While at the grandest scope, "Station Eleven" is about the post-apocalyptic world 20 years after a pandemic destroyed nearly all of society, it's also about a little mystery, a cult, a long lost movie star, and a traveling Shakespeare troupe. The novel begins with the death of Hollywood actor-slash-theater-performer Arthur Leander, which is quickly subsumed by the large-scale catastrophe of the pandemic.
The characters at the center of "Station Eleven," however, haven't forgotten him even two decades later. Kirsten Raymonde (Mackenzie Davis) was just a young girl in the play Arthur died in while performing, but now she's grown up in a new world, and is still acting. "What I was really interested [in] writing about was what's the new culture and the new world that begins to emerge," author Emily St. John Mandel said to NPR. She centered on the acting troupe because they're a spark of hope.
In a review of the book for Masters Review, Kim Winternheimer wrote, "For a book about the world's collapse, 'Station Eleven' is remarkably quiet. Its interests seem more aligned with examining ideas of nostalgia, memory, and art than thrilling with knife fights (though there are those, too)." It's too early to say what creative choices the TV show will make that differ from the book, but audiences can expect it to follow the same premise. Perhaps the "Station Eleven" series will become a staple of the post-apocalyptic genre.
