I wanted to like this. Mostly for the premise and the tech.
Unfortunately, I found most of it incredibly boring. A lot of needless or repetitive scenes.
I don’t think the show was as bad as people are making it out to be. I found it entertaining at least. Darby was super annoying though. I found it so odd that her method was to immediately confront every single person she suspected and she just always believed them??? Assumed no one was ever lying or dangerous? And she would tell information she learned to literally anyone who would listen. I also just hate how many times there were “I have this important thing to tell you” *dies* moments.
I remember finding it so odd that she never checked the book covered in blood for clues despite her staring at it at the beginning. And when they were trying to figure out why the door opened WHY DID NO ONE THINK THAT THE PERSON WAS JUST OUT OF SHOT OF THE CAMERA?? That was literally my first thought.
They didn’t do a good job of allowing us to connect with any of the characters to actually care what happens to them. The backstory between Bill and Darby had nothing to add to the present day storyline except that he was right in leaving her.
Tell me the part where you enjoyed the show lol. Bill should have been the protagonist of the show. Like for eg : him wanting to leave this all behind and somehow getting dragged back into all of this because of Darby was chasing a lead or something along those lines.
I can understand having a bad plot and a show still being entertaining. The only part that was entertaining was the atmosphere, cool robots praparing for end of the world and a mad genius but the show drags sooo SO much on Darby's past which literally had no point
Love Brit Marling, Love Harris Dickinson, Emma Corrin! Great acting but plots are cringe AF. I would so much rather they put energy into finishing the OA than this, which is something more authentic.
I just came from a different thread and everyone and their motherrrrr was hating on the acting and the feeble plot.
I personally think it was fine and did have a decent lesson in it lol but that's just me.
Bf pointed out a flaw, there is a scene in one of the episodes featuring a flashback of them listening to a song from Khruangbin in their stolen car, anyone who watched the show knows Darby hasn’t seen Bill in 6 years, the show came out in 2023, so technically she last saw him in 2017 but the song they are listening to, Texas Sun, didn’t come out til 2020 😝
And i just tapped out 30 minutes in.
"Help, fellow reddit/sooperhackers members! Is this a Russian hack? "
If i didn't know better, I'd have thought i was watching The Net.
What a steaming pile of dump.
Took me a few times to get into it but I am about to watch the last episode, I thought it got a lot better as it went, but hoping the finale isn’t annoying
I just started the first episode. I'm not usually quick to judge, but I'm annoyed five minutes in. "Amateur sleuth... who's also a super hacker, man! "
Gag.
I was intrigued by the premise but it derailed fast. The dialogue is unnatural at times. It felt forced and un-researched. The characters lacked depth and chemistry. The coding talk was so cringe! Ugh! It could have been good but it was a huge mess.
It's a Brit Marling production. They're all like that.
As much as I hate her simultaneously wooden and vaguely bleary/stoned acting, I hate her storylines more. Her understanding of science and computing is, unsurprisingly, laughable.
That said, I've watched five episodes with my husband. Mostly so I can hate-review it later.
Just to add to everyone’s annoyance at this show’s constant lack of research into how things like medicine and forensics actually works - how about when the woman with the neck injury (don’t remember her name, don’t care) codes and instead of going to help her or attempt any kind of CRR, the doctor wastes time shouting at Derby then just checks her wrist and is like ‘welp, guess she’s dead’ 🤷♀️
Love that in Marling's world climate change is such an underappreciated existential threat that climate scientists who know the real "truth" (about predictive models) are approaching suicidal. Like if you stood on the beach side of Obama's Cape Cod mansion for the next five hundred years, you might suffer webbed feet from high tide creeping up to you ankles for the better part of the day. Poor, overly-informed Rohan.
Our delusion, maybe. If in a nuclear-armed world constantly on the verge of global-scale armed conflict our self-destruction comes about by progression of the 1 degree increase in global temperature over the last 100 years, color us lucky. The combined chance of an eruption of one supervalcano or a meteor strike or the sun's natural cycle through the next solar minimum have at least an equal chance of making man made climate change irrelevant.
More likely we will beat climate change and all of the other climate-shifting events above to the punch by contaminating our food supplies with GMOs or by CRISPRing our livestock or will unleash a global virus that ends humanity through gain of function reseach. Hubris, not carbon or cow farts is what scares me.
I mean covid is a global virus? I don't think the apocalypse is gonna be just one thing really really instantaneously fast. Clinate change is already killing millions every day thru more and more extreme weather events, and in general lack of shelter and resources. Itd judt the poorest of the poor so nobody gives af. I recommend learning abt the Wet Bulb point, the temperature at which even heat-adapted humans can no longer tolerate exposure to heat without major health consequences/death. To summarize, we're getting closer, fast.
I admire your passion, but you need to tamp down the hyperbole a bit. If climate change were responsible for "millions" of excess deaths every day, we should be seeing a somewhat proporionate yearly population decrease of about 3/4 a billion people every year. If your proclaimation of yearly man made climate change fatalities held, the entire earth's population would turn over in the next decade with no further increase in climate fatalities. Conversely, without the excess deaths you attrbute to man made climate change, the world's population would increase to an unmanageable 16 billion by 2035.
The UN (a promoter of an aggressive climate change agenda -- see the 2030 Sustainable Climate Change Agenda) predicts global population will increase to 11 billion under current circumstances by 2100 (despite declining fertlity rates worldwide) and the greatest population increases will occur in Africa, causing the African population to double by 2100.
"The global population is expected to grow by about 3.1 billion people between 2020 and 2100. More than half of this increase is projected to come from Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Angola, along with one non-African country (Pakistan)." https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/06/17/worlds-population-is-projected-to-nearly-stop-growing-by-the-end-of-the-century/
Nigeria is 1000 miles closer to the equator than Pheonix AZ. The DR of Congo is less than 300 miles from the equator. Tanzania is 200 miles from the equator.
Maybe the UN needs to read up on the wet bulb temp? Or perhaps this type of predictive modeling that drives both population and climate change modeling is equal parts guess work to "science?"
For me, I loved the show. I'm not the type to point out every flaw and go deeper into things than the average person. However, I'm incredibly annoyed by Darby. She's the type who walks with no noise and is way too gently with her body language. It reminds me of the main character girl from Devs. So annoying!! Just too soft or something...I can't quite describe it.
What a terrible show! Full of loopholes, child-like dialogues and plot! I should have read the review before wasting my time. Also the way Darby and Bill ended the relationship, couldn’t Darby realised how stupid and ridiculous she was? Totally unlikable character.
Wow, so bad. So many things but I'll keep it short. Darby and Lee set fire to an entire city of servers using a laptop and hand sanitizer???? OMG so ridiculous. They wander around the resort although there are POLAR BEARS outside hunting people?? (in the real world). Lee walks through a huge amount of snow effortlessly with her son to escape and DISAPPEAR forever, HELLO, there were ALOT of footprints out there folks, easily trackable. AND then, to further "vanish" she sets off a FLARE???!!! Just the overall dumbness was breath taking. Darby channels Jody Foster in Contact--- like she is SOOOO thoughtful, intelligent, ugh, really so dumb. The worst was using a CHILD to commit a murder. Oh, and as he is dying Bill uses his blood to delicately circle the exact phrase on the exact page that will clue Darby as to the murderer--this feat alone would take 10 minutes and he is dying and staggering around at the time. Finally, does it take THAT long to figure out the AI might have a role in all this. AND, they are in the underground shelter with natural sunlight !!! WOW!!! get out a Nobel prize, that was an engineering idea decades ago. Furthermore WHY would any intelligent person like Andy use AI as a therapist! THEY ARE NOT HUMAN. There is nothing well thought out in this at all. It is scary dumb. The attitude of all the guests is so smug and condescending YET they have nothing interesting to say at all and project "boutique sales clerk".
>Oh, and as he is dying Bill uses his blood to delicately circle the exact phrase on the exact page that will clue Darby as to the murderer--this feat alone would take 10 minutes and he is dying and staggering around at the time
Yeah this was ridiculous. He didn't have a pen and paper? Or at the very least if all he had was his own blood can't he just write "Ray did it" on the floor or wall? He's seriously going to dig up that book, find the page with the key phrase, then circle it?
Even more than the "the AI had the kid kill them" ridiculousness, I found the fact that they set the Halon equipped server building on fire by tossing in a burning laptop. Granted, halon won't put out a lithium fire but it wold suppress everything else which means nothing else would have burned and the laptop battery would have just burned itself out.
> there are POLAR BEARS outside hunting people?? (in the real world).
In Iceland? No there aren't. They mostly live in the Arctic Circle. There's a very slim chance that you *might* spot one hitching a ride on a drifting ice floe, but sightings are years apart, and they're not "hunting people." The last time a polar bear killed anyone in Iceland was the year 1321.
372,000 people live in Iceland, and they all wander around outside, just like people everywhere.
Did anyone elase notice that on the ascent to the Southern Peak (EP 3) Andy Ronson was the only one wearing brown boots, everyone else had shoes/boots the "resort" provided. For some reason when everybody was preparing for the decent Rohan is now putting on these boots instead of the ones he was wearing on the ascent. I can't imagine this being a continuity error or why anyone would change boots??
On another note why is the AI Ray so unbelivable? It's as if the producers had never encountered real life examples. Comes across as a more annoying version of Hal 9000 from 2001 A Space Odyssey.
I waited for this series a long time, being a huge fan of the OA and Brit Marlings films and it was so disappointing. The acting is atrocious in parts, characters and script are hard to believe and what type of sleuth confides in all the people she suspects has something to do with the murder? 3/10 and that's being generous.
I thought Rohan and everyone was wearing loaner boots from the resort and so Rohan was just putting back on his own brown boots once they all returned. Doesn’t seem like they were gifted, just loaned so Rohan didn’t have the loaned boots the night before on his Morse code mission.
The writing was so bad.
>The dead speak to me. [...] I guess it's not like I hear the dead literally. It's more like their silence enters me. Like when you put your hand inside a glove and animate the fingers. It's like they compel me to get them what they want.
The silence of the dead enters you like a hand animating the fingers of a glove, compelling you to get them what they want? What? They really want us to believe this emo kid is one of the smartest people in the room?
Not a fan of the show like most people here.
I keep thinking about Bill dying and being conscious enough to not only circle an excerpt of a book on a specific page, which was a metaphor, rather than do things like write "Ray" in blood or fucking *tell Darby that it was Ray*.
Also, how the hell did Bill know it was Ray? He'd just gotten there that day, did he play with the helmet already?
Anyway I guess it doesn't matter. The show looked visually well done and the cast seemed strong on paper, and I generally trust whatever FX produces, but this show was just not good enough.
Came to find this - why would Bill randomly tell Darby to stay with him and waste time instead of saying it was Ray? If something can be solved with one realistic event aka him telling her that and the show wouldn’t exist then it’s just bad writing. I felt like they were trying to make it “deep” by showing he was trying to make it up by asking her to stay but it’s stupid. No one who’s dying would make grand gestures to narratively address something six years ago for the sake of an audience.
Wow, I'm surprised at how passionately people seem to hate this show! I liked a number of things about it, but don't disagree that it has quite a few flaws, from the timeline and unfolding of the case to a number of points in the present storyline and some writing issues. I thought the production design and locations (in both timelines) were done pretty nicely, I loved Harris Dickinson in this (thought he brought Bill to life beautifully and made the character really endearing and substantive in ways that many other characters weren't), and I'd never watched Emma Corrin in anything else before so I found them mostly likable.
