{"id":397671,"date":"2020-02-15T13:17:05","date_gmt":"2020-02-15T13:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denofgeek.com\/dispatches-from-elsewhere-review-spoiler-free\/"},"modified":"2020-02-15T13:17:05","modified_gmt":"2020-02-15T13:17:05","slug":"dispatches-from-elsewhere-review-spoiler-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.denofgeek.com\/tv\/dispatches-from-elsewhere-review-spoiler-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Dispatches From Elsewhere Review (Spoiler-Free)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p> <em>This review of <strong>Dispatches From Elsewhere<\/strong> contains no spoilers.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.denofgeek.com\/us\/amc\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"AMC\">AMC<\/a>\u2019s bizarre new anthology series <b><i>Dispatches From Elsewhere<\/i><\/b><i> <\/i>is extremely weird.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This really shouldn\u2019t be that much of a surprise, given that the first episode begins with Richard E. Grant starring wordlessly into the camera for a solid thirty seconds before breaking the fourth wall to talk directly to the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.denofgeek.com\/us\/tv\/275254\/dispatches-from-elsewhere-trailer-release-date-amc-jason-segel\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Dispatches from Elsewhere\"><b><i>Dispatches From Elsewhere<\/i><\/b><\/a> is also extremely confusing and wildly unpredictable. The main plot often feels impossible to pin down, and the supposed good guys often wear the same faces as the designated bad ones. It\u2019s difficult to even describe the series to someone who hasn\u2019t watched it in a way that even remotely encompasses what it\u2019s about. But the ultimate effect of all this? A sort of narrative alchemy that leaves us wanting more, even as we admit that we\u2019re not entirely sure what it is that we\u2019re watching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><b><i>Dispatches From Elsewhere<\/i><\/b><i> <\/i>is utterly unlike anything else on television right now, with all the highs and lows that sort of ingenuity has to offer. There are moments that defy all convention \u2014at various points the story is told via cartoons, 3-D animated flipbooks, and a talking Billy Bass fish\u2014and those that leave you wondering if the show can ever provide answers to all the questions it\u2019s proposing or straighten out its crooked narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, let\u2019s try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Grant plays a man named Octavio Coleman, the founder of the mysterious Jejune Institute, an organization which dabbles in bizarre technological pursuits like building helmets to communicate with dolphins, and VR headsets that can replay human memories. He may also be the mastermind behind an elaborate roleplaying game that involves sending broken souls combing throughout the city of Philadelphia to find strange clues, interact with street dancing Bigfoots and search for a lost girl named Clara. Or he could be the monster that\u2019s actually imprisoned Clara and is using her for his own nefarious ends, while battling a rag tag group of resistance fighters known as the Elsewhere Society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.denofgeek.com\/us\/tv\/amc\/285677\/better-call-saul-season-5-review\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Better Call Saul Season 5 Review (Spoiler-Free)\"><strong>read more: Better Call Saul Season 5 Review (Spoiler-Free)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or maybe all of the above? Who can say?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The answers to basic questions like what\u2019s going on in this series, who we\u2019re supposed to trust, what\u2019s real, what isn\u2019t and whether Octavio is the reliable narrator he claims to be\u2014well, they aren\u2019t any clearer at the end of the four episodes that were available to screen for critics than they are at the beginning of the show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And you know what? It doesn\u2019t really matter at all. (Plus, I\u2019m assuming\u2014believing? hoping?\u2014we\u2019ll get there, eventually).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><b><i>Dispatches From Elsewhere<\/i><\/b><i> <\/i>is a clever, frustrating, heartfelt, and inspiring tale of the human condition, spun out through the story of four people brought together by something that\u2019s larger than themselves. Granted, we don\u2019t know what, precisely, that thing is just yet. Nor do we know whether it\u2019s something that\u2019s good or bad. But, thus far, that feels like part of the journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><b><i>How I Met Your Mother<\/i><\/b><i>\u2019s <\/i><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.denofgeek.com\/us\/jason-segel\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Jason Segel\">Jason Segel<\/a> returns to television\u2014in a series he\u2019s helped create, by the way\u2014as Peter, a