Flat Mates
After last week’s episode, we return to the residents of the apartment building during an opening musical montage. With numerous slick camera moves down the floors of the building, we catch up with the morning routines of our main protagonists. While Nick struggles to get his morning run in, Katie laments her life choices as she contemplates her future with a baby. It turns out the asylum papers Ava’s husband filed were fraudulent, leaving her in a very difficult position with the authorities. As Patricia promises to help her, more drama unfolds back with Katie and her Mum as it turns out she’s actually 14 weeks pregnant. As tensions boil over between them, we cut back to Nick whose decided to go visit some of his old squadmates who also happen to have prosthetic limbs. As the scenes switch across from person to person, we pause for a slow segment with Ava as her court hearing results in the best possible outcome as Ben steps forward and delivers a heartfelt speech about his neighbour. With her release fee set at $10,000, a small win is met with an even bigger hurdle to try and overcome. Still, it’s enough to savour for now and the promise of Ava returning home soon to her Son brings a new wave of hope over the residents of the apartment building. The episode then ends with Sarah confronting Nick about abandoning his daughter for the war where things do get pretty heated. After shattering a glass into a million pieces, Sarah heads downstairs and tells Katie about her “radical good thing”; giving birth to her daughter at the age of 18. As a way to alleviate the tension, The Village takes a leaf out of The OA’s book – ending things with a forced dance routine before closing out with this musical montage as we leave the residents of the apartment building for another week. The trouble with The Village, and it’s something especially apparent in this episode, are the numerous cuts between characters and the quick-paced dialogue which feel far too superficial and messy. There’s really no time to savour the melodrama or take in what we’re told before suddenly jumping to the next character and layering another level of drama on top. It’s a shame too because some of the societal issues raised are actually on-point and really speak to relatable problems people are experiencing right now. The lack of subtlety and poor execution with these themes however, holds this one back from being a better title. Now, The Village will find a crowd and the characters are certainly memorable to do that, but next to shows like This Is Us, The Village fails to really carve out its own identity. Perhaps things might slow down a little going forward but for now, The Village is simply a casualty of its own expectations – trying to inject as much drama as possible while failing to let us take it all in.
