Apple TV+ Constellation (4 Viewers)

[Sean Bryan]

I’m finally caught up and am enjoying it.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about it in the first couple of episodes. I think it was the flash forwards, because I’d have preferred for the story to just take me there linearly instead of hinting where it was going to go. But I became more invested as the story progressed.

 

[Josh Dial]

Watched the third episode lost night. I figured out what was driving me crazy about the show, what didn’t make sense: I came at Constellation thinking it’s a scifi show. But it’s a horror fantasy show wrapped in scifi trappings.

The ”science” is terrible. Breaks the show’s reality bad. On top the overal inscrutability, it was just too much and pushing me out.

Realizing that “I’m watching it wrong”, that if I watch Constellation on its own terms — apparently as horror show done by scifi tropes — I can accept the nonsense and let it tell me its story.

And with that, the third episode started getting fun, and gave some more info, and I guess I’m along for the ride.

Spoiler: Episode 3 Science Project

Henry Caldera is at Roscosmos running his science machine and he gets his interference fringes on the science computer screen. He goes to take a picture with his phone to document it, but the phone shows the non-science, no-interference state.

This. Makes. No. Sense.
It is sloppy and inferior visual storytelling, that I nearly flipped the table over and stormed away from the game.

But, ok, this is the the show. It’s not actually about being a good “sci fi” show like Foundation or The Expanse or For All Mankind. It’s a psychological thrill show but a writer read wikipedia about Young’s Double Slit Experiment.

I think you might be missing a critical piece of the science concerning the observer effect and superposition. The bit in your spoiler isn't sloppy or inferior visual storytelling: it's a (novel?) spin on the theory. The interference pattern can be observed (Henry can see it, and he can trace it), but for some reason (not yet explained) it cannot be recorded. This apparently extends to other forms of recording the "implication" of the CAL experience, including video camera footage.

Notably, as I wrote above in post 17, the issues seem to have arisen when the CAL was recorded (by Jo's iPad).

Perhaps the "can't record" nature has something to do with the waveform's inability to collapse upon observation.

This dovetails with the Alices' "ability" to "see" the two realities. This seems to be largely triggered when she (they) herself is not being directly observed--most notably when she's in the cabinet.

 

[DaveF]

I think you might be missing a critical piece of the science concerning the observer effect and superposition. The bit in your spoiler isn't sloppy or inferior visual storytelling: it's a (novel?) spin on the theory. The interference pattern can be observed (Henry can see it, and he can trace it), but for some reason (not yet explained) it cannot be recorded. This apparently extends to other forms of recording the "implication" of the CAL experience, including video camera footage.

Notably, as I wrote above in post 17, the issues seem to have arisen when the CAL was recorded (by Jo's iPad).

Perhaps the "can't record" nature has something to do with the waveform's inability to collapse upon observation.

This dovetails with the Alices' "ability" to "see" the two realities. This seems to be largely triggered when she (they) herself is not being directly observed--most notably when she's in the cabinet.

I'd have to go back and rewatch the scene, but what I saw was he's not observing it directly. He's seeing it a on a computer screen, whose image is being created either by interpreting data or by a camera (ahem) watching the physical pattern on the Science Box and then creating and showing an image of it. The "phone camera doesn't see it" makes no science sense even in this science fictional world.

I think it would have made more sense if he took a photo of it, showed the photo to his colleague and she saw the non-interfered image as he simultaneously saw the interference pattern.

 

[DaveF]

I should have noted, I‘m sure your interpretation is right, for what they were going for. But their visualization of it doesn’t work for me in world.

 

[Greg.K]

So I haven't been completely sold on this show, but episode 6 won me over.

After seeing things from alternate reality Paul's POV, I thought it was odd that

Spoiler

Jo (the version we've been following so far) seemed to know all about the CAL experiment, when episode 6 makes clear that the experiment doesn't exist in the reality she's supposedly from.

I went back and watched episode 1, the scene where she's FaceTiming with Alice and noticed some very subtle editing. They show the conversation occurring in both universes. At the start, Alice is wearing a blue and red outfit and they are conversing in Swedish, and in the tablets are in landscape mode. This is the reality from episode 6, where the CAL doesn't exist.

When she starts talking to Paul about the CAL, it's a shift to the reality where the CAL does exist (the reality of episodes 1-5) - Alice is wearing different clothes, they only speak English, and the tablets are in portrait mode. Later when asked to get the CAL device and bring in back on Soyuz, Jo seems confused about it, because for this version of her it's the first she's heard of it.

Pretty sneaky...

Other than that, there is some weirdness with the painting in the cabin - three different versions of it (Wounded Angel, Changeling, and Changeling in place of the Wounded Angel)? Does that mean there will be a third reality at the end as shown at the end of episode 1? Maybe a convergence of the two?

And I still can't figure out who released the bolts to undock the Soyuz in either reality.

 

[Josh Dial]

Stellar episode 7. I'm loving this series.

