A workaholic TV news producer finds out he is dying and dedicates his remaining days to making a movie about the meaning of life for his estranged wife and their soon-to-be-born son.

SYNOPSIS:

There are six main characters in the series, the most prominent of which is ALEX, a workaholic, blindly self-centered TV news editor who discovers he has a terminal illness and abruptly quits his job in order to dedicate his remaining days to making a semi-autobiographical movie about the meaning of life for his estranged wife and their soon-to-be-born son.

One problem -- he doesn't have a clue how to write a movie. So, he hires his life-long frenemy and part-time aspiring screenwriter, PAUL, to help create his very personal and redemptive cinematic masterpiece.

However, Paul is a deeply disturbed, possibly psychotic, eccentric savant and it soon becomes apparent that he is using the film as his own sci-fi inspired, hyper-metaphysical, inner-demon slaying catharsis -- leading to apocalyptic battles between the two over control of the script.

When not wrestling with Alex over the direction of the film, we learn that Paul’s primary job as a genetic engineer has put him in much deeper trouble. In addition to working on CRISPR-based DNA-editing strategies to not only inoculate against forthcoming coronaviruses, but also cure the genetic disease Alex is dying from, he’s on the verge of completing a DNA-editing algorithm that would make humans immortal – as long as SUN, the leader of the underground Chinese biotech company Paul started the project with, but has since defected from, doesn’t kill him in order to regain full control of the project.

Similar to Paul, Sun is a deranged genius of the first order – Pablo Escobar if he graduated summa cum laude from MIT -- with a lyrical flow to his menacing correspondence with Paul that mixes exegesis of quantum computing with the argot of gansta rap.

So, this is not a super convenient time to find the love of his life, but while dodging Sun in order to cure mortality, Paul falls hard for KAYLA – a disillusioned, struggling singer/songwriter who works at the coffee shop where Paul escapes the increasing pressures of his real job by immersing himself in writing the screenplay for Alex’s cinematic work-in-progress.

It soon becomes apparent that both Paul and Kayla are badly broken human beings, but are cracked in similar places, and we follow their turbulent love story not knowing whether their mutual not-equipped-for-life emotional dysfunction will ultimately pull them closer together or break them irrevocably.

While battling Paul over control of his own movie, Alex is also fighting to win back the affection of his very pregnant and moody wife JODI, with whom he has become increasingly estranged since he abruptly left his job and began siphoning their dwindling savings into his quixotic film project.

As we follow Alex's flailing attempts to resuscitate his relationship with Jodi before he himself expires, as well Paul and Kayla's attempts to fight through past trauma so they can start a new kind of life together, we also track a developing love affair between the lead actors in Alex's film -- MICHAEL, an easy-going, passive, and religious straight-arrow, and CHELSEA, an aggressively atheist, sexually adventurous supernova who lives for the thrill of the moment, consequences be damned. In addition, we see scenes from Alex's movie that depict the tempestuous relationship between JOHN and EMILY, the characters in the film played by Michael and Chelsea.

As our story progresses, it becomes apparent at times that the narrative arc of John and Emily has been written -- and perpetually re-written -- by both Alex and Paul, as we begin to notice situations and fragments of dialogue in their story that reflect Alex's relationship with Jodi, as well as Paul's burgeoning romance with Kayla. In essence, each are trying exercise to control over John and Emily's narrative in order to more fully reflect what they are going through with their own relationship.

For example … At certain times we are not sure whether a given scene is following the increasingly fraught but sexually charged relationship between Michael and Chelsea or if we are witnessing a psychologically twisted version of John and Emily that reflects Paul's increasingly disturbing relationship with Kayla -- or if we are watching a version of John and Emily that reflects the desperate quest for reconciliation, forgiveness, and redemption that we see in Alex's final days with Jodi.

As what is “real” and what is fiction further blur within this innovative, reflective, metanarrative structure, the series provides a deeper exploration into how we construct our identity, as well as the stories behind the choices we appear to be making ourselves, in order to create meaning in our life out of the thin air of our unexplained consciousness.

All of these recursive story layers unspool as Alex and Paul’s film project increasingly unravels due to their personal lives collapsing in on them.

As Sun and his maniacal henchmen close in on him, Paul has a psychological meltdown as he is forced to decide between putting his and Kayla’s lives in further danger or handing over his DNA-editing algorithm to a nefarious Chinese cabal that will use his game-changing work to irrevocably alter and control the future course of humanity.

Meanwhile, Alex’s tenuous relationship with Jodi reaches a final crucible when she uncovers the substantial credit card debt he used to finance his film. Having reached the last thread of her rope, Jodi tells Alex she doesn't love him anymore and is only sticking around because he is dying.

With seemingly nothing left to live for, Alex is about to end it all when he finds a note from an anonymous STRANGER -- seemingly from the great beyond -- telling Alex that his wife still needs him, while also providing Alex with the contact information for a local PASTOR.

Alex then visits the mysterious pastor, who offers often contradicting advice and perspectives -- at times deeply religious, at times coldly deterministic and metaphysical -- as he guides Alex through his soul-searching quest for spiritual redemption and the meaning of life before his time runs out.

As the narrative progresses and The Stranger increasingly clandestinely influences the direction of each character's life, the notion of free will is called into question and the characters, as well as the audience, begin to ask the ultimate question within the series, but also life itself -- who, or what, is actually in control?

Summary