Soulmates (2020)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½  

AMC's anthology series Soulmates is an exceptional series that explores a world in the not too distant future where a company has successfully created a way for anyone to find his or her soulmate, the perfect life partner. All a person needs to do is to take a test in their facility and wait for the system to find a match from their database of people who have taken the test.

Soulmates season one has six compelling episodes which are basically standalone tales of romance in this future world that they have created. The level of originality and creativity is very high here and to the series' credit, the episodes seem to get better and better as the series progresses along. In fact the first episode (Watershed) which introduces us to the world of Soulmates was its weakest. Perhaps it had to spend precious time to explain the concept and offered a comparatively simple story when compared to the subsequent episodes which increasingly pushes the boundaries of where the possibilities can take us.

The series has a foreboding Black Mirror-esque feel to it as rather than outright mushy tales of romance, what we get are tales of romance with a twist. Perhaps this should not come as too much of a surprise seeing that this series was created by William Bridges and Brett Goldstein. William Bridges was one of the writers for the Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror series. The result is six highly charged episodes with tales which I can honestly say are unique and yet strangely identifiable to the viewers as they touch on very real and human issues and feelings. The production value and performances all round is top notched and very convincing. Amazingly each episode which lasts for less than 45 minutes, feels like a mini movie and I dare say is better than a lot of the feature films that we get today.

 Happily I understand that the series has been renewed and we can look forward to more unromantically romantic tales from Soulmates Season 2. My only complaint here is that there are only 6 episodes for us to enjoy as the series concludes all too soon. At the time of writing this review I have seen 5 of the episodes with the final 6th episode expected to be aired on November 9th.