![]() ![]() When you think about mysteries or detective stories, the language we use is “private eye.” It’s literally the world according to someone’s POV - what they notice or don’t notice as they observe things. Which part of this story came to you first? It was exciting to try to map something out that felt so real that nobody could be like, “Well, this is fantasy.” It was actually really important to not have there be some element in it like, “Oh, now the ceiling opens up and a time traveler comes in.” If we did that, then we’re sort of giving the audience a way out - of saying that the whole premise feels “fantasy” or “distant future.” Rather than, “Actually, there are things we could be solving now.” But the twist here is that it’s a grounded, near-fi mystery. With everything else you’ve done, there’s some metaphysical or supernatural twist. I was surprised by how narratively straightforward this show is. “And the better we do our jobs, the less you notice.” For Marling, the show was a chance to both invert the traditional whodunit by making it more feminine and emotionally evocative as well as grapple with the climate crisis, acute misogyny, artificial intelligence, and the haunting narcissism of the sort of people who walk around saying “disruption.” “Our goal for a long time has been to figure out how to make things that are compelling and entertaining and accessible but also smuggle some subversive stuff across,” Marling says. This show is the first time in her collaboration with Batmanglij that Marling hasn’t played the lead, in part because she also wanted to direct. When tech billionaire Andy Ronson (Clive Owen) invites her to a mysterious retreat in Iceland alongside Lee - now his wife - and a variety of other “original thinkers,” Darby soon finds herself tasked with solving a murder that hits much closer to home. ![]() Although it’s as eerily prognostic and quietly radical as Marling and Batmanglij’s earlier work, it follows a more traditional structure: Murder’s protagonist is Darby Hart (Emma Corrin), an amateur sleuth, hacker, and author who, thanks to a childhood spent helping out her coroner dad and studying the work of her favorite coder, Lee Andersen (Marling), spends her time on internet forums trying to solve Jane Doe cold cases. After filming and release dates were delayed by the pandemic and two lengthy Hollywood strikes - punctuated by other crises during the shoot in Iceland, like multiple members of the cast and crew testing positive for COVID and Marling getting severe hypothermia - the show’s seven episodes began airing November 14. This month, they’re back with the miniseries A Murder at the End of the World. ![]() ![]() Marling and Batmanglij disappeared, creatively speaking, for a few years. When it was abruptly canceled in 2019, after its second season, bereft fans launched a #SaveTheOA movement that included a hunger strike and protests outside of Netflix HQ. The last show - which Marling created with longtime collaborator Zal Batmanglij - was one of Netflix’s early hits, gaining a devoted audience with its esoteric narrative, which stressed the necessity of collectivism. Brit Marling has spent her career both co-writing and starring in projects that are grounded in reality yet shockingly metaphysical: an indie thriller about a cult leader and possible time traveler who lives in a basement ( Sound of My Voice) a film about a convicted felon who applies to live on a duplicate version of our planet ( Another Earth) a dreamy series about a blind woman who disappears for seven years and reemerges with the ability to see, the conviction that she is a kind of angel, and knowledge of a series of “movements” that induce interdimensional travel ( The OA). ![]()
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