Kamikaze (HBO Max)

 I'm a big fan of 'Real Time With Bill Maher'.  The guy's sharp, witty and funny about most of the subject matter he discusses, and whether you agree with him or not, his intelligent musings on the subject matter du jour will make you think.  A lot of the guests he has on I have no idea who they are, but, they always wind up being worthy of attention.  Even if you disapprove of their viewpoints.

I set my PVR to record an extra hour when I plan to watch it, because sometimes the scheduling runs over or not quite on time.  After I watched the finale for this season, up pops a show called 'Kamikaze'.  I thought what the heck, give it a shot.  HBO produces some really good stuff.  It's only half-hour episodes, and they play them two at a time, back to back.  Boy, was I in for a treat.

It's a foreign language series starring a cast of whom all of I'd never seen before.  Never heard of the makers of it, nothing familiar at all.  Which made this feel like a deep dive into something unknown.  Little did I know how deep this would be.  It follows a young 18 year old woman in Denmark, who crashes a small plane by herself into the desert and winds up surviving.  She looks a bit beat up, her head shaven, and you'd be led to believe that perhaps she actually perished in the crash.  I don't want to give too much away.

This is a non-linear story, that explains as it goes how Julie came to arrive in such a precarious pickle.  The narrative is jumbled, with the sequence of events laid out in order of how Julie would tell them.  The present time is her in the desert, alone with her crashed plane, with her recording what might be left of her life journalistically on a cell phone.  

Her plane crashed on purpose, as she tried to commit suicide but ultimately failed.  Her mother, father and brother - all of her family - died in a plane crash in Rwanda, leaving her alone with a huge house that could be a mansion, and inheriting everything.  But money can't buy back her family; nor can it alleviate her crushing sorrow, so she sets out to do herself in.  

The first episode is very dark and sad at times, all within just a half hour, as the storyteller attempts to set the tone for the series.  I'm only four episodes in right now, waiting for more, and this thing is impossible to predict as to what happens next.  Julie takes you on the journey by the hand, and pretty much handcuffs herself to you, because you can't look away or stop watching, as you find yourself needing to know what's going to happen next.  This is compelling, unorthodox storytelling at its best.  Clearly made on a low budget, but so rich looking, and with a deft touch for realism in the face of the plasticity of Hollywood, it challenges you to look beyond what you might expect, and rewards you with its results.

'Kamikaze' is not a show for young ones.  And it's damn Smooth Gravy.