Forever: Forever (2018)

September 21, 2018 6:35 PM - Season 1 (Full Season)

June and Oscar are a married couple who live a comfortable-but-predictable life in suburban California. For years, they've had the same conversations, eaten the same meals, and taken vacations at the same rented lakehouse. But when June talks Oscar into shaking things up by taking a ski trip, the couple suddenly find themselves in completely unfamiliar territory -- raising questions about love, commitment and their marriage
posted by Eyebrows McGee (13 comments total)

Mod note: Re-adding this for k8t under the correct version of Forever!
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 6:36 PM on September 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

So ... there's a big surprise early on in this show. If you've wandered in here cause you're wondering what the deal with it is, you should probably just go watch it first.
posted by lunasol at 7:12 PM on September 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

It's interesting that it has 3 writers from The Good Place. Very much feels like a Master of None/Good Place mash up. (Which makes sense, Alan Yang was a co-creator of Master of None, and Aziz Ansari is apparently a producer)

I'm still not sure if I really enjoyed it. But I did finish it, so that's something.
posted by politikitty at 11:00 AM on September 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

Highlight: Maya Rudolph owning the room with "This Is How We Do It."
posted by whuppy at 6:53 AM on September 25, 2018 [3 favorites]

I feel like this could have been an okay movie. A series wasn't needed.
posted by k8t at 3:22 PM on September 25, 2018

I didn't care too much about the first three episodes, but discovered by the end that I had liked it after all. Not a ringing endorsement, I know, but I liked it more than some of the reviews I read made me expect to like it.
posted by Wet Hen at 6:26 PM on October 1, 2018

I loved the bottle episode about the realtors. That was lovely and sad.
posted by lunasol at 5:32 PM on October 2, 2018 [4 favorites]

Between The Good Place and the silly/profound second season of The Leftovers, it's hard for this show to find its place -- there's a really high bar at this point. But one of the things I like most about Peak TV is that there's room for decently made, decently acted fantastical fiction. Nothing too surprising or spectacular, just quirky enough to keep you watching, capably written, somewhat off-beat acting. A pleasant 250 page novel that you picked up at the bookstore on a whim, and found yourself liking more than you expected, though your main compliment is that you are surprised you finished it. Sometimes it's nice to have ham as well as hammers.
posted by chortly at 12:10 AM on October 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

Loved the episode about the realtors, the extremely mid-century houses throughout the series, and Mark hanging out with the cool girl from high school who died decades after him (without any ageist jokes). And the weird, eerie vibe at Oceanside.
posted by chimpsonfilm at 12:05 PM on October 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

This could have been great. It comes so close, but...

Alan Yang writes great scenarios, but it seems like his dialogue is always 100% exposition. Having every character just say how they feel and say why they feel that way at every turn doesn’t leave any acting to the actors, so they’re left to just stand there reciting their lines stiffly like kids in a school play. Some of the scenes are just characters saying what they did in a scene we didn’t get to see. It was the biggest problem with Master of None, and it’s the biggest problem with this. It’s just so stilted and unnatural, and a massive waste of acting talent. And it doesn’t give the audience much to chew on either, when everything’s just explained for us.

Also, the ending was just a tad reminiscent of “The Ocean Walker” from Arrested Development.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:44 PM on November 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Huh. I just finished it. I hear the above critiques but I like it more than what others are saying here. It's lack of a clear sense of right and wrong puts it in a really different space than The Good Place. To me there isn't exactly a right answer if the question is, Should June stay with Oscar? I do think the Oceanside people are kind of empty so I guess that's a bit of a bias toward sticking with marriage, but given the total ambiguity of the Realtors episode, I feel this show is really not positing a specific right and wrong about long term commitments. And I like that. I like the weirdness. I guess it could have gone even deeper, could have been more emotional... Hmmm

Really fantastic to see two over 40 women get to have this kind of screen time and character exploration, together.
posted by latkes at 10:35 PM on November 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

So, we’re getting to this one late and, like others, I’m kinda scratching my head after the first ep and trying to decide if I want to continue. It was just...meh. Now, admittedly, Armison isn’t a big fave of mine, but I’m a big fan of Rudolph, so I’m leaning toward at least watching the next episode to seem if it clicks with me.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:53 AM on March 30, 2019

chiming in late to note that this is kind of perfect endless-quarantine viewing, maybe especially for someone whose quarantine is reasonably comfortable. It really gets at that sense of how even a situation that is all right, and fundamentally safe and pleasant, becomes agonizing and stifling when it has no way of ever changing.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:35 PM on January 18, 2021