Mark Ruffalo transformed into a twin role for HBO’s drama hit “I Know This Much Is True”. It’s the role that brought him an Emmy win for Outstanding Lead Actor.

What’s really fascinating about the show is how conscious it is about so many pressing issues: a gentle investigation into the human psyche delivered in a picturesque presentation over the course of six episodes.

The captivating storytelling is further enriched by truly mesmerizing cinematography of pure nostalgia for the days where we were a little bit more connected with each other — or at least trying to connect more, even if we didn’t understand life at all.

A tale of two brothers portrayed by the one and only Mark Ruffalo — keep reading to find out why you need to watch the mini-series ASAP.

Mental health

The topic of mental health is at the core of I Know This Much Is True. The show not only displays examples of schizophrenia, depression, abuse, grief, anxiety and more, but it examines the way mental issues were viewed, addressed and treated back in the early 1990s.

While the story is fictional, much of what we see is inspired by real life.

I mean, to this day we treat the people we don’t fully understand with discontent — “Why can’t you be more like him or her?”, as if there is only way we can exist and behave in any given situation.

In his Emmy acceptance speech, Mark highlighted the importance of mental health today, especially amidst the global pandemic we are all facing and the upcoming presidential elections that have the power to change life for good.

Brotherhood

There is a sacred bond between two brothers, especially when they are twins.

The story of Dominic and Thomas is one where the big brother acts as the protective hero, whereas the little one is the problematic, schizophrenic twin who needs to constantly adjust his behaviour. Their roles assigned at birth, or were they?

In six episodes the characters continuously question their choices, motives and interpret life with the wisdom acquired over the years, each with their own point of view.

The social creatures that we are, we learn from each other so much more than we can understand in real time. It’s always in hindsight — in the silence, that we begin to appreciate the influence of those we’ve kept around in our life both by choice and by necessity.

Sometimes we get to choose our own family members.

Honour

The idea of honour — or how we look in the eyes of society — manifests in many of our life choices, some of them trivial, others transformative.

Honour by definition is “the quality of knowing and doing what is morally right.”

Honour can stand in the way of our own happiness, even when we think we are doing our best — only to discover we’ve pushed everyone away in the pursuit of being honourable.

We want to preserve and look after what’s ours, but at times our ego and stubbornness might steer us into hurting the ones that we love most by blindly following a broken moral compass.

The thing is we start to form our values from a young age and it takes years to alter what we’ve been wrongly conditioned to believe.

The real power of HBO’s I Know This Much Is True is that it touches on many conventional family situations, despite the unconventional circumstances that lead there, that make you think about your own life and how you’d handle the big problems.

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This year might have given us a lot of pain, misery and destruction, but we can still find hope in the arts. A TV show today is more often than not more than just entertainment. It becomes part of the culture in an instant.

HBO has long used the slogan ‘More than TV’ and when talk about I Know This Much Is True, it certainly couldn’t be truer.

It’s relatable, it’s relevant, it’s one of the most important shows of 2020.