By Spencer Coile
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Despite its impressive cast (Maya Rudolph, Fred Armisen, Catherine Keener) and creative team, the premiere of Amazon Prime’s Forever was oddly muted. Yet for anyone who watched the eight episode first season, this shouldn’t be a complete surprise - the premise is almost too clever and takes a solid three episodes before you actually know what is happening. Still, with its pedigree, it’s strange that not even Maya Rudolph’s strong leading role garnered any Emmy buzz, nor did it receive any Globe or Critics Choice love.
Still at least one performance absolutely deserves the Emmy voters attention: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: Hong Chau for Comedy Guest Performance in episode 6 “Andre and Sarah.” Months after the series premiere (I first watched it back in September), I haven’t been able to shake Chau’s performance as Sarah…
“Andre and Sarah” is a bottle episode of Forever that practically functions as its own short film. It follows two low-level realtors, Andre (Jason Mitchell) and Sarah. They first meet at an open house Sarah has over-prepared for… only to have no one show up but Andre. They bond over cheap wine and exploring the decrepit house Sarah is trying to sell. They share a drunken kiss, only for Sarah to disclose she is engaged.
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Time jumps forward: Sarah shows up to an open house Andre is running. Both are now married (notably, they point out, to white people), but they continue to flirt and build a rapport that feels only fitting to these two actors. And it’s for this reason both Mitchell and Chau showcase their talents. They make the viewer feel as though these roles were tailor-made for them. In particular, Chau imbues Sarah with these delicate touches of immaturity and strength. Her first encounter with Andre depicts her as a woman fully capable of selling a house. She is confident and determined; almost to the point of adolescent enthusiasm. When the two find an inconveniently placed closet on the ceiling, she becomes giddy you feel as though she is buzzing with excitement. It’s infectious, and clearly what draws Andre to her.
“Andre and Sarah,” while only 35 minutes, is a narrative told in three acts. Act one is their meeting, act two is them reconnecting and beginning an affair. Act three opens with Sarah cooking dinner for Andre. They discuss their days at work - only for us to discover they are only pretending their life of domesticity in a model home. Years since the second act, both are still married, Andre has a daughter, yet both hold on to the belief that they will someday be together. As they eat dinner, Sarah suggests they finally commit to leaving their spouses and be with one another honestly. At one point Sarah quips she has become “too good at lying.”
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And in this one moment, Chau adds a lifetime of struggle to Sarah. She is a woman who, beneath the rich and sophisticated exterior of this model home, she is living a lie. It’s an honest, but totally brutal observation she makes about herself. After all, who is Sarah? We know she was adopted by a white family outside of Louisville, was ridiculed by her high school classmates and called Lucy Liu, but who even is she if she continues living in this fantasy world she and Andre concocted?
We are left with these questions, and so is Andre. Years later, in the epilogue, Andre shows up to another open house and inquires of Sarah - only to be told Sarah died of cancer years earlier. He sits on the stairs of the house they first met at, muttering to himself they missed their chance. It’s a crushing moment, made all the more palpable by Chau’s noticeable absence.
“Andre and Sarah,” is a deeply involving piece of television. And Hong Chau’s performance as Sarah quietly captures why guest roles are so effective: she provides a fleshed-out character - imbued with contradictions and humanity - all in the span of one episode. Her story, much like her performance, feels complete. Her story is over, yet we are left to grapple with what remains. It is both hilarious and haunting, and deserves strong Emmy consideration.