User reviews

This series is hard to rate because there are separate dramas and some are absolutely wonderful and others are deadly dull. Episode 1 is wonderful; and one of the best things you'll ever see on TV or anywhere else, for that matter. It's a time travel drama with a big switch, and the acting is great to see. I won't go into the deadly dull episodes but they are there. FWIW - this series is better watched one at a time without binge watching. Try to appreciate each for its own value. Watching several in a row diminishes each of them.

Not sure why people make reference to Black Mirror. The only similarity is that each episode presents a stand alone story.

Anyway. I thought these were mostly interesting tales that make you think. 7/10 is an honest review but marking it 10/10 just because I think the reviews achieved so far are undeserved. I also think where you are in life will change how you feel about each story. I would be curious to see the demographics of the poor reviews. Watch them. They really are entertaining and thoughtful.

Being a science fiction fan I just had to check out "Amazon Prime Video's" "Solos" series as it's an anthology that involved different characters and different stories. Most episodes involved life struggles that involved family, future, time travel, memory, loss, and dealing with pain. The stories and episodes are written well and they twist some you the viewer have to pay attention and it featured well known stars as Anne Hathaway, Morgan Freeman, Anthony Mackie, Helen Mirren and other up and comers and known stars. However watching thru each episode as the characters memory loss and time problems are related and you see things are tied up and a conclusion is reached in the final episode(Note: watch the Morgan Freeman episode last!) Overall okay good decent anthology series that was different as you the viewer can make your own call as it's spin on life, space, time, future, past, connection, and memory experience that was an interesting watch.

Although this show is billed as Sci-fi, in reality it's just a middling drama. Each episode is a snapshot of a character's entire life and how their choices have shaped their life and current situation. The novelty wears off by episode 4.

All the sci-fi mumbo jumbo is, in fact, unnecessary. All the stories would be just fine even if you remove the stray themes of time travel, dystopia and space travel.

The writers tried hard to lend depth to the characters but in just 30-minute episodes, it is hard to delve deeper. All in all, a decent watch. But don't expect Black Mirror kind hard hitting themes.

'Solos' is a beautifully crafted series that engages with the complexities of the human condition. Its robust cast delivers stellar performances, and the show's visuals are genuinely striking. However, I must admit that the slow pacing and the absence of a consistent narrative could be a bit off-putting for some. While it's certainly thought-provoking, I felt that the series occasionally got lost in its philosophical musing, sacrificing pacing for introspection. Nonetheless, for viewers interested in profound, meaningful explorations of humanity, 'Solos' could offer a captivating, albeit slow-paced, watch.

I will say in short my opinion ,despite of the great actors in this series , the script is crap ! .I've always had this idea in my mind that even a bad script good actors can make it work , until I so this series ! ...I'm sorry to say but is bad.

I really expected something like "black mirror" and it was! In some ways but it different , the whole series is about some random people who talk with themselves!

I genuinely appreciate these conversation , i can feel them (even when you understand one person wrote those dialogues. Come one, use larger vocabulary for your show!).

You can put all those stories in 30 minute short movie or you had this chance to make something like "love, death, robot", short perfectly enough stories! But you made it longer and boring.

Those of you who don't want to watch past episode 1, I say keep going. Anne Hathaway's ridiculous overacting along with I consider to be a poorly written story was a bad lead in. The second episode with Anthony Mackie was a nice, well written episode, but the third with Helen Mirren fell a little flat with me, but was not awful and was helped by Mirren's acting ability. Then we hot another speed bump with episode four. A nice concept, but poorly executed especially when we hit the main monologue by Uzo Aduba that is just so cringeworthy it ruined anything it may have been building to. Episode five with Constance Wu was well acted, but poorly written to me. And you could see the payoff coming from a mile away. It was not smart, it was not clever, it was just predictable. Episode six with Nicole Beharie was by far the worst segment. She gave a nice performance that was ruined by a bad story, with bad writing.... Then we have episode seven with Morgan Freeman which to me was absolutely brilliant. It made it worth sticking it out, because you have to watch it last. Why? Because regardless of what others have said in reviews, the stories are connected. Freeman does narrate the beginning of every episode after all, if you did not notice. So all in all, I say watch all the segments. The end if worth the journey, the good and the bad parts.

I decide to watch this show because of Anthony Mackie , I am never truly impressed with his acting and i wanted to be unbiased and try one of his new shows. That being said i really enjoyed this show as an avid reader and someone slowly but surely getting into musical theatre.

The reason i suggest not to binge it is due to the fact that all the episodes are practically monologues with a minimalistic set and one or two actors at most per episode. However each actor did justice to the story they were telling and i found myself crying, laughing and at times feeling completely terrified (episode 6 ) along with the actors (yes every single one of them).

This show is not for you if you only enjoy action or romance in your TV series. This show is however seven simple stories beautifully acted and slightly linked together , meant to replicate experiences that many of us go through (ie. Inability to handle loss, paranoia etc.).

I don't think they really pulled things off the way they thought they were going to. But the acting was so good that I kept watching. These actors are truly amazing. Even with a not so good script, the acting is like watching art.

It's a little much watching one person expound on his/her belly button lint for 30 minutes at a whack. I guess I'm used to more than soliloquies. Collectively, they reminded me of that boring person who corners me at cocktail parties.

The themes that echo through each episode, and there are so many, are perfectly timed and toned for an "almost at the end" pandemic release.

While Solos is an anthology-style series, it is not a series of standalone episodes. It is a comprehensive mini-series telling a single, self-contained story with a specific ending.

