Peter for a bit before moving on to the rest of the team. Peter was awfully combative in therapy even though he realized right after that he was just mad at himself, and I like that he decided that he liked cake and pie equally. The passage of time felt almost dreamlike as we saw Simone get into dance exercise and then run into Peter when he was treating himself to many indulgences, including the hats he liked but didn’t like wearing as he was preparing to graduate from magic school. While he did nearly drown during his big performance, he made up for it with his romantic list of things he likes that all happened to be things Simone did. Seeing them spend time together and celebrate their game-aversary with an unexpected gift from her to him was sweet, and it put them in the right frame of mind to get back into the game at the moment they needed. Janice was having a tough time coping with Lev’s death and her loneliness, leading to more fascinating conversations with her younger self, but she was in a good place when she came to pull Fredwynn out of the catatonic state he had worked himself into by obsessing so much. Watching the flashback with Lee assuming Clara’s identity to present her big idea was heartbreaking, and I’m so curious about what’s to come in the conclusion.

What I’m Watching: Dispatches from Elsewhere

Dispatches from Elsewhere: Season 1, Episode 8 “Lee” (B)

Enough though we now know that Octavio isn’t actually who he purported to be and doesn’t have that accent, a new narrator feels considerably less enticing. Seeing the various twins interviewing for the roles was a fun flashback, and I did enjoy hearing his reaction to noticing Fredwynn climb into the trunk, something Lee was much more prepared to deal with as she changed the script for the big show. Analyzing whether she’s the villain is an intriguing narrative, but when Octavio was no longer the one updating us on what everyone was doing at the end of the episode, I felt like some of the original excitement and mystery had been lost. The waitress telling them that it’s been a trip eavesdropping on them and that she’ll miss them both delighted and spooked Peter, since he wasn’t ready to let this adventure be done just yet. It was wonderful seeing Peter and Simone both dressed so nicely and attempting to enjoy their first date, and Peter’s comment about not having had to talk about himself in a long time reminded me once again that he’s a fascinating character who deserves to be explored more. Simone sharing her unending burden of worrying about being mocked or attacked because she’s trans didn’t faze Peter, but he still can’t relate to her experience, which is going to be an obstacle in their budding relationship. Despite choosing questionable conversation topics like subliminal advertising, Fredwynn was sweet to rush to the hospital to help Janice care for Lev. I also liked how he noted that he “enjoyed the event” that was his funeral and chose an abrupt moment to share the files rather than waiting for an organic segue to present itself. Apparently he’s closer to figuring out the truth than ever before as we head back down the rabbit hole for the final two episodes of this limited series.

What I’m Watching: Dispatches from Elsewhere

Dispatches from Elsewhere: Season 1, Episode 7 “Cave of Kelpius” (B+)

The illusion is beginning to fade away as reality is revealed, and our friends remain convinced that there is still something grand and mysterious at play. The two teams meeting like religious cults to demand the return of the prisoner Clara that neither had felt very staged, and Commander 14 taking off his prosthetics and standing next to Octavio no stage was hardly a surprise at this point since Richard E. Grant portrays them both and Fredwynn had already surmised as much. Peter jumping on stage to try to save Clara despite her clearly just being an actress burst the bubble for everyone, and made it seem briefly like everything was going to return to banal normalcy. Janice being complimented and then compared to a sleeping grandmother before being judged by her angry younger self prompted her to leave since she truly felt alone, and now she may have come closest to the truth by correctly identifying the architect, who told her that Clara is really dead and it’s all her fault. I enjoyed Fredwynn relating to the Clara actress after he tried to threaten the clueless Octavio actor with a serious of lawsuits, and the camera zooming out to him watching a whole bunch of televisions of scenes happening helped to express how he perceives and analyzes the world differently from most. Elegant Sasquatch was quite the matchmaker in this hour, convincing Simone of her feelings for Peter and in turn spurring Peter to action for a touching romantic musical number. Their dancing was cut short by Fredwynn, who I assume will still be too late to find Janice just as she’s uncovered the latest clue.

What I’m Watching: Dispatches from Elsewhere

Dispatches from Elsewhere: Season 1, Episode 6 “Everyone” (B+)

This episode abandoned the individual focus that the five previous hours had, and while it didn’t necessarily feel quite as magical, it still worked well without that. In the middle of all the fighting, Peter set a melancholy tone by noting how much he thinks about how no one would come to look for him if he died or went missing, inspiring them all to get out and keep playing. Peter was selfless, as usual, when he volunteered to go with Fredwynn when Janice refused to work with him, and he really didn’t have much of an opportunity to express himself while Fredwynn was relegating him to snack duty while he entered his own memory palace and told him that he wouldn’t be able to guarantee his safety while he was busy ripping people’s brains out of their nostrils. Being told to return to the game as instructed at the phone booth was eerie, but fortunately they all got reunited following Peter’s big run for it. Simone seemed genuinely happy to see Peter again while Janice was caught up in her own memories of postpartum depression, and then the team walked in to find that video of Octavio on loop. It’s still extremely unclear what’s going on, but this team is doing their best to commit to it. Simone talking to the painting and Peter communicating with Clara remain instances of why this show is so entrancing, and I hope to see more of those scenes as they continue their quest over the next few episodes and hopefully much longer.

