TOGETHER ‘FOREVER’
Armisen, Rudolph play couple whose bonds are tested
How long can a marriage survive when one partner is restless? That question is more fraught than it seems in the new Amazon comedy “Forever.”
“Saturday Night Live” veterans Fred Armisen and Maya Rudolph star as Oscar and June, two seemingly content-in-love suburbanites.
He's a dentist; she works for a shady property company.
A sweet, silent fiveminute montage opens the series and covers how they met, fell in love and married and drops glimpses into their routine.
After she tosses a gutter ball at the bowling alley, he joins her in a loopy victory dance that mystifies everyone else.
They like to quiz each other on silly topics, like the best foods to eat on the beach or the best way to spend a halfhour. (Eating a large order of McDonald's fries and then getting in bed for a 25-minute nap wins the latter.)
They seem meant for each other, but June can't shake her feeling that there is something else she should be doing — or being.
“Don't you ever wonder what the purpose of everything is?”
“Not really, no,” he says. June manages to shake Oscar out of their routine by suggesting a ski trip.
The two brave the cold and get stuck in a beginning class for children, where they are harassed by one of the kids.
June retreats to the lodge for a drink while Oscar tries his skills on the slope.
A twist of fate changes everything, and the two are tested in ways they could never imagine.
In my years as a TV critic, I've never encountered a series about which I could share so little.
Any more information would spoil the many surprises and delights of this delicate comedy from cocreators Alan Yang (“Master of None”) and Matt Hubbard (“Parks and Recreation”). And there are many twists.
In the press mailer, Amazon includes a list of plot points not to mention. I dismissed the list as one more joke, that the twists couldn't possibly be true. Nope. The warning is warranted. Every episode ends on a bit of a cliffhanger designed to keep you bingeing the eight-episode series.
While there are elements that might remind you of Armisen's beloved — and so missed — “Portlandia,” “Forever” isn't a sketch show. It takes some fanciful risks, but it remains grounded in Oscar and June's journey, together and apart.
Catherine Keener — currently Jim Carrey's lead puppeteer on Showtime's “Kidding” — costars as Kase, a woman who becomes a factor in the marriage, though not in the way you might suspect. Noah Robbins plays a crabby teen obsessed with the 1970s, for good reason.
Rudolph turns in the best work of her career, plumbing humor and pathos as a woman questioning everything about her existence.
Does the show stick its landing? Full disclosure: I don't know. With eight minutes to go in the season finale, my review screener crashed, repeatedly. Like many people, I suspect, I will be watching the end of “Forever” on Amazon Prime, hoping for the best for Oscar and June and appreciating all the effort that went into this gem.