The comfortable coexistence of a couple is at a crossroads: NPR

Oscar (Fred Armisen) and June (Maya Rudolph) try to transform their routine Forever.

Colleen Hayes / Amazon Prime

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Colleen Hayes / Amazon Prime

Oscar (Fred Armisen) and June (Maya Rudolph) try to transform their routine Forever.

Colleen Hayes / Amazon Prime

In interviews, Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen stated that what attracted them to the project Forever, a series of eight sneaky surreal episodes, aired for the first time on Amazon Prime, was the prospect of telling a full story about the same characters over an extended period – and then giving them up.

It's a chance for them to get rid of their SNL skit-comedy training, which exploited their talents for quick changes and big shots; ForeverThe limited lifespan (there will be no subsequent seasons) offers them the opportunity to put their finger on the leanings of their television alma to drive recurring key-characters based on slogans. (Armisen's work since, both Portlandia and Documentary Now! has always been like a chameleon, but these two shows give him a little more room to settle in his characters. Rudolph, meanwhile, has spent his years since he let SNL kill him reliably (although in the Maya and Marty) and in smaller comic roles (Up All Night, the life of the party, the big mouth and Dionne Warwick, a man too brief The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt).

Neither interpreter has ever tested roles that force them to dig Forever. (Rudolph, it must be said, digs deeper and finds more dramatic gold – Armisen, as an actor, retains a void played for laughter, but that keeps us at bay.) L & # 39; series story, which avoids spoilers I & # 39; We will discuss here with a great delicacy and a not insignificant difficulty, we install ourselves carefully in the first five minutes of the silent opening of the first episode: The camera turns from left to right through a series of scenes featuring and s & # Install in a life together.

Can a couple who seems happy enough be … quite happy? That's what Forever fight with, but "grappling" involves a laborious struggle, and the series is far too cold to let you see it sweat. One of the reasons for this is that part of the subject of the show is passivity – in relationships, in life – and roads not taken. As this passivity infiltrates slowly but steadily in the series itself, you may find your mind wandering, noting, for example, how its ability to [redacted! spoilers!] compares to another television series like [redacted! spoilers!], who is currently playing in a very similar conceptual sandbox.

Listen, there are many things I do not tell you. In particular, I do not tell you, while you are impatient to see how effectively (read: slowly) the series shows us the pleasant groove that June and Oscar found together widening into a vaguely unsatisfactory rut (for June at least), then comes the episode [redacted! spoilers!], which dispenses with all of the above to explore the notion of romantic attraction and loyalty from a totally different and invigorating angle.

"I do not understand why you can not just be happy," Oscar said in June at one point, and that's the heart of the series. He does not understand – he can not. And she will not be "just happy" – she can not. And yet, here they are.

The "here" in question is complicated by a character played by Catherine Keener^TM. Between his supporting roles in this series and in Showtime JokeWe seem to be in the middle of a long awaited Keenersance, which must be welcomed by all Americans who think well.

Forever is unobtrusive, especially when it is focused on Rudolph's character dealing with one of the great changes that life holds for him, and he's frustrating, especially when he disturbs with surrealist creations, like a series like [redacted! spoilers! again! some more!] has a lot more fun with.

There is a fine line in the long-term relationships between everyday life and everyday life. The first is a living being, nourished by an emotional intimacy. The latter is dead, suffocated by mere familiarity. Forever sets up a base camp on this line between intimacy and familiarity, determined not to expand his characters into familiar couple types. Whether Oscar and June are happy or not and whether they stay together or not, there is no need for one or the other to do anything wrong. Forever is rather a series on a series of emotional crossroads – the roads are not taken, the words have remained unanswered.

In the eighth and final episode, these roads are taken, these words are spoken. What happens after may not be as explicit as what many viewers hope and hope – it is clear, it is clear that it is quite strange – but with this persistent ambiguity, there is nevertheless a sense of purpose and closure. The story in eight episodes of the series – June and the story of Oscar – is over. same Forever ends.