User reviews

The first episode was fantastic but #2 jumps years into the future with slowed down pacing and struggles to create emotional connection or a coherent storyline. If you get past it, episodes 3, 4, and 5 are major reveals that must be watched before you pass judgement on the show.

This post apocalyptic series is delivered through a jumble of flash forwards and flashbacks. Anyone who has not read the book will be confused for the first few episodes. Episode 4's little inside joke about nonlinear delivery methods brought a smile to my face.

Like Murai's Atlanta, it gets better with time. This is a trippy series that rewards the patient.

This is first class television. The orchestration and use of sound is phenomenal. The writing while not quite avant-garde does push the envelope for creative thinking and wonderful story telling.

Utterly engrossing and unexpected. Phenomenal storytelling, world-building and character studies. HBO has created something special. Extraordinary casting, beautiful cinematography, and a magical score raises this series well above the ordinary television landscape. Through masterful directing and editing Station Eleven is a slow burn, surreal, and enigmatic. It's clearly not going to be for everyone, but its an intelligent piece cinema worth seeking out .Station Eleven rewards patient viewers with an insightful and thematically rich assertion that , even in the post-apocalypse , the show must go on.

This show is amazing. It is heartwarming and entertaining. It comes full circle. Great story. One of the most creative and original series we have seen in a long time. Exceptional script. Really just a very beautiful series, highly recommend.

Off to a great start in Somerville's hands. There are several timelines and connected histories. It may suffer from unfortunate pandemic timing and it's a difficult work to market. Cerebral viewers that loved The Leftovers and fans of St. John Mandel's novels will appreciate this show. This is one where I am glad they did not dump all ten episodes at once.

Station Eleven is a harrowing yet beautiful tale and so far the series is telling the story really well. 3 episodes out at time of this review.

It's not perfect and some line delivery is eh, but you can tell right away how high quality this show is and the scope of it all. Very pleasantly surprised with how good this screen adaptation is so far.

It's not your standard post apocalyptic affair, no zombies. Not filled with guns and action. It's a story about art and beauty being kept alive even when the world has seemingly ended, with the juxtaposition of those that remember the previous world and those that were born into this new one.

The negative reviews are critique that it's 'artsy.' It's not artsy, it's just about arts through an unfamiliar lens. Don't be discouraged by the scathing reviews that are mad this isn't yet another boring action set piece.

Also, the first episode is realistic to the point that it may be disturbing to some given todays circumstances.

Give it a shot, have an open mind, you won't be disappointed.

Are the other reviews of the same show? The first episode was brilliant at setting up the narrative and characters. The explosive nature of the illness was on full display, the jumps forward didn't bother me. I do think timing of its release is a bit unfortunate however, when the pandemic began in 2020 "Contagion" was Number 1 on the iTunes Charts. People seemed to gravitate to this type of content.

Personally I've had enough of realistic and welcome a change. I don't know I guess there aren't any zombies so the kids are bored. I couldn't look away and became very invested in the story and the mystery to it. I have not read the books so I'm just enjoying this based on its own merits. I'm not sure why low raters think it's unrealistic. Perhaps many of them have never lived with a device in their hands and no longer value the soft arts? Where do you people think art, music and theater came from? The sky? No people went from caves to agriculture and with that came the development of the arts. Something I personally believe separates us from the apes...but whatever. The human spirit was meant to create beauty not wallow in dystopia and tragedy.

Himish Patel and David Wilmot are both exceptional in this. While the stories of the initial collapse of society are interesting, the silliness of the "Travelling Symphony" really detracts from the the show and really ruin it for me. I was drawn into to flashback stories and then annoyed every time I had to endure the present story line with the Symphony.

Still early, but even after Covid I'm still a sucker for a good post apocalyptic series... so far it's definitely kept me interested and seems like it's going to pick up more as the season progresses.

I guess the book meandered, but the philosophical and visual beauty on the page made it worth it. That doesn't translate as well to the screen, so while I was a fan of the book, I found myself a bit bored with series and didn't make it all the way through.