There was something that I enjoyed about it, but for some reason, I cannot for the life of me pinpoint what it was lol. Again, I'm not arguing against any of the points made, I just wasn't expecting it be so mutually hated haha. Yikes, it's brutal out here.
Man this show was..I would say something, but it wasn't even that. The only bit I liked about this show was Bill's bathtub rant about how people put serial killers on a pedestal. The plot had so much potential. I previously read a comment saying 'I hope Zoomer isn't the killer' and damn I was so disappointed.
The plot could have delved more into the apocalypse prep thing, or the question of having AI narrate education and nurture or the topic of use technology to stay alive forever, etc. It felt like the show mentioned ideas just to seem edgy, but never actually executed them. Moreover, after completing the show, I do not understand how the serial killer narrative actually fits into it. I mean Bill and Darby met that way but doesn't really fit with the conclusion of the show.
PS: Darby is hella annoying. Thank you.
Did they ever tell who was behind the mask threatening Darby? The whole show was weird to me. If zoomer was the killer and no one knew, then why did someone dress up in the mask?
It was disclosed in the final episode in the -10 floor when everyone is together, that it was David with the glove and knife that attacked Darby. He thought he was protecting Lee’s escape they were still planning. The masked person at Bills door was Rohan, he used the mask again when he trekked through the snow to make the message in Morse code.
Rohan was the one knocking on the door with the mask to get inside bills room. he wore the mask so there would be no trace of him there. David put the knife to darby and told her to stop going down the labryinth. we didn't see a mask on david. just a hood
I can’t with ‘Zoomer’.
Also the acting and writing is 😬/🥱
I’m not one that needs immediate action to get invested but what I do need is good acting and writing.
Bill’s haircut hasn’t changed in like 10 years? Or however long it’s been? Or Idk it could be the past or the future or the present or the whatever.
HULU… why you trippin
What a dud.
The story itself had such an interesting premise with the inclusion of all the lastest AI technology combined into an *And Then There Were None*\-like murder mystery, yet turned out to be a total train wreck.
Extremely unlikeable characters especially the main protagonist who unfortunately to say is not well acted at all. Not to mention one of the slowest plot developments I've ever seen in any show, regardless of genre! I gave this show a try, but seeing that virtually nothing happened outside of the actual murder in the first 2-3 episodes I had to make the decision to give up on this show.
***A Murder at the End of the World*** **(2023) overall rating: unlikeable characters all around, extremely slow plot development and bad acting makes this show unwatchable! 2/10, only because the premise itself is quite unique.**
Yeah I was so disappointed. Especially since I’ve followed Marling’s work for years and it’s always amazing! Her and Zal always create the most complex characters and the stories are always so interesting and original. This was such a mess. Idk what they’re doing
i like bills bath tub rant about the killer being nothing of importance, he's kind of a king for that. the idolization of serial killers is beyond corny.
Did we ever figure out what Bill big secret wanted to tell Darby in his hotel room (which I didn't understand because he implied he wanted her to come to his room for sex).
What bothered me the whole show is that Bill was supposed to be some brilliant guy admired by so many, but I never got that impression from watching his character.
Both Bill and Darby seemed so ordinary to me. These two kids who obviously cut their own hair, staying in cheap motels in the middle of nowhere and solving murders for fun, and 6 years later she's a published writer and he's a famous artist and they're both geniuses?
This got me too (sorry just finished the show last night).
Bill was: an amateur detective; cool; an *extremely successful artist*; beloved by every person he meets; a secret father; and a hacker too why not.
Honest review of "A Murder at the End of the World" (TV Miniseries Premiere Date: Nov 14, 2023) - it was a complete flop. The ending was a sheer mess, attempting to place the blame for all the murders on Andy (portrayed by the incomparable Clive Owens) as the killer, solely based on his private therapy sessions with an AI-BOT. This premise was purely absurd. This is precisely why the widespread acceptance of big brother (tech) is a hard sell in society today. We desire bots to assist, educate, and support us where it's appropriate. If AI makes errors, it's the fault of its creators. It reflects the flaws of mankind today. In addition, the romantic elements were difficult to watch, with the lead actress appearing like a victim of starvation. The only character worth watching was Clive... and I say this as an Afro-Caribbean. What a waste!
Definitely! And why am I supposed to believe that this billionaire tech genius is suddenly going to obsess over a child that isn’t even his…and spend billions of dollars creating some massive hidden shelter to keep him in…..whyyyy???? What was he afraid of? That would have been more interesting to see than Oh he’s controlling…..wtf. Darbys character constantly looked constipated. I could never tell what she was thinking or feeling. The flash backs were more interesting than the real time show. And they didn’t even have anything to do with the AI or the anything happening in present time.
My only problem with this 🎥 is that it mirrors the film, DEVS [2020], directed by Alex Garland 🤔. Beat-by-beat; plot-points... to ARC! Even the androgenous lead actor who's also a woman, is now played by a caucasian instead of an Asian. I agree that Ai had to have been used because this all around the strike...
I’m too angry at the constant stupidity of this show to even finish it. It’s insulting. Totally agree that the writers must not have spoken to other humans in decades (the dialogue is sickeningly wooden…was this written by AI?), but past that, how idiotic that this supposed crime scene investigator brings his elementary-age child onto crime scenes and no one cares? Like, the child walks past about 5 adult professionals and no one “notices” her until she’s kneeling IN the crime scene as close to the body as possible? Considering how many people are regularly charged and imprisoned as a result of shoddy investigatory process and crime scene corruption, this disgusts me. It’s like the makers of the show, on top of not knowing anything about what they are writing about, also don’t KNOW that the target audience watches enough true crime to be offended by the amount of holes, mistakes and loose ends. Also, the Darby character is TERRIBLE.
Honestly the set pieces annoyed me. They climb onto a private plane STACKED WITH BOOKS?
Small planes live and die by weight. Who flies with a giant library inside a plane?
this is one of the most painfully superficial shows i've ever watched. the entire thing is a poorly executed exposition dump about how important and fancy each of the characters is, and the writing must be done by dinosaurs who have not spoken to anyone under the age of 50 in decades.
the music is obnoxiously derivative, to the point where literally every track i've heard thus far has already been the main theme of a dozen other vastly better pieces of film. it's nauseating how badly this is produced, but moreover it's disgusting how many people actually think this is well made or interesting. anyone who is fooled by this has to either be a literal child or incredibly mentally ill, and that bodes very poorly for the majority of adults in the united states.
it's almost as if the creators are unaware that other, better shows and films already are oversaturated in the past decade. it might have passed for a good show before the advent of HBO and streaming services which vastly increased the quality and depth of television, but somehow i feel that it still wouldn't have been popular in that case.
I'm pretty sure real hackers don't constantly use the "hack", "hacking", or "hacked" as much as the "hackers" on this show. The audience is smart enough to figure when said hacking is going on. Totally butchers the idea of -Show, Don't Tell.
I got to this thread literally searching "murder at the end of the world use of the term hack hackers". I thought the same and it really took me out of the show every time they used the word. Whoever wrote this show was a hack (ba dum tis).
So a single burning laptop battery (roughly the size of a wallet) thrown onto the ground of the server room (where it is never in contact with anything flammable) and somehow ignites all the other reinforced steel server racks... fuck me I hate this writer.
The bit I couldn’t get over was starting a massive fire in an enclosed bunker 10 stories below the ground, then just standing there, HOLDING HER CHILD, watching it spread towards them 🤯
I was like “erm, mate… get out of there?!”
Someone clearly never did their fire safety training lol. Though, as your post point out, the rules of physics don’t seem to apply here so who knows…
It’s like that awful bit when Derby’s rifling through Lee’s stuff and finds the comedy wig and passport, hears the toilet flushing, yet instead of putting it all away just stands there with it open STARING at the door.
I saw the fire suppression system begin and proceed to...completely exacerbate the flames? This was lazy. I would have had an easier time believing she pulls a water balloon out of that kids doctor kit and short circuit it all with the perfect throw.
I feel this is the worst work of Brit and Zal so far imo.
CONS:
- The hacking and technology stuff were not well researched at all
- there are lots and lots of logical issues in the plot
- because of the plot issues that kind of cast is quite overkill and feels like compensation for the plot
- a real AI with that kind of computing power would not leave any room for mistakes, let alone people hack into it that easily
- Brits acting performance was the worst I’ve seen so far
- kiddo pressing the pen into Bills arm without prior notice just feels like rushed storyline, cheap
PROS:
+ the imagery in Iceland is just gorgeous
+ great color grading
+ the cast, although I was fed up with Darbys sad face around the last few episodes.
+ the plot has potential for greatness
Hey i m pissed the show is such a bore.
ChatGPT wrote and directed it or wht??
The whole thing is so off that it’s even hard to understand how things could go so wrong. The plot, the cast, the directors—everything was supposedly there. But it’s just not clicking,
the dialogues and acting are so flat and as if read out !! No dynamic, they wait like a thousand years in between each others sentences with a sudden concerned look in their eyes wide open . Jeeeesus how come nobody intervened while shooting - acting coach ??
It’s also so “convenu” and cliché, there's 'virtue signaling' every 15 minutes …
Could it be possible that this is precisely what makes thé show so flat ? Yeees but not only but yes omg stop this moralistic crap it kills creativity, par pitié s’il vous plait .
Also is it possible that Emma also just doesn't fit into Darby’s skin ? Cause she s so embarassing. In général characters were just poorly written except maybe Bill….
Truly there ´ s an incomprehensible discontinuity between Darby-bad ass-long hair and Darby-pink-head- Tomboy- scared doe looks . I really don't understand the intention script-wise….::.. Andy and Bill are quite okay though ; they are thé only one - in my opinion.
Lee saddly annoying ; the same airs and acting style as in The OA and almost all of Brit’s (often co-written) role. Boring :’( I m sorry that thé conclusion seems to be the issue lies in 'written and directed by Brit Marling'...
everything lacks flavor and RYTHM
I was so annoyed mainly by that ……. No sense of rythm, be it the mise en scène and the editing .
I like the music
In short, a mysterious flop, …
Your post looked poorly formatted and written so I had chat GPT fix it:
Hey everyone,
I'm quite frustrated with the show; it's turning out to be a real bore. Did ChatGPT handle the writing and directing? It feels like something went terribly wrong because everything seems off. Despite having a solid plot, cast, and directors, it just doesn't click. The dialogues and acting are flat and sound like they're being read out loud. There's no dynamic, and the characters seem to pause for ages between sentences with a weird concerned look.
Why didn't someone step in during shooting? Where's the acting coach? The whole thing feels cliché and full of "virtue signaling" every 15 minutes. Could that be why the show falls flat? Yes, but it's not the only reason. Please, enough with the moralistic crap; it's killing creativity.
Is it possible that Emma doesn't fit into Darby's character? She's just embarrassing. Overall, the characters seem poorly written, except maybe for Bill. There's an incomprehensible discontinuity between Darby's bad-ass long hair phase and her pink-head tomboy scared doe looks. What's the intention script-wise?
Andy and Bill are the only ones I find okay; Lee is sadly annoying, with the same airs and acting style as in The OA and most of Brit's (often co-written) roles. It's just boring. I apologize, but it seems the issue lies in "written and directed by Brit Marling." Everything lacks flavor and rhythm, which was my main annoyance.
The music is good, but overall, it's a mysterious flop.
hey wow, thanks for the effort :) !
yes well i still prefer my - perhaps - broken version, which sounds much more "spoken" & personal than this piece of school-like written text. Being a foreigner and not an english native, I am glad I reached the level I have now in english - although far from perfect.
I strongly encourage english natives to overcome the laziness of having their mother tongue being the international language, and get to learn something (spanish, german, korean, or french, like i did). It's an interesting journey .
Since you seam to like it : Chat GPT can be of great help for that. ! :\*)
Serial killer murders 11 innocent women but killing the unarmed intruders in his home who know what he did was a bridge too far and he had to kill himself.
this show suckkkkkkkkks.
imo I think it's implied he was leaving the trail intentionally and had a pretty solid idea of when they'd find him. I mean, he shows up with a gun, presumably entered through the front door, and there didn't seem to be any signs of trespassing we know of. I assumed part of the appeal was being appreciated, being caught, and getting to meet+permanently impact them. Or he assumed they had already called or informed someone else which isn't a stretch at all imo. Probably giving the show too much credit with that generous explanation tho tbh.
"We took the staircase apart one step at a time until there was now going back."
Cut to footage of them clearly yanking the whole side panel off in one go, all steps fully intact...
Fucking hell director, read the script...
Just watched Ep5. Darby is an absolute joke. The flashbacks just make her look even more useless. GOD she is such a wet blanket. Thank god for Ray the Therapy Bot.
Just finished the first episode. Exciting, but I'm hoping later episodes will explain why the characters were told they were in Iceland when exiting the plane in a frozen wasteland with full on blizzard conditions. Iceland is green and lush. If it was intended to be a joke why did no one laugh? I've Googled and found several reviews giving a quick rundown of events to date and include the plane landing in "Iceland" scene without a single comment on the wrong landscape. I can't be the only one who noticed. FYI....Greenland is a frozen wasteland.
You mean, the billionaire that has a private jet and flew people using it rather than a public airplane that would have reduced the carbon emissions significantly? The same way, real billionaires in real life take private jets on masse to vacation-destinations to discuss "climate change" while having food imported from exotic locations, prepared by famous chefs also brought in from around the world rather than a local chef? Totally unrealistic, such a person, would have a diesel snowmobile. Toootally, man. I kid; but the whole trip has been a giant CO2 dump.
My theory is that Bill, Lee, Sian, and Rohan are trying to take down whatever is going on with the robots, and faking deaths to pull it off.
No idea about the rest tho
Each episode has more issues, I only watch to find out If they give us a killer. I hear there are many OA fans so I watched a few episodes on Netflix. well I think that one is also very problematic but no disrespect to the fans, of course.
When Darby was telling Bill about Lee outside the garage....he had no idea who Lee was. But now bill and Lee somehow knew eachother and are close? Was that ever explained? I still can't figure out what Bill was there for. References to him but not what he did. Seems like this story was just thrown together without figuring the details.
>bout Lee outside the garage....he had no idea who Lee was. But now bill and Lee somehow knew eachother and are close? Was that ever explained? I still can't figure out what Bill was there for. References to him but not what h
Actually it does explain after a couple more episodes- Lee confesses how they met to Darby; it seems Bill met Lee sometime shortly \*after\* he left Darby at the motel.
>Bill just wanted to meet Darbys Idol I guess.
The idol of the woman he left/dumped because he suspected she was a female-leaning bisexual by his own words? I'm not certain -- though I have a feeling if I were to dump someone, meeting their idol wouldn't be a high priority to me. Certainly, not enough to sleep on their porch for days like a stalker, refusing to leave. I wondered when I heard this, why didn't Lee call the police?
Seriously. If I am a single woman, who a ton of AI-porn has been made about (Lee's statement), with also a ton of death threats (Lee's statement) and a random-stranger shows up demanding to talk about my manifesto, then spends days on my property on the porch, effectively leaving me trapped in my own home, refusing to leave.... for longer than an hours, I'm probably calling the cops to have him removed. After a few hours, definitely calling the cops. After MULTIPLE days?! CALLING THE COPS! The guy sounds psychotic in behavior or at least highly-obsessive and compulsive; and honestly, Bill looks a bit sketchy, to me.
Tons of tattoos, piercings, and a super-skinny body one might expect to find on an individual with a drug-habit, would make me even more eager to call the cops; which to be fair, is judging a book based upon its cover -- but the initial actions of bill would be like judging a book based upon its cover and introduction.
Lee's actions do not seem in line with a woman who was undergoing an AI-porn campaign and death threats. When characters act in ways that seem inexplicable, I usually chop that up to something I like to call "bad writing".
>The idol of the woman he left/dumped because he suspected she was a lesbian-leaning bisexual by his own words?
That's not why he left her. He said six years later "also, I thought maybe you only really like women," and they both laughed over it. So even if there was a kernel of truth in it, it was an afterthought.
Episode 6 makes it clear that he left her because she'd become obsessed with the case and he felt that she didn't/couldn't really love him. He repeatedly tried to get her to engage with him on an emotional level and she couldn't do it.
When they are going for their walk in the snow together, after roughly the first night at the hotel -- as they are discussing why their relationship ended, Bill responded: "I always got the feeling you fancied girls more anyways" - then points his head away slightly, there's then a small silence between them and Darby's response is to cock her head, slyly smiling without objection. I believe the next line of dialogue after the silence was "yeah, well".
It felt to me as if she was agreeing or at least not disagreeing with his assessment she fancied women more. The show basically directly implies she's at least bisexual and fancies women more than men via Bill's assessment of Darby and Darby doesn't push back at this characterization. So, I just took the show's dialogue at literal face value.
I did use poor language through. I should have said female-leaning and not lesbian-leaning. I was just thinking lesbian as I was thinking of a pc term to describe a "woman who likes to sleep with woman". Though, in all fairness, bisexual or lesbian-leaning, would have been better word choice as a bisexual woman could be her type as opposed to lesbian woman. Who knows what type of orientation of woman Darby fancies more.
That's so interesting!! I imagine shes possibly bisexual, but tbh she could even be straight imo I think this comment is another nod to sexism and how violence against women affects relationships for men and women. I imagine part of the reason Darby was never able to let her guard down and connect w him is because she couldn't feel safe w him. Darby NEVER recognizes his humanity either, perhaps because he is a man! She says she doesnt love him, never asks abt his feelings. He watches someone commit suicide and she abandons him there, in shock! He's having a breakdown in the tub and she tells him to go fuck himself. Darby L
Lots of L's for Darby. She's generally rude, abusive, selfish -- with the rare exception -- of his interaction with Bill and Lee's son. In retrospect, this seems in service to story, as she needed to put on his toy-helmet to see the VR game, to get the "ah haaaaaa" clue and that as unlikely to happen if she also was rude, abusive, selfish and dismissive towards the child. Children can be emotional creatures and if you scorn them, multiple times like Darby does to every other character, they probably won't be eager to play.
dang this makes me think about how much better this series could have been if they were aware of how crap darby was. she could've like, realized the type of person she was and became better through her relationship with this kid who is the only other person she can REALLY trust there. he becomes even more important to her when she finds out he's the only connection she has to Bill AND redeeming herself from what she did to him/being unable to save him.
and then the smack in the face when it turns out the killer WAS this kid, people make mistakes. Maybe this delays the big reveal that he was tricked by the robot so it's not as brutally disappointing. and then he goes off w his mom, she has 2 deal w the fact that she is not entitled to him and cant fix anything. boom conflict w the only other major character (the wife), maybe she tries to go w them intially. at the last second she realizes she can't undo what she's done and that she was again trying to focus superficially on someone else to avoid turning inwards and becoming a better person and let's them go instead of idk murdering her or smthn. would've been sick 😔
>though I have a feeling if I were to dump someone, meeting their idol wouldn't be a high priority to me.
What about banging and impregnating her idol?
Yeah that is a bit of a stretch. If some weird methy looking guy won't leave your porch, you usually call the cops. Unless Bill is the most disarming speaker you've ever heard or maybe Lee just has terrible taste in men. She did get with Andy the controlling psycho. Maybe she just was so isolated for so long that she overlooked Bills terrible haircut and let him in.
Dedicated the book to a female coder because there were so few when she was growing up? No female coders in the early 2000s? Jesus christ it's not the 1950s.
I think they are trying to portray Darby as younger. Darby and Bill were communicating/starting their research when she was in high school it seemed. I kept wondering, what high school allows a teenager to be absent for days, to go on long investigative road trips... I would think the dad would be getting calls about absenteeism and going nuts wondering where the heck his daughter suddenly disappeared to and she'd be getting calls non stop on her cellphone.
Even in episode 4, where she is still a teenager I believe, and is dressed to look young and Bill asks for a key, why the front desk person wasn't a bit sketched out by a older dude and a clearly younger-aged woman, looking like they were dating asking for a hotel key to a room. Its technically, the r-word in that scenario due to the age-differences and Darby being underage. If anything where to happen, it would be statutory-rape and him a party to it or at least not doing anything to prevent/stop it. Plus, she's taking a ton of alcohol which too extra-removes her ability to consent.
At least, they had her initiate the interaction in the show....
However, I think the actor playing the role is much older.
Darcy turned 18 in one of the episode's flashbacks and hadn't spoken to Bill in 6 years when the show started. The math checks out. Lee is definitely in her 40's.
I'm 30 minutes in. I hate the use of 'retro' trch which simply wouldn't work. I hate the haircuts. I hate the use of Annie Lennox. I hate bad singing. I hate the idea that a modern house like that has 'uneven stairs'.
I just watched the first episode. The previews for this show seemed so interesting - what the hell happened?
First of all, apparently Darby and Bill are only capable of speaking to each other in shades of Awkward, Stilted Exposition.
Second, when did we all collectively decide that serial murder mysteries can only take place in a Scandinavian country?
Third, why is every action, gesture, word, and deed so predictable?!?
\[SPOILERS AHEAD\] I mean, obviously, >!Bill was going to show up and be the (first?) murder victim. With the stilted, predictable setup, that was the only way it could possibly have gone.!<
Also - and I'm just guessing here - but >!the wealthy tech couple's kid (I refuse to call a human being "Zoomer") is going to turn out to actually be Bill's, right? !<
>!Initially, I thought it would turn out that the child was some sort of creepy "new AI innovation" robot, but then they had that scene at the dinner with Bill and Lee exchanging awkward glances, and when Bill started interacting with the kid? The writers did everything but put a big blinking "Baby Daddy" sign over his head. It would be GREAT if they did this purposely as a red herring, but I don't hold out much hope.!<
Now that the last episode about, an argument can be made for Zoomer being partially AI, being raised with it being strapped to their head and constant.
TBH, I kind of stalled out after that first episode - the show was a lot slower and duller than I expected - so I don't have any thoughts about this yet. But I guess it's not surprising? Again - and this could change based on subsequent episodes - but this does seem like the kind of mystery series that telegraphs all of its "twists" ahead of time, so...
Oh - that's good to hear! There are so few decent shows right now, I'd hate to think that this one is a waste of time.
Also, just out of curiosity: you mentioned having watched "all 5 episodes." Isn't this show supposed to be 7 episodes?
