Dear Edward

Dear Edward is reminiscent of Dear Evan Hansen: both deal with death and loss, mental health struggles, hallucinations of dead people, grieving someone who has done more harm than good, unresolved feelings never finding closure, letters as a focal point of the plot, plus the fact that Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are involved in writing music for each. But the actual stories differ greatly. Dear Edward explores how several different lives become connected by one singular event: a plane crash that leaves only one sole survivor, 12-year-old Edward. It tackles complex and nuanced discussions regarding the effects of traumatic events, in particular, questions of the luck of survival and whether that’s a blessing or a curse, the inequality of people’s losses and conflict in rediscovering the truth of a person post-death.

Originally a book by Ann Napolitano, the Apple TV+ series grounds each character’s story by keeping everything close to home. The flight in question is a short travel from New York to LA, highlighting how tragedies don’t just happen on some faraway land and extravagant adventure – they can happen to everyday people just trying to make it to another city. The script uses plenty of irony and foreshadowing to elicit strong emotional responses from viewers. Typical family relationships – jealousy and inferiority complexes between siblings, overprotective parents and a playful mother-and-daughter dynamic – reflect real-life circumstances as a show of relatability.

Anna Uzele is an absolute star here; one can’t help but be drawn to her performance, despite a lacklustre storyline for her character. Taylor Schilling also does well at tugging the heartstrings as Edward’s aunt. But, unfortunately, Colin O’Brien as Edward is a little wooden, his monotone delivery instantly undermining any sort of emotional build. This does improve, however, as the show goes on. The pilot in general is a mix-bag. It does a great job of introducing all the main players involved while establishing how the music and audio production carries the emotional stakes. But the structure is a little all over the place – there’s no colour and visual difference to distinguish between past and present, and the narrative is constantly moving in different time periods in an erratic manner, which creates a convoluted and extremely expository start to an otherwise heartfelt and wonderful rest of the series.

Mae Trumata

Dear Edward is released on Apple TV+ on 3^rd February 2023.

Watch the trailer for Dear Edward here: