16 Rachels | Episode 1
2018 · 10m · USA
Directed by Keaton Smith
Genres: drama, experimental
Tones: contemplative, melancholic
A character named Rachel hits a low point and experiences a flash of clarity, perceiving her existence as beginning and ending at the same time.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Episodic structure for a young woman lying still in a room — that's already an act of rebellion against the tyranny of plot. I want to see who has the nerve to open a miniseries on a dissociative low and call it Episode 1.
An eight-part serialized portrait treating a single woman's interior life with prestige-TV episodic structure is ambitious in the right way — Joanna Hogg by way of bedroom diaristic. The pilot has to do an enormous amount of work; the premise suggests it tries.
"Born and dies on the same day" rock-bottom clarity is a strong opening register, and committing to eight episodes of one woman's interior life is genuinely ambitious for indie short serialization. Setting the table for the whole project.