By: Mariah Thomas
Photo By Ben Mullen
When I was a child, I once caught my grandfather staring into a mirror. After a beat, he said to me that he still saw himself forever cemented at twenty-years-old and sometimes it was jarring to realize how much he has aged. “Woodstockers” feels like a beautiful embodiment of that conversation. This episodic pilot is like a mirror into the past. While the main character looks at himself and still sees the version of himself he fully discovered and loved at Woodstock in 1969, others around him view someone who won’t grow up or move on with his life. This pilot offers a challenge in the beauty and struggles with both viewpoints.
We then follow a group of friends who went to Woodstock in 1969. Some never quite left the state of mind they discovered that weekend. In the present day we watch as Lenny (Corbin Bernsen) is trying to piece his life back together when his wife, Rebecca (Barbara Hershey) leaves him and their daughter Alice (Maggie Lawson) is going through tough times of her own. It is clear both judge him for being so stuck in the past. At the height of this, his best friend Calvin (Stephen Tobolowsky) dies. Thus, Lenny is placed in a position to reevaluate his life and decisions that brought him there.
Toward the end of the pilot there is a beautiful shot as Lenny drives a yellow Volkswagen in the rain. He pulls into his driveway and the headlights reflect off of the rain to create a rainbow circling the van. He had just been given the van by Calvin’s wife, Lizzy (Susan Ruttan). in the wake of his passing. It comes as a reminder that there is still the beauty of Lenny’s youth and Woodstock in a moment filled with sadness. Without giving too much away, Lenny and his daughter immediately have a moment of reconnection after the rainbow shot. By the end of this, there is a moment where she overlooks her father outside as he smokes and seems to have a newfound understanding of him without judgment.
Following the theme of youth in this episodic pilot, it is fitting that it was co-written and starring Corbin Bernsen and directed by his son, Oliver Bernsen. The pilot felt very personal in how it was portrayed and the family ties lends a hand to that. Though it was not the episodic pilot that I expected, the lens “Woodstockers” follows is surely a story many will resonate with. The stylistic shot choices capture the magic Lenny is still feeling from Woodstock.
“Woodstockers” is an episodic pilot of reflection. Main character Lenny finds himself stagnant in his youth while so much change happens around him. He is faced with the task of finding a way to continue on with those changes and live in the present as opposed to the past. It is an enjoyable TV episodic pilot for all and a quick watch.