The Path: Hulu Takes on a Cult (Not called Netflix)


Can Hulu actually make good television? Maybe if it follows the right... Path
"I didn't know your friend very well. I don't even know if you considered her a friend, but she lived here, with all of you. I tried to give her a blanket once on a cold winter day, but she wouldn't take it. She was committed to her path. I don't understand your faith, but I understand commitment and I respect it." - Matt Jamison, The Leftovers, S01E05




Last week, Hulu, a network that has really been trying to produce good content, put out their best effort yet: The Path. With two episodes released thus far, I'm not completely sold on it, but this show has a very high ceiling if done correctly from here on out.

Created by playwright Jessica Goldberg, the effects of the writing can immediately be seen upon entry into the show. In the first two episodes, three main characters make up most of the plot: Eddie, Sarah, and Cal. And, as is more customary in the theater, a good deal of the content is made up of one to two character scenes, interesting manipulation of chronology, and extremely heavy themes. For the most part, despite the extremely slow going of The Path, I was intrigued by it. The cult at the centerpiece of the show is the Meyerist Movement, an organization that is centered around a ladder of thought, one that, should members be able to "climb" it, will allow them to get into some sort of nirvana. To do so, the members are encouraged to donate money, time, and energy into converting new members, building up their compound, and trying to push the movement out into a more general audience. It's a lot like Scientology, but much darker and less inspired by science fiction novels.

So fed up with Marty Hart she joined a cult
We begin the show with our central couple: Eddie and Sarah. Eddie (Aaron Paul) has just gotten back from a religious trip down to Peru, wherein the man who started the movement, Stephen Meyer, is researching new rungs of the ladder. However, after a startling vision, Eddie is beginning to question his faith. Sarah (Michelle Monaghan) on the other hand, was born into the Meyerist movement and is still quiet devout, thinking that Eddie's distance is due to an affair rather than a crisis of faith. Meanwhile, Cal (Hugh Dancy), the leader of the cult while Stephen Meyer himself is away, has just returned from a three year trip to lead his people. We soon realize that he was once in a relationship with Sarah before she chose Eddie instead. Thus, the love triangle begins.

All three actors do a fantastic job of carrying out what's given to them. Paul is sympathetic and confused, taking his skills from Breaking Bad and expanding them into a more adult character, while Monaghan takes the shoved-aside wife role from True Detective and blows it up into a much more central role. Meanwhile, Darcy, the apparent villain, does a good job straddling the line between charismatic and creepy as he preaches to the Meyerists, flirts with Sarah, and threatens Eddie in a veiled manor. And, while the three main players have an interesting dynamic, the show moves so slowly that the stakes have yet to be raised all that high. Eddie isn't necessarily leaving the faith, Sarah isn't necessarily abandoning her husband, and Cal isn't necessarily just a crazy evil person. While it's good to have ambiguity, the show needed to do a better job in establishing why exactly we care, aside from a cliche love triangle.

So fed up with Walter White he joined a cult
Aside from the central characters, we're also introduced to Eddie and Sarah's son, a teenager who just can't wait to graduate, as well as Mary, a new recruit to the movement who is an ex-drug addict and prostitute. She immediately becomes infatuated with Cal, trying to please him in any way possible. Meanwhile, Alison, an ex-Meyerist, becomes Eddie's secret correspondent, his apparent gateway to abandoning the movement. All of this is well and good, but once again, the episodes can waste time on rather irrelevant outside information, leaving the plots without enough at stake. An example would be the pilot itself. The plot is first told from Sarah's point of view, seeing how distant Eddie has become on his return. The next section takes us through Eddie's point of view, but still leaves plenty of holes in his background in Peru. The last act tries to fill in some of the holes from both points of view, but again repeats much of the same that we've seen. Though it establishes the setup well, it feels like there is wasted time, exaggeration for the sake of exaggeration.

This brings us to the inciting incident of all the problems that are occurring in the plot: What Eddie Saw. As we find out at the end of the pilot, he saw Stephen Meyer (whom the cultists refer to as "Steve," something that really takes the gravity away from the lurking fear of a cult leader) on a surgical table on life support. If he's truly dying, then all that Cal has said about Meyer's ladder research is total BS, and he's just going for a power grab over a flock of sheep. This puts Eddie at odds with the cult, Cal at odds with morality, and Sarah at odds with which man she should actually choose.

However, for all the plotting issues or wasted time in The Path, by no means do I think it's a lost cause. Much like Carnival or The Leftovers in the very beginning, a lot of time was spent on religious pondering and character development. Both shows, upon speeding up, blossomed into fantastic television. While The Path isn't anywhere near the other two at the moment, I do believe that the ceiling could be just as high. Three very talented leads are at the helm of the show, and the topics and themes covered are quite ambitious, meaning that Goldberg and co. certainly have a lot to say. If Hulu's The Path can speed up a bit, raise the stakes, and make the general narrative a bit more clear, I think it could become a sleeper hit for the network.

Whatever the case, I'm intrigued to see what Path the show goes down in the next couple episodes to determine whether or not it's worth finishing out.

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