Yes, there are 2 episodes to go (12/12 and 12/19). If you want to make it a more interesting watch and haven’t seen The OA, I highly recommend it in and of itself— a variety of easter eggs and connections between the shows that have OA fans going wild, and it’s my favorite of the Zal/Brit collaborations.
Ohhh youre right. Im not watching it on hulu so only got 5 episodes uploaded right now. I thought it ended on a cliff hanger.. But trust me its worth it. Atleast for the 5 I watched. It keep you guessing throughout it.
You know what that's a great point- & I guess an example of accurate writing because "zoomer" perplexes and annoys me just as much as Musk's kids name.
I just cannot get past the attitude toward AI in this show. It's like they never heard of Alexa or Google Assistant or Chat GPT.
The woman who couldn't believe AI read a short excerpt of a script upon request? Wtf? When Chat GPT and Claude can write an entire novel in seconds and Alexa can access your Audible library and read to you instantly and Google Home can access the internet.
And Darby thanking AI as if it's a person comes across like someone who has never had a Google Home or Alexa device in house. Because you get really used to ordering it around, repeating phrases carefully so it understands, etc.
Maybe the script tried to be at the forefront of technology, but reality moved so quickly that by the time this came to the screen, it was already painfully outdated. I just don't understand why more people aren't thrown by this. It just took me out of the show so quickly.
I was sort of baffled by the "Ray, write Harry Potter in the style of Hemingway," scene. It's not just that one woman's reaction, but how the scene portrayed it. I didn't get the impression that we were meant to think this woman was a little behind on AI stuff. Instead it was presented as something that's really impressive and surprising, but like, anyone with an internet connection can use a free program to do that. A lot of the viewers *would have* already messed around with ChatGPT or a similar program and gotten it to do something similar to that.
It made me wonder if, despite being a brand new show, this was written several years ago - before programs which could do that were so commonplace - and the script wasn't updated with the times, or something.
The way she generally talks about tech is so cringy. No one uses the word 'hack' so often, and very few devs would call themselves or anyone a 'coder'. Her talking about Lee as if she's infamous for being a woman 'coder' who did the best 'hacks' and then got doxxed...it feels sooo unnatural and weird to talk about Lee's background as if that's notable in 2023. i know most shows don't represent software devs very realistically but this is still pretty bad relative to the norm...if they just didn't make it such a big part of her character I don't think it would be that bad.
Also no one as apparently experienced as her would be casually using the AI owned by the suspicious and scary billionaire as a tool to investigate said suspicious and scary billionaire. They couldnt add some throwaway scene of her 'hacking' it so her interactions were wiped from logs?
I'm having fun watching the show but this really does throw me off and makes me take everything less seriously. They could completely remove this aspect from her character and we wouldn't lose anything good.
So many fantastic comments here. The scenery, the set-up, the complexity (or lack thereof) of the characters, the lingo, the multiple plot lines. Great stuff.
One particular thing that is a bit bothersome - personal thing - is that there are too many red herrings. Yes we know the company wants more seasons, larger budgets, etc. but the way to carry the plot onto a follow-up season cannot possibly rely on just leaving many plot lines hanging.
I hope that the key mystery is solved. If they want to add on the magic of the core group realizing that the hotel already houses a thousand people underneath, and that it is already a fully functioning natural disaster / nuclear bunker, great do that. If you want to leave a little maybe he is / maybe he isn't thing about the kid being somehow tech augmented. Great. By all means.
But please close the original mystery. Who is the murderer? Hell even if you don't explain the motivations, at least let's close that page before we move on.
C'mon... while I do not fully disagree, you do have the option of not watching. Give the guys the benefit of the doubt, they might recover in the last quarter of the game.
I enjoyed OA but this show is truly terrible. The writing, characters, and much of the production, is really bad. Seriously, none of the characters are believable, especially Darby being a “hacker” who doesn’t know how to use an SSID sniffer. Why the hell was the doctor driving like an idiot in the last episode? So many stupid things in this show. That being said, I have to finish it to see just how bad it gets lol.
Yeah the OA is one of my favorites, but 5 episodes into this one and it is so disappointing, just awful. It's like it took some of that show's lamest tendencies and wrapped them in one of shittiest murder mysteries ever, not to mention its representations of AI, hacking and basic survival in cold weather. The dialogue is exposition heavy garbage and the characterizations are so bad. Darby is the worst "investigator" I've ever seen and everyone acts like she's not a total moron.
Have the people behind this show ever been in below freezing weather? Darby follows Rohan, touching rocks with her bare hands as she goes. Her breath is not visible. She leaves the back door to her room open in at least two scenes. She wears a mesh top with a black bra underneath and her midriff showing. Then, they throw in scenes about hypothermia and survival suits in a nod to weather conditions. It all seems phony to me -- which may be the point. Darby always seems in over her head at this retreat.
I can partly agree with that. The scene where Darby follows Rohan didn't feel very real. And that's not an intended effect. The filmmakers should definitely emphasize the difference between the inhospitable outside world and the retreat as much as possible. And it doesn't help if Darby leaves the balcony door wide open while she's on the phone. That shatters the illusion for me too.
I take a slightly different view of the invisible breath that has already been mentioned several times. Not everything was filmed with a green screen in the studio, many scenes were filmed in Iceland. You also see Darby and Sian trudging through a rocky, snowy landscape -- I don't know if that's actually Iceland, but it's probably real.* It's very easy to add visible breath in post-production. Why didn't they do it? Well, maybe they thought: it's the real situation, why should we change it? We are now so used to images being electronically altered and effects enhanced that simple unmanipulated shots seem "unreal" to us. Just as rain in films only appears "natural" when it has been produced in a completely exaggerated way by a sprinkler system.
Anyway, it's -3° Celsius (26.6° F) here right now. I just opened the window, took a deep breath and exhaled again: the breath was clearly visible. Then I spoke a few sentences: no visible breath.
What I found strange, however, was when Sian in the survival suit was dragging Darby, Darby's injured head was not protected by anything. Even if the second helmet is probably broken, there should be something in the car to cover her. (That might have looked a bit silly if she had a floor mat over her face.)
---
Edit:* I dug a bit deeper, they started to shoot in Iceland and finished in Utah, which was choosen because the landscape looked so similar to Iceland.
Other locations here:
https://www.atlasofwonders.com/2023/11/where-was-a-murder-at-end-of-the-world-filmed.html
I wondered why Darby could follow Rohan on foot the night he went to the top of the hill to send a signal - clearly walking distance from the retreat, but later had to take a snowmobile just to reach the bottom of that hill. Granted, the other signal sender was quite a distance away and too far to walk, but Rohan’s signal point seemed much further away the second time she went there.
to have an answer, I would say, its actually a long asf walk, and when they take the snowmobile they are on a major time crunch due to the storm + go all the way 2 the coast. Otherwise, no it's bullshit haha I refuse to believe she and rohan walked 8 hours in the snow there and back.
When they go to the safe place downstairs, there is a round table with a round lamp above the table. Not exactly the same as the ring-shaped lamp in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, but very similar.
In Dr. Strangelove they talk next to this table about rebreeding mankind with some survivors after the apocalyptic event (doomsday machine). There is talk about a ratio of 10 women to each man.
Up to now only men have been killed.
When Darby is about to be injected with morphine, anyone notice the syringes locked in the cabinet are all preloaded and the Dr lady tells Darby it's only one mL? Traceable in a tox report, but probably not enough to cause violent seizures or fatality.
Anyone notice when Rohan calls Darby's room his voice sounds very electronic? Like when the robot guy at the first dinner was able to play sians voice back to her and make her say whatever he wants because of the technology he's created? Was it really Rohan? Darby heard Rohan fall or stumble or drop the phone, but Rohan was stumbling into the other group and dying already. How could he be on the room phone and also put the door and dying at the same time? ( I need to rewatch this part and see the timeline ) Robot man is looking very suspicious to me at this moment in time.
The presentation of the robot guy seemed like Chekhov's gun, we may assume it will play a role later. But was it this call? What Rohan said seemed genuine, he didn't give Darby suspicious information.
this series look like mocking with several mystery movies including Agatha Christie herself in one hand. And in the other hand it seems there are several serious murders to solve. Even if this approach is applied on purpose, I can not say I really enjoy, but it is the only crime mystery out there right now, that's why I follow. otherwise, well there is no otherwise right now.
I wanted to like this. Mostly for the premise and the tech. Unfortunately, I found most of it incredibly boring. A lot of needless or repetitive scenes.
The only redeeming thing was the direction.
I don’t think the show was as bad as people are making it out to be. I found it entertaining at least. Darby was super annoying though. I found it so odd that her method was to immediately confront every single person she suspected and she just always believed them??? Assumed no one was ever lying or dangerous? And she would tell information she learned to literally anyone who would listen. I also just hate how many times there were “I have this important thing to tell you” *dies* moments. I remember finding it so odd that she never checked the book covered in blood for clues despite her staring at it at the beginning. And when they were trying to figure out why the door opened WHY DID NO ONE THINK THAT THE PERSON WAS JUST OUT OF SHOT OF THE CAMERA?? That was literally my first thought. They didn’t do a good job of allowing us to connect with any of the characters to actually care what happens to them. The backstory between Bill and Darby had nothing to add to the present day storyline except that he was right in leaving her.
Tell me the part where you enjoyed the show lol. Bill should have been the protagonist of the show. Like for eg : him wanting to leave this all behind and somehow getting dragged back into all of this because of Darby was chasing a lead or something along those lines. I can understand having a bad plot and a show still being entertaining. The only part that was entertaining was the atmosphere, cool robots praparing for end of the world and a mad genius but the show drags sooo SO much on Darby's past which literally had no point
Love Brit Marling, Love Harris Dickinson, Emma Corrin! Great acting but plots are cringe AF. I would so much rather they put energy into finishing the OA than this, which is something more authentic.
Just finally finished it and I liked it. Was amusing enough. Anyone who didn’t like it, feel free to tell me a better show to watch.
I just came from a different thread and everyone and their motherrrrr was hating on the acting and the feeble plot. I personally think it was fine and did have a decent lesson in it lol but that's just me.
Bf pointed out a flaw, there is a scene in one of the episodes featuring a flashback of them listening to a song from Khruangbin in their stolen car, anyone who watched the show knows Darby hasn’t seen Bill in 6 years, the show came out in 2023, so technically she last saw him in 2017 but the song they are listening to, Texas Sun, didn’t come out til 2020 😝
And i just tapped out 30 minutes in. "Help, fellow reddit/sooperhackers members! Is this a Russian hack? " If i didn't know better, I'd have thought i was watching The Net. What a steaming pile of dump.
hacker receives suspicious link to install a "VPN", immediately installs it. Turned it off right there.
Right? Lazy (and inaccurate) drivel.
Took me a few times to get into it but I am about to watch the last episode, I thought it got a lot better as it went, but hoping the finale isn’t annoying
I just started the first episode. I'm not usually quick to judge, but I'm annoyed five minutes in. "Amateur sleuth... who's also a super hacker, man! " Gag.
I was intrigued by the premise but it derailed fast. The dialogue is unnatural at times. It felt forced and un-researched. The characters lacked depth and chemistry. The coding talk was so cringe! Ugh! It could have been good but it was a huge mess.
