Dispatches From Elsewhere unlocks its full potential with its Simone-focused episode
TV Reviews Recap
While debates might rage about whether binge releases of TV seasons are ultimately inferior viewing experiences to weekly airings, AMC made the right choice to premiere the first two episodes of Dispatches From Elsewhere relatively close to each other.
The first episode, jam-packed as it was with setting up not just a new ensemble but a mystery that defies easy explanation, felt at times a bit busy. But the second episode gets more of a chance to breathe, while also taking its time to explore what immediately has become one of the show’s most interesting qualities: The blooming relationship between two sad, closed-off people who are finding, thanks to both a game and each other, a new glimpse of happiness.
At the very end of episode one, the erstwhile narrator played by Richard E. Grant (perhaps in Octavio Coleman mode, perhaps not) informed us that it’s time for the story to change focus, and so we begin now in Simone’s head, a place which is often haunted by, as she describes at one point, “that voice that says you’re doing great or you’re a piece of shit.” (One of the episode’s more subtle touches is the way we do sometimes hear that voice, via bus announcements or jukeboxes.)
The first scene of “Simone” captures our heroine doing something that scares her: trying to participate in a gay pride parade, an experience that overwhelms her. “So much love staring her right in the face, and yet she turns and runs away,” Grant says. Of course, on one level that could be considered an experience singular to a trans woman’s life—specifically this trans woman. But the emotions involved, as narrated by Grant, are more than relatable. Who hasn’t ever had a moment where they began “to wonder if you were always going to feel alone”? All of us have been Simone, in some way.
(For the record, at the Television Critics Association press tour this January, Lindley praised creator/star Jason Segel and Dispatches for how creating Simone as not just a lead character, but a romantic interest for Peter, was a collaborative experience. “It was one of the best depictions of a character, of a trans character that I had ever read. She felt so close to me and I felt like I knew her and I felt like I could tell her story. And it was really great because Jason allowed me to interject a lot of myself into her, and you know, we really worked together to bring her to life, I think,” she said then.) After the parade, Simone seems to be having a pretty typical day—going to her job as an art docent and finding herself in fanciful conversations with self-portraits of artists like Berthe Morisot. (According to WikiArt, Morisot’s self-portrait is actually hanging right now in the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, but we’ll allow it.)
But enlivening her day is the appearance of Professor (Big)Foot, who leaves her a clue which reawakens the game and leads her back to Peter, who she surprises at his office. Peter’s initially not thrilled to see her, because “it’s really boring here and I’m embarrassed that you’re seeing me like this,” but when someone unknown delivers a Big Mouth Billy Bass, for which Simone has batteries, they dive back into the adventure.
While the first episode reduced Simone and Peter’s first joint mission to a simple hazy montage, episode two is far more committed to playing out each beat of their experience, from identifying where Billy Bass might consider his home to decoding to the message the missing “Clara” shares via Billy, which leads them to a bodega, a dive bar and the hidden headquarters of the Elsewhere Society.
The latter location is where via a complicated bike-to-headset system, Simone gets to watch a 3D cartoon which explains that, as she explains later, the Erstwhile Society, led by the white-bearded Commander 14 ad the mortal enemies of the Jejune Institute, is a group of “cool kids who care about freedom and beauty.”
But that’s not the major drama of the episode—that comes when another Big Mouth Billy clue leads the partners up to a rooftop, where they’re encouraged to reveal “something scary” to each other. There are plenty of fanciful touches buried within “Simone,” but what makes it such a striking installment is how its most affecting, suspenseful and ultimately haunting twist is when Peter is able to tell Simone, in his own stilted but powerful way, that he really likes her—and she simply can’t handle it, backing away from the moment when he’s at his most vulnerable.
Simone tries to deflect what she’s done, while Peter owns his quiet devastation and retreats; the show wouldn’t have gotten to this place without the fun and games, but they don’t make this scene any less real. When Simone talks to her Nana about what happened, she clearly regrets what happened, which perhaps pushes her to re-engage with the rest of her Jejune Institute team, meeting up with Janice and Fredwynn at their diner.
Peter doesn’t show, but the other pair tell Simone all about their day spent learning about the good works of the Jejune Institute, which they consider to be, potentially, the real heroes of this experience. (Clearly, a classic order versus chaos dichotomy.) Two different events are scheduled for that night, a half-hour apart: The first, a protest at the Jejune Institute headquarters by the Elsewhere Society, and a Jejune Institute shareholders meeting.
The team decides to try to attend both, and at the protest, Simone sees Peter. Summoning up an insane amount of bravery, she grabs a microphone from a protester and tells Peter what she should have told him before: She likes him and his face, she likes the game and she’s a mess who doesn’t want to mess things up. It’s honest and real and an important moment for the show, because calibrating a will they/won’t they is a tricky thing, but the fact that Dispatches is not using outside plot obstacles, but the characters’ legitimate issues, is an important choice.
