Absentia - General Discussion

[Meredith Quill]

All discussion of Absentia goes here.

[Bort]

Absentia trailer

[Bort]

The show is set to premiere on the AXN channel in Europe on September 25. No premiere date yet for Canada's Showcase, which is where the show will air there -- nor is there STILL any announcement about when/where it will air in the U.S.

[CooperTV]

Otherwise it wasn't bad. It wasn't particularly good either, though. I liked Stana Katic's acting, everyone's struggles are understandable, more or less. Why would anyone let this traumatized woman meet with her child outside of a therapist's office? Why would anyone let her to be on any FBI mission? This is bizzare.

I'm predicting it right now: the Main Serial Killer was Working with Emily's brother all these years.

[CooperTV]

Nick's new wife is so dumb! Who goes outside at night looking for some creepy person while leaving a child at home sleeping and not locking the door? Idiot. Nick's also a dummy for not believing her about seeing something.

The atmosphere in this show is spectacular so far, reminds me a lot of Scandinavian tv.

[CooperTV]

[CooperTV]

[CooperTV]

Quote

The evidence against Emily is too much for the FBI and Boston Police Department to ignore, so they ask her to turn herself in. In the midst of chaos, old feelings come to the surface between Nick and Emily. Emily decides she would rather flee and try to solve the mystery that is ruining her life. Can Emily save her relationship with Flynn? Is it possible for agent Adam Radford to solve this mystery? Can Nick trust Emily anymore?

Promos

Edited October 9, 2017 by CooperTV

[TWP]

Well? How is it so far?  I don't mind being spoiled.

[newyawk]

I've been watching this show online (am on episode 4 now)  and it's really very good. Because of some of the language, it is not going to go to network TV, (unless they dub out some lines) but I hope it finds a very good home and great success like other non-network shows have (Mad Men, GOT, Breaking Bad).

Absentia Ab-solutely deserves a big solid audience in  the U.S.

[newyawk]

Was surprised that Adam was taken out.

I really thought he would be around for a  bit longer.

Edited October 22, 2017 by kariyaki
spoiler tags not necessary

[westwingfan]

On 22/10/2017 at 4:42 PM, newyawk said:

I've been watching this show online (am on episode 4 now)  and it's really very good. Because of some of the language, it is not going to go to network TV, (unless they dub out some lines) but I hope it finds a very good home and great success like other non-network shows have (Mad Men, GOT, Breaking Bad).

Absentia Ab-solutely deserves a big solid audience in  the U.S.

I've seen up to Episode 6 on AXN Spain and it wouldn't need too many bleeps, (mainly for Stana. LOL). It does deal with adult themes but I didn't think the violence was any worse than what is regularly shown on Criminal Minds. I'm a big fan of Nordic Noir and I'm enjoying this as much as I did the original "The Killing", "The Bridge", and the French "Spiral".

[newyawk]

Well, I'm watching episode 6 now. This is definitely not going to be network television, not as it is.  

[babs1226]

I watched episode 8 last night.  I continue to be impressed with Stana's acting ability.  This show gives her the opportunity to shine like Castle never did,

[newyawk]

Wow, there are really some sick twists to this show. 

[newyawk]

Amazon got it! That's pretty great, that is a HUGE potential audience! 

 

http://deadline.com/2017/11/stana-katic-series-absentia-picked-up-amazon-1202208548/

[newyawk]

I think there are only 10 episodes thus far, or in total for the first season, from what I have read in a few articles. And I am watching the 10th one! :(

 

Are there supposed to be more coming or do we have to wait for season 2?

[Bort]

Has Detective Tommy ever heard of a comb?

[millahnna]

I binged this pretty hard; I think I might need to rewatch (once I'm not so emotionally exhausted this first pass) as I feel like I missed a few critical details here and there but I'm still pretty satisfied with the overall package. When they revealed the woman and showed the flashbacks to her previous appearances as journalist, some of them I didn't recall at all.  Yep, definitely going to need a rewatch.

[Just Here]

The Amazon Prime release date has been announced:  All ten episodes will drop on Friday, February 2nd. (TVLine)

[Cigale]

Yeah, I thought Emily’s brother looked suspicious as soon as I saw him.  

I also agree with your other remarks.  

So, was she working undercover when she was abducted?  And she almost immediately connects the investigation with that Semerov guy, because she “saw” flowers while talking to her therapist?  

Full of holes and a bit too much for me.  But I’ll check the next episode.  

P.S.: @CooperTV, your avatar is a cutie!

[Token]

I don't understand how you can marry someone else if you don't know where your first wife is.  Not legally, but morally.  That's the woman you supposedly loved and you just left her.

