I'll Get off From Earth (2020)

Had So Much Potential

I'm not usually into the time loop trope, but I was so intrigued by the idea of a character reliving three years of their life 33 times - long enough to be able to periodically ignore the feeling of being trapped and suffocated within a time loop but short enough to constantly feel unfulfilled by the end of each cycle. There was so much potential for the show to explore the pros of living such a long time loop -- the ability to stay young forever, to live without consequences, to never see your family and friends grow old.

They could have explored the cons even more - the monotony and loneliness of living the same life 33 times, knowing that nothing you do will ever change the inevitable. I mean, the ML literally jumps off a building at the end of his 33rd life and he immediately begins his 34th life (happens in the first episode, so not a spoiler). That must be miserable!

The show spent more time navigating typical high school woes than they did on understanding and breaking the time loop. Every now and then the show would give us a little nibble of insight into the time loop and then ignore it for five, six episodes before the next feeding - just enough to keep us coming back. For example, halfway through the show, the ML and the SFL, who is also stuck in a time loop, begin studying quantum mechanics in hopes of uncovering the mystery behind the time loop. Ten, fifteen episodes go by before they even make a reference to studying quantum mechanics, and then the SFL suddenly drops that massive changes made during a time loop can break it! But what constitutes a massive change? The ML literally threw himself off a building in the first episode!

But then it also brings into question another compelling idea - if a massive change breaks a time loop, how massive does the change have to be so that you don't trash the life that you end up living past the three year mark? The SFL, in order to break her loop, changed schools, rebelled against her parents and fell in love - all pretty conservative changes but massive considering her personality. She had always been reserved in rebelling, so I'm sure she had tons of inner turmoil weighing the pros and cons of doing X, Y, Z action to break the loop, like running away from home or publishing her R-rated novel. It may break the time loop but then she would also be risking that whatever damage she does in this time loop becoming permanent if she breaks it.

Instead, we spent 45 episodes watching kids bully each other.

The characters were really charming and fun to watch, but with all these questions piling up in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but be disappointed by the final outcome. We are no closer to understanding the time loop than we were in episode one.

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