Enigma Black Stage

they tried too hard

The tight, compact story-telling of the first Enigma with its brilliant use of sound, lighting, well-contextualised props and acting was abandoned in this 'sequel.' Instead it takes on far too much and flops around from this to that to something else. Many of its half-hearted social critiques were superficial cliches and just a way to get around plot holes. Like all the events which really should have stopped the contest being ignored with a quick "the show must go on'. That's not commentary on the industry, that's lazy writing.

And the amount of exposition? All of those long monologues may have been necessary to cram that much into five episodes, but it should have been an obvious signpost to the writers that they needed to drop some story lines and focus on one or two. They know how to do this, why didn't they here?

There were also several moments where it felt like they took violence and gore as an easy way out. It gets a reaction though, and that's popular.

Maybe the overload of things to react to is an attraction?

Acting was competent from the best known actors but not stellar; I've seen far better from all of them. JingJing nailed her late dramatic scene, but why her character was as she was? They didn't even try to explain that, let alone explore it (contrast Namsine in the first). Jew and MyDay were nothing more than cliches, chasing fame for I don't know, the sake of fame. They had specialisations in spell-casting rather than characterisation. I think Namtan was miscast, really rate her as an actress and this is the first I've seen her in where she didn't convince me - Anya had mood swings not nuance. That's on the writers and directors. Not sold on Toey's performance either. And they only played to Pompam's strengths briefly and late. (Also expected Anya to have a more substantial and interesting role. They obviously told a different story here than they were hinting at with the final scene of the first Enigma and that's fine, but they really dropped the ball with her character.)

Between the reality show framing and all of the jumping around from one thing to another, I found it difficult to stay immersed in the suspense and horror build-ups. That made it easy to notice the short-comings. Maybe it works better for those immersed in the broken attention and rapid focus changes of today's social media? I don't know. It didn't work for me.

Edit: The comparison to short form social media feels apt: a surfeit of small things formatted to grab attention and evoke big emotional reactions without taking time to explore and understand them. It's exciting on the surface. If that's what you're looking for, fill your boots. There's plenty of that here.

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Not For Everyone

The best and most inappropriate way I can describe this is imagine if Dario Argento (Italian film maker known for Suspiria) and Orson Welles (of Citizen Kane fame) got really drunk and decided to have a threesome with The Manchurian Candidate- Black Stage might be the head scratcher, imaginary love child of that drunken encounter.

If that sounds intriguing, this second season of Enigma is for you. I thoroughly enjoyed the fusion of old world belief with contemporary celebrity culture, although the execution was a little clunky.

I truly wish they had done two or three more episodes to really explore some of the post-modernist, Marxist, and capitalist social indictments that seemed too tacked on to really make for cohesive themes. This is a series that suffered from brevity- a more expansive third act might have made this a real contender for classic status.

It feels incomplete and my high rating is more of an appreciation for what was there instead of what was missing.

Season one started by sowing chaos on a small scale while season two attempted to bring that chaos to a national stage. Again, the brevity of the story, the lack of revealing the impact on the watching audience, and a budget that couldn’t allow for a more expansive story really makes the narrative they were attempting to tell feel incomplete. Ironically, a character speaks at length about what happens to understanding when chapters in a book are missing or skipped. This season feels like some of the best chapters were referenced instead of given to the audience.

But I enjoyed it. It was different (which is becoming increasingly rare) and if you are a true fan of horror that attempts to hold a mirror up to society, give it a shot. Even imperfect horror is better than no horror at all!

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