{"id":80249,"date":"2020-10-02T14:16:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-02T11:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/soulmates-is-a-high-concept-series-that-could-use-even-more-concept\/"},"modified":"2020-10-02T14:16:00","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T11:16:00","slug":"soulmates-is-a-high-concept-series-that-could-use-even-more-concept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/soulmates-is-a-high-concept-series-that-could-use-even-more-concept\/","title":{"rendered":"#&#8217;Soulmates&#8217; is a High-Concept Series That Could Use Even More Concept"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#&#8217;Soulmates&#8217; is a High-Concept <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Series<\/a> That Could Use Even More Concept<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\">\n                <\/aside>\n<p><!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 3.7.7--><i>Hello and welcome to\u00a0<\/i><b><i>Up Next<\/i><\/b><i>, a weekly column that gives you the rundown on the latest TV. This week,\u00a0<\/i><i>Liz Baessler<\/i><i>\u00a0takes a look at\u00a0<em>the AMC series Soulmates<\/em><\/i><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><em>Soulmates <\/em><\/strong>has the potential to be an anthology dream. Set in the near future after the discovery of the \u201csoul particle,\u201d the AMC series asks what it means to live in a world where you can be paired, through irrefutable scientific proof, with the one person who is destined to be your soulmate. Then it asks it again. And again, over the course of six standalone, hour-long episodes linked by this single, tantalizing what-if.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an intriguing setup and one that could go to some fascinating places.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unfortunately, it doesn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s easy to compare <em>Soulmates<\/em> to<strong><em> Black Mirror<\/em><\/strong>. I\u2019m sure I won\u2019t be the only reviewer to do so. While that is certainly not the only star-studded, near-future, soft sci-fi anthology series, it\u2019s definitely the one by which all others are destined to be measured. And by that metric, <i>Soulmates <\/i>falls woefully short.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The thing is, <em>Black Mirror\u00a0<\/em>\u2014 as with a lot of its copycats and spiritual cousins \u2014 introduces a new concept with each episode. And you explore that concept, along with the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social<\/a> implications and complications of the protagonists, simultaneously. It\u2019s a fun system. Not one that lands every single time, but one that always keeps you on your toes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And the first episode of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Soulmates <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">does <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">feel like just that: a good episode of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Black Mirror<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Opening with a pitch-perfect advertisement for Soul Connex, the company that performs the infamous test, the inaugural installment, \u201cWatershed,\u201d introduces us to a world that\u2019s just starting to shift to make room for this earth-shattering change. At once a primer for a universe with soulmates and an intense examination of all that implies, the episode follows a couple who married and started a family before the soul particle was discovered and now have to wonder whether what they\u2019ve built together is enough. Carried beautifully by <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Succession\u2019s<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong> Sarah Snook<\/strong>, \u201cWatershed\u201d is an intriguing, pretty deftly executed hour of television. It sticks to the basics and goes deep into their implications.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s a strong start, and honestly worth watching on its own.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sadly, the premiere only serves as a starting point that does all the heavy lifting so the rest of the episodes don\u2019t have to. And they don\u2019t, particularly. Set slightly further in the future when soulmates are a fact of life, the first season\u2019s remaining five episodes are more or less a free-for-all, telling stories that exist in a world with soulmates but could, theoretically, be told in one in which they don\u2019t. In one particularly egregious example, one of the two soulmates in question never even <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ears onscreen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s not to say that the stories told aren\u2019t all good, or that they don\u2019t have anything to do with the premise that tenuously joins them. Some decent questions are raised. What do you do if you\u2019re already married and then you find your soulmate? What do you do if your soulmate is dead? What do you do if your soulmate isn\u2019t what you expect, given what you know about yourself?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But an hour (forty-five minutes, really, with commercials) is maybe not long enough to explore those questions with any kind of nuance. Or at least, it\u2019s not long enough when paired with the kind of flippant tone many of the installments adopt, simultaneously trying to pack in too much content and giving us too little chance to know or care about the characters. How many shocking twists about people you don\u2019t know can you handle in one hour before you stop caring altogether? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The answer is not as many as <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Soulmates<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> thinks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>On the whole, the show\u2019s production value is high, and the performances are better than the writing deserves. There\u2019s a brand new cast with each episode, but there\u2019s always at least one familiar face, usually from far more prestige TV: In addition to Snook, the cast of \u201cWatershed\u201d includes <em>Breaking Bad<\/em>\u2018s <strong>David Costabile<\/strong> while another\u00a0<em>Breaking Bad\u00a0<\/em>alum, <strong>Betsy<\/strong> <strong>Brandt<\/strong>, appears in a later installment.<\/p>\n<p>A surprising standout is <strong>Bill Skarsg\u00e5rd<\/strong>. His episode, \u201cLayover,\u201d is probably the weakest of the six, both because it\u2019s a little too sloppy and zany to be enjoyable and because it\u2019s only\u00a0tangentially related to the whole \u201csoulmates\u201d premise. But by god, in a sea of heartbreak and miserable destiny, it\u2019s the only episode that\u2019s the least bit funny, and that\u2019s due almost entirely to Skarsg\u00e5rd\u2019s impressive comedic timing and perfect reaction shots. I never thought I\u2019d say it, but Bill Skarsg\u00e5rd is hilarious, and I pray he gets more chances to be funny (in a non-evil-clown way) in the future.<\/p>\n<p><em>Soulmates\u00a0<\/em>has already been renewed by AMC for a second season, and it\u2019ll be interesting to see what they can pull off next, and who they can get on board. There\u2019s definitely room to grow here, and I\u2019d love to see it work.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Soulmates\u00a0<\/em>premieres on October 5th on AMC.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/soulmates-review\/#utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=soulmates-review\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#&#8217;Soulmates&#8217; is a High-Concept Series That Could Use Even More Concept&#8221; Hello and welcome to\u00a0Up Next, a weekly column that gives you the rundown on the latest TV. This week,\u00a0Liz Baessler\u00a0takes a look at\u00a0the AMC series Soulmates. Soulmates has the potential to be an anthology dream. Set in the near future after the discovery of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/SoulmatesFeatureImage.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[4977],"class_list":["post-80249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-amc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}