Review- Forever

We were scrolling through the plethora of TV options out there looking for something to watch. We didn’t want anything too heavy as Game of Thrones was still running and we’d just finished the Americans. Randomly I came across “Forever” on Amazon. The description didn’t tell us much about it and a quick review search was also very coy about what it was actually about. But the reviews were positive and Alan Yang (creator) and Maya Rudolph (actress) had done work we had liked before so we figured we’d give it a shot.

Spoiler free review: It was pretty good, not the best thing you’ve ever watched but not disappointing. Well worth the limited time investment (Eight 30min episodes). I enjoy finding things like this. Every show doesn’t need to be 20+ episodes per season for 7+ seasons. Sometimes that’s great. But the benefit of the way media is made now is that short shows like this can get made.

I do actually recommend going into it without spoilers. You can figure some things out from the description and its not a show where shock value is necessary but knowing where things are going will affect the narrative.

Spoiler heavy review:

Ultimately, this show is about marriage and communication. At first, it feels quirky and about a couple, Oscar and June, stuck in a rut and trying to deal with that. Then, one of them dies quite unexpectedly.

The second episode is about dealing with grief and moving on. Part of the guilt stems from Oscar dying on a trip that June pushed them to take and right after having a fight. Then, just as June is starting to cope and move on with her life, she dies.

From there on, they are stuck in a form of purgatory. It’s a perfectly pleasant place, very similar to their lives before but without any of the stressors of life. Food magically appears. There’s no rules or obligations placed on them. They can go anywhere but get very weak the further from their neighborhood they go. This implies they are stuck there.

Eventually, June learns about another place. She doesn’t know anything about it, just that it exists. And she wants to go there. Oscar, perfectly content in the comfortable limbo they live in, doesn’t. They don’t do a very good job of communicating with each other.

Which is really the crux of all relationship troubles. Failure to communicate. Not just marriage but any relationship of any type ever. Failure to communicate and/or failure to empathize. While I’d say the main theme of the show is “the grass is always greener” this bit about communication plays a crucial part.

Oscar’s desire of contentment gets cast in a bit of a negative light overall by the show. Probably a bit more than I think they intended. Isn’t contentment the way to enlightenment? Yes, he was a jerk not empathizing and listening when June tried to talk to him. But there was nothing inherently wrong with his desire to enjoy what they had.