[Pindrop]

Why are all these people calling the police all the time? First of all, the MC wakes from a nightmare next to a woman on a bus and lets out a shocked gasp, so the woman on the bus phones the police (?????), who then turn up - not knowing that she is a fugitive - with guns drawn, and start storming the gas station the bus had stopped at. All because someone had a nightmare??? What? Then, a woman overhears someone in their apartment watching something with the sound of a woman in distress (a movie or a TV show, maybe?) and also phones the police, immediately??????? I am glad my neighbour wasn't listening to me watching this show or I might have been swatted during that scene. Seriously, wtf is going on?    

I find this show relentlessly serious and I am constantly wishing for a little levity. 

Edited February 2, 2018 by Pindrop

[tljgator]

On 9/27/2017 at 11:32 AM, CooperTV said:

The atmosphere in this show is spectacular so far, reminds me a lot of Scandinavian tv.

Just said this exact thing to a friend ... I'm definitely getting that vibe here.

[Arynm]

I am not loving new wife and her attitude. Emily deserves to see her son, she is a victim here. The new wife should be talking to the son and getting him more comfortable with seeing his mom, it looks like she is doing nothing and might even be driving a wedge between them, if that phone call is any indication. The boy needs a therapist, maybe even family counseling. It's not her fault she was gone for 6 years, I wish someone would show her some compassion. Of, course if it turns out she is the mastermind of all this for some reason I take it all back.

Did the Boston cop know who that lady was before? He had her name and number in his phone? I was confused by that.Kelly Price I think.

[NeenerNeener]

God, I hate Nick and Alice. 

[Duke2801]

On 1/23/2018 at 7:52 PM, Token said:

I don't understand how you can marry someone else if you don't know where your first wife is.  Not legally, but morally.  That's the woman you supposedly loved and you just left her.

So you're supposed to just live your life alone, pining away for your lost loved one?  I don't think any of us would be in a place to judge unless we were in his shoes. 

[WendyCR72]

32 minutes ago, Duke2801 said:

So you're supposed to just live your life alone, pining away for your lost loved one?  I don't think any of us would be in a place to judge unless we were in his shoes. 

And she was gone for YEARS. No reason to believe she was not dead.

[Duke2801]

So this show. Hmmm. I can’t say I liked it-liked it, but it kept me engaged enough to keep watching. There were certainly a lot of wtf moments along the way—and a lot of disbeliefs to suspend.

(spoilers I suppose)

 

 

 

Liiiike...oh we spent the last 8 episodes chasing you, hating you, and convinced that you were guilty. But hey now we’re all friends and we’re all celebrating together. And even some awkward flirting!  And I guess we’re gonna just overlook good old Uncle Jacks incredibly disturbing fetish and Emily’s old “switcheroo” at the orphanage. 

Also, did I miss the explanation as to how or why Emily wasn’t able to truly remember what happened to her while she was held captive for 6 years? Was there some crazy “mind erasing” drug she was given? 

 

The issues I had with this series aside, I liked the woman playing Emily and think she did a pretty good job conveying anger, confusion, sadness, and vengeance. I’ve never seen Castle but may check it out now. 

Wondering if there is a season 2 in the works. From that ending, it seems so. 

Edited February 19, 2018 by Duke2801

[Cigale]

On 2018-01-23 at 7:52 PM, Token said:

I don't understand how you can marry someone else if you don't know where your first wife is.  Not legally, but morally.  That's the woman you supposedly loved and you just left her.

 

On 2018-02-13 at 5:04 PM, Duke2801 said:

So you're supposed to just live your life alone, pining away for your lost loved one?  I don't think any of us would be in a place to judge unless we were in his shoes. 

 

On 2018-02-13 at 5:37 PM, WendyCR72 said:

And she was gone for YEARS. No reason to believe she was not dead.

According to Emily’s father, her husband got with his new girlfriend after only one year...

[WendyCR72]

38 minutes ago, sisterspoon said:

 

 

According to Emily’s father, her husband got with his new girlfriend after only one year...

Alas, that isn't unrealistic even in real life for some people. Some people just cannot be alone. And I still think a year with no word, no inkling of her presence, doesn't mean Emily's hubby never loved her. And let us remember they had a kid. Meaning, he also probably was trying to consider him, subconsciously wanting to give him a stable family, etc.

I wasn't crazy about hubby (or the show, frankly; too dark), but in this example, I really can't fault him too much.

[Bort]

Also, that serial killer was actually convicted of killing Emily. Apparently, there was enough evidence that he'd done it, despite there being no body. I don't blame the husband for being pretty sure she was dead.

[MichaelaRae]

I just binged it and I liked it a LOT. Compelling - I cried MANY times in the first couple of episodes just watching the pain of all the players - this presumed-dead woman comes back and understandably wants her life back, the family left to deal with her loss and having understandably moved on...I was heartbroken for all of them. And on top of that the creepy mystery of WTF happened six years ago, for the past six years and also NOW. I'll watch a second season!

