Love Never Dies in 'Forever'
June (Rudolph) and Oscar Hoffman (Armisen) are the perfect couple. Their lives are seemingly happy, filled with hikes and barbecues with friends and yearly fishing trips at their lake house, but the reality is much more bleak. Day after day, they eat the same food and have the same conversations, and while Oscar finds comfort in the routine of their relationship, June feels stagnant, stuck in a rut she's legally bound to. In an attempt to switch things up, June suggests the couple take a skiing trip over another vacation at their lake house, and Oscar agrees, to his detriment. June builds up the courage to be honest with Oscar about how she feels, but before she can voice her concerns, Oscar is killed in a freak skiing accident.
June blames herself and spends the next year grieving Oscar, while her friend Sharon (Kym Whitley) attempts to cheer her up and encourages June to embark on a new life without her husband. June accepts a new job in Hawaii, but on the flight over, she chokes to death on a macadamia nut and awakens in the afterlife to find Oscar has been waiting for her. Their reunion seems like the perfect second chance at continuing their 12-year marriage, except June soon realizes that spending eternity with her husband is more of a prison than a sanctuary, while Oscar is eager to pick up exactly where the couple left off. The afterlife is depressingly similar to our own world, and June finds herself in the same routine Oscar's death had allowed her to escape, prompting her to seek out meaning in the afterlife beyond her marriage.
'Forever' Gives Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen Room to Shine
Forever moves slowly but deliberately, more like an extended indie movie than a traditional situation comedy, and the series' muted humor might have fallen short if taken on by less experienced actors. But you're in safe hands with Saturday Night Live legends Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen, who've both spent the last three decades honing their comedy chops and have more hit comedy credits to their names than you know what to do with. Rudolph and Armisen's SNL tenures overlapped from 2002 to 2007, and their familiarity with each other as actors allows their chemistry to come easily and build quickly, with both giving understated but skilled performances. Rudolph, in particular, delivers an excellent performance, balancing humor with vulnerability and grounding Forever's more surreal moments.
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"Just because our audience members aren't as informed on the issue as you doesn't make them butt-heads."
The series was marketed brilliantly, with the initial trailers mostly showing moments from the first few episodes and never really alluding to the second episode's twist. For all intents and purposes, Forever seemed to be a show about a couple looking to break out of the routine of their marriage — which, technically, it is. The show balances the comedy of classic marriage tropes with a meditation on dissatisfaction and fear of stagnation, going so far as to ask: how much forever is too much? Though somewhat confusing and a little meandering at times, Forever's main selling point, in addition to its thought-provoking premise and well-rounded supporting cast, is that it delivers solid laughs and expert performances from two members of American comedy royalty.
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June and Oscar live a comfortable but very predictable wedded life when suddenly they find themselves in a completely unexpected situation, raising questions about love and marriage.
Release Date
September 14, 2018
Creator
Alan Yang, Matt Hubbard
Seasons
1
Forever is available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.
WATCH ON PRIME VIDEO
Image via Prime Video
English (US) ·