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Snowpiercer, the movie, was released in 2013 to critical acclaim and some success although it has developed a strong cult following over the years. The film’s director, Bong Joon-ho, made a clean sweep at this year’s Oscars with his movie Parasite, and that has sparked interest in his past works. But before all that happened, the film rights were optioned in 2015 to be adapted to a TV series with the director on board (no pun intended) to help shepherd the production from the big to the small screen. It was a torturous journey to say the least with the showrunner being replaced early into the process, and a new showrunner clashing with the pilot’s director, who said the script was the best he’d ever read and the pilot was his best work, who refused to return to oversee reshoots to a drastically altered script. Then the series jumped the tracks and moved from TNT to TBS and then back to TNT once again with a premiere date changed several times. And long before the air date, TNT decided to renew the series for a second season either because they really felt strongly about what they had or they just needed to secure the actors’ services if options were about to expire during the drawn out production process.
So the question that awaits an answer now is: Was all the behind-the-scenes drama worth it?
I’d never seen the movie until just recently, wanting to familiarize myself with the story since I did not know the basics of the TV series. That turned out to be not a waste of time, because the movie was interesting and visually amazing, but unnecessary because Snowpiercer the TV show is a prequel (and if you’ve seen the movie you know why it’s not a continuation) set about ten years before the events of the movie (and, oddly, I don’t believe any characters from the movie appear in the series, at least not in the pilot … not that Chris Evans, Octavia Spencer or Tom Holland would put in time for a guest appearance but that would be cool to make this feel not like the TV characters are on a completely different train). The TV show does actually begin with the climate catastrophe that also set off the events of the movie. Climate change was getting to the point that the Earth’s temperature was extinction level hot so a group of scientists and government officials developed a chemical to deliver to the atmosphere via missiles to help bring the temperature down. Unfortunately it worked too well, plunging the world into a new Ice Age.
To save humanity, at least the chosen elite at the head of the 1001 car train and the much needed lower classes in the tail who would keep the train running, are boarded onto the Snowpiercer, a train that constantly circumnavigates the globe. The TV series begins just as the Snowpiercer is about to begin its never-ending journey, leaving the unlucky masses behind to freeze to death. Andre Layton (Daveed Diggs) forces his way into a tail end car but he can’t save his family as the train pulls away. Seven years later, the story picks up and it feels almost as if the TV show is going to retell the movie story with the ‘Tailies’ preparing to revolt and take over the engine, because whoever controls the engine controls the world, at least his particular world.
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The pilot episode, as most pilot episodes do, has to spend a lot of time introducing characters and building this world for people who haven’t seen the movie — and if you have seen the movie you will see a few familiar elements from the movie, such as the protein bars the ‘Tailies’ are fed, and some major differences, particularly in the look of the engine which in the movie was a gorgeous, windowless, Art Deco chamber for Wilford, but here is a more utilitarian operation with a windshield and massive control panel. Back to the story, before the ‘Tailies’ can take up their revolution, Layton is called out and brought to Melanie Cavill (Jennifer Connelly), a First Class passenger and the ‘Voice of the Train’. Layton doesn’t want any of what the elites are offering him, but it turns out they need him because a series of murders have been committed among the First Class passengers and he is the only police detective on the train.
Plying him with grilled cheese sandwiches and a lost love, Layton finally agrees to help them on his own terms but that puts him now at odds with his friends in the rear who think he’s sold out to move up in the world. It takes some convincing before he can finally make them understand the more he learns about the front of the train, the easier it will be for them to take over. Some of his group, however, are not eager to wait around to see if Layton will help them or be completely seduced by the high life up front. And that is the basic set-up for the pilot.
As far as the look of the show, I was hugely impressed with the production design of the movie. The train car sets were always moving and swaying — I liked that you could see the back of the next car on the rails moving which really made you feel as if they were on a train. Here, the cars somehow feel smaller, more confined than the movie sets and I didn’t get as much movement from them. The performances are fine at this point, but again it is hard to judge from a pilot that was almost completely reshot so we’ll have to give the cast some time to pick up a different groove from where they originally started. The pilot episode does end with a major plot twist that shakes up the story and potentially alters a key element of the movie, but I won’t give anything away at this point.
So is the Snowpiercer TV series worth your time? I’m going to be cautiously optimistic that it will. Knowing the turmoil it went through to get to our screens, I’ll definitely have to give it a couple of episodes to get into a rhythm while the story kicks in and we learn more about the occupants of the train. The pilot is interesting enough but not as gripping as it could be, but that final twist certainly does have me intrigued enough to return for the second episode. Check back again next week and we’ll see how things pan out.
Snowpiercer airs Sundays at 9:00 PM on TNT.
What did you think of the pilot episode? Tell us in the comments section below!
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