Dispatches From Elsewhere (Tv Series, AMC 2020)

It's been a while since I felt compelled to write about something I've watched. Dispatches From Elsewhere has drawn me out. It is an AMC Tv series created by and stars Jason Segel. It follows 4 people who get drawn into a game that sends them on a hunt to find places and events that should lead them to a "missing girl". Or is it a game?

We are introduced to this marvelous world by the ever talented actor Richard E. Grant (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Can You Ever Forgive Me?). He acts as our guide on this adventure and also plays the part of Octavio Coleman who we try to discern whether is he good or evil. Jason Segel plays Peter who is just an ordinary guy who gets up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, goes to bed and does it all over again. One day blurs into another. I think we can all relate. One evening he notices a man posting flyers. He reads what's posted. It says if you have seen the man pictured to call the number on the pull off tabs. Well the man who pinned up the flyer is said man. And Peter becomes intrigued and calls the number. So it begins...

I will confess the first 10 minutes I let it go. I thought this was going to be too odd. But now with the pandemic and not so busy, etc,  I decided to go back and give it another chance. I'm so glad I did. It most certainly is odd. But I haven't been so moved by something in a long time. It made me smile, tear up, question and think. Honestly this couldn't have come at a better time. This time of reset in the world gives one pause for thought. And this series with it's characters can help us to think about our society and our place in it. What our differences are but more importantly what we all have in common-fears, the desire to be understood, to be loved for who we are, to love ourselves.

Peter feels like he doesn't feel anything. We get to know Simone (Eve Lindley), a transgender woman who is afraid to let people into her life, Janice (Sally Field) an older woman wondering if she lost herself along the way in life, and Fredwynn (Andre Benjamin), a self made man who has built up walls with always having to be right and brutally honest. And even though we, ourselves may not be a white male data engineer, a transgender museum employee, and elderly white woman, or a self made black man, there is something in each of these individuals in all of us.

This is very surreal to be sure. But give it a try. Take an adventure out of the ordinary. Now is most certainly the time for that. Dig down deep into yourself. It's well worth the discovery.