I thought this was an interesting and at times very unsettling portrayal of someone who experiences mental anguish because they experience something other people canโt understand and rush to define or just outright dismiss because it makes them uncomfortable.
Iโve read the reviews which seem very focused on conspiracy culture and how vulnerable people can quickly get led down rabbit holes and exploited. I actually didnโt see the programme this way although itโs a pervasive theme throughout, it wasnโt the main takeaway for me.
Itโs also a portrayal (if you see it this way) of a vulnerable person getting sucked into a cult like group which promises to provide the support, connection, validation and โfeeling seen and heardโ that two of the main characters feel is so sorely missing from their lives.
Thereโs all sorts of other stuff going on. Many of the characters in the group are having some sort of crisis brought on by stresses experienced at their stage of life or where they seem to have lost or devoted themselves to something greater only to forget who they really are and what they want or need. The people in the group all come at the phenomena from a different angle, including in one case government conspiracy and suppression, which may or may not be linked to other elements of the story. They are all on a search for meaning. The โhumโ is presented as an external phenomena and suggested that perhaps these people are tuning into something primal thatโs always been there. Various possible explanations are hinted at. Fairly heftily implied possible shared shamanic and/or meditative experiences. Questions about whether time is linear or if we can tap into some other altered state beyond the one we regularly inhabit on a mundane basis. Mental โillnessโ and how society views this in a way that isolates and potentially exacerbates the problem.
All of this stuff is thrown into the pot and nothing is answered or tied up nicely with a bow - you will NOT be spoonfed, you will NOT be shown what you should be thinking and you WILL likely find it uncomfortable (one thread surrounding the nature of the main protagonistโs relationship with the teenage boy is particularly perplexing and troubling, rest assured this is actually addressed and laid to rest by the end).
This is not reassuring, itโs not escapist fantasy, by the numbers or mindless formulaic action or romantic comedy. It is however a thoughtful, unsettling look at how the pressures and demands of modern society can blind us to each other and how we need to learn to listen more, and more effectively to each other in order to support each other where it matters. And that seems very relevant these days.