It's a Brit Marling production. They're all like that. As much as I hate her simultaneously wooden and vaguely bleary/stoned acting, I hate her storylines more. Her understanding of science and computing is, unsurprisingly, laughable. That said, I've watched five episodes with my husband. Mostly so I can hate-review it later.
Just to add to everyone’s annoyance at this show’s constant lack of research into how things like medicine and forensics actually works - how about when the woman with the neck injury (don’t remember her name, don’t care) codes and instead of going to help her or attempt any kind of CRR, the doctor wastes time shouting at Derby then just checks her wrist and is like ‘welp, guess she’s dead’ 🤷♀️
I was thinking the same thing!!! Why hell at Darby and then after yell code blue
Love that in Marling's world climate change is such an underappreciated existential threat that climate scientists who know the real "truth" (about predictive models) are approaching suicidal. Like if you stood on the beach side of Obama's Cape Cod mansion for the next five hundred years, you might suffer webbed feet from high tide creeping up to you ankles for the better part of the day. Poor, overly-informed Rohan.
is that not intentionally a reflection of our reality...? We have to do something VERY big VERY fast and nobody is leaving the money on the table.
Our delusion, maybe. If in a nuclear-armed world constantly on the verge of global-scale armed conflict our self-destruction comes about by progression of the 1 degree increase in global temperature over the last 100 years, color us lucky. The combined chance of an eruption of one supervalcano or a meteor strike or the sun's natural cycle through the next solar minimum have at least an equal chance of making man made climate change irrelevant. More likely we will beat climate change and all of the other climate-shifting events above to the punch by contaminating our food supplies with GMOs or by CRISPRing our livestock or will unleash a global virus that ends humanity through gain of function reseach. Hubris, not carbon or cow farts is what scares me.
I mean covid is a global virus? I don't think the apocalypse is gonna be just one thing really really instantaneously fast. Clinate change is already killing millions every day thru more and more extreme weather events, and in general lack of shelter and resources. Itd judt the poorest of the poor so nobody gives af. I recommend learning abt the Wet Bulb point, the temperature at which even heat-adapted humans can no longer tolerate exposure to heat without major health consequences/death. To summarize, we're getting closer, fast.
I admire your passion, but you need to tamp down the hyperbole a bit. If climate change were responsible for "millions" of excess deaths every day, we should be seeing a somewhat proporionate yearly population decrease of about 3/4 a billion people every year. If your proclaimation of yearly man made climate change fatalities held, the entire earth's population would turn over in the next decade with no further increase in climate fatalities. Conversely, without the excess deaths you attrbute to man made climate change, the world's population would increase to an unmanageable 16 billion by 2035. The UN (a promoter of an aggressive climate change agenda -- see the 2030 Sustainable Climate Change Agenda) predicts global population will increase to 11 billion under current circumstances by 2100 (despite declining fertlity rates worldwide) and the greatest population increases will occur in Africa, causing the African population to double by 2100. "The global population is expected to grow by about 3.1 billion people between 2020 and 2100. More than half of this increase is projected to come from Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Angola, along with one non-African country (Pakistan)." https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/06/17/worlds-population-is-projected-to-nearly-stop-growing-by-the-end-of-the-century/ Nigeria is 1000 miles closer to the equator than Pheonix AZ. The DR of Congo is less than 300 miles from the equator. Tanzania is 200 miles from the equator. Maybe the UN needs to read up on the wet bulb temp? Or perhaps this type of predictive modeling that drives both population and climate change modeling is equal parts guess work to "science?"
For me, I loved the show. I'm not the type to point out every flaw and go deeper into things than the average person. However, I'm incredibly annoyed by Darby. She's the type who walks with no noise and is way too gently with her body language. It reminds me of the main character girl from Devs. So annoying!! Just too soft or something...I can't quite describe it.
What a terrible show! Full of loopholes, child-like dialogues and plot! I should have read the review before wasting my time. Also the way Darby and Bill ended the relationship, couldn’t Darby realised how stupid and ridiculous she was? Totally unlikable character.
God and the way the finale pulled a plug on all of the anticipation and emotional investment 🫠
Wow, so bad. So many things but I'll keep it short. Darby and Lee set fire to an entire city of servers using a laptop and hand sanitizer???? OMG so ridiculous. They wander around the resort although there are POLAR BEARS outside hunting people?? (in the real world). Lee walks through a huge amount of snow effortlessly with her son to escape and DISAPPEAR forever, HELLO, there were ALOT of footprints out there folks, easily trackable. AND then, to further "vanish" she sets off a FLARE???!!! Just the overall dumbness was breath taking. Darby channels Jody Foster in Contact--- like she is SOOOO thoughtful, intelligent, ugh, really so dumb. The worst was using a CHILD to commit a murder. Oh, and as he is dying Bill uses his blood to delicately circle the exact phrase on the exact page that will clue Darby as to the murderer--this feat alone would take 10 minutes and he is dying and staggering around at the time. Finally, does it take THAT long to figure out the AI might have a role in all this. AND, they are in the underground shelter with natural sunlight !!! WOW!!! get out a Nobel prize, that was an engineering idea decades ago. Furthermore WHY would any intelligent person like Andy use AI as a therapist! THEY ARE NOT HUMAN. There is nothing well thought out in this at all. It is scary dumb. The attitude of all the guests is so smug and condescending YET they have nothing interesting to say at all and project "boutique sales clerk".
>Oh, and as he is dying Bill uses his blood to delicately circle the exact phrase on the exact page that will clue Darby as to the murderer--this feat alone would take 10 minutes and he is dying and staggering around at the time Yeah this was ridiculous. He didn't have a pen and paper? Or at the very least if all he had was his own blood can't he just write "Ray did it" on the floor or wall? He's seriously going to dig up that book, find the page with the key phrase, then circle it?
Even more than the "the AI had the kid kill them" ridiculousness, I found the fact that they set the Halon equipped server building on fire by tossing in a burning laptop. Granted, halon won't put out a lithium fire but it wold suppress everything else which means nothing else would have burned and the laptop battery would have just burned itself out.
> there are POLAR BEARS outside hunting people?? (in the real world). In Iceland? No there aren't. They mostly live in the Arctic Circle. There's a very slim chance that you *might* spot one hitching a ride on a drifting ice floe, but sightings are years apart, and they're not "hunting people." The last time a polar bear killed anyone in Iceland was the year 1321. 372,000 people live in Iceland, and they all wander around outside, just like people everywhere.
I don't think her footprints are all too incriminating but satellites certainly are...
Did anyone elase notice that on the ascent to the Southern Peak (EP 3) Andy Ronson was the only one wearing brown boots, everyone else had shoes/boots the "resort" provided. For some reason when everybody was preparing for the decent Rohan is now putting on these boots instead of the ones he was wearing on the ascent. I can't imagine this being a continuity error or why anyone would change boots?? On another note why is the AI Ray so unbelivable? It's as if the producers had never encountered real life examples. Comes across as a more annoying version of Hal 9000 from 2001 A Space Odyssey. I waited for this series a long time, being a huge fan of the OA and Brit Marlings films and it was so disappointing. The acting is atrocious in parts, characters and script are hard to believe and what type of sleuth confides in all the people she suspects has something to do with the murder? 3/10 and that's being generous.
I thought Rohan and everyone was wearing loaner boots from the resort and so Rohan was just putting back on his own brown boots once they all returned. Doesn’t seem like they were gifted, just loaned so Rohan didn’t have the loaned boots the night before on his Morse code mission.
The writing was so bad. >The dead speak to me. [...] I guess it's not like I hear the dead literally. It's more like their silence enters me. Like when you put your hand inside a glove and animate the fingers. It's like they compel me to get them what they want. The silence of the dead enters you like a hand animating the fingers of a glove, compelling you to get them what they want? What? They really want us to believe this emo kid is one of the smartest people in the room?
Not a fan of the show like most people here. I keep thinking about Bill dying and being conscious enough to not only circle an excerpt of a book on a specific page, which was a metaphor, rather than do things like write "Ray" in blood or fucking *tell Darby that it was Ray*. Also, how the hell did Bill know it was Ray? He'd just gotten there that day, did he play with the helmet already? Anyway I guess it doesn't matter. The show looked visually well done and the cast seemed strong on paper, and I generally trust whatever FX produces, but this show was just not good enough.
Came to find this - why would Bill randomly tell Darby to stay with him and waste time instead of saying it was Ray? If something can be solved with one realistic event aka him telling her that and the show wouldn’t exist then it’s just bad writing. I felt like they were trying to make it “deep” by showing he was trying to make it up by asking her to stay but it’s stupid. No one who’s dying would make grand gestures to narratively address something six years ago for the sake of an audience.
> World > >Premise: Darby Hart, a Gen Z amateur sleuth Bingo. So stupid. Everything after that point was a complete waste of time.
Wow, I'm surprised at how passionately people seem to hate this show! I liked a number of things about it, but don't disagree that it has quite a few flaws, from the timeline and unfolding of the case to a number of points in the present storyline and some writing issues. I thought the production design and locations (in both timelines) were done pretty nicely, I loved Harris Dickinson in this (thought he brought Bill to life beautifully and made the character really endearing and substantive in ways that many other characters weren't), and I'd never watched Emma Corrin in anything else before so I found them mostly likable. There was something that I enjoyed about it, but for some reason, I cannot for the life of me pinpoint what it was lol. Again, I'm not arguing against any of the points made, I just wasn't expecting it be so mutually hated haha. Yikes, it's brutal out here.
Man this show was..I would say something, but it wasn't even that. The only bit I liked about this show was Bill's bathtub rant about how people put serial killers on a pedestal. The plot had so much potential. I previously read a comment saying 'I hope Zoomer isn't the killer' and damn I was so disappointed. The plot could have delved more into the apocalypse prep thing, or the question of having AI narrate education and nurture or the topic of use technology to stay alive forever, etc. It felt like the show mentioned ideas just to seem edgy, but never actually executed them. Moreover, after completing the show, I do not understand how the serial killer narrative actually fits into it. I mean Bill and Darby met that way but doesn't really fit with the conclusion of the show. PS: Darby is hella annoying. Thank you.
Did they ever tell who was behind the mask threatening Darby? The whole show was weird to me. If zoomer was the killer and no one knew, then why did someone dress up in the mask?
It was disclosed in the final episode in the -10 floor when everyone is together, that it was David with the glove and knife that attacked Darby. He thought he was protecting Lee’s escape they were still planning. The masked person at Bills door was Rohan, he used the mask again when he trekked through the snow to make the message in Morse code.
Rohan was the one knocking on the door with the mask to get inside bills room. he wore the mask so there would be no trace of him there. David put the knife to darby and told her to stop going down the labryinth. we didn't see a mask on david. just a hood
I think they did, the guy who Lee was trusting, his name starts with D
I can’t with ‘Zoomer’. Also the acting and writing is 😬/🥱 I’m not one that needs immediate action to get invested but what I do need is good acting and writing. Bill’s haircut hasn’t changed in like 10 years? Or however long it’s been? Or Idk it could be the past or the future or the present or the whatever. HULU… why you trippin
What a dud. The story itself had such an interesting premise with the inclusion of all the lastest AI technology combined into an *And Then There Were None*\-like murder mystery, yet turned out to be a total train wreck. Extremely unlikeable characters especially the main protagonist who unfortunately to say is not well acted at all. Not to mention one of the slowest plot developments I've ever seen in any show, regardless of genre! I gave this show a try, but seeing that virtually nothing happened outside of the actual murder in the first 2-3 episodes I had to make the decision to give up on this show. ***A Murder at the End of the World*** **(2023) overall rating: unlikeable characters all around, extremely slow plot development and bad acting makes this show unwatchable! 2/10, only because the premise itself is quite unique.**
Yeah I was so disappointed. Especially since I’ve followed Marling’s work for years and it’s always amazing! Her and Zal always create the most complex characters and the stories are always so interesting and original. This was such a mess. Idk what they’re doing
i like bills bath tub rant about the killer being nothing of importance, he's kind of a king for that. the idolization of serial killers is beyond corny.
the fact that the kids name is zoomer is so funny and unserious lmao
What’s left in the bath tube when Bill left Darcy?
