A new series piloted by Kate Purdy and Raphael Bob-Waksberg of BoJack Horseman is set to be a little darker, both in its storytelling and in its art. The new series, Undone, is set to premiere later this year, exclusively on Amazon Prime; but the first two episodes were screened at the ATX TV Festival in Austin, Texas on Saturday June 8, 2019 reports Deadline. The rest of us will just have to wait.
The show calls up comparisons to Madeleine L’Engle’s novel, A Wrinkle In Time, as well as Philip K. Dick and Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly, which was produced using rotoscoping effects. The story itself is similar to Wrinkle in that it involves a daughter grasping with the ideas of alternate realities and trying to solve, or in this case prevent, her father’s death. Scanner comes into play because this will be the first project that attempts to use rotoscoping in an episodic manner. Granted, technology has come a long way since 2006, but it will still be an impressive feat to pull off.
The official premise of the show, and the origin of the title, is as such: Alma Winograd-Diaz leads a relatively normal life. Until a near fatal car accident causes her to start having visual and auditory hallucinations of her late father, Jacob. Through these relentless visions, her father convinces her to tap into this mysterious new power that allows her to travel through space and time, the idea being that she might stop his untimely death. This surreal quest challenges Alma’s relationships and brings into doubt her mental health with those closest to her. The entity that claims to be her father doesn’t offer much support in the way of this enquiry, when she asks if she’s losing her mind his response is, “Well, yes and no.”
The series also boasts an impressive cast, with Rosa Salazar (Alita: Battle Angel) as Alma and Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul) as her father. Regular cast members also include Daveed Diggs, Constance Marie, Siddarth Dhananjay, and Angelique Cabral. Guest stars signed on to the project are Tyler Posey, John Corbett, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Sheila Vand. Dutch filmmaker Hisko Hulsing (Montage of Heck) serves as the series director and production designer.