lonely data analyst at a streaming music service whose life has been stuck in an endless grind of sameness. Thankfully, <b><i>Dispatches From Elsewhere<\/i><\/b> doesn\u2019t force us to spend its first episode watching him realize that fact, and simply speeds us to the moment in which his personal life rut full of boring bodega dinners and faceless work colleagues changes. (Thanks for that, at least, Octavio). After seeing a bizarre flyer left by a masked man on a street light, Peter finds himself calling the Jejune Institute, and either waking up to the unfortunate dull reality of his own life, or running from an imminent threat to it, depending on your perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fair warning, the series\u2019 first episode can feel like something of a slog to get through. <b><i>Dispatches From Elsewhere<\/i><\/b><i> <\/i>leans <i>hard<\/i> into its quirkiness factor in the beginning, and that can feel fairly off-putting at times, particularly given how little we understand about what we\u2019re even watching. Thankfully, by the time it rolls into its second episode, the show settles a bit more fully into its own groove, letting its innate and lovely weirdness speak for itself without quite so many external flourishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By first episode\u2019s end, Peter finds himself in a strange shop full of strange antiques and steampunk cosplay dreams, where he meets Simone (Eve Lindley), a woman who\u2019s been receiving similar messages from the Jejune Institute and finds them something thrilling, rather than something to be feared.\u00a0 Her bright joy at the prospect of the adventure they\u2019re both embarking on is infectious, and thankfully balances out much of Peter\u2019s gloomy confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through the first four episodes of the series, each installment focuses on a different one of our (presumably) main characters, each of which Grant\u2019s Octavio returns to tell us to see as ourselves. There\u2019s Fred Wynn (Andre Benjamin), an awkward genius with an eye for clues and patterns, but no understanding of people or social interactions. There\u2019s Janice (Sally Field), a cheery retiree struggling to process her own problems at home by throwing herself into the adventure of this \u201cgame\u201d. And Simone, who may or may not be destined to serve as Peter\u2019s love interest, but who is certainly on her own journey of discovery along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No one should be terribly shocked that Field is terrific here, imbuing Janice\u2019s relentless optimism with an edge of desperation that speaks to the fact that her life, for all its good parts, hasn\u2019t turned out quite the way she\u2019d hoped. But the breakout star of this series is hands-down Lindley, a trans actress playing a trans character who\u2019s full of nuance and layers. Lindley\u2019s ability to make the most of the smallest moments\u2014a visit to Peter\u2019s office, in which she assumes he\u2019s embarrassed by her presence and not his job itself, her inability to speak when handed a microphone during a pride celebration\u2014land emotionally is fairly incredible,\u00a0 However, the question of whether Simone\u2019s in-game partners realize she\u2019s trans isn\u2019t directly addressed in the series\u2014or at least it hasn\u2019t been yet\u2014and I have to admit I\u2019m torn about whether or not I need this moment to become a plot point, or if having them simply accept her for who she is without making a Teachable Moment out of it is the way to go. I\u2019m thinking the latter, but I suppose we\u2019ll have to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It feels strange to recommend a series so strongly when it\u2019s so opaque about what its goals and motivations are, narratively speaking. But <b><i>Dispatches From Elsewhere<\/i><\/b><i> <\/i>isn\u2019t a puzzle box, full of clues for viewers to unravel as we follow these people down into this labyrinth of weirdness. Instead, it asks us to see ourselves in these protagonists, and value the human nature of their stories beyond the truths and lies about what\u2019s happening around them. And that\u2019s what makes all the difference. Personally, I can\u2019t wait to see where this journey goes next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Dispatches from Elsewhere<\/strong> premieres March 1 at 10 p.m. ET on AMC.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This review of Dispatches From Elsewhere contains no spoilers. AMC\u2019s bizarre new anthology series Dispatches From Elsewhere is extremely weird. This really shouldn\u2019t be that much of a surprise, given that the first episode begins with Richard E. Grant starring wordlessly into the camera for a solid thirty seconds before breaking the fourth wall to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"dog_exclude_from_homepage":false,"dog_do_not_display_featured_image":false,"dog_external_link":"","dog_product_price":0,"dog_product_button_label":"Buy 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