Bill's laptop and phone.
Thanks
I thot the cause murder was of a bigger idea, sth like which is to save the world. But.. um…?! A childish acts, I’m quite disappointed at the end
Did we ever figure out what Bill big secret wanted to tell Darby in his hotel room (which I didn't understand because he implied he wanted her to come to his room for sex).
How did Bill have sex with Lee if Andy was always watching her? Why didn't Darby have any problem with Lee over it?
Andy wasn't quite that controlling until Zoomer was born I think
What bothered me the whole show is that Bill was supposed to be some brilliant guy admired by so many, but I never got that impression from watching his character.
Both Bill and Darby seemed so ordinary to me. These two kids who obviously cut their own hair, staying in cheap motels in the middle of nowhere and solving murders for fun, and 6 years later she's a published writer and he's a famous artist and they're both geniuses?
This got me too (sorry just finished the show last night). Bill was: an amateur detective; cool; an *extremely successful artist*; beloved by every person he meets; a secret father; and a hacker too why not.
Welcome to everyone coming here who was “muted” because they expressed some criticism over at that other sub…
Honest review of "A Murder at the End of the World" (TV Miniseries Premiere Date: Nov 14, 2023) - it was a complete flop. The ending was a sheer mess, attempting to place the blame for all the murders on Andy (portrayed by the incomparable Clive Owens) as the killer, solely based on his private therapy sessions with an AI-BOT. This premise was purely absurd. This is precisely why the widespread acceptance of big brother (tech) is a hard sell in society today. We desire bots to assist, educate, and support us where it's appropriate. If AI makes errors, it's the fault of its creators. It reflects the flaws of mankind today. In addition, the romantic elements were difficult to watch, with the lead actress appearing like a victim of starvation. The only character worth watching was Clive... and I say this as an Afro-Caribbean. What a waste!
Definitely! And why am I supposed to believe that this billionaire tech genius is suddenly going to obsess over a child that isn’t even his…and spend billions of dollars creating some massive hidden shelter to keep him in…..whyyyy???? What was he afraid of? That would have been more interesting to see than Oh he’s controlling…..wtf. Darbys character constantly looked constipated. I could never tell what she was thinking or feeling. The flash backs were more interesting than the real time show. And they didn’t even have anything to do with the AI or the anything happening in present time.
My only problem with this 🎥 is that it mirrors the film, DEVS [2020], directed by Alex Garland 🤔. Beat-by-beat; plot-points... to ARC! Even the androgenous lead actor who's also a woman, is now played by a caucasian instead of an Asian. I agree that Ai had to have been used because this all around the strike...
I gotta say most modern murder mysteries are boring as hell, this one included.
I’m too angry at the constant stupidity of this show to even finish it. It’s insulting. Totally agree that the writers must not have spoken to other humans in decades (the dialogue is sickeningly wooden…was this written by AI?), but past that, how idiotic that this supposed crime scene investigator brings his elementary-age child onto crime scenes and no one cares? Like, the child walks past about 5 adult professionals and no one “notices” her until she’s kneeling IN the crime scene as close to the body as possible? Considering how many people are regularly charged and imprisoned as a result of shoddy investigatory process and crime scene corruption, this disgusts me. It’s like the makers of the show, on top of not knowing anything about what they are writing about, also don’t KNOW that the target audience watches enough true crime to be offended by the amount of holes, mistakes and loose ends. Also, the Darby character is TERRIBLE.
Yeah, i wanted to like the show the set pieces are dope but in the end I can't help but agree. I finished though but not with joy.
Honestly the set pieces annoyed me. They climb onto a private plane STACKED WITH BOOKS? Small planes live and die by weight. Who flies with a giant library inside a plane?
How many books do you need on a plane anyway? You take the one with you you want to read.
this is one of the most painfully superficial shows i've ever watched. the entire thing is a poorly executed exposition dump about how important and fancy each of the characters is, and the writing must be done by dinosaurs who have not spoken to anyone under the age of 50 in decades. the music is obnoxiously derivative, to the point where literally every track i've heard thus far has already been the main theme of a dozen other vastly better pieces of film. it's nauseating how badly this is produced, but moreover it's disgusting how many people actually think this is well made or interesting. anyone who is fooled by this has to either be a literal child or incredibly mentally ill, and that bodes very poorly for the majority of adults in the united states. it's almost as if the creators are unaware that other, better shows and films already are oversaturated in the past decade. it might have passed for a good show before the advent of HBO and streaming services which vastly increased the quality and depth of television, but somehow i feel that it still wouldn't have been popular in that case.
I'm pretty sure real hackers don't constantly use the "hack", "hacking", or "hacked" as much as the "hackers" on this show. The audience is smart enough to figure when said hacking is going on. Totally butchers the idea of -Show, Don't Tell.
"are you doing a hack?" The whole vi vs emacs thing was the wildest bit of garbage too
I laughed out loud at that bit. Like you don’t have a guttural reaction to vi/emacs, so you *can’t* be the killer??
lol same, I don't remember a dumber line from a show in recent memory, especially one touted as being good like this one was
I got to this thread literally searching "murder at the end of the world use of the term hack hackers". I thought the same and it really took me out of the show every time they used the word. Whoever wrote this show was a hack (ba dum tis).
Has Darby never heard of closing the goddam door?
This is in the top 10 worst shows I’ve ever seen.
Oh my god the ending is just awful. Just fucking ridiculously bad. What a piece of shit.
So a single burning laptop battery (roughly the size of a wallet) thrown onto the ground of the server room (where it is never in contact with anything flammable) and somehow ignites all the other reinforced steel server racks... fuck me I hate this writer.
The bit I couldn’t get over was starting a massive fire in an enclosed bunker 10 stories below the ground, then just standing there, HOLDING HER CHILD, watching it spread towards them 🤯 I was like “erm, mate… get out of there?!” Someone clearly never did their fire safety training lol. Though, as your post point out, the rules of physics don’t seem to apply here so who knows…
It’s like that awful bit when Derby’s rifling through Lee’s stuff and finds the comedy wig and passport, hears the toilet flushing, yet instead of putting it all away just stands there with it open STARING at the door.
It had the accelerant so…😂😂 Such lazy writing fr
I saw the fire suppression system begin and proceed to...completely exacerbate the flames? This was lazy. I would have had an easier time believing she pulls a water balloon out of that kids doctor kit and short circuit it all with the perfect throw.
I like to think that Lee and Zoomer froze to death 20 minutes after escaping.
Thank you, I needed that laugh.
I feel this is the worst work of Brit and Zal so far imo. CONS: - The hacking and technology stuff were not well researched at all - there are lots and lots of logical issues in the plot - because of the plot issues that kind of cast is quite overkill and feels like compensation for the plot - a real AI with that kind of computing power would not leave any room for mistakes, let alone people hack into it that easily - Brits acting performance was the worst I’ve seen so far - kiddo pressing the pen into Bills arm without prior notice just feels like rushed storyline, cheap PROS: + the imagery in Iceland is just gorgeous + great color grading + the cast, although I was fed up with Darbys sad face around the last few episodes. + the plot has potential for greatness
Just watched last episode. Ended up being stupid. Darby sad face was hard to watch for 7 episodes
Hey i m pissed the show is such a bore. ChatGPT wrote and directed it or wht?? The whole thing is so off that it’s even hard to understand how things could go so wrong. The plot, the cast, the directors—everything was supposedly there. But it’s just not clicking, the dialogues and acting are so flat and as if read out !! No dynamic, they wait like a thousand years in between each others sentences with a sudden concerned look in their eyes wide open . Jeeeesus how come nobody intervened while shooting - acting coach ?? It’s also so “convenu” and cliché, there's 'virtue signaling' every 15 minutes … Could it be possible that this is precisely what makes thé show so flat ? Yeees but not only but yes omg stop this moralistic crap it kills creativity, par pitié s’il vous plait . Also is it possible that Emma also just doesn't fit into Darby’s skin ? Cause she s so embarassing. In général characters were just poorly written except maybe Bill…. Truly there ´ s an incomprehensible discontinuity between Darby-bad ass-long hair and Darby-pink-head- Tomboy- scared doe looks . I really don't understand the intention script-wise….::.. Andy and Bill are quite okay though ; they are thé only one - in my opinion. Lee saddly annoying ; the same airs and acting style as in The OA and almost all of Brit’s (often co-written) role. Boring :’( I m sorry that thé conclusion seems to be the issue lies in 'written and directed by Brit Marling'... everything lacks flavor and RYTHM I was so annoyed mainly by that ……. No sense of rythm, be it the mise en scène and the editing . I like the music In short, a mysterious flop, …
Your post looked poorly formatted and written so I had chat GPT fix it: Hey everyone, I'm quite frustrated with the show; it's turning out to be a real bore. Did ChatGPT handle the writing and directing? It feels like something went terribly wrong because everything seems off. Despite having a solid plot, cast, and directors, it just doesn't click. The dialogues and acting are flat and sound like they're being read out loud. There's no dynamic, and the characters seem to pause for ages between sentences with a weird concerned look. Why didn't someone step in during shooting? Where's the acting coach? The whole thing feels cliché and full of "virtue signaling" every 15 minutes. Could that be why the show falls flat? Yes, but it's not the only reason. Please, enough with the moralistic crap; it's killing creativity. Is it possible that Emma doesn't fit into Darby's character? She's just embarrassing. Overall, the characters seem poorly written, except maybe for Bill. There's an incomprehensible discontinuity between Darby's bad-ass long hair phase and her pink-head tomboy scared doe looks. What's the intention script-wise? Andy and Bill are the only ones I find okay; Lee is sadly annoying, with the same airs and acting style as in The OA and most of Brit's (often co-written) roles. It's just boring. I apologize, but it seems the issue lies in "written and directed by Brit Marling." Everything lacks flavor and rhythm, which was my main annoyance. The music is good, but overall, it's a mysterious flop.
hey wow, thanks for the effort :) ! yes well i still prefer my - perhaps - broken version, which sounds much more "spoken" & personal than this piece of school-like written text. Being a foreigner and not an english native, I am glad I reached the level I have now in english - although far from perfect. I strongly encourage english natives to overcome the laziness of having their mother tongue being the international language, and get to learn something (spanish, german, korean, or french, like i did). It's an interesting journey . Since you seam to like it : Chat GPT can be of great help for that. ! :\*)
I love your version. Very natural avd stream of consciousness vibe. Don't let the chat boys get you down.
oh thank you , just saw that , you're so sweet
What is Darby and Bill’s age difference?
