Solos, as the title suggests is a spectrum of 7 Sci-Fi solo shorts, where a singular actor (majorly) talks about his/her experiences or digs deep into nostalgia. The recurring theme is technology, the future, and memories. For example, the first episode starring Anne Hathaway plots a storyline where she tries to connect with her future self in order to escape the past. The conflict is established through a God-like Voice, enacted by Morgan Freeman (something he does best).
Similar, sci-fi narratives are explored in other shorts as well, that share a similarity with Netflix’s popular show Black Mirror. However, Prime’s Solos is nowhere near it. It’s massively talkative and extremely boring.
Alfred Hitchcock, the legend of silent-era filmmaking said, “If it’s a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on.” But with Solos, even with a stockpile of loud words thrown at its viewers, none of it really makes sense. Believing the master’s wisdom is still feasible, if we can tell a film then why are we making films? Have we lost the sense of visual or narratives like Solos are an attempt to fuse theatre and cinema? Even if it’s the latter, it’s an extremely fatigued attempt.
Solos couldn’t even be regarded as a budget-friendly television show. Not by looking at its high-billed cast. Today, the animated series, with half its budget, holds much more substance and emotions than it was portrayed in Prime’s high-billed series.
The only short that actually shows some signs of emotions and engagement is the last one starring Morgan Freeman. He is an Alzheimer’s patient who requires memory implants to regain his memory. This particular episode tries to connect dots with the previous ones, but the link is faded and improperly staged.
The major flaw in the entire series is its exploration of basic storytelling narrative. There is no conflict (in most of them), and most of the characters are thriving upon nostalgia. The thoughts happening inside their head could be or would be interesting to a certain extent but as a viewer, I would have preferred to read that backstory of a character instead of watching someone sitting at one location and narrating an incident without much happening.
In the contemporary world, Steven Knight’s film Locke starring Tom Hardy, was one hell of a captivating film that rode on its writing. Again, what Solos is, I am not quite sure of it, but it is a waste of money, indeed.
If you are planning to spend time watching Prime’s massive budget ruin, please don’t. It isn’t worth the time. It’s dead, boring, and mind-numbing (I googled this world to sound smarter than Solos writer).
Solos is a science fiction anthology series created by David Weil for Amazon Prime Videos. It holds 7 episodes of 30 minutes each.
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