Dispatches From Elsewhere Review: Peter (Season 1 Episode 1)
Jason Segel’s new adventure drama, Dispatches from Elsewhere, wants to be the weirdest show on TV.
Based on the 2013 documentary The Institute, it’s a story about alternate reality games, the people who play them — and what they’re hoping to find.
Dispatches from Elsewhere Season 1 Episode 1, “Peter,” is an introduction not just to the show’s characters, but also to its unique visual language.
The episode begins with a still shot of the mysterious Octavio Coleman, who stares placidly into the camera without speaking for nearly twenty seconds.
That’s just enough time to make the viewer feel confused and vaguely uncomfortable, which puts us on an equal psychological footing with our protagonist, Peter.
The show uses a series of surreal images to communicate Peter’s insecurities. An advertisement for a project about human communication with dolphins, for example, seems to resonate with him because he might find it easier than communicating with other people.
He might likewise be the perfect candidate for a “human forcefield experiment” because he already feels isolated, cut off from the world by emotional indifference.
Peter: I guess I’m just settling into the idea that this is it. This is what life is. I don’t have anything to say about that yet.
Therapist: You feel stuck.
Peter: I feel nothing, mostly. Maybe like a sense of loss, but I don’t know for what.
Therapist: Don’t you think it’s time you found out?
Peter’s personality seems deliberately understated, like a blank slate the audience can project themselves onto in order to participate in the story. He’s relatable but indistinct.
The rest of the core characters are more sharply drawn, especially Simone, who we spend the most time with aside from Peter.
Charismatic and talkative, Simone doesn’t just steal a scene — she runs away with the whole episode.
The tone of the story changes as soon as she appears, becoming less a meditation on loneliness and more an ode to the transformative power of companionship. When she hands Peter one of her earbuds, it’s an invitation into her way of living — one that taps into the senses and embraces vibrancy in a way Peter has rarely experienced.
I’m looking forward to learning more about her, not just as an object of fascination for Peter but as the subject of her own story.
As the episode settles into its sense of pace and rhythm, the scenes between Peter and Simone become more emotionally compelling — which makes Octavio’s narration, by contrast, feel like a cartoonish disruption.
Heavy-handed writing breaks the mood in certain moments, such as when Peter mishears a barista asking, “Are you normal?” instead of, “Are you Norman?”
It’s a line that tries too hard to be clever, an example of how the show’s dialogue feels intrusive in scenes that already have such strong visual language.
That’s a shame mostly because the episode’s biggest success is its enchanting imagery, from the glittering clutter of The Store with Beautiful Things to the soft neon glow of the diner where the team gathers to debrief after their first meeting.
There’s something both otherworldly and familiar about the way these spaces crop up in the margins of the city; they beckon the viewer toward them like torchlight in a forest, unexpected and inviting.
This is the main allure of Dispatches from Elsewhere — the promise of uncovering something magical within the mundane.
So far, the show does its best storytelling when it sets its confusing plot aside and focuses instead on the beauty and emotional clarity of individual moments.
What did you think of this episode of Dispatches From Elsewhere? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Dispatches from Elsewhere airs Sundays at 10/9c on AMC.
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Ariel Udel
Ariel fell in love with storytelling on the night Flight 815 crashed on a mysterious island, and has been blogging about television ever since. She has an affinity for messy female anti-heroes and an enduring love of Battlestar Galactica, Xena: Warrior Princess, Lost, and Halt and Catch Fire.