[Writing Wrongs]

I just finished it. It kept me engaged because I could never figure out what the hell was going. So she was one of the Doctor's "children" and she killed Harlow and the other guy?

I began to hate the husband when he wouldn't believe her.

On 2/19/2018 at 11:50 AM, Duke2801 said:

There were certainly a lot of wtf moments along the way—and a lot of disbeliefs to suspend.

Yep.

I read that it was filmed in Bulgaria, so that explains the atmosphere and vibe.

Edited March 12, 2018 by Writing Wrongs

[luckyroll3]

On 2/3/2018 at 6:06 PM, Arynm said:

I am not loving new wife and her attitude. Emily deserves to see her son, she is a victim here. The new wife should be talking to the son and getting him more comfortable with seeing his mom, it looks like she is doing nothing and might even be driving a wedge between them,

I'm only on episode 4, but so glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks New Wife is a straight up biatch!  She's had absolutely no compassion from the very beginning.  Emily didn't come in and demand to spend every hour with HER son, even though, she would have absolutely had a right to.  And the way she keeps harassing the husband about everything.  Yes he's working late bitch!  An unsolved case he worked on, that also involves his wife (and mother of his child) going missing and presumed to have been murdered, is suddenly reopened and he's supposed to ignore it?  Man, every time she comes on scree, she works my last nerve.  I keep yelling at the TV:

 

Ok.  Back to binging....

[Krysalix]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who can't stand the new wife. She has absolutely no compassion for the first wife, who was kidnapped and lost her family for six years, only to find out when she gets released that her husband has replaced with a new wife and her son doesn't remember her and sees this new woman as his Mom. I can see being afraid of losing your husband and adopted (if she even legally adopted him) son but really, have a heart. It's not like she left them voluntarily. That is not your son, lady! And the husband was hers first and since she wasn't actually dead after all, your marriage is probably invalid now. Sucks and all that but not nearly as much as it must suck for the other woman. I guess I could see it if this all started after suspicions started to grow but it was the same from the beginning. She didn't even try to understand how her husband must feel. Assuming he loved both women, how could he be anything butconflicted about his present situation? And what's with taking the kid with her when she went to her sister's house? Of the three parents, she is the one with the least right to take the child. The father should have told her, "go if you must, but you are not taking Flynn with you." She is such an entitled biatch. She demands the husband turn his back on his first wife, that everyone acknowledge her as the child's mother and just let her take off with him without a word to his father beforehand.  If I were "married" to her, I think her attitude would be enough for me to just take the time to get the marriage annulled on grounds that I was still married to my first wife, since she didn't actually die, and tell second wife to go and only let her see the kid on supervised visits while he adjusts to having his actual mother back.

[westwingfan]

Corus, who air Absentia on their Showcae channel in Canada, have indicated there will be a 10 episode season 2 in their press release for 2018/2019.

https://www.corusent.com/news/corus-entertainment-delivers-robust-specialty-slate-2018-2019/

Absentia – Season 2 (10x60min) – NEW SEASON
Former FBI agent Emily Byrne (Stana Katic, Castle) strives to reconcile her trauma, family, and identity until a deadly mystery from her past threatens her fragile stability.

[ParadoxLost]

I made it halfway through the third episode before I knew I couldn't keep watching.  Its frustrating because I think they had something there that handled differently could have worked really well.

But no one treated Emily in a way that made any sense at all. It was infuriating.  It felt like they all had amnesia about her being locked up and tortured for six years.  At two and a half episodes in, they hadn't shown any reason to suspect she had never been abducted at all (if that ever happened) so why weren't they in total denial or treating her like she had PTSD or Stockholm Syndrome or something.   No, instead she is being treated like a potential accomplice.  These are not lay people.  These are cops.

And then it got glaringly contrived.  The moment I turned it off was when they decided to end her first outing with her kid by him somehow managing to send his go kart flying into the air and doing a rollover. Really? 

I also find it irritating that the FBI husband would be allowed to work the wife's case.

So the nice thing about this being on Prime is that you don't have to watch the whole stupid thing, You can just go watch the ending, which I did.  I'm sad that the husband didn't die.  I was rooting for it.  I'm sad that the new wife wasn't in on it.  I hate her. 

I'm irritated that these idiots keep trying to fix the leaking dish washer. Its not about what memory that triggered, although also totally unnecessary and not making me want to watch season 2 because of the tortured internal angst we'll likely be subjected to.  No, I'm annoyed because they won't spend $500 to replace the stupid dishwasher that leaked in 2 out of the three and a half episodes I watched.

