This contains spoilers. You have been warned.
An internal conflict always occurs whenever i start a show; sure, it could be that i started 5 other shows at the same time, or that i could potentially fall upon unwarranted spoilers—which is one of the several reasons why i avoid watching popular shows. Maybe my apprehension comes from the initial distrust new shows can arouse in me, when i could always find refuge in my comfort shows. But where’s the fun in safety?
SEE started off with immense promise. There are lots of post-apocalyptic shows, ones with angsty teens, ones with zombie killing sheriffs, some with a lone man and his pet dog. (Spoiler, the dog dies.)
Jason Mamoa was the big name that was used as to pull an audience, but this show is fractured into several stories. Baba Voss, Mamoa’s character, is a leader of a simple clan of people, until his pregnant wife gives birth to twins. By the Queen’s orders, the capture the babies is mandated by the royal army, by consequence of them being accused of being witches.
The heinous crime these newborns have committed? Being born with vision. After a virus (this show was filmed pre-covid) wiped out the human population to a mere 2 million, all survivors were plucked of their ability to see. This loss sustained for generations and generations, the Earth restoring itself to a jagged, mossy pearl from the degradation of seeing technology and the heavily reduced population. When Mahgra shows up to Baba Voss’ tribe, he decides to step in as the twins father, since he can’t father his own children.
There’s many things that happen over the course of 8 episodes, and coming fresh off the season finale, there are still so many things that remain unclear to me. Overall, this show was impeccable in it’s cinematic presentation. Filmed in British Columbia, this mashing of rust-gore, post industrial and viking brutality is familiar, but reimagined in this sensory context. Down to the words the characters choose, they gather us in this reality where hearing, touch, smell, and taste are the bedrock for all human life. “Hearing” a lie is a working concept, or “feeling” fear shows us the very fine line we humans balance interpersonally without the armour body language gives us.
The careful attention to costumes, grand set designs that are to drool over, and the seamless fight scenes set aside, this show left me quite confused. Although the quality of the visual experience does not decrease over the 8 episodes, the amount of plot holes seem to increase.
The initial motivation of our protagonists is to escape the looming hand that is the Witchfinder, Tamacti Jun. A Doberman is the only way i could describe him as a character; a stiff neck full of pride and a resolve that’s as heavy as a mountain. He spends 20 summers on a dark and unfruitful path based solely on a contract he swore his word to complete. Killing villages of people, torturing captives, exerting merciless force over peasants in search of what his Queen desires is his sole reason to draw breath.
Personally i knew Tamacti Jun would be my favourite character because of how harmonious his words and actions are. He has a job and he intends on completing it; it’s actually refreshing. (+ He kinda cute, but that’s irrelevant.)
Queen Kane on the other hand is a classic ice queen trope. She’s delusional, narcissistic, and by some miracle not dead. Her frame is eerily slender, her screechy voice and shaven head insinuate a King Lear type of psychosis. Warning against the heresy of vision and evils Light could shine on their dark history, she secretly longs to be reunited with the man who is whispered to have the power of Sight.
Jerlamarel is the most headass name i’ve ever heard. He’s also a local slut who impregnated several women with his seeing seed in order to rebuild the fallen world that came 600 years prior. A world where electricity, hot showers, books, and guns make a reappearance (another spoiler, they do); a place where Haniwa imagines herself to fit in easier than her twin brother, Kofun. Meeting the magical Jerlamarel is the adventure they are poised to go on, despite the destruction they cause in this pursuit—the Alkenny, the people grew up with, are all slain because of them, all in the name of them reconnecting with their biological father. They get separated not once, twice, but three times, barely scrapping by death each time.
The twins are unfortunately the least interesting characters in the entire show. Even their back-stabbing half-brother, Boots, (yes, that’s his actual fucking name) steals the spotlight with very limited information given concerning his backstory. Even though we follow Haniwa and Kofun throughout their lives, my emotional investment lies with the people who protect them the most, that being Paris and Baba Voss.
Paris as a character is also boring, although she survives with the children and family. She acts as a nanny of sorts who pours out to those who surround her with nothing in return. Mahgra, the mother of the twins, merely uses her as a stress ball of sorts. Paris acts as a liaison for the blended family, reconciling parent and child alike; her only use is to further the success of the twins. Mahgra is on the other hand trying to block them from dreaming anything further, while (spoiler) holding the biggest uno reverse card imaginable—she is the Queen’s long lost sister, making her next in line to the throne.
When that was revealed, that’s where things began to get fishy for me.
Besides the fact that the writers reduced Queen Kane to a foaming, rabid possum, a highly trained killing machine like Tamacti Jun couldn’t catch two kids, or that a blind man saved his two new born infants from a kodak bear (that scene was sTrEsS); we’re supposed to just accept that the mother had the power to stop the witch hunt didn’t use it until the last minute is…*checks notes* acceptable?
This show has several moments that make it truly a horror watch. Not because it’s scary, but because it leaves you with more and more questions. Who really is Baba Voss? What really happened between The royal sisters and Jerlamerel? How old is Bow Lion???
Steven Knight (who wrote Pretty Dirty Things) is credited for creating and writing on all the episodes of the show. Being that he’s British, this show does have a Shakespearean flair to it which i particularly enjoy, but conversely it inevitably takes the over used “woman evil, man better” stance that as an audience we are unconsciously forced to swallow.
Overall, this show was alright. The season finale wasn’t enough to make me hang on for another season, which wont be until later on this year. The best parts of this show is ironically what 89% of the characters cant do; the filming style is extremely dynamic and gripping, which mirrors the way the characters communicate to each other. As for the world building, they were responsible enough to consult blind people, take advice and classes on how to act as blind people, and using rhythmic chants to communicate. The initial first episodes were great but the drop off in the story quality is disappointing. If you get a hard-on from boreal forest porn then this is the show for you. As for me, i’ll continue to ignore my responsibilities by watching something else. ✶
in my own little corner 