At the end of January, one of the most intriguing sci-fi shows of the 21st century will finally return. Almost three years after its debut, RuptureThe second season promises to solve at least some of the many mysteries posed by this series about a sinister company with the ability to surgically divide the consciousness of its employees between work and family life (entries and exits, respectively) and the lives of those ” “separated” workers.
Created by rookie showrunner Dan Erickson, Rupture It might never have existed had it not landed on the desk of Ben Stiller, who produced the series and directed six of the nine episodes of the first season. But while Stiller's emergence as a television director came as a surprise to many, since when has Derek Zoolander made prestige television? —wasn't his first attempt. A few years earlier he had directed another critically acclaimed series: Escape in Dannemora.
That show, which premiered in 2018 on Showtime, is now streaming for the first time on Netflix. Not only is it perfect to see if you have already completed your Rupture repeat of Season 1, but it may also offer a clue as to how Stiller and his companions plan to deploy some of RuptureThere are many mysteries as we approach season 2.
Escape in Dannemora is a dramatized retelling of a real-life escape from the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility in 2015. The show features a large cast but focuses on three characters: Richard Matt (Benicio del Toro), a charming prisoner who paints pictures for the prison . guards in exchange for favors; David Sweat (Paul Dano), another inmate who teams up with Richard to escape; and Joyce “Tilly” Mitchell (Patricia Arquette), a prison employee who becomes romantically involved with Richard and David. (For the record, the real prison employee denied sleeping with either man and called Stiller “a lying son of a bitch” in an interview with The New York Post.)
Image: Showtime
After an opening scene set after the prison break, where the police bring Tilly in for questioning, the series goes back in time and painstakingly reveals how the two men managed to escape from a prison often referred to as New York's Little Siberia (the winters are quite cold in Dannemora). Without giving too much away, what does it do? Escape in Dannemora So interesting is the meticulous way his story unfolds. Over the course of several weeks, we see Richard and David carefully plan their escape while manipulating Tilly into helping them, only to make some incredibly strange decisions once they are finally free.
As director of all seven episodes (the finale runs 99 minutes, but Netflix splits it into two separate parts), Stiller carefully builds the world of his prison and the surrounding city by spending time with the people who inhabit it, often focusing on the most important. mundane aspects of their lives. Through the eyes of everyone, from long-serving prisoners and new inmates to prison guards and their families, we are immersed in this reality just in time to see Richard and David escape from it.
While Stiller once told IndieWire that he never noticed the similarities between Escape in Dannemora and RuptureThey're not exactly subtle. Both Dannemora and the first season of Rupture They are, on some level, prison break stories. The interior/exterior division Rupture It also feels like an echo of the differences between prison life, with its unique rules and customs, and the forbidden world beyond its walls. Looking DannemoraYou can see how Stiller honed his skills in bringing unknown spaces to life, whether it's a maximum security prison or a top-secret underground office. It takes these tight settings and miraculously makes them feel at home through precise, muscular camerawork and a focus on the characters needed to make the best of a situation they were forced into.
But perhaps the most obvious comparison is the way both shows handle their biggest twists. Rupture It was always a series built on mystery. That's built into Erickson's script from page one, and Stiller (along with Season 1's other director, Aoife McArdle) fills every frame with a sense of foreboding. From the overly clean offices where the inns work to the perpetually dark and cloudy surrounding city, all in Rupture It seems a little out of place. Escape in Dannemora It doesn't have as many twists to play with, but it offers at least one crushing reveal.
Photo: Apple TV Plus
In DannemoraIn the penultimate episode, we finally learn what Richard and David did to end up in prison in the first place. Stiller films these scenes in brutal, gory detail, making sure we care about each victim before revealing the terrible, brutal crimes committed by Richard and David. After witnessing those horrible actions, it suddenly becomes much more difficult to root for their escape. (Something similar happens at the end of Rupture(The first season, when the innies are temporarily freed from their corporate prison and experience the lives of their outies, leading to several mind-blowing revelations that redefine almost everything that happened up to that point.)
In a certain sense, that dramatic episode of Dannemora tells us everything we need to know about Rupture (or, at least, almost everything; goats remain a mystery). Because in a show where everyone feels like a blank slate, the biggest twist isn't whether they'll finally escape their innie existence or why they're being separated in the first place; it's the possibility that the true nature of these characters will tarnish the versions of them we know and love. As a narrator, Stiller is clearly interested in the multifaceted nature of people and how little we can know about each other. When Rupture Season 2 arrives at the end of January, we will know a little more, whether we like it or not.
Escape in Dannemora is streaming on Netflix. Rupture Season 2 premieres on January 17..