where to watch: Netflix
when to watch: when you want something intriguing, when you’re looking for a good dramedy, when you’re ready to try something new
you should note: co-created by a woman; highly bingeable; diverse cast; renewed for season 2
tl;dr: After a car accident, Alma discovers her perception of reality has been fundamentally altered.
It’s a crazy, weird, unsettling time right now, and we’re all stuck at home. But never fear! I have plenty of time to watch shows and write about them—I’m hoping to increase the frequency of my posts!
This week, let me tell you about a show I watched almost in one sitting, Undone. You may have heard of it because, for a brief time, Amazon was marketing it hardcore. It’s so good! It’s a show that is so different from anything else I have ever watched. I guarantee you’ve not seen anything quite like it. It has so many different things going on, in a good way. I’m totally obsessed with it.
an animated show for adults?
Undone is very difficult to describe, so let me start by telling you about the visual component. It’s animated, and I’m not usually one to watch anything animated; I much prefer live-action. But Undone uses this animation technique called rotoscoping. Rotoscoping is a process where animators trace over live-action footage. Thus, it captures all of the detail of an actor’s performance and facial expressions. Apparently, it has sometimes been viewed in animation circles as “cheating,” or been generally looked down upon. According to Amazon, Undone is the first show to use rotoscoping for its entirety.
The plot of Undone is inextricably linked to its medium, and in fact, necessitates it. Alma is bored and unsatisfied with her life, but she feels stuck. Once she’s in a life-threatening car accident, however, she discovers that she suddenly has “a new relationship with time” and is being trained in this by her dead father.
Honestly, it’s not worth going into super detail about what the show is about; it ruins the fun. What you need to know is that the characters are awesome, and there are tons of interesting things going on. Our protagonist is Alma, played by Rosa Salazar. She has a complicated and interesting relationship with her younger sister Becca as well as her mother. She also lost her hearing at an early age and got cochlear implants. Hearing loss is not something I’ve seen often in television characters. The show used this aspect of Alma’s character well—it was rarely front and center, but Alma could tune the world out once in a while if she wanted to.
a brief side note on diversity
The casting in this show is also a win for diversity. The main family is half Mexican and half Jewish, and Alma’s boyfriend Sam is Indian. Daveed Diggs (who I love) plays Alma’s boss Tunde and Alma’s dad’s graduate student is Iranian. The show effortlessly weaves in characters of all different backgrounds without it being plot-related, and I think that’s pretty great.
Undone is also fascinating because basically everything is open to interpretation. It’s a show that asks us to confront what the concept of “reality” even means. Even if you don’t usually go for animated shows, give it a shot. I don’t either, and I loved it.
It’s a thought-provoking, entertaining perfect 8 episodes. It’s short, quick, bingeable. I highly recommend it!
Since they used rotoscoping do you know if they filmed everything live-action and then animated it or just the facial expressions in a studio, etc.?
I guess it would kind of be halfway between the two things you mentioned. They filmed the action and the physicality of everything, but in very stripped down sets. All the backgrounds in the show are paintings.
On the show page there is a great video about the making of, check it out to learn more!