[CarpeFelis]

I kept wishing someone would kill Alice. Right from the beginning she treated Emily as if she were a horrible person who'd simply taken off and deserted her husband and son. After being abducted and held prisoner for 6 years, this is how she's treated?!

I hated Nick, too. Of all people, he was the one who should have had some faith in Emily, but he was way too ready to believe she was guilty--and abducted her own son?? Could not believe how he smacked her away from the tank when they rescued Flynn. And then in the hospital afterwards he tells Emily he hopes she can forgive him. In her shoes I'd never forgive him or even be able to look at him again. I did love the scene where her dad told Nick she was a better agent than he'd ever been and would solve the case and show what idiots Nick and his fellow agents were.

[MaiaH]

Trailer for season 2

[Bort]

Here are all the premiere dates around the world (except the US, same story as last year).

[MaiaH]

Season two will premiere in the US on Friday, June 14.

Story and American trailer here.

[newyawk]

I FLOVE this show, but my God, it is relentlessly intense and humorless. I feel like I have to chase every episode with an episode of Super Fun Night or Con Man just to cleanse my brain palate, lol. 

[newyawk]

Run, Tommy, run as fast as you can. Bish is fucked up! 

Actually, watching Emily attack her boyfriend reminded me of things I've read about troops that come home with severe PTSD that are actually very dangerous to their spouses if they are caught off guard, like touched while they are sleeping or something. 

[topanga]

3 hours ago, newyawk said:

Run, Tommy, run as fast as you can. Bish is fucked up! 

Actually, watching Emily attack her boyfriend reminded me of things I've read about troops that come home with severe PTSD that are actually very dangerous to their spouses if they are caught off guard, like touched while they are sleeping or something. 

I agree with the PTSD part. It seems like people expected Emily to bounce back immediately, forgetting that she has experienced  5(?) years of trauma prior to returning home. 

[azshadowwalker]

Just gave in and watched the first season. I so intensely hate almost everyone except Emily, Flynn and Emily's dad that I don't know if I can sit through a second season. 

I especially want Uncle Psycho to fall in a ditch somewhere. No, I wouldn't allow a dude who gets off on torturing women and patronizing human traffickers around me or my kids. I am so over the mindset that tries to pass that shit off as acceptable. I don't want some bullshit redemption arc for him. 

[Rushmoras]

On 4/24/2019 at 3:53 AM, azshadowwalker said:

Just gave in and watched the first season. I so intensely hate almost everyone except Emily, Flynn and Emily's dad that I don't know if I can sit through a second season. 

I especially want Uncle Psycho to fall in a ditch somewhere. No, I wouldn't allow a dude who gets off on torturing women and patronizing human traffickers around me or my kids. I am so over the mindset that tries to pass that shit off as acceptable. I don't want some bullshit redemption arc for him. 

Well, you'd be pissed off then, cause his BDSM activities are not even addressed in S02 (at least up until E08, haven't yet seen the remaining three eps, but who knows). It's like he's a totally different person in the second season 😄

[yourmomiseasy]

I went to watch season 2 and ended up having to rewatch season 1 because I was confused and just rewatching 1.9 and 1.10 wasn't making sense of it for me.  So now my hatred for Nick and Alice has been rekindled.  What a couple of dicks.  I think Nick wanted Emily to be evil so he didn't feel so bad dropping another woman into her life and replacing her so easily.  I'm not sure if Alice felt guilty or was just an entitled dick.  I'm sure I'm giving the show more credit on this than it deserves and it really isn't that deep or layered (not that these thoughts are incredibly deep).   Now on to season 2.

[topanga]

On 6/15/2019 at 3:03 AM, yourmomiseasy said:

I went to watch season 2 and ended up having to rewatch season 1 because I was confused and just rewatching 1.9 and 1.10 wasn't making sense of it for me.  So now my hatred for Nick and Alice has been rekindled.  What a couple of dicks.  I think Nick wanted Emily to be evil so he didn't feel so bad dropping another woman into her life and replacing her so easily.  I'm not sure if Alice felt guilty or was just an entitled dick.  I'm sure I'm giving the show more credit on this than it deserves and it really isn't that deep or layered (not that these thoughts are incredibly deep).   Now on to season 2.

That’s where I am. I can’t get into Season 2 because I can’t remember the last half of season 1. I wish there had been a season recap. 

[yourmomiseasy]

Honestly, it's probably not worth the time investment.  I was stuck on my back sick and had nothing else to do.  I'm not 100% certain the writers watched season 1 before writing season 2.  It seems like maybe they just read a synopsis.  The larger plot all tied back to season 1 at least in an overarching way, if not in the details, but I feel like characterizations and relationships didn't.

Season 2 was okay, but left me feeling like the show was super ridiculous.  I'm not sure I'll watch season 3 if there is one, and I definitely will not go back and watch 1 & 2 to make it make sense.