"Station Eleven" is a must watch spring break flick

If there is anything you watch in the coming weeks, especially if you want a binge-worthy show to consume during spring break, let it be “Station Eleven” on HBO Max.

The first episode may hit a little bit close to home for all of us. A pandemic level flu hits the world, but specifically Chicago from where we are viewing, and it wipes out most of the world’s population. While this may remind us a little bit of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic in “Station Eleven” is a lot worse. It wipes out so many people that civilization loses things like electricity and the internet. Society must be completely rebuilt from the ground up.

The show starts out following Jeevan Chaudry, a man we learn is somewhat flaky and indecisive, and a little girl named Kiersten who Jeevan meets at a play. He offers to bring her home after the play, but they are unable to locate her parents. It is during this time that Jeevan’s sister, a nurse at a local hospital, tells him to go to their brother’s place with as much stuff as possible and barricade themselves in.

The show jumps between that timeline and a timeline years down the road where Kiersten is an adult. We learn that at some point Kiersten and Jeevan get separated. Kiersten is now part of the Traveling Symphony, a group of actors and musicians who travel to different towns to perform. This is truly the only source of entertainment for a lot of people due to the lack of cable and internet, and the Traveling Symphony has become famous and well loved. The show not only follows these two characters, but people connected to them one way or another as well. You see how society crumbles and becomes functioning again albeit in a different type of way.

This is a show that you won’t be able to turn off because you need to know what happens next. It’s a dystopian universe with enough in common with ours to seem realistic. I would even argue this is one of the best shows HBO Max has put out in years. It is undoubtedly a must watch.

“Station Eleven” is streaming on HBO Max.