Some Thoughts On…Snowpiercer

I’ll admit that I approached the new TNT series, Snowpiercer, with a little bit of apprehension. I adore Bong Joon-ho’s film from 2013; in fact it was even my favorite film the year it came out. So, the idea of making a TV series out of that (and not so much the French comic based on how little this show’s plot shared with the synopsis I read on Wikipedia) just seemed like a bad idea. The show notably went through several years of developmental hell, and for the longest time, it seemed like it was never going to happen, even as recently as mid-2018 when Scott Derrickson quit after not jiving with the newly appointed showrunner’s vision.

It just seemed like there was a lot stacked against this show (seriously, it’s a long history, it’s kind of amazing it even got made), but I like to give everything I watch a fair shot. I suppose the best thing I can say about the show is that it isn’t a complete retread of the film. It’s not just a painfully slow version of the film. It is very much doing its own thing. The problem is that I simply didn’t find “its own thing”  to be all that interesting. Although, I will that whether it was due to me eventually getting invested or my natural need to finish everything I start, by the time we got to the cliffhanger in the final episode of the ten episode season, I was far more curious to see where things went than I was for most of show prior.

In the first episode, I did find myself curious to see how the people involved with the show would expand the film. And for a moment, I was caught completely off-guard. The inciting incident of the film, when the people in the back of the train begin their revolt, happens much earlier than I expected, especially given that it was in the first episode. They very much begin things on the train, and with the basic setup of the film, instead of giving extended backstory before getting to the good stuff. That I did find genuinely surprising, but once the show makes clear what it wants to do, that is when I began to struggle a bit.

So, before I get into that, if you haven’t seen the film, the basic idea is that it’s in the future, an attempt to stop the effects of climate change resulted in a backfire that has put the world in a new ice age. The story takes place seven years after this happens, and we’re following the remainder of humanity, who are stuck inside this enormous, specially designed train that is perpetually circling the world. Inside the train, the front lives in luxury, and the further back you go, the conditions become more harsh and impoverished, creating a clear class divide that leads to tensions on the train.

Bong Joon-ho took this setup, and delivered a propulsive and political action movie that transforms into something more meditative and surreal and heady as it goes along. The show? Well, it’s basically a murder mystery. After a failed revolt, the powers that be bring in Andre Layton (Daveed Diggs) from the tail of the train to assist in investigating the gruesome murder of a third class passenger since prior to the freeze, he was a detective. Through his investigation, he gets a glimpse of life on the train that he could have only imagined, luxuries beyond his wildest dreams. He reluctantly works under the security force and the instruction of the head of hospitality, Melanie Cavill (Jennifer Connelly), who acts as the middle man between everyone on the train and its mysterious creator, Wilford.

However, despite his accommodations, Andre still has revolution in mind, and gathers intel that he hopes to send back to the tail with the help of allies. From there, I won’t get into the nitty-gritty details (I don’t think I’m even allowed to at the moment), but as you’d expect, much of it involves spending time in the weird, wild world of the train, and the way each section of the train represents a certain aspect of society, along with all the twists and turns you’d expect from an investigative story. It’s honestly not an inherently bad way to go about expanding on the film. In fact, I’d say it’s the best possible outcome we could have gotten.

If you’re someone who has seen the film, and didn’t like it for one reason or another. You might enjoy this more. It does spend more time getting into the mechanics of the world, the political theming is blunt and as straightforward as can be, the plotting and character arcs are very clear, and it doesn’t indulge in things that aren’t relevant to the immediate needs of the story. It just feels like it was constructed to be much more palatable to a western audience than the film ever was. All of Bong Joon-ho’s weirder and harsher impulses that I loved about the film are practically gone here. The show only really takes the general aesthetics of the film, and little else. Apparently, there is a whole thing about how the film and the show are all separate stories in the same basic timeline with the comics, but none of that is ever made clear either in-show or through the marketing, and frankly, it makes the repeated beats from the film that much more odd. In doing some research, I kept finding conflicting reports, so who the hell knows. It doesn’t really matter anyway.

The series is well made, and it’s clear some big money was put behind it. What did keep me relatively engaged was the cast. Diggs has strong screen presence, and makes for a great lead that is more quiet and sensitive than you’d expect for such a tense environment. Connelly is unsurprisingly great, and she gets strong moments towards the end of the season. Annalise Basso plays a brat from first class that you just love to hate. And other folks like Mickey Sumner, Alison Wright, Sheila Vand, Lena Hall, and Steven Ogg do some strong work as well. Though, in most of these actors’ cases, they don’t get interesting until later into the season.

I am glad showrunner, Graeme Manson, and all the writers and directors involved decided to take the story in their own direction in adapting the film. By all accounts, the show is perfectly functional in what it’s trying to do. However, I spent much of the series struggling to stay invested. Its story beats feel very familiar in the realm of this kind of basic cable genre drama, and at no point did I feel like I was challenged, shocked, or surprised by any of the developments. Of course, like I said, with the two exceptions being the first episode, which offered some promise that the rest of the season didn’t deliver, and the final episode, which finally took a turn that I didn’t expect, and left me wanting more. A second season is in development already (and likely delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic), and while I can’t say that I’m highly anticipating it by any means, if I get screeners randomly dropping into my inbox again, I might actually check it out just to see where it goes.

Snowpiercer will premiere on TNT on Sunday, May 17th at 9 p.m. ET/PT.