 

[Greg.K]

Episode 7 was downright confusing at times, but quite riveting. I was afraid that they were going to kill off one of the Alices. Phew.

 

[Bartman]

Just watched episode 7. A constellation is a static grouping of stars often used for navigation purposes. As far as I can tell that has nothing to do with this ATV+ story. They should have called this series Relativity, because that's what it's all about. Albert Einstein is rolling in his grave.

 

[Josh Dial]

Just watched episode 7. A constellation is a static grouping of stars often used for navigation purposes. As far as I can tell that has nothing to do with this ATV+ story. They should have called this series Relativity, because that's what it's all about. Albert Einstein is rolling in his grave.

The core concepts have nothing to do with either general or special relativity.

This is one of the shows where people "think they get it" but, in fact, do not.

 

[Bartman]

The core concepts have nothing to do with either general or special relativity.

This is one of the shows where people "think they get it" but, in fact, do not.

So what does its title mean?

 

[Josh Dial]

So what does its title mean?

Based on the information we have thus far, I would suggest the title refers to a group of "things" (persons, stars) that, when observed from a particular point of view, has a certain form/shape/expression. The keys being observation and points of view.

But I would be more inclined to let the show finish before I pass judgment on whether the title makes sense or not.

 

[Greg.K]

They should have called this series Relativity, because that's what it's all about. Albert Einstein is rolling in his grave.

The core concepts have nothing to do with either general or special relativity.

This is one of the shows where people "think they get it" but, in fact, do not.

Episode 7 literally has a cat that’s alive and dead at the same time. If anyone is rolling in their grave, it’s Erwin Schrödinger.

 

[Josh Dial]

Episode 7 literally has a cat that’s alive and dead at the same time. If anyone is rolling in their grave, it’s Erwin Schrödinger.

I thought the superposition cabin was actually pretty clever.

 

[Greg.K]

The (season?) finale was a bit of a let down. Especially the last scene. Not sure I like where that's going.

 

[TonyD]

Wait, that was the season finale?

Boooo
That sucked quite frankly.

 

[Greg.K]

This apparently extends to other forms of recording the "implication" of the CAL experience, including video camera footage.

But not, apparently, to ultrasounds.

 

[DaveF]

Finished The Constellation this weekend, watching episode 6 Friday night and 7 and 8 last night. It’s been tough to complete, since for the past 2-3 weeks, when we’ve had time to watch TV, my wife has avoided The Constellation to keep up on Resident Alien or SYTYCD or other shows in progress — basically wanting to watch anything but The Constellation.

Going into the penultimate episode I finally understood the basic concept in the story: that the astronauts (Jo and Paul) switched when the CAL was turned on. I kept thinking it was when Jo / Paul died that the swap happened. This made episode six utterly baffling to me in watching since I had the timeline wrong in my head. I don’t know why this caused me so much trouble, but the show completely eluded me for six episodes.

So starting with episode 7 for the first time I had a basic framework understood to follow the show.

And the show doesn’t really make sense. I could not keep track of the seemingly four different winter cabins spanning two dimensions with various assortments of daughters-in-bureaus.

And then there’s Bud somehow forcing a swap with Henry without any explanation nor prelude. It’s a necessary event if the the story is to continue and have any a “happy” ending for Jo. But it wasn’t setup at all, and I’m not sure it was a good plot choice.

And yet, all of that even if not logically coherent (and maybe it is) it was all emotionally coherent: the final scene was for me unsurprising (it was foreshadowed the entire season) but also a giant WTF and might have broken the show completely for us.

I kinda want to rewatch. I think now that I understand essentially what’s going on, it could be a lot more satisfying to watch from the start. But, unlike Mr. Robot, I’m not sure The Constellation is good enough to merit a rewatch (against everything else I wan’t to watch).

So: Excellent cast, performances, scene productions. But the overarching story and storytelling are shaky for me.

Will I watch a second season if there is one? Unsure.

 

[DaveF]

Also, the entire season, I keep thinking how Futurama did this story 20 years ago

 

[jayembee]

I watched the first four episodes a week and a half ago, and finally finished the rest the other night. I think my reaction lines a lot like Dave's a couple of posts up. I liked (but didn't love) this show, and I feel that a rewatch might help make sense of it, but I have too many other things to watch that I'm not sure I can invest the time in a rewatch.

It's frustrating, because this seems like exactly the kind of story that I like: one that demands strict attention to detail and that you pay attention to everything going on. But for whatever reason, I wasn't drawn in enough to fulfill those demands. That I liked it anyway has less to do with following the plot mechanics, and trying to keep straight how and why all this is happening, than following the emotional drama of people feeling lost and abandoned and cast aside. The conversation between the two Alices, and the "superposition" of the two Magnuses in therapy, with Jo kind of caught in the middle, especially nailed this aspect of the show.

And the cast in general was solid, with old hands Jonathan Banks and Barbara Sukowa being, for me, the MVPs.