The writing is really stellar, and the acting is superb, both of those skills coming together to create something that is a series of monologues that rarely feel monologue-ish.

I'd love to go over each of the themes but it would get spoilerish, but I can say that for those who get this and understand what they were doing with it, the themes are poignant and meaningful and deeply emotional.

The tie-together at the end is almost perfect, except that the episode "Nera" is only vaguely referenced, and also didn't seem to share a mini-connection to any of the others, as the rest of the episodes all seemed to do. It is the most isolated of all of the episodes and has had me rewatching and pondering why. Was it editing that removed its connection from the rest or was it intentional? There is so much about it that doesn't fit with the rest. It does contain nearly all of the themes, but it has a really strong "one of these things is not like the others" feel all the way through it.

The final episode is so rich and full of meaning and reference... it's astounding. The acting is perfect. Morgan Freeman's subtle face changes are brilliant.

I think my favorite episode is the one featuring Constance Wu. The emotional journey she takes us on is a gut punch. It is also the first episode that really gives us a clue as to what is happening on the larger scale.

I loved the re-use of specific language in different settings, with different meanings, but meant to echo back to the things we'd previously seen, sometimes casting new light on them and bringing out different understanding.

Two things to watch for that you might not think of on the first watch: 1: listen to the narration Morgan Freeman gives for each episode. Once you realize he's not just a narrator but a character, and what his role is in relation to all of them, the narration takes on new meaning. 2: look at the pictures they selected to fill the letters that open each episode.

Oh, and this is not Black Mirror. It's not meant to be anything like Black Mirror. Comparing it to Black Mirror is like comparing ET to Arrival. Just because they're both sci fi and anthology series doesn't mean they're both apples. You can enjoy both equally without trying to compare them to one another.

I really enjoyed the first episode. And I think I get what they're trying to do; they're telling small, intimate, deeply personal stories; emotional narratives in a sci-fi wrapper.

They are the kind of stories that I have to be in a certain mindset to appreciate and that's not where my head is today.

I'd say give it a try. I'll be back when I'm in a more receptive head-space.

It's essentially a series of philosophy class lectures dressed up with sci-fi fixings. The sci fi factor is definitely secondary to the philosophical factor here. Way too much time spent on famous actors pontificating about a mix of contemporary social issues under the guise of science fiction, and not in a meaningful or poignant way.

Don't bother with this boring garbage. I managed to make it to Ep3 and that was my lot. There are great actors in there, but even they couldn't keep my attention as they muddled through as best they could with dull and boring scripts.

Clearly the people who produced this thought they were doing something meaningful for and during the days of Covid; sadly, they failed.

This series is nothing but an excuse for soliloquies by a bunch of name actors.

The narratives are weak at best and the whole thing wreaks of producers TRYING oh so hard to output something "relatable."

Found this hard to rate. I found this just weird and odd. Some episodes were ok but I just don't know. I think this was all lost on me to be honest.

As for the filming and acting side of things it's ok.

Watched 2 episodes all the way through, then started fast forwarding to the next episode after a couple minutes. I ended up fast-forwarding through the whole series not finding anything but self-indulgent garbage. Some of the soliloquies are interesting at first, but all of them end overacted and dull by their mid point. Soliloquies are a major part of storytelling, but usually are part of larger works and have more context. I get the feeling that the actors agreed to do episodes to "show their range" because it certainly is different compared to the acting that they usually do. But that's exactly what it ends up being: a bunch of actors trying to show off their chops. The producers are clearly relying on the popularity of the actors to draw an audience. I wonder what kind of viewership they would get with new, unknown actors in place of the established actors featured in the episodes. Of all the episodes, I landed on 2 that I actually enjoyed. Morgan Freeman's "solo" was really good, but maybe that's because he had another actor to feed off.

This is a fascinating and superb piece of experimental drama. I recall the first time I ever saw something similar as a child. Whoopi Goldberg did The Telephone in 1988. I was mesmerised, as a love of both screen and theatre, it was the perfect presentation and merging of both mediums.

Then in 2002 Johanna Lumley did Up in Town. It is seldom we see performers of this calibre doing theatrical work on screen like this and living in South Africa makes is difficult and expensive to travel. So now we get to see these performers at their best as well. This might be a product of Covid, but I sure hope that we get to see more of this in the times to come.

This series is not for the average audience, but for an audience who are more discerning and enjoys higher end drama. If during these times, if we can't have anything else, we can at least have some culture.

For a small number of actors in each episode, there's a lot of product placement awkwardly slotted into their dialogue.

Someone wrote Solos is boring. Why? Did we reach the point, as people, where we can't stand or like nicely done monodrama? Nothing special, except really good writing and good acting. I like it.

Episode 1 was quite good. 2 was dull and unecentfull. Kind went downhill from there.

The first episode had timeline plot holes, which is expected from a script regarding time travel. But when you can talk to your past and future self and the first things you mention are about Trump and the 13th Doctor Who... something is very wrong. The ending was underwhelming and the whole episode had nothing good to show or explore.

The 2nd episode was again about someone who talks to himself, AGAIN. Boring story, anticlimactic ending, nothing new or engaging.

And then it hit me. It's an anthology, where all episodes have just one actor (they play "solo", get it?) who talks to himself/herself about something regarding science fiction. It's as low budget as it can get. Boring, uninteresting, cheap, and uninspiring. I wasted an hour of my life on this.

So many good actors, that's what makes it so disappointing for me. So boring, so uninspiring. This must have been a Covid 19 creation where they (writers, producers, actors, etc) were desperate to film some type of show. Tisk, tisk.