In early 2020 as most of the world retreated into quarantine, author Emily St. John Mandel's 2014 novel, "Station Eleven" began popping up on popular reading lists. The author was deemed prophetic in some circles for her story about a Georgian flu that wipes out 99 percent of the world's population and the survivors' plight in the aftermath. Others, however, found it a bit "too soon" for COVID-19 reading.
HBO didn't feel it was too soon. They optioned the book for a limited series months before an actual pandemic hit the globe and tapped Wisconsin native Patrick Somerville to adapt it for television.
Somerville had two big pluses heading into this job. One, he was a successful novelist himself. And further, he cut his TV writing teeth with Damon Lindelof ("Lost" and "Watchmen") on the similarly themed and critically acclaimed HBO series, "The Leftovers," which dealt with another global "rapture" and its aftermath.
"The novelist who wrote the novel 'The Leftovers' was Tom Perrotta, and very unusually, he was in the writers' room for seasons two and three after they had exhausted the material that was in the book," Somerville told WPR's "BETA."
Somerville got a front row seat to watch Lindelof and Perrotta work together to expand Perrotta's world, but in Lindelof's domain as a master television storyteller.
"So, I got to watch for two years what it looked like when a TV writer, who had made 120 whatever episodes of 'Lost' with cliffhangers and twists and turns, was in a dialog with a novelist who was protecting and maintaining the spirit of the novel that he had written," Somerville said.
In many ways, the nonlinear, multiple timeline, puzzlebox structure of "Station Eleven" echoes that of "The Leftovers," and Somerville said that isn't coincidence.
"I'm not a writer who needs to tell a story out of order. I just happened to learn about it from one of the best and also learn about it again from Emily's novel," Somerville said.
"'Station Eleven' needs to be out of time because it's about memory," he continued. "It's about before and after, not just one or the other. So, we needed to tell the story in a way that let the different timelines proceed together."
The show and novel follow a small and loosely interconnected group of characters as they navigate the initial outbreak and the "after" as the world as we know it collapses.
The main protagonist is Kirsten, who at the time of the outbreak is performing in a presentation of Shakespeare's "King Lear" in Chicago when the lead, Arthur Leander, has a heart attack on stage.
Leander is the hub character whose orbit connects most of the cast. That includes his estranged wife, Elizabeth, and their son, Tyler; his longtime frenemy, Clark; and his ex-wife Maria, whose titular graphic novel becomes somewhat of a sacred text to both Tyler and Kirsten in the wake of the outbreak.
When Arthur begins to falter on stage, an audience member, Jeevan (Himesh Patel), is the first and only person to react, rushing the stage. It was here that Somerville makes his first tweak from the novel.
"In the novel, Jeevan is an EMT in training, and I think his rush to the stage is somewhat motivated by a sense that he's the guy to help. He might know what to do. And in our version, we decided just to take that piece away," Somerville said.
Somerville said it's the instinct to want to help that was important for Jeevan. So, as Jeevan helps with the backstage commotion of Arthur's heart attack, he meets and helps to console Kirsten. When her stage "wrangler" fails to show up, Jeevan shepherds Kirsten home. It is during this trip home where he receives the fateful call from his sister, an ER doctor, who gives him a heads' up that there is a highly contagious and mortal flu outbreak and that he should isolate immediately. Unable to locate Kirsten's family, Jeevan is faced with an impossible choice — take in a stranger or send her off to her likely demise.
"It's the whole show in a lot of ways," Somerville said. "You find yourself in a position to be morally responsible, even if your heart is saying, 'Run and go,' your moral heart is saying, 'You can't.'"
Jeevan ultimately fibs to Kirsten that her parents offered permission for her to stay with him and his brother, Frank, for the night.
That night turns into a two-year odyssey for Kirsten that ends when she stumbles across and joins a post pandemic Shakespearean troupe called the Traveling Symphony. Kirsten becomes the central player in the troupe and a protective and resourceful leader over the next 18 years.
While the Traveling Symphony can, as Somerville puts it, "take a second to get used to," this concept of arts after the apocalypse is what sets "Station Eleven" apart from other apocalyptic literature and film. In fact, their slogan is "Survival is Insufficient," which Somerville feels can even apply to us all now.
"I think it's not enough to just survive. You need to laugh, you need your friends, you need your family, you need to be together with people and resetting relationships all the time," he said.
While Kirsten retains her Thespian spirit, the years spent in a lawless world have hardened her instincts.
"Kirsten, in 'Year Twenty' is still that same person, but she's powerful. She's talented. She's intelligent, she's brave, but she's dangerous," Somerville said.
"I think it's fun in TV when your main character is a dangerous person or when your main character is a person who sometimes loses her temper," he continued. "Never knowing quite what someone's going to do makes for a very exciting feeling when you're watching a story."
Kirsten is portrayed throughout the series by "Halt and Catch Fire" star MacKenzie Davis and the young and impressive actor, Matilda Lawler.
"(MacKenzie) is in the true use of the word, a dynamic human being and performer and gigantic ball of powerful energy, able to play so many different looks," Somerville said. "Matilda Lawler (is) a young actor who is stunningly talented and confident and able to do all of those things I just said about Mackenzie, and the two of them working together tell the story of a whole life."
With such a heavy story, Somerville made an effort to inject shots of humor throughout the series. He said that's almost necessary when making a prestige drama.
"I think it's always a good idea to make fun of your own pretentiousness when you're trying to make a high-minded TV show," he said. "It's quite good to take a step back and roll your eyes at yourself."
The Green Bay native also relished the chance to transplant St. John Mandel's story from Toronto to his beloved Midwest. Somerville pays homage to his alma matter by having Jeevan sport a University of Wisconsin-Madison sweater while quarantining in Somerville's hometown of Chicago.
"I think the whole show's sort of a love letter to the Great Lakes region, and this is where I'm from. This is where I grew up," he said. "And I just wanted to tell a story set in my home."
"Station Eleven" is streaming on HBO Max.