Station Eleven (now 5 episodes in) is a slow burn, surreal, and enigmatic. It's clearly not going to be for everyone, but any review under 5 stars isn't doing justice to what is going on with this show.

There's a slightly ominous aspect to it that provides a foil for its seeming lack of coherence (which is really only surface deep). It's coherence lies in the themes it follows rather than any fixed and characterised point of view.

This is a very carefully constructed and intelligent piece with a haunting sound track and an at times brilliant interplay between characters left traumatised by their experience of a world coming apart at the seams and their non-volitional survival - in various ways they are all in shock. There are some quite sensational performances from some of the cast, but they also have some great material to work with.

This is intelligent and thought provoking TV, delivered with passion.

The first episode was a bit slow for my liking but the story is interesting enough to keep my attention. I particularly enjoyed the third episode. Would like to see where this goes. I say give it a chance, watch it for yourself since most the reviewers here want the same post- apocalypse show/movies that we already have a thousand of.

Repairs of the show is going to be a slow burn and that characters are being flushed out more with the different timelines that are part of the show. I think that it's has given us enough of a base to understand what is going on, and I disagree with many of the low ratings that have been given to the show. It is slow at times but we are learning about the characters, and their individual experiences, and the twists and turns their lives took.

Station Eleven is at its best when it focuses on the stories set during the outbreak of the flu and immediately after. The storylines featuring the traveling troupe just aren't good. The troupe is made up of unlikeable characters who can't stop making stupid decisions and acting dumb (including the insufferable adult Kirsten).

However, when this show does decide to focus on the outbreak storylines such as Jeevan and young Kirsten, Miranda, and Clark and Elizabeth the show is fantastic. You feel the intended emotions during these parts because the characters are relatable and you actually care about them. I really wish they would've spent more time on the earlier stories and less on the traveling troupe of boredom.

These one star reviews are ridiculous and a waste of peoples time. If you're not doing a serious review then get out of here. This show has a 100% rating on rotten tomatoes. That's how good it is. Three episodes in and I'm completely hooked. So far this show is wonderful and one of the best I've seen this year. Again, ignore these knuckleheads and fake reviews and give this show a go. You wont regret it.

Can't understand the high reviews. The show started off well, but just grinds to a halt in episode 2. Became more of a chore to watch. It's okay, but certainly not worth the 9 and 10s it's getting. Nothing really new or thought provoking is presented. Lost opportunity. Oh well.

I couldn't get involved in this series. It's so fragmented and messy. After a while I longed for some clarification but it never happened. Pretentious and self indulgent.

I had to write this just because of the poor reviews on here. Judging from the majority of these reviews, the basic person's attention span is pitiful, at best. No one cares about your quick consumption instant gratification society or your opinions on real art. Real art is thoughtful and unapologetic, it doesn't ask for your acceptance. That being said, I think this series is thoughtful and impactful. It's only made more powerful by Hiro Murai's choices in directing. I didn't know what to expect coming into this series, but I ended up enjoying it tremendously. The premise hits extremely close to home and the main characters and plot are interwoven into an extremely interesting plot. I haven't read the source material, but I love the idea of how the book itself is a plot point. I don't like spoiling things with reviews, but I will say that most of these reviews are from people with a lack of patience. If you can't appreciate a slow burn or a story driven by it's characters more than action or petty drama, you won't enjoy this. The acting is pretty well done, but the show does take it's time revealing details. I felt like the payoff was worth it, though you'll have to be the deciding factor in that.

I loved the book and I'm loving the series. It's not an easy storyline to adapt to the screen -- it's a complex interweaving of characters and timelines -- but I think HBO has done an excellent job.

I feel confident rating the show so highly based on the first episodes, because I know where the story goes and can see how this the series will get there. It's disappointing to see the low reviews from people who haven't really given it a chance.

The acting is amazing, especially Mackenzie Davis. The scene where we see her first perform on stage, with flashbacks of her as a child, had me entranced and ultimately in tears.

Stick with it, and you'll be rewarded.