I Know This Much Is True 2020

Like other filmmakers, Derek Cianfrance made his way into the TV with his own limited series. Is it as sad and humanist as Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines? Sad for sure, but we rarely get any humans on screen.

This series is suffering topped with more suffering. It's completely depressing like Cianfrance's work but his first two features would contain beautiful moments where we want his characters to thrive. Look at the ukelele scene from Blue Valentine, we know what's cherished between the two characters won't last but we're dedicated to their story. Here, that isn't the case we get one depressing turn after another which doesn't serve the story, not to mention the hero is Nate from Six Feet Under without the charm, making it a difficult watch.

There are some highlights, such as Ruffalo putting two award-worthy performances. Rosie O'Donnell was the stand out for me (if the Emmys weren't going to be packed, I believe she would've gotten a slot). Also, Cianfrance shot this on film and it looks gorgeous. Even when it gets to a super ridiculous tragedy (it got to the point where I laughed at moments that Cianfrance intended to be melancholic) it looks pretty.

Speaking of Cianfrance, this is his second adaptation after 2016's The Light Between Oceans. Considering his two best works were his own ideas, I believe it best if the director abandons source materials. Both books are rich with material and when hearing he'd be doing them, I was excited but it appears he's incapable of collaborating with his source material (both had changes that didn't serve his style and made these two works emptier than his first two films).

Also, this is TV. I noticed both Mildred Pierce and Olive Kitteridge begin by stating "A Film by," indicating what their respective directors saw their limited series entries as and although Cianfrance does the respectable thing by putting "Written for Television by," he wrote this like a film. We get flashbacks to the grandfather of the two protagonists that are solely in Italian and it looks like a Werner Herzog film. But it could've been an entire episode rather than split as excerpts for the final two episodes (Twin Peaks: The Return, for example, had its eighth episode become something else entirely but Cianfrance never dedicates a single episode to a character or story indicating he doesn't understand the medium of TV).

And this was released during a pandemic. HBO had to move The Undoing to Fall so they could make sure they'd have enough programming for the rest of the year (unfortunately we won't be getting Barry or Succession this year). But the daytime soap opera crime shenanigans of Nicole Kidman would've served as better entertainment to that of brooding Mark Ruffalo times two.

I noticed both Cianfrance and Nicolas Winding Refn will be doing more TV (Cianfrance just signed a contract to do more HBO projects for the next two years while Refn will be producing a Maniac Cop series for HBO) but the two need to understand that TV isn't film but longer, it's an entirely different medium. I would never want to wait every year to see the misadventures of Dominic and Thomas Birdsey, such characters might be better suited for only two hours rather than six.

Bottom line, if you are a devout fan of either Derek Cianfrance or Mark Ruffalo, this is worth a watch solely for dedication to these two artists. If you're searching for a miniseries with excellent storytelling that'll have you binging, this is most certainly not that. Considering we got the amazing Devs, Mrs America, and The Plot Against America this year, it isn't worth the commitment.