Best TV Show You Haven’t Watched – Counterpart
By The Messy Optimist
So…imagine this…(and don’t worry,..no spoilers here – this is at the core of the show).
Some 30 years back – something happened and the world as we know it split into two. Not two halves. Our world replicated itself. Which means there is two of everyone. One in ‘this world’ or ‘our world’ and one in ‘their world’ or the ‘other world.’ Everything about the people in both worlds are identical – with the same past, same shared memories…same everything.
Until one day when our experiences change from those of our counterparts. What could potentially be the ramifications of such an event, especially when – barring a select few people who belong to the diplomatic circles in both worlds – the rest of either world do NOT know of the existence of the ‘other world’?
Confused?
Imagine this…superstar singer Prince died in our world a few years back. But his counterpart is still alive and churning out incredible music in the ‘other world.’ What happens when a security guard from the ‘other world’ and one who is manning the gates of the portal between the two worlds desperately needs money for his sick child? He decides to sell contraband products from the ‘other world’ which includes a latest CD from Prince to ‘our world’ – where Prince is actually dead?
This is one of the most simple scenarios that Counterpart addresses.
What Counterpart is is an incredible TV show that, literally, NONE of my friends have heard about, much less seen. Which is a crying f…ing shame! This show is like – hands down – one of the best f…ing shows I’ve ever seen. As a genre it falls somewhere between Sci-Fi and a thriller. But what is astounding is how creative and how inventive it is. Look…I’m not a big sci-fi watcher. And it would suck for me if someone told me that this show ‘reminds’ them of something else. Because…the sheer audacity of this show’s core idea is what completely hooked me.
I started to watch the show back in 2017 because I will, pretty much, watch ANYTHING that JK Simmons is in. Add to it – this was his first TV show as the lead – I was like, SIGN ME UP. And it did not disappoint. I’m GUTTED that Starz cancelled this show after two seasons. Just 20 episodes and done. Recently, Starz president argued that the show skewed very male but that the network itself was now catering towards a more ‘female’ audience. Well, je suis a woman. And I LOVE it. I’m not sure what that was about. It’s just sad that the show did not find an audience (and I have one key reason why that maybe and I’ll explain my take at the end).
So…no spoilers here. I will WARN you IF we ever get to that.
So…like I mentioned above – the show depicts a scenario where 30 years ago something happened and our world replicated itself. Scientists from our world and their counterparts from the other world discover each others’ existence through a portal that opens up in Berlin and this small group – in complete secrecy – analyze each other and their worlds – from plants and humans to animals and more.
And then one day – the main scientist from both sides see if they can change the course of their and their counterpart’s lives with a simple experiment. And that changes everything in the world of Counterpart. Till that moment – every single human being and their counterpart share a COMMON history and common past but after that incident – their lives diverge. And depending on how old you are until that incident occurs – that decides how many years of a common past you share with your counterpart. While mention of this incident is made throughout the show – episode 6 from season 2 does a detailed backstory of how it all happened. That episode – with a runtime of an hour – is one of the best TV hours I have ever, ever seen.
Think you’re confused still? Don’t be. The show – for the most part – flows and makes it fairly easy to understand what’s happening.
Oh…another key aspect to Counterpart? It’s how relevant it is today, circa 2021, and the pandemic world we live in. No spoilers here…don’t worry – after a fairly easy start – travel between the two worlds by select diplomats and their ilk is filled with distrust when ‘our world’ is accused of trying to decimate the ‘other world’ by setting free a killer flu virus in the ‘other world’. This leads to a the rise of a fanatic faction from the ;’other world’ wanting revenge for what ‘our world’ did to them (kill over 7% of the ‘other world’s’ population or half a billion people).
Uhhh…this remind you of something? And of the world we live in today? China, Wuhan, Covid virus and how many believe that it was no accident and that it was a planned attack on planet earth by Beijing? Thing is – I’d forgotten a few things since I last watched the show. But I’d been wanting to watch it again and finally binged it over the last few days. And some of the images that I now saw was so bizarre. Especially when people in the ‘other world’ wear masks and constantly sanitize themselves and are clean fanatics and there are PSAs blaring in all the public areas about the dangers of ‘the virus’ and how everyone should get tested and report to the health authorities if they know someone who has the ‘flu’.
Man – it’s like going outside my house now and ‘my house’ can be in most parts of our planet. The sense of deja vu was so strong.
Artistically, also, this show is such a challenge for its performers. Every actor has a counterpart. And so every actor has a chance to play two different characters. Imagine how amazing that must be for an actor.
SO…MY CONCERNS ABOUT THE SHOW AND REASONS WHY IT PROBABLY DIDN’T CLICK
As much as I ‘get’ the show I have to admit – there were times when I just couldn’t figure out which world was which. Because the worlds are identical and because the characters are the same – or at least share a past that is the same till that big event – it’s very difficult to keep track of who’s who and what’s what. This time – when I watched it again – things were so much easier. But I remember how difficult it was when I watched season 1 in 2017 and season 2 in 2019.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. JK Simmons plays the lead on the show. He is Howard in ‘our world’ and is Howard Prime in the ‘other world’. Now Howard is a down-to-earth, sensible, boring guy while Howard Prime is aggressive, ruthless and a bit of a dick on the other side. There comes a point when Howard and Howard Prime exchange places. So, Prime has to mimic Howard in ‘our world’ while Howard has to become Prime in the ‘other world’. So imagine the confusion because each time Howard shows up onscreen – it is beyond difficult to figure out which world is being depicted because other than a few places (like the public malls in the ‘other world’ is completely barren and empty unlike ‘our world’) – it is hard to tell whether it’s Howard or Prime or which world they’re in.
And that’s just with Howard. It’s the same with ALL of the other key characters. And, after awhile – as interesting the show is – it started to get confusing. And I wonder if the majority of the audiences got tired of trying to figure things out barring the die-hards such as myself. I wish that the directors had used someway for the viewer to get an immediate sense of which world they were depicting instead of letting the audience ‘figure it out’. Maybe they could’ve used a different color palette for the ‘other world’? Hell…even placing the word Prime in one corner of the screen when depicting the ‘other world’ would’ve made the viewing process so much easier and simpler.
BUT…
All that is just me nitpicking. Because – bottom line? Counterpart is one of the very best pieces of writing that television has to offer and I urge you to watch it. It absolutely is one of the best TV shows that not many know about or have watched. As a writer/artist and a creative person – it’ll be fair for me to admit that I absolutely love and HATE Justin Marks, the creator of the show. I think I will NEVER come up with ideas like this one. The sheer audacity and scope of a show like this left me in awe.
The show is also BEYOND fantastic. MUST WATCH TV.
