Chambers S1E1 Re-Script

 Warning: Spoilers ahead

In this review I will be discussing what happened in the first episode and bringing in certain scenes from other episodes in the show, so there will be spoilers for the entire season, you have been warned twice.

Chambers created by Netflix

Brief summary

Episode 1 - Into the Void

Sasha played by Sivan Alyra Rose

Sasha experiences a heart attack before losing her virginity to TJ and cries for help. Luckily a heart was immediately available for transplant and she fully recovers. She was even ready to try again with TJ, but he felt reasonably nervous about hurting her. 

 

In the meantime she meets Becky's family who offers her a scholarship at Crystal Valley high school, which she eventually accepts. Sasha hears rumours about Becky being electrocuted, which she decides can't be possible, otherwise she wouldn't have gotten the heart. Sasha also starts experiencing visions and sees Becky sleeping with a boy in a car.

At the end of the episode she finally loses her virginity to TJ, but it ends with her seeing Becky's face in the mirror.

tl;dr There are a few streams that are set up in the beginning, which is Sasha's boyfriend TJ, her heart attack, meeting Becky's family and creepy visions. 

My thoughts

Chambers was recommended to me by my sister, so I decided to start watching it and see what the hype was all about. 

 

I didn't expect the start of the episode to be focused on Sasha losing her virginity, along with her nudity. I didn't really enjoy that part, but it was a good way to introduce the heart attack. In the end I grew to enjoying their relationship and I felt they had good chemistry.

 

What was really odd was the camera angles and shaky cam. It constantly felt uncomfortable to only see people's faces. I felt uneasy, which I guess was the point, but I am not sure if that was necessary. I think you could definitely use camera angles that create a lot of unease, but do so in moderation.

 

Becky played by Lilliya Reid

I got the feeling that Becky was murdered and the episode really kept me guessing. Ben Lefevre (played by Tony Goldwyn) has a good heart, but he is so nice to Sasha, to the point of it feeling like we've entered the uncanny valley and I couldn't tell if it was just because I need to feel unease as the viewer, or if there was something wrong with the picture.

 

I also found Sasha's uncle Frank (played by Marcus LaVoi) overly accepting and not questioning any of the friendliness. Even if Frank was desperate to give his niece a better life, he should have had some pride and thought a little more about what the actual offer implies and what it means to have the donor's parents in his daughter's life. When someone offers you something as big as a scholarship, you have to be thinking why they would do that and what do they want out of the deal. I don't know man, that seemed a little sus to me.

 

Lastly, I just want to add that I was so excited about Uma Thurman (Nancy), literally the whole time I kept thinking, they've got Uma Thurman! This is gonna be awesome!

 

The re-script

Ben and Nancy at Becky's bed

The first episode had a slow start for me, so to spice things up, let's put an introduction to Becky's death in the hospital as the first scene and show the parents reactions to losing their little girl. Imagine sirens, lightning, rain, blue filter and flashing lights. Moving to muffled voices, like a bomb went off, a hospital bed being pushed by a doctor with Ben and Nancy falling apart. Fade to black.

Now we can move to mundane high school life with Sasha and her father, in fact, let's lighten the mood, perhaps even using a yellow filter and some sunshine. Let's keep the rest of the set the same, with an average school and small home, we still need to keep the plot with Big Frank in. Have her greet Frank on her way to school, all smiles and meet up with her best friend Yvonne (played by Kyanna Simone Simpson).

The next scene which is really important is the mattress store, it should be raining as it was, but in a "singing in the rain" kind of way. Sasha and TJ go into the store and she starts picking the bed she wants (as it went in the show). Continue with the same flow, but as her heart attack looms, make everything darker until it matches the original scene's darkness, I just want a gradual move towards it. Everything else can be the same is it was.

Frank and Sasha in the hospital

With this same mood, basically matching the suggested setting in the beginning, let's have Frank run in with Sasha, right past Ben and Nancy. Now we can show the conversation that happened, I believe in episode 8? Just where they decide to pull the plug and give Sasha the heart.

The rest of the show can then continue to the part where Becky meets the family and we can say that Frank vaguely remembers Ben, because he most likely saw him at the hospital. When they offer the scholarship, I would prefer Frank to just say thank you politely and discuss this with Sasha privately.

They can come to the conclusion that they need to put their pride aside for Sasha's future and they make the decision together. Frank should call Ben and accompany Sasha to drop her off at the school.

The rest of the plot can then continue as is.

In conclusion

I enjoyed the concept of this series, even though the start of the episode was very slow. There was a lot of mystery and guessing who the killer could be, if Becky had been murdered. I wanted to watch the next episode to see how things progressed and see if my assumptions were correct, it definitely left me wanting more.

To my readers,

I just want to make one final distinction that bringing a script to life is a difficult task that directors have to do and we shouldn't forget how much effort they put into making their vision a reality. Some things are easier to notice in hindsight and because of that there will always be room for improvement.