This is not a recap. I will list a few recaps at the end of this posting. What I want to do here is share something else.

Dread. Existential Fear. Anxiety. Revulsion. Fear.

Did I say fear?

Why in the world would I want to watch a series that evokes these responses? I never (okay, rarely) allow these emotions to enter my “entertainment sphere” these days. I watched enough horror/suspense/thriller stuff in my younger days, when my heart could take a jump shock.

But here I am, glued to my seat, coffee forgotten on the coffee table, phone buzzing but ignored, eyes riveted on the screen, following the small figures roaming about in the “new” world that is left for them: the few, the lucky few, who survived. This is survival horror, but on a low, slow burner. This is the jump shock, but it’s really only the high-pitched awful scream of a child. This is the new world, and it is NOT the same as it ever was.

Edge-of-your-seat action. Intense and realistic drama. Music and sound effects that raise the tension level to insane. Absolutely gripping television.

Still, do we really want to watch the end of the world as we know it?

Apparently I do.

I blame it all on Gabriel Byrne.

Me? What did I do?
I’d jump down to get you, but…
Sometimes life IS a science experiment. These shoes hurt, by the way…
We’re alive. We’re the lucky ones. I think.

california hype: the good kind

location shooting: the good places

You may recall mention of a special War of the Worlds location shoot in Wales. Some place political? Yes.

The Senedd, home of the Welsh Assembly, is a new building that opened in 2006, in Cardiff. It is an imposing setting for political debate and government activities.

In War of the Worlds, it looks like this, with scientist Catherine Durand (Léa Drucker) presenting the bad news to a gathering of world leaders:

I only mention it because apparently they do not allow filming there AT ALL. So we are lucky indeed! heart

recaps

Uh oh. I only found one.

MEAWW (Media, Entertainment, Arts World Wide) : ‘War of the Worlds’ Episode 2 Review: An impressive attempt to show grim horror in the aftermath of an invasion

Horrifying and hair-raising, the second episode is a deliberate slow burner but it does get the horror levels a notch higher while explaining the survivors’ psyche…

See? I wasn’t joking!

If you know of other websites that are providing weekly recaps for this series, please let me know!

Stay tuned for more dread, existential fear, and anxiety next week, as War of the Worlds continues. If anyone I care about ceases to exist, however, I can’t promise I will continue to do screencaps. wink

You’re a scientist. You will get through this. I hope.

12 Comments

  1. Wish I could get to watch this. Guess I’ll have to wait.

  2. Hey Stella, thank you so much for this contribution. Yeah, this show is about existential fear. But there are also silent heroes, true humanity and the message that you shouldn’t give up. And it shows what people are capable of when they love. Love is all we have left.

    • This might be true, Rosi, but it is not clear at all that this is the message in Episode 2.

      I was trying to be funny about it, too. ;-)

  3. Verónica

    Excuseme but this time I will not do any comment because I watched the whole series and it is difficult to talk about one episode in special.
    Only one thing. I liked it. Yes, sometimes scary but not to much. :-)

    • Probably a good idea, Verónica. I know you don’t want to spoil anything.

      I have a question, though: Did the scene with the little girl at the closing of Episode 2 disturb you as much as it did me?! I was truly horrified. And it was mostly my own imagination at work–the scene was not explicit or anything. That is really good writing and directing!

      :eek:

  4. Verónica

    Yes Stella, that scene was very disturbing, because I didn’t expect such epilog. I hoped she would be ok.
    As you say: I don’t want to spoil anything but I warn you. There will be some shocking scene yet.
    :-(

  5. The suspense is hair-raising and you never know what to expect. There’s no formula, no melodrama, just human fear and frailty, and little hope, as people try to find or save loved ones…
    My spouse can’t watch. He says the character’s reactions are psychologically realistic (he has interviewed war refugees) . Humans become very pragmatic in times of war. Loved ones are separated, and not knowing what has happened to one another is unbearable.. A survivor mentality kicks in. People hide in bunkers until their hair turns white. It is a kill or be killed mindset. Humans feel like they are in suspended animation. No wonder Wells titled his work The War of the Worlds.
    Sometimes I feel the WOTW characters are living in slow motion…this creates a sense of foreboding and unease. We know it cannot really end well. And the child…do we not know that it is the children who suffer unspeakably during war? Mr. Overman and H G Wells are reminding us of the horror of wars that are happening now. There are 40 active conflicts around the world at the moment. And millions of refugees and migrants trying to flee and save their families.
    I will continue to watch but this scares me more that Hereditary ever did.

    • Angelle, I still have not watched Hereditary. And War of the Worlds scares me to pieces. Your husband is not alone!

      About HG Wells, Gabriel has said previously: “The idea that aliens come down from another planet I don’t think is really the point of the book, even though that is part of the thriller element of it. It’s really a metaphor for the great existential threats that we face as human beings.”

      When asked in a recent interview what he thought those threats to humanity were, Gabriel responded: “Nuclear war, environmental destruction, the rise of out-of-control corporate power around the world, the way that capitalism has developed to produce a society that only a few people benefit from and most people don’t. Rather than the threat to our existence being from outside, it’s actually from within, and we are actually the aliens.”

      We will hunker down in a cave to survive. If we are lucky. Most of us won’t be so lucky. THAT’s what this series has impressed upon me. Overman is a tough story-teller. I’m shaking in my boots.

  6. love how they made episodes end with a scene that makes you wish you had the book, so you can turn the page .. the 3rd one is best yet…

  7. DORA BARALIA

    I am so late about this message but ever near you. Very expressive are Gabriel’s words in the description of the film War of the Worlds now. We are living this very situations through this new virus all around the world and every kind of atmospheric change. Man is the real alien in the world who don’t stop to produce these events in different forms …. I am in accord with Gabriel about this and approve his vision …All my feelings for all you my friends

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