Station Eleven (HBO MAX series)

Zack Lee said
Ive thought a lot about this. This story is very flat when it comes to the emotions of the event itself. Partly, I guess, due to the fact that it starts with Javeen who is tasked with trying to shield Kirsten from the horror as best he can. But I think, traditionally, the emotions and feel of the event itself is a key component to good post apoc. Probably not as important as the psychological effects of living post-event but still important.

Im not saying it doesn't work here, just that its very different from what mainly exists in the genre.

To answer your question, I do probably like the immediate post event portions of stories. The fight for survival and the coming together with other survivors. And by survivors that is usually good and bad (they will do anything to survive after all)

I was looking into it from the writers perspective and found this long article pretty interesting.

https://writingtipsoasis.com/guide-to-writing-a-post-apocalyptic-novel/

I wonder about the first thing you say - whenever I look at a r/wtf on Reddit or see a near miss accident on Twitter or something, I’m often shocked that there isn’t a more visible reaction to a car almost hitting a person or a bear running down the street
Sure there’s the occasional public freak out, but for the most part people don’t seem to wear their scare on the outside

Then considering Katrina or Ida or Covid, most people’s default seems to be to try to act normal - it’s only after we feel secure again that we let the anxiety out, but more often than not we are sublimating

And I guess the last/more meta thing - I’ve read and seen The Road, and that’s an itch I never need to scratch again