Simone’s speech means that any forward momentum on their obvious chemistry is on hold for a little while—but now, the game’s afoot! We get our first glimpse of Grant as Octavio Coleman in the real world, getting into a limo! And then Fredwynn, obsessed with accumulating more data, sneaks into his trunk! And Janice ain’t gonna leave a man behind, so now she and her teammates are frantically cycling after that limo, to the Jejune Institute shareholders meeting! Annnnnnd guess what? This next episode? It’s time to get to know Janice.
That happens next week, though. In the meantime, I’ll be shipping Simone and Peter, and how their love story unlocks so many emotions about what it means to connect with another person today.
Stray Observations
- This week’s Touch of Philly: The episode features the famous “Rocky Steps,” but more importantly does so because Simone works at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which I personally had not known was at the top of them.
- Peter reveals that the only CD he owns (and thus, the only music he listens to on purpose) is the Les Miserables soundtrack (original London cast). Segel wrote this episode, so that has to be a reference to his and Neil Patrick Harris’s occasional duets, right?
- Okay, did this episode take place on a weekday or a weekend? Simone, as an art docent, could conceivably have a Saturday or Sunday shift, but it seemed expected for Peter and many of his colleagues to be at work. Neither of them seemed to have any problem bailing on their jobs, though? This element felt a little underbaked.
- Also, while I’m in nitpicking mode: How, exactly, did the trunk of Octavio’s limo pop open long enough for Fredwynn to hide inside?
- There have been other TV shows where a cis person and a trans person have been in a relationship—the first season of Pose included such a storyline. But while Simone being trans is, of course, a fundamental part of her character, there’s something special about the relationship between her and Peter. In a show where what is real and what is fiction is very often up for debate, it’s lovely that one thing feels truly real.
38 Comments
you gotta be kidding me. lol this is two really bad episodes of a show with horrendous acting. Jason Segel should never be given money to make art again. I hope Sally Field got paid a fortune, because she doesn’t deserve this kind of slumming. You didn’t even have to write a review. Everyone already knew literally any AV Club writer would’ve given this episode an A-. Everyone.
As thinly-written as these characters are (so far, anyway) I appreciate the way they all react to the events very differently. This is exactly what happened in the “real” Jejune Institute, with some people being extremely apprehensive and ready to bolt at the slightest discomfort, while others showed up in silly costumes and were down for anything. People react in unusual ways when confronted with the unexpected.
the Erstwhile SocietyNot sure if that’s a typo or a certain reference…
Interesting the way the ‘puzzles ‘ seem geared towards the people. Peter is a programmer who figu res out the bicycle/3d goggles movie. Simone works in the art galler y and figures out the door painting. I think the trunk was open becau se Fredwynn was there to get into it.
Yep. So who’s figuring out how to group people up and assign these puzzles? I hope we find out.
The real fantasy of this show is that anyone could and would build an AR game this elaborate, in-depth, and tailored to each of their needs. Unless the ultimate twist is that they’re all inside a massive therapy supercomputer, like AM from I Have No Mouth except nice.
they could and they did! It was real, took place in SF in 2008 and was pretty close to the events of the show
I’ve a number of escape rooms and AR games, but none of them have simultaneously felt like personalized therapy. I should check out the documentary though.
Leave the documentary to the end of this season. It may blow the lid of your mind a bit.
Or like GRTA from Maniac (aka Sally Field).
Interesting the way the ‘puzzles ‘ seem geared towards the people. Peter
As someone who lives in the suburbs of Philly, I only have two gripes about this episode. What the fuck was that bus? Is SEPTA pulling ancient buses out of mothballs? Also, at the climax of the episode, that storefront is actually a Barnes and Noble. Other than that, this was a good episode overall. The building with the gold dome is the Ukrainian Cathedral.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_the_Immaculate_Conception_(Philadelphia)I am familiar with this building.
This happens when they film a movie near where you live. In Risky Business, during the car chase with Guido the Killer Pimp, Tom Cruise makes a turn that should have put them in Lake Michigan. The Post Office Kevin Costner raids in The Untouchables is an office building in the loop, and I think his office is in the Board of Trade building. There are several scenes in Nolan’s Batman movies that made me say “wait, you can’t get from there to there that fast.”
Blues Brothers, on the other hand, is meticulously accurate in its depiction of driving in the loop. Right down to the under-construction overpass that lets you off in the air about three miles above Canal.
Wasn’t Batman’s Gotham City supposed to be a hodgepodge of Chicago and NY? By the time they get to The Dark Knight Rises it looks like some sort of mutated Manhattan.
I’m pretty sure it was all filmed in Chicago with a lot of CGI, like creating an island in the middle of the river. Many locations are easily recognizable like LaSalle St and Lower Wacker Drive.