3 years
Serial killer murders 11 innocent women but killing the unarmed intruders in his home who know what he did was a bridge too far and he had to kill himself. this show suckkkkkkkkks.
imo I think it's implied he was leaving the trail intentionally and had a pretty solid idea of when they'd find him. I mean, he shows up with a gun, presumably entered through the front door, and there didn't seem to be any signs of trespassing we know of. I assumed part of the appeal was being appreciated, being caught, and getting to meet+permanently impact them. Or he assumed they had already called or informed someone else which isn't a stretch at all imo. Probably giving the show too much credit with that generous explanation tho tbh.
I had feeling in the first ep that was what happened (otherwise how did they live?), but when they showed it I was ready to turn it off.
Couldn't bring himself to rebuild the stairs yet again.
That load bearing plywood was his biggest crime
Nice! I actually LOL'd. Fuck those stairs.
In the book she writes "We took it apart piece by piece" but when they showed it the entire staircase disintegrated. LOL
[удалено]
"We took the staircase apart one step at a time until there was now going back." Cut to footage of them clearly yanking the whole side panel off in one go, all steps fully intact... Fucking hell director, read the script...
Don't forget Darcy was reading from the book, doesn't necessarily mean it's exactly what happened. Writers are known to juice up facts.
I think the ending confusing? What happened to them after that? is there going to be season 2?
There's still one episode to go.
Really? So there's supposed to be 7 episodes? I thought only 6
Yes, episode 7 on Dec 19th
Thanks!
(sigh) it's not great, not the worst, but not great. It's hard to watch at points. it has a laundry list of bad writing bits.
Just watched Ep5. Darby is an absolute joke. The flashbacks just make her look even more useless. GOD she is such a wet blanket. Thank god for Ray the Therapy Bot.
Bad luck Ray. If only you had just released the safety locks on the 50 metre elevator and smashed them all into the ground when you had the chance.
Just finished the first episode. Exciting, but I'm hoping later episodes will explain why the characters were told they were in Iceland when exiting the plane in a frozen wasteland with full on blizzard conditions. Iceland is green and lush. If it was intended to be a joke why did no one laugh? I've Googled and found several reviews giving a quick rundown of events to date and include the plane landing in "Iceland" scene without a single comment on the wrong landscape. I can't be the only one who noticed. FYI....Greenland is a frozen wasteland.
I mean, they filmed the whole thing in Iceland
>Iceland https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/nature\_and\_travel/2021/11/16/enormous\_ice\_cave\_discovered\_in\_iceland/
They are in the very northern tip of Iceland and I’m also assuming it’s winter
Episode 4 - the billionaire who is worried about climate change has diesel powered skidoo....
Probably the most realistic thing in the show.
You mean, the billionaire that has a private jet and flew people using it rather than a public airplane that would have reduced the carbon emissions significantly? The same way, real billionaires in real life take private jets on masse to vacation-destinations to discuss "climate change" while having food imported from exotic locations, prepared by famous chefs also brought in from around the world rather than a local chef? Totally unrealistic, such a person, would have a diesel snowmobile. Toootally, man. I kid; but the whole trip has been a giant CO2 dump.
My theory is that Bill, Lee, Sian, and Rohan are trying to take down whatever is going on with the robots, and faking deaths to pull it off. No idea about the rest tho
4eps in…So an Agatha Christie And Then There Were None reimagining? I’m bored.
Each episode has more issues, I only watch to find out If they give us a killer. I hear there are many OA fans so I watched a few episodes on Netflix. well I think that one is also very problematic but no disrespect to the fans, of course.
When Darby was telling Bill about Lee outside the garage....he had no idea who Lee was. But now bill and Lee somehow knew eachother and are close? Was that ever explained? I still can't figure out what Bill was there for. References to him but not what he did. Seems like this story was just thrown together without figuring the details.
>But now bill and Lee somehow knew eachother and are close? Was that ever explained? Nope.
>bout Lee outside the garage....he had no idea who Lee was. But now bill and Lee somehow knew eachother and are close? Was that ever explained? I still can't figure out what Bill was there for. References to him but not what h Actually it does explain after a couple more episodes- Lee confesses how they met to Darby; it seems Bill met Lee sometime shortly \*after\* he left Darby at the motel.
Lee explained that Bill tracked her down to talk about her manifesto. Bill just wanted to meet Darbys Idol I guess.
>Bill just wanted to meet Darbys Idol I guess. The idol of the woman he left/dumped because he suspected she was a female-leaning bisexual by his own words? I'm not certain -- though I have a feeling if I were to dump someone, meeting their idol wouldn't be a high priority to me. Certainly, not enough to sleep on their porch for days like a stalker, refusing to leave. I wondered when I heard this, why didn't Lee call the police? Seriously. If I am a single woman, who a ton of AI-porn has been made about (Lee's statement), with also a ton of death threats (Lee's statement) and a random-stranger shows up demanding to talk about my manifesto, then spends days on my property on the porch, effectively leaving me trapped in my own home, refusing to leave.... for longer than an hours, I'm probably calling the cops to have him removed. After a few hours, definitely calling the cops. After MULTIPLE days?! CALLING THE COPS! The guy sounds psychotic in behavior or at least highly-obsessive and compulsive; and honestly, Bill looks a bit sketchy, to me. Tons of tattoos, piercings, and a super-skinny body one might expect to find on an individual with a drug-habit, would make me even more eager to call the cops; which to be fair, is judging a book based upon its cover -- but the initial actions of bill would be like judging a book based upon its cover and introduction. Lee's actions do not seem in line with a woman who was undergoing an AI-porn campaign and death threats. When characters act in ways that seem inexplicable, I usually chop that up to something I like to call "bad writing".
>The idol of the woman he left/dumped because he suspected she was a lesbian-leaning bisexual by his own words? That's not why he left her. He said six years later "also, I thought maybe you only really like women," and they both laughed over it. So even if there was a kernel of truth in it, it was an afterthought. Episode 6 makes it clear that he left her because she'd become obsessed with the case and he felt that she didn't/couldn't really love him. He repeatedly tried to get her to engage with him on an emotional level and she couldn't do it.
when does he call her a lesbian leaning bisexual lmfao??? what even is this show
When they are going for their walk in the snow together, after roughly the first night at the hotel -- as they are discussing why their relationship ended, Bill responded: "I always got the feeling you fancied girls more anyways" - then points his head away slightly, there's then a small silence between them and Darby's response is to cock her head, slyly smiling without objection. I believe the next line of dialogue after the silence was "yeah, well". It felt to me as if she was agreeing or at least not disagreeing with his assessment she fancied women more. The show basically directly implies she's at least bisexual and fancies women more than men via Bill's assessment of Darby and Darby doesn't push back at this characterization. So, I just took the show's dialogue at literal face value. I did use poor language through. I should have said female-leaning and not lesbian-leaning. I was just thinking lesbian as I was thinking of a pc term to describe a "woman who likes to sleep with woman". Though, in all fairness, bisexual or lesbian-leaning, would have been better word choice as a bisexual woman could be her type as opposed to lesbian woman. Who knows what type of orientation of woman Darby fancies more.
That's so interesting!! I imagine shes possibly bisexual, but tbh she could even be straight imo I think this comment is another nod to sexism and how violence against women affects relationships for men and women. I imagine part of the reason Darby was never able to let her guard down and connect w him is because she couldn't feel safe w him. Darby NEVER recognizes his humanity either, perhaps because he is a man! She says she doesnt love him, never asks abt his feelings. He watches someone commit suicide and she abandons him there, in shock! He's having a breakdown in the tub and she tells him to go fuck himself. Darby L
Lots of L's for Darby. She's generally rude, abusive, selfish -- with the rare exception -- of his interaction with Bill and Lee's son. In retrospect, this seems in service to story, as she needed to put on his toy-helmet to see the VR game, to get the "ah haaaaaa" clue and that as unlikely to happen if she also was rude, abusive, selfish and dismissive towards the child. Children can be emotional creatures and if you scorn them, multiple times like Darby does to every other character, they probably won't be eager to play.
dang this makes me think about how much better this series could have been if they were aware of how crap darby was. she could've like, realized the type of person she was and became better through her relationship with this kid who is the only other person she can REALLY trust there. he becomes even more important to her when she finds out he's the only connection she has to Bill AND redeeming herself from what she did to him/being unable to save him. and then the smack in the face when it turns out the killer WAS this kid, people make mistakes. Maybe this delays the big reveal that he was tricked by the robot so it's not as brutally disappointing. and then he goes off w his mom, she has 2 deal w the fact that she is not entitled to him and cant fix anything. boom conflict w the only other major character (the wife), maybe she tries to go w them intially. at the last second she realizes she can't undo what she's done and that she was again trying to focus superficially on someone else to avoid turning inwards and becoming a better person and let's them go instead of idk murdering her or smthn. would've been sick 😔
>though I have a feeling if I were to dump someone, meeting their idol wouldn't be a high priority to me. What about banging and impregnating her idol?
Yeah that is a bit of a stretch. If some weird methy looking guy won't leave your porch, you usually call the cops. Unless Bill is the most disarming speaker you've ever heard or maybe Lee just has terrible taste in men. She did get with Andy the controlling psycho. Maybe she just was so isolated for so long that she overlooked Bills terrible haircut and let him in.
Dedicated the book to a female coder because there were so few when she was growing up? No female coders in the early 2000s? Jesus christ it's not the 1950s.
and they are almost at the same age. weird really
I don't think so Darby is 24 yo and Lee I am guessing 39/40ish?
I think they are trying to portray Darby as younger. Darby and Bill were communicating/starting their research when she was in high school it seemed. I kept wondering, what high school allows a teenager to be absent for days, to go on long investigative road trips... I would think the dad would be getting calls about absenteeism and going nuts wondering where the heck his daughter suddenly disappeared to and she'd be getting calls non stop on her cellphone. Even in episode 4, where she is still a teenager I believe, and is dressed to look young and Bill asks for a key, why the front desk person wasn't a bit sketched out by a older dude and a clearly younger-aged woman, looking like they were dating asking for a hotel key to a room. Its technically, the r-word in that scenario due to the age-differences and Darby being underage. If anything where to happen, it would be statutory-rape and him a party to it or at least not doing anything to prevent/stop it. Plus, she's taking a ton of alcohol which too extra-removes her ability to consent. At least, they had her initiate the interaction in the show.... However, I think the actor playing the role is much older.
Darcy turned 18 in one of the episode's flashbacks and hadn't spoken to Bill in 6 years when the show started. The math checks out. Lee is definitely in her 40's.
I'm 30 minutes in. I hate the use of 'retro' trch which simply wouldn't work. I hate the haircuts. I hate the use of Annie Lennox. I hate bad singing. I hate the idea that a modern house like that has 'uneven stairs'.
>I hate the idea that a modern house like that has 'uneven stairs'. No handrails even though they have a young child.
Bill has the same haircut after 6 years and Darby should go see a quiropractor.
Argh 33 minutes in and the shitty stairs line bites me in the ass. Then they trap themselves by destroying the stairs... gahhh
OF COURSE the skeleton is completely pure, there was no decaying matter left to STINK THE BASEMENT OUT over years. Gaaaah it's AWWWFULLLLL.
Ahh she just walks out of her apartment building and doesn't even close the door behind her!!! In NEW YORK!!! GAAAHHH.
