Undone Blurs the Line Between Spiritual Awakening and Mental Unraveling
Undone, the Amazon show created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg and Kate Purdy, reflects the tension of living in an increasingly “spiritual” America.
In a society that’s based so heavily in logic and science, as we integrate elements of the intangible, inevitably conflict arises.
This is expressed through the protagonist, Alma, who gets in a car accident and is then reunited with her dead father who begins to train her in the ability of time manipulation.
The show draws on both science (physics) and spirituality (shamanism) to prove the validity of existence beyond our sensory experience.
In the second episode, the most visually compelling of the season, Alma’s father, attempting to explain her abilities to her, explains:
“In indigenous cultures, people who can see visions and hear voices, they’re the shamans, they’re the wise ones. But in western culture, those people are locked up or they’re put out on the street.”
So, the show is not only questioning individual conception of reality but our culture’s perception of it as well. As Alma questions if she’s lost her mind, we’re in-turn challenged to question if as a culture we’ve lost a core part of our humanity. That in our stern grounding in facts and glorification of that which can be proven, we’ve completely lost touch with a vital element of existence.
Alma, in the final scene of the season, returns to the crux of her existential crisis at the onset of the show, asking,
“Don’t you want there to be more? Don’t you believe there has to be more?”
This is where she touches on a sentiment has been echoed in some form or another by almost all of my friends— seeking more than the life formula we’ve been given.
And I believe this is the reason Eastern philosophy and practices are making a comeback — our western ideals fail to provide a depth that gives meaning to what can seem like an otherwise mundane existence.
We’ve been given the tools to succeed in a superficial way but many of us are struggling to understand how to survive on a spiritual level.
The magic of the show is that it doesn’t provide clear answers as to the true nature of stability, reality, freedom. Much like life, it continues to complicate our conceptualization of what it means to exist in the world, leaving each of us to seek truth within ourselves. Because that lacking, that questioning, that searching, can only be solved from within.
