Forever: Season 1

Here's a weird one form Alan Yang (Master of None) and Matt Hubbard (30 Rock). It arrived a month ago with virtually no fanfare whatsoever, just showing up on Amazon after Fred Armisen and Maya Rudolph had that very weird bit at the Emmys to, I guess "promote" this show? And reviewers and critics were embargoed from revealing just about anything about what the show even was, which isn't necessarily a winning marketing move in 2018. I, for one, only decided to give the show a shot after I'd read some spoiler-laden reviews. I'm glad I did, and I'm going to go right ahead and also talk about exactly what this show is.

So, first episode, opening montage, we meet this couple. We watch them come together and grow comfortable and old with one another, all totally wordlessly like the opening of Up. Years pass, Maya Rudolph's maybe a little bored and tired after 13 years in this relationship, just doing the same old things all the time, year after year. So in an attempt to mix things up, they decide to go skiing for once. Plenty of standard hijinks ensue, and for a little while the whole thing feels like a weird anti-comedy, like why did all of these talented people get together and decide to make this off-beat but otherwise uninspired show? Then suddenly, Fred Armisen skis directly into a tree and dies and the episode ends.

Oh! The second episode's about Maya Rudolph coming to terms with his death, mourning, moving on, what have you. And then she also dies, chocking on airplane peanuts. And then she wakes up in the afterlife, which is just a regular old mundane suburban existence, and Fred Armisen's there, and he's so happy to see her. Okay. Okay, so this is what the show is. Now I get it.

The remaining six episodes (yeah, there are only eight total, each a half-hour. Isn't that nice?) begin to explore what it is to be in the afterlife with someone you were already growing kind of bored with. There's nothing really profound going on here, but I found it all to be an enjoyable and pleasant watch, like some sort of mellowed down version of The Good Place without the jokes. I mean there are jokes here, but the vibe's much more relaxed.

Apparently there's going to be a second season, and that's fine by me. I enjoyed this! It was nothing special, but I would very readily have a second helping next year. I use "comfort food" a lot here as an analogy for shitty shows that I can't help but stick with - guilty pleasures, really, would be a better term - but "comfort" food feels very apt here, like the whole thing's a warm bowl of soup or something.

Anyway, give Forever a shot, maybe.