The third used a bunch of NYC locations, like Gotham Stock exchange, was lower Manhattan, Trump Tower was used as Wayne Industries if I recall.
The bus was definitely off, but you’re wrong about the storefront. That’s the Curtis Center outside Washington Square, not the Rittenhouse Square Barnes and Noble. The locations and geography of the show have been remarkably spot on. You can track basically every scene in the show, and I haven’t noticed any where they even seem to be walking from the wrong direction. They even used the real interior of the Curtis Center in the first episode, and the real interior of Fishtown Tavern in this one. The Fishtown cat mural is real too and not something they made for the show: https://www.phillymag.com/news/2017/07/13/cats-welcome-visitors-fishtown-new-mural/
You’re right about the Curtis Center.
But they cut from Peter’s office (at Bluecadet, 1526 Frankford Ave) to them on a bus outside Fishtown Brewpub (1101 Frankford Ave), and ride around for a couple minutes, ending up at the Welcome to Fishtown mural (1140 Frankford Ave) which is literally across the street from the beginning of their bus ride! The bus driver voice bit was fine, but a walk-and-talk down Frankford Ave would have been much more interesting.
Are you sure about the office? In the first episode, it shows him walking to and from work in Old City north of Market. When he leaves he’s standing near the Mr. Barstool sign, and it would make sense for a streaming music company to be near N3RD Street. The address Simone found for it outside the Art Museum doesn’t exist in Philly, which I found odd. The other addresses given in the first episode were distorted in different ways, but still matched real locations.I just rewatched some parts, and the shot of Fishtown Brewpub and bus ride do definitely seem out of place though. They’re actually riding west on Spring Garden for most of it, but I imagine actually getting the shot along the correct route would’ve been too difficult. They probably just had to drive around for a while until they got the take they needed.
You’re right in that the exterior of the office is not explicitly shown, and might be intended to be located on N3rd street. But the interior was filmed at Bluecadet, my friend’s old desk is in one shot. And in the scene where he quits, the corner office is looking onto the El from their office.
Sorry this reply is so late. I thought it was a Route 15 trolley. That goes through Fishtown.
Oh man, now i gotta wait a whole week?
It was glossed over very quickly that Peter was upset to see Simone at his work because his work is boring. But he buried the lede just enough for her to react as if it was her presence that embarassed him, which she acknowledged as a perfectly normal response. Which, although relieved very quickly in the moment, was very sad for a split second.
That moment was so perfectly executed. Him not twigging to what his words implied to her…ugh. SO perfect and hard to watch.
This sounds great. It wasn’t on my radar before, but it definitely is now. I love ARGs. I love reading about ARGs, mostly—always seem to miss out on them or be too chickenshit to join—but this seems like my jam.
This show only makes me miss Lodge 49 even more.
I like Sally Field — I really like her! — but we have to wait TWO WEEKS for the Fredwynn episode? That feels like an eternity.
I was worried this show was going to feel like it was trying too hard, but it’s a damn delight. Can’t wait for next week’s episode.
It’s SAY-chim, not Sah-CHUM.
This show is really walking a knife’s edge with the extent of its whimsy, but Simone and Peter’s awkward flirting was just cute enough to keep it on the right side for now. The elements actually about the game are still just a bit too twee and lightweight for me, and the “wonderous” design elements need to be genuinely wonderous to justify the characters’ responses to them. In this episode, the bicycle-flip book contraption was delightful enough to qualify, while the repeating of goofy phrases like “divine nonchalance” aren’t really doing it for me.
My cable provider currently thinks they have episode 2, but when you try to view it, it’s episode 1 again. Do I want to wait cable-company time to call this in and bring this to their attention? Not really, but I hope somebody else does.
I’m not really wowed by the puzzles aspect of the series so far, but I’m really interested in how they’re going to handle the Simone+Peter relationship, if at all. Make room on the shipping couch, Liz, I need a seat next you.
I just assumed it was a weekend because, well, there was a pride parade, which in my experience tends to happen on Sundays (which invariably means I end up having to write off Monday too, but enough about me…)
“Peter reveals that the only CD he owns (and thus, the only music he listens to on purpose) is the Les Miserables soundtrack (original London cast).”
I can’t remember what they actually said but, I have to be that theatre geek and point out points for original London cast, but then I have to dock those points for referring to a cast album as a soundtrack 😛
short skirt
I want to know if Bigfoot is in the source material (such as it is), or if Jason Segal is the missing link (ho ho ho) between BF here and Marshall Erickson’s belief in same.
Hold up, is the Rocky Steps being the the front entrance to the Philly Art Museum not common knowledge, or is it just a thing I took for granted as common knowledge because I live here?
anybody else getting a John from Cincinnati vibe here?
That Berthe Morisot self-portrait was on loan to the Philadelphia Museum of Art from April 2019 to August 2019 for an Impressionist exhibition, which overlapped with when they filmed.