Most of us, even those without mind-numbingly boring existences, have pondered the “Is that all there is?” existence question. It’s what leads to cinematic reality explorations like Inception and The Matrix. A bit less intense than Neo’s journey, but just as confusing, is Jason Segel’s new series Dispatches From Elsewhere, based on the alternate reality game Games Of Nonchalance, which ran in San Francisco from 2008 to 2011. As the promo poster puts it, “This show is for you if you believe there must be more.”
Here the setting switches to Philadelphia, where our gateway character is Segel’s Peter, a sad sack who eats the same bodega sushi every night (unless he daringly swaps it out for a burrito) and works at a soul-sucking job computing algorithms for a Spotify-like service. Peter spies a flyer that draws him into some strange sort of adventurous game run by the Jejune Institute, and hooks up with teammates Simone (Eve Lindley), Janice (Sally Field), and Fredwynn (André Benjamin). At the heart of it all is Richard E. Grant’s calculating Octavio, appropriately menacing and charming as the head of the enigmatic institute. But there’s also an anti-Jejune counter-movement called the Elsewhere Society, led by the mysterious Commander 14. Or is the counter-movement in on the whole thing? Is this a game or not? Even if it is, is it a force for good or evil?
Segel is also the creator-executive producer of the series, and the writer-director of the first episode. Those familiar with his oeuvre may spot common elements in the absurdity: The character name of Peter, for example, which is also the name of Segel’s despondent lead in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. There are frequent nods to Law & Order: SVU, which Segel says he watches every night before bed. Even his How I Met Your Mother’s character’s favorite fictional beast, Bigfoot, plays a part in the mysterious game (though, to be fair, apparently a Bigfoot version also showed up in the San Fran original).
Dispatches From Elsewhere is based in part on Spencer McCall’s 2011 documentary, The Institute, which chronicled the Games Of Nonchalance, produced by Oakland artist Jeff Hull. The original game’s Jejune Institute, a flyer ad for the human forcefield experiment, and even a quote from a participant on how the game made the real world feel so much more exciting all show up in Dispatches From Elsewhere. The convoluted game/show remains tremendously difficult to explain, however: “I still don’t understand what’s happening,” the monotoned Peter expresses in an early episode. There’s a thin line between “engagingly mysterious” and “indecipherable,” and Dispatches From Elsewhere vigorously skirts both sides.
The real draw is the same element that drew thousands of people to the Games Of Nonchalance in the first place (and made the saga of Neo so compelling). The thought that this reality isn’t all there is, that we were meant for more than this, that we’re special. That’s Peter’s gateway into the Jejune Institute, but fortunately, the series doesn’t stop there, instead wisely hooking him up with three engaging teammates. The transition journey of Eve Lindley’s effervescent Simone is summed up in her intro, as she works to re-engage with the world. André Benjamin (a.k.a. André 3000) is the meticulously detailed conspiracy theorist Fredwynn, determined to bust the entire game wide open. Best of all is Sally Field; for her character, Janice, the game helps to alleviate her greatest fear: being alone.
Does Dispatches From Elsewhere arouse enough interest to keep us as hooked as the game’s players are? After four full episodes (each featuring one of our main team members), it’s still unclear what Octavio’s goal is and whether the game is real or not. Some supernatural-ish elements are difficult to explain away. Although some engaging animated segments help illustrate some of the series’ more complex elements, other scenes, like Peter being drawn into a group dance in the rain led by Bigfoot, veer dangerously close to just being weird for weirdness’ sake. If the game is in fact a “high-level social experiment,” as Simone surmises halfway through the season, it would be helpful to know what the stakes are—if, in fact, there are any. Especially since, as Simone succinctly points out, “There’s an undercurrent of creepy that I can’t quite put my finger on.”
Thanks to the skill and charisma of these players, Dispatches’ human moments resonate even in the midst of a murky swamp of absurdity. At this point, we should all just be happy enough to see Field do anything on the small screen: Her Janice is an absolute spitfire who pulls off moves the younger members of her team are too timid to try. Fredwynn’s starkness is intriguing, as is the burgeoning romance between Peter and Simone. That these four manage to deliver valuable and often abstract life lessons through Dispatches’ labyrinthian setup is a testament to the game as a metaphor, but also displays the superlative skills inherent in the writing and the performances.