What I’m Watching: Dispatches from Elsewhere

Dispatches from Elsewhere: Season 1, Episode 5 “Clara” (B+)

It was definitely worth the wait to meet Clara, who is just as interesting as the four main characters but deserves extra credit for discovering this sense of wonder on her own. In fact, it was her individualistic approach that got her into trouble and made her the target of the Jejune Institute, since Octavio approached her and politely noted that she was giving away something that the institute worked very hard to sell. What she seemed to value more than anything, even the pursuit of divine nonchalance, was doing it with her friends, which she appears to have inspired with these four people, who wouldn’t exactly be termed good friends just yet, looking so ardently for her. Her excitement about the ice cream truck spilling out sandwiches and wanting to make it real were indeed infectious, and her backstory was conveyed in a riveting and marvelous manner. The switch to animation when the fantasy stopped because she was attacked and stabbed the woman trying to take her in the eye was fitting since it represented a firm break with this illusion of divine nonchalance, and now it’s not clear where she is aside from in her painted subterranean form. As Janice is trying not to pull away from her personal life, immersing herself in imagined two-way conversations with Lev, both Peter and Simone are doing the opposite, embracing this as their true purpose. Peter and Simone seem keyed in together in a great way, while Janice and Fredwynn still have to work on consistently being on the same page.

What I’m Watching: Dispatches from Elsewhere

Dispatches from Elsewhere: Season 1, Episode 4 “Fredwynn” (B+)

As expected, the deep dive into the show’s fourth main character was extremely intriguing and satisfying. Octavio’s classification of Fredwynn as a “hardcore” who spoils the game of life for everyone wasn’t entirely off-base, and we saw that the big conclusions he came to about their being a script and a prompt book were gathered very quickly and without much extensive research. Learning that he was a self-made millionaire by age twenty-one and that he used to own a porcelain car before he realized that he didn’t like driving added to his irreverence, as did the fact that he barely sleeps because he’d much rather be furiously calculating the many things running through his brain. Going back into his memory palace (something I’ve heard about from a friend who says he accesses his frequently) to review what he missed the first time felt a lot like what Octavio did with Janice and the footage, and Janice was genuinely excited when she was finally able to access her memory palace after considerable encouragement from him. There was a beauty to both her and her younger self being in sync to be able to relay the address to Fredwynn, though her subsequent call to action on Simone’s doorstep did sound a lot like she was being held hostage. After all that, the team managed to get back together, and now, thanks to some moderate conversation and avoiding falling into large holes, they may have finally found the one person who can provide some serious clarification: Clara.

Take Three: Dispatches from Elsewhere

Dispatches from Elsewhere: Season 1, Episode 3 “Janice” (B+)

This was another fascinating episode, one that delved into a character who initially seemed the least interesting. Covering Janice’s backstory with animation was effective, but not nearly as much as seeing her travel back into her own past with the Jejune goggles. I almost didn’t recognize the actress playing her younger self as Tara Lynne Barr from “Casual,” who delivered a tremendous amount of attitude as a hopeful dreamer who was disappointed and even a bit angry to learn that she hadn’t accomplished all that she set out to in her life. It’s hard to know what part of that was actually real, but the concept that a memory is only experienced once and then recaptured as remembering it rather than reliving it is pretty formidable. How that enabled Janice to talk to a younger version of herself isn’t clear at all, and even more impressive was the fact that, in “Inception” fashion, she was lucid enough to emerge from that space and immediately hug Octavio so that she could pickpocket him. Seeing her return home to her bedridden, apparently comatose husband excited to tell him all about her day explains why it is that she wanted so much to connect to something fun and adventurous. I don’t know who the kid was outside watching her, and we also didn’t get a Fredwynn intro for the next episode. His perspective seems even more intriguing, reading out the choreography that he had somehow discovered in his research that showed him that Jejune and Elsewhere are one and the same.

Round Two: Dispatches from Elsewhere

Dispatches from Elsewhere: Season 1, Episode 2 “Simone” (B+)

I’m pleased that this second installment felt a whole lot like the first, embracing the same sense of wonder that so intrigued me at first. The casting of Richard E. Grant is particularly fantastic, and I like how he tells the audience to picture themselves as a particular character, which was Simone in this hour and will evidently be Janice in the next one. It’s interesting to see Sally Field in this project after she appeared in Netflix’s miniseries “Maniac” last year, which has a lot in common with this show. It feels so dated at times, especially in its portrayal of futuristic technology, and that works very well. I’m pretty blown away by actress Eve Lindley, who shares so much of who Simone is and how much she’s still working out her place in the world. Choosing to retreat back into the French music coming through her air pods rather than embrace the noise of the trans pride parade around her demonstrated how uncomfortable she was celebrating herself when, historically, she hasn’t felt loved by everyone. Feeling at home at the protest towards the end of the episode and speaking her truth into the megaphone to apologize to Peter was rejuvenating, and her mesmerized attitude which watching the animated explanation, which reminded me of Ari Folman’s “The Congress,” was infectious. Peter was the spotlight of the first hour, but we still got to see some of his perspective in this hour as he pedaled hard for the video to work and parted ways with Simone after he felt he had sufficiently excited himself for the day. I’m on board with this show for the foreseeable future, which is good considering I have a few episodes to catch up on already!

Pilot Review: Dispatches from Elsewhere

Check out my one-minute take on every new pilot, which is embedded below and you can also watch by subscribing to movieswithabe on YouTube.