Period <s>Drama</s>Horror Series: Netflix: “1899”

As a bonus for being a T-Mobile customer, I receive Netflix for free. I hardly use it as I am not much interested in the Netflix produced original content. But I saw a trailer for a new series titled “1899”. I guess I am a sucker of four funnel liners filled with pretty women in Late Victorian-Edwardian clothing. I watched the first episode.

I did enjoy the opening episode and one was thrown right into the story. The overall feel was coldness thanks to the cinematography and score. The score I could best describe as Steampunk Industrial.

One thing I found interesting was the symbolism invoked throughout the first episode.

Begin with the title and liner. The year is 1899 and the liner is a German ship christened the “Kerberos”. I believe the title being associated with a German liner is not by accident. In 1899, the North German Lloyd liner ”Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse” was the Blue Ribald holder for the fastest Transatlantic passenger ship breaking over 40 years of British stranglehold on the prize. The Kaiser was the first of the four funnels liners setting off a race for national prestige with Cunard and White Star culminating in the Titanic. I was a bit disappointed the Kerberos was rendered as a generic four funnel liner instead of copying the Kaiser which has a unique funnel layout. When the Kerberos makes a detour, disgruntled passengers complain about paying top money for the fastest passage will end up days late to New York. The name Kerberos or Cerberus is the three headed dog guarding the gates into Hades; as the plot unfolds, this is not a flippant naming. The ship itself is filled with passengers across Europe with a French speaking Sub-Saharan African and a pair of Chinese women trying to act Japanese including one in full Geisha kit. All of them seem to be running from something or someone.

The Kerberos receives a wireless signal from her sister ship “Prometheus”. The signal is a repeat of coordinates. There have been other movies that have used this plot device to get the action going; perhaps the most relevant analogy is the Sci-Fi horror movie “Event Horizon”. The Prometheus has been lost at sea for four months. The name Prometheus invokes the Greek Titan who against the wishes of the Olympian Gods gave man the gift of fire. Prometheus has been associated with an unlimited thirst for knowledge. Many of the mythologies of the Near East have a Prometheus like figure who gifted man the tools need for civilization, for example, metallurgy. Mary Shelley in her “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” invokes Prometheus as a warning of the consequences of this pursuit of forbidden knowledge. It appears “1899” is invoking Mary Shelley’s warning.

Another symbol is the triangle. There appears to be a secret society in the background in a quest for forbidden knowledge. The triangle appears on the cabin room number placards on Kerberos. A French woman supposedly on her honeymoon with her Beta husband wears earrings with the triangle. A creepy boy hands someone a pyramid in what appears to be black onyx. The number 3 is subtly invoked throughout the episode. The triangle is a sacred in many cultures invoking the idea of channeling divine energy, or unity, or perfection. The number 3 invokes perfection, the Trinity and was a sacred number to the Irish even prior to St. Patrick.

Another symbol is the scarab beetle. I will not give away how beetles get involved but anyone familiar with Ancient Egypt knows the scarab was revered by the Egyptians associated with regeneration, and the cycle of life. Based on some research, the same beetle held the same meaning in Classical China.

As one can tell, I got quite involved with this series and will continue watching. The wide cast of characters from across class and space make for an interesting motley of personalities and motives. The one unnerving thing was how the captain of Kerberos looked like he spent a patrol on a U-Boat not the appearance one would expect of the captain of the most advanced liner in the world.

I love the costumes of the more upper-class women. One has to be totally incompetent to make the fashions of the period ugly.

Thanks for that review, the ad caught my eye some weeks back and I thought it looked interesting. I’ll have to give it a watch after the caffeine kicks in, work permitting.

Just started watching it. IT SUCKS!

Loving all things about ocean liners, a Titanic “nut”, I started watching with great excitement.

It’s very dark, turn up the brightness.

Interactions between passengers and crew that NEVER WOULD HAPPEN.

Everything that happens would NEVER happen in REAL life.

It’s just not plausible. They insult my intelligence.

THEN, the pièce de résistance, when the two fake “brothers” , one pretending to be a priest, start eating each others, faces and start violently stripping off their clothes, CLICK went my remote.

I will NOT be watching one more second of this TRASH!

“It’s just not plausible. They insult my intelligence.”

The problems with being a military history devotee and watching pretty much any war movie....

Well, one plot theme in the show hits mildly close to home for me. My Dad’s stepfather was a widower when he married my Grandmother. He had been married before, with 4 kids. One day, he had to take a trip to visit business clients, and he wanted to take the two younger kids with him; the eldest were out of house, one at football practice, the other waitressing. His wife told him to leave the kids at home, they were having fun playing.

After he left the house, she murdered the two young kids with hammer blows to the head, piled all the furniture in the living room, and lit the house on fire, with her and the two corpses inside....

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