The Head (2020)

 

I Had to Skip Over The Head.

by Kristin Battestella

The six episode internationally produced 2020 HBO Max original The Head seems to have it all thanks to ambiguous scientists, antarctic thrills, and psychological isolation. Unfortunately, dual sets of characters and multiple back and forth storylines make it easy to skip over the aimless distractions and contrived flashbacks.

The departing Polaris VI summer crew parties to open The Head as the incoming winter team boasts the top elite minds vowing to continue the research begun on the previous Polaris V Station. Puffy jackets, warm hats, artificial lights, and common room airings of The Thing accent the realistic languages and multiple goodbyes with video chats and couples that won't see each other for six months. However handheld pans following multiple people, always in motion tracking shots, and constantly on the move cameras are too busy – belying the long term polar nights and frosty, compartmentalized facility. The metallic, submarine cramped acerbates grudges and past rifts among rival scientists, but The Head fades to six months later and the first daylight as the summer crew returns to unexpected radio silence.

I...ugh...erm... 🙄

It's extremely frustrating when shows suggest one thing and do another only to change again, decoying viewers rather than telling a cohesive story. The Head restarts with bloody hand prints, damaged snow vehicles, bullet holes, and frozen bodies. Why didn't we begin with the returning crew discovering the horror unknown? Reunion anticipation turns to fear for missing loved ones, and kitchen barricades reveal a hidden survivor – a young girl who is clearly far too young to be a doctor. The frenetic camera is again unnecessary as she recounts the crazed events, going back to were we left that six months cutoff for rookie races and an esteemed biologist nobody likes. Which story is The Head supposed to be telling, the winter mayhem or the summer mystery? The present worry and past conflicts annoy more than endear, undercutting both narratives as the wrong point of view. Despite the international casting and linguistics, The Head is also still dominated by white Europeans, with minorities characters reduced to lesser stereotypical roles and many players never fully introduced as to why they are there and what they are doing. It's difficult to tell who or what is important – people are said to be missing and we're not sure if we even saw them. Disorienting filming may be meant to mirror the distraught state of mind, but it calls attention to itself and the omnipresent POV problems. How can the survivor know what happened in situations where she wasn't present? Sabotaged satellite connections, torn letters, and present investigations must wait as Hour Two delves into unreliable but obvious flashbacks (told by the young survivor who wasn't on the Polaris V station eight years ago, hint hint) of rare bacterium discoveries, dead colleagues, and arguments over who stole the credit. Too much is going on in both storylines, yet long drawn out scenes with the rookies who admit to not knowing what they are doing feel like they could be watched on one and a half speed. Any past trapped suspense is deflated by a break from the present, creating no character immersion despite chilly risks, pointing fingers, and violence from the previous station as The Head's faulty framework adds a third setting. Unlikable, ubiquitous characters make the past with the past mystery easy to figure out immediately, but The Head drags on with the present characters unable to rescue more survivors in time because they are stuck listening to the past hear tell.

Any significant deaths, gunshots, or explosions are covered in the previouslies, so by Episode Three, I was skipping around on The Head. Scientists with no basic medical knowledge have to repeat what to do in time wasting minutia disguised as tense action scenes that do little to advance the plot, and I fast forwarded through pointless operations and futile exercises. The survivor telling the story angle is also dropped as the scenes move from present, six months ago, and eight years ago as if they are concurrent plots. Watching news video on the Polaris V disaster fills viewers in on the collapse and melting ice while in the past, the winter team trekked there to retrieve matching hardware. Stir crazy army men with guns, stolen research, and perilous storms take turns being the primary focus as hitherto unknown dead characters become more important than anyone we've actually met. Here is where I called the mystery for what it was, as everyone is revealed to have something shocking about them that isn't all that shocking. What should be claustrophobic trapped in a tent and low on resources desperation drags on with video logs and psychological test recordings montaged for the audience. We see current people watching the past crew talk about the prior station whilst also watching the past crew investigating the station prior despite knowing they are all dead. The Head creates detached delays for the viewer rather than having anyone solve anything. I'm surprised there is a Second Season, as this debut should have been three seasons of three hour events – the initial discovery fallout eight years ago, six months ago gone crazy aftermath, current investigation resolution. By this point, I skipped on to the Final Episode with whispers, cover ups, and affairs on Polaris V. Quelle surprise, egotistical men are roughing up the women and stealing their work. Nasty people are blackmailing each other to get what they want because it's all about saving the planet! Now flashbacks of threats from the past on Polaris V play telephone with autopsies and evidence rushed in the last half hour of the present where they never deduced, merely sat back while others told of killer chases around the station. The answer to what was obvious all along plays like some sort of surprising revelation in the final moments, completely underestimating any viewers who hung on with The Head this long.

I hadn't intended to review The Head in long form, but my notes were many and my frustration strong. I hate being mean, but numerous recent series keep making the same mistakes – not focusing on where the story and characters are thanks to an unnecessarily chopped up and drawn out narrative. I'd love to find a taut, icy series or submarine thriller, but The Head is sadly just another in a long list disappointing television e.g. The Deep and The Last Ship.