In a cultural landscape still cluttered with too many domestic sitcoms and medical procedurals, Dispatches’ imaginative paths take us places and inspire questions we’re unlikely to reach as a passive TV watcher. What would we say if we thought we could say anything? How much of the memories we frequently turn to are accurate? And if this is our only reality, what can we change about ourselves to get it closer to what we really want? Dispatches’ alternate take on reality not only offers a break from our own day-to-day world—it can also bring some new perspective with it.
30 Comments
Okay, I think I solved the mystery. Just like with most real-life AR “games”, the final big twist is that it’s all a promotion for the launch of a new flavored vodka.
the secret is the promo person doesn’t actually like you, neither does your waitress, neither did that hooker, sorry tigerI am sorry to have to tell you that reality is a promotion for the release of a green cardamom flavored gin
Dammit…I was hoping for a wildberry-flavored makgeolli.
What’s next? Are you claiming there’s no sex in the champagne room?
It gives you a code when deciphered says “drink more Ovaltine”
“You promised to show us the secret of Absolute Purity. Is now the time?”“Well, first you’re going to want to drop that ‘e’ at the end of ‘Absolute’.”
“(though, to be fair, apparently a Bigfoot version also showed up in the San Fran original)“
The San Fran original what?
the alternate reality game Games Of Nonchalance, which ran in San Francisco from 2008 to 2011Although your confusion is understandable since this is apparently a TV show based on a documentary about a game, and it’s hard to figure out from this review what exactly the game is (I’m assuming revealing that would be considered a spoiler for this TV show)
Just Google “Jejune Institute.”
I was just listening to an old podcast yesterday that got sidetracked onto the topic of how great that Jejune Institute thing was. Weird. Eerie.
I wondered not long ago what happened to Jason Segal. Based on this review evidently not much. A shame, I thought he had a future in puppetry.
He did, until the wires fell off his wrists. Plus the puppeteer’s hand got tired.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall was, if not the best (although I think it’s close), then one of the most original of the Apatow-adjacent movies of the 00’s. Pineapple Express felt different, but I attribute that to David Gordon Greene and Danny McBride, who really had their own thing going.I think the absence of Seth Rogen really gave FSM a different quality. Jason Segel has a very different feel from the rest of the Apatow crew. He feels like he could snap out of desperation and just go ape at any moment. The rest of the crew seem like harmless, goofy stoners. His heralding of The Muppets seemed like he was going places, and then he tied himself down to a mediocre sitcom for the better part of a decade.
Once I was in a small town and I was talking with a shopkeeper, the shopkeeper told me and my friend he was going on a trip through Atlas Obscura, which has hidden places of the type to fit into this series. He tried to describe one of the locations he was the most excited about. I immediately knew what it was because I had been there recently. You’ve never seen shoulders slouch in disappointment quite like that. What a world.Also kudos to Segal for not asking for kudos for having a romance between his character and a trans actress.
Was it the Jolly Green Giant statue on I-90?
it was a pinball arcade hidden in the back of a laundromat in greenpoint brooklyn
def not as hip as my man the JGG
You both missed out. The real adventure is in the dive bar hidden in the back of a pinball arcade hidden in the back of a laundromat in greenpoint brooklyn
do you mean ANOTHER bar? Where they sell cans of beer for MORE than $12? https://sunshinelaundromat.com/
I prefer the public library hidden in the back of a Starbucks hidden in the back of an issue of The Incredible Hulk hidden in the back fat of a pig hidden in the Back to the Future ride at Universal Studios hidden in the back of a dive bar hidden in the back of a pinball arcade hidden in the back of a laundromat in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
The twist? That library is actually a run-of-the-mill IHOP.
Who among us is not a run-of-the-mill IHOP?
So, this sounds completely insufferable.
“Fredwynn”? Maybe Jason Segel is tired of his last name being misspelled and is trolling his buddy Edwin.
This sounds inspired by Fincher’s “The Game”, i wonder if that is an inspiration for the real life thing this show is based on.
Looks like this’ll make a great double-header with season 3 of Lodge 49! Oh wait, AMC stabbed it in the back like a cad.
It could’ve had them both! What’s the point of getting invested in this
when AMC couldn’t even bother promoting the quirky diverse esoteric
mystery show it already had? This isn’t DEF’s fault, but AMC’s bastardry soured me on it.
i was all for this show till i figured that the chick had a dick after that i was like fuck this Bullshit!! i was OUT!!
I loved the first episode, warts and all. It gave me that same epic connection feeling I got from Sense8.
I will probably watch this, at least at first, but these kind of shows (Mr. Robot” and “Legion”) seem to all be weird for the sake of being weird and I eventually lose interest.
Mr. Robot is way more than weird for weird’s sake.