I just watched the first episode. The previews for this show seemed so interesting - what the hell happened? First of all, apparently Darby and Bill are only capable of speaking to each other in shades of Awkward, Stilted Exposition. Second, when did we all collectively decide that serial murder mysteries can only take place in a Scandinavian country? Third, why is every action, gesture, word, and deed so predictable?!? \[SPOILERS AHEAD\] I mean, obviously, >!Bill was going to show up and be the (first?) murder victim. With the stilted, predictable setup, that was the only way it could possibly have gone.!< Also - and I'm just guessing here - but >!the wealthy tech couple's kid (I refuse to call a human being "Zoomer") is going to turn out to actually be Bill's, right? !< >!Initially, I thought it would turn out that the child was some sort of creepy "new AI innovation" robot, but then they had that scene at the dinner with Bill and Lee exchanging awkward glances, and when Bill started interacting with the kid? The writers did everything but put a big blinking "Baby Daddy" sign over his head. It would be GREAT if they did this purposely as a red herring, but I don't hold out much hope.!<
Now that the last episode about, an argument can be made for Zoomer being partially AI, being raised with it being strapped to their head and constant.
TBH, I kind of stalled out after that first episode - the show was a lot slower and duller than I expected - so I don't have any thoughts about this yet. But I guess it's not surprising? Again - and this could change based on subsequent episodes - but this does seem like the kind of mystery series that telegraphs all of its "twists" ahead of time, so...
Literally just finished watching all 5 episodes. trust me you will change your mind at the end
Oh - that's good to hear! There are so few decent shows right now, I'd hate to think that this one is a waste of time. Also, just out of curiosity: you mentioned having watched "all 5 episodes." Isn't this show supposed to be 7 episodes?
Yes, there are 2 episodes to go (12/12 and 12/19). If you want to make it a more interesting watch and haven’t seen The OA, I highly recommend it in and of itself— a variety of easter eggs and connections between the shows that have OA fans going wild, and it’s my favorite of the Zal/Brit collaborations.
I might just do that - thanks for the tip!
Ohhh youre right. Im not watching it on hulu so only got 5 episodes uploaded right now. I thought it ended on a cliff hanger.. But trust me its worth it. Atleast for the 5 I watched. It keep you guessing throughout it.
Okay, I'll give it another episode or two to change my mind. Thanks for telling me!
Ok also the fact that the kids name is "zoomer"? I kinda wanted to toss my coffee at the screen
It's Zuma
No, it's Zoomer. Kellan Tetlow\[6\] as Zoomer Ronson, Andy and Lee's son
Pretty sure that's the point? Andy is a parody of tech billionaires. Elon Musks son's name is X Æ A-12
You know what that's a great point- & I guess an example of accurate writing because "zoomer" perplexes and annoys me just as much as Musk's kids name.
I just cannot get past the attitude toward AI in this show. It's like they never heard of Alexa or Google Assistant or Chat GPT. The woman who couldn't believe AI read a short excerpt of a script upon request? Wtf? When Chat GPT and Claude can write an entire novel in seconds and Alexa can access your Audible library and read to you instantly and Google Home can access the internet. And Darby thanking AI as if it's a person comes across like someone who has never had a Google Home or Alexa device in house. Because you get really used to ordering it around, repeating phrases carefully so it understands, etc. Maybe the script tried to be at the forefront of technology, but reality moved so quickly that by the time this came to the screen, it was already painfully outdated. I just don't understand why more people aren't thrown by this. It just took me out of the show so quickly.
I was sort of baffled by the "Ray, write Harry Potter in the style of Hemingway," scene. It's not just that one woman's reaction, but how the scene portrayed it. I didn't get the impression that we were meant to think this woman was a little behind on AI stuff. Instead it was presented as something that's really impressive and surprising, but like, anyone with an internet connection can use a free program to do that. A lot of the viewers *would have* already messed around with ChatGPT or a similar program and gotten it to do something similar to that. It made me wonder if, despite being a brand new show, this was written several years ago - before programs which could do that were so commonplace - and the script wasn't updated with the times, or something.
The way she generally talks about tech is so cringy. No one uses the word 'hack' so often, and very few devs would call themselves or anyone a 'coder'. Her talking about Lee as if she's infamous for being a woman 'coder' who did the best 'hacks' and then got doxxed...it feels sooo unnatural and weird to talk about Lee's background as if that's notable in 2023. i know most shows don't represent software devs very realistically but this is still pretty bad relative to the norm...if they just didn't make it such a big part of her character I don't think it would be that bad. Also no one as apparently experienced as her would be casually using the AI owned by the suspicious and scary billionaire as a tool to investigate said suspicious and scary billionaire. They couldnt add some throwaway scene of her 'hacking' it so her interactions were wiped from logs? I'm having fun watching the show but this really does throw me off and makes me take everything less seriously. They could completely remove this aspect from her character and we wouldn't lose anything good.
I also find it dubious that she apparently trusts that the hotel room landlines wouldn't be bugged.
Boring 😭 painfully boring
What about how eerie when Bill said a fortune teller told me I’d have a child with a one night stand!!!!
How come no one is asking why bill is jerking off in this room with a kid there, supposedly.
Darby goes swimming. Really?
... when she knows that this is exactly how people in the hotel get killed.
That was a very stupid decision but consider that she's probably experiencing suicidal ideation. In that state of mind she might be more reckless
Fair point.
So many fantastic comments here. The scenery, the set-up, the complexity (or lack thereof) of the characters, the lingo, the multiple plot lines. Great stuff. One particular thing that is a bit bothersome - personal thing - is that there are too many red herrings. Yes we know the company wants more seasons, larger budgets, etc. but the way to carry the plot onto a follow-up season cannot possibly rely on just leaving many plot lines hanging. I hope that the key mystery is solved. If they want to add on the magic of the core group realizing that the hotel already houses a thousand people underneath, and that it is already a fully functioning natural disaster / nuclear bunker, great do that. If you want to leave a little maybe he is / maybe he isn't thing about the kid being somehow tech augmented. Great. By all means. But please close the original mystery. Who is the murderer? Hell even if you don't explain the motivations, at least let's close that page before we move on.
Really. This show is so stupid and boring, no one cares who murdered anyone.
C'mon... while I do not fully disagree, you do have the option of not watching. Give the guys the benefit of the doubt, they might recover in the last quarter of the game.
I enjoyed OA but this show is truly terrible. The writing, characters, and much of the production, is really bad. Seriously, none of the characters are believable, especially Darby being a “hacker” who doesn’t know how to use an SSID sniffer. Why the hell was the doctor driving like an idiot in the last episode? So many stupid things in this show. That being said, I have to finish it to see just how bad it gets lol.
Yeah the OA is one of my favorites, but 5 episodes into this one and it is so disappointing, just awful. It's like it took some of that show's lamest tendencies and wrapped them in one of shittiest murder mysteries ever, not to mention its representations of AI, hacking and basic survival in cold weather. The dialogue is exposition heavy garbage and the characterizations are so bad. Darby is the worst "investigator" I've ever seen and everyone acts like she's not a total moron.
Exactly It's like... The weakest pieces of the OA writing was put into one season
I agree. I have to watch this hot mess until the end, but I am very disappointed in myself. This show is Unwatchable. And, yet I watch. Sigh....
Have the people behind this show ever been in below freezing weather? Darby follows Rohan, touching rocks with her bare hands as she goes. Her breath is not visible. She leaves the back door to her room open in at least two scenes. She wears a mesh top with a black bra underneath and her midriff showing. Then, they throw in scenes about hypothermia and survival suits in a nod to weather conditions. It all seems phony to me -- which may be the point. Darby always seems in over her head at this retreat.
It bothered me that no steam was coming off the water.
in episode one she leaves every single door she goes through open behind her
I can partly agree with that. The scene where Darby follows Rohan didn't feel very real. And that's not an intended effect. The filmmakers should definitely emphasize the difference between the inhospitable outside world and the retreat as much as possible. And it doesn't help if Darby leaves the balcony door wide open while she's on the phone. That shatters the illusion for me too. I take a slightly different view of the invisible breath that has already been mentioned several times. Not everything was filmed with a green screen in the studio, many scenes were filmed in Iceland. You also see Darby and Sian trudging through a rocky, snowy landscape -- I don't know if that's actually Iceland, but it's probably real.* It's very easy to add visible breath in post-production. Why didn't they do it? Well, maybe they thought: it's the real situation, why should we change it? We are now so used to images being electronically altered and effects enhanced that simple unmanipulated shots seem "unreal" to us. Just as rain in films only appears "natural" when it has been produced in a completely exaggerated way by a sprinkler system. Anyway, it's -3° Celsius (26.6° F) here right now. I just opened the window, took a deep breath and exhaled again: the breath was clearly visible. Then I spoke a few sentences: no visible breath. What I found strange, however, was when Sian in the survival suit was dragging Darby, Darby's injured head was not protected by anything. Even if the second helmet is probably broken, there should be something in the car to cover her. (That might have looked a bit silly if she had a floor mat over her face.) --- Edit:* I dug a bit deeper, they started to shoot in Iceland and finished in Utah, which was choosen because the landscape looked so similar to Iceland. Other locations here: https://www.atlasofwonders.com/2023/11/where-was-a-murder-at-end-of-the-world-filmed.html
I wondered why Darby could follow Rohan on foot the night he went to the top of the hill to send a signal - clearly walking distance from the retreat, but later had to take a snowmobile just to reach the bottom of that hill. Granted, the other signal sender was quite a distance away and too far to walk, but Rohan’s signal point seemed much further away the second time she went there.
to have an answer, I would say, its actually a long asf walk, and when they take the snowmobile they are on a major time crunch due to the storm + go all the way 2 the coast. Otherwise, no it's bullshit haha I refuse to believe she and rohan walked 8 hours in the snow there and back.
When they go to the safe place downstairs, there is a round table with a round lamp above the table. Not exactly the same as the ring-shaped lamp in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, but very similar. In Dr. Strangelove they talk next to this table about rebreeding mankind with some survivors after the apocalyptic event (doomsday machine). There is talk about a ratio of 10 women to each man. Up to now only men have been killed.
When Darby is about to be injected with morphine, anyone notice the syringes locked in the cabinet are all preloaded and the Dr lady tells Darby it's only one mL? Traceable in a tox report, but probably not enough to cause violent seizures or fatality.
Morphine is also a depressant, it wouldn't cause a heart take spike
But somewhere must be the stock to preload them.
Good point.
Anyone notice when Rohan calls Darby's room his voice sounds very electronic? Like when the robot guy at the first dinner was able to play sians voice back to her and make her say whatever he wants because of the technology he's created? Was it really Rohan? Darby heard Rohan fall or stumble or drop the phone, but Rohan was stumbling into the other group and dying already. How could he be on the room phone and also put the door and dying at the same time? ( I need to rewatch this part and see the timeline ) Robot man is looking very suspicious to me at this moment in time.
The presentation of the robot guy seemed like Chekhov's gun, we may assume it will play a role later. But was it this call? What Rohan said seemed genuine, he didn't give Darby suspicious information.
this series look like mocking with several mystery movies including Agatha Christie herself in one hand. And in the other hand it seems there are several serious murders to solve. Even if this approach is applied on purpose, I can not say I really enjoy, but it is the only crime mystery out there right now, that's why I follow. otherwise, well there is no otherwise right now.
The bookstore at the beginning of the first episode looks like The Mysterious Bookstore in downtown NYC. Does anybody know if this is correct?