Hit Or Miss: TNT's Snowpiercer
Snowpiercer, the perpetually moving train carrying the last of humanity through a world that has been long frozen after a climate disaster, is not a new post-apocalyptic concept. Inspired by the original French graphic novel, Le Transperceneige, and later Bong Joon-ho’s film from 2013, TNT reintroduces this fictional cloistered society with a series that was in development for three years. TNT’s Snowpiercer premiered in May 2020, confronts capitalism and classism head on, filled with rage like no other version we’ve seen.
The trailer unfolds with Melanie Cavill (Jennifer Connelly) announcing the timeline: six years and nine months from departure. Built by Mr. Wilford, Snowpiercer is all that is left of the world, designed to be a luxury travel experience. But behind the rich passengers and their exotic pets, there are “taillies,” the poor stowaways who forced their way aboard and cramped in the tail of the train. When identity politics is at play, there is always a double-standard propaganda—the train runs on three principles: work, honor and order. That is exposed to be the poor kneeling and abused by the authority, and the rich granted with the privilege of comfort, education and entertainment. Andre Layton (Daveed Diggs) plays the protagonist hero, a former detective, being the only “tallie” welcomed into the front of the train to investigate a series of murders.
This perhaps is a logical tactic to turn a story previously told in two hours into a ten hour-long series, transforming the Snowpiercer we knew into a Murder on the Orient Express with a twist. However, this cocktail made for television can become a bit of a problem. While the film version managed to seduce the audience with a science fiction where capitalism lives in the form of a snow-piercing train, the series is unpacking the same world into longer hours, which dangerously can create too slow a burn for the TV audience. From the trailer, we see a revolution erupt in bloodshed, which came out of a system that’s supposed to maintain balance. Like all revolutions, survival is the first thing on the agenda, but the movement doesn’t stop there. That’s been made clear from the trailer, which unfortunately predicts the singular linear mission for ten hour-long episodes to be served straight up. If played right, Layton’s detective role can be the key to distract and entertain the only objective in the series with different unsolved cases, which doesn’t appear to be an important part of the series.
Regardless of the troubled and prolonged storyline, the spirit of the Snowpiercer might be exactly what the audience needs in May 2020. With the rising of national anger in social justice, when a Minneapolis policeman kneed on the neck of a motionless black man who later died, and when a white woman called the cops on a black man in Central Park, viewers who are stuck at home due to the pandemic will find recognition in the series. Whether they are the activists who are fed up with the institutional and racial injustice in the United States, or the privileged few who are protected from the virus or fear of the virus, Snowpiercer is set to pierce through the comfort of our inaction and call out: we need to act and we need to act now. The series provides a haven for those who want to fight the good fight, and creates a miniature society that we couldn’t help but concede the similarity. Is there really a difference between the Snowpiercer and our society?
Equating a fictional anger with ours is far-fetched, but Bong chose this story as a project for a reason. Acclaimed for his 2019 film Parasite, which portrayed a classist society with the skin of a gasp-inducing black comedy and thriller, Bong mastered creating cinema that takes over international audiences and speak a universal truth. If the film Snowpirecer didn’t get the chance to reach out to the people the way Parasite did, this series is its second chance. What will be waiting for us behind that door on the train? We have to watch and find out. But this time, we have the privilege of getting off whenever we want.
Snowpiercer premiered on TNT, May 17, 2020.