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[Boem]

Wow, I had no idea this was a thing that was happening. Really a fun surprise to just discover something that's right up your alley right as the first episode is coming out.

I was a bit worried at the beginning - I've been burned by adaptions of favorite authors before. I especially worried for the first couple of scenes that it might be trying to cash in on the renewed interest in Blade Runner, resulting in a budget version of Blade Runner that's not all there.

Very happy to be proven wrong. The writing was actually good, it didn't feel dumbed down, and the longer it went on the more I was feeling it. Very, very curious to see more. You can only really judge anthology shows like this after seeing a couple of episodes, so you can see what the variety is like and what the tonal consistencies are, but this is a pretty good start. Definitely telling a couple of friends about this - I know plenty of people who would love this but who probably also have no idea this exists.

 

[televator]

My first time hearing about this!

 

[Vimes]

My dad is a huge fan of Dick's short stories in particular, so I expect he'll be eating this up with a spoon. Nice work bringing this to my attention, gaf.

 

[[Fugo]]

I liked the first episode a lot. The eerie atmosphere, the decadent polluted setting, held together quite well.

The second episode has the same title as one of my favourite Doctor Who ep so I'm having high expectations

 

[phoisgood495]

First episode was pretty decent, but I think the message kind of fell flat, and a lot of people probably missed the analogue that the Teeps were supposed to be a metaphor for the internet/surveillance, which is not really true to the original spirit of the short story.

All in all I was pretty pleased with it, and will be checking out future episodes as there can never be enough sci-fi anthology series, and PKD has a lot of great short stories I'd love to see adapted.

 

[More_Badass]

So is this the less bleak and cynical Black Mirror? We get way more horror anthologies than quality sci-fi ones, so I'm really excited for when this is available in the US

 

[JSR_Cube]

Definitely off to a decent start. The production values could use a bit of work but that doesn't matter much in the end to me as much as the rest of it.

I really love the format. I've been dying for self-contained sci-fi episodes of stuff for a while now.

 

[elfinke]

Huh, awesome. And really nice OP. I just cancelled our Stan sub, and I think it will expire before this series ends. Might reup to watch it after we're done with American Vandal on nflix.

Thanks!

 

[Geist-]

Finally got around to watching the first episode. Really good, loved the ending.

Spoiler

Kind of disappointed that all of the teeps besides Honor were cliche emotionless drones. But I guess they can save a lot of money when they don't need to pay extras to act.

 

[GavinUK86]

So is this the less bleak and cynical Black Mirror? We get way more horror anthologies than quality sci-fi ones, so I'm really excited for when this is available in the US

The first episode is pretty bleak but some of the others are more promising.

 

[Guerrillas in the Mist]

Really enjoyed the first episode, but god, Channel 4's streaming service is garbage.

 

[Moreche]

This is £9.99 on iTunes for the whole series, first one available now.

 

[tonysidaway]

So is this the less bleak and cynical Black Mirror?

Having watched just one episode, Black Mirror isn't the first show I'd compare it to. It really felt more like The Twilight Zone.

The distinction is Brooker's use of detail and nuance, and particularly the way he builds a world that fits seamlessly into the present day. Using familiar settings and contemporary cues, he really works hard at giving the viewer the feeling that the events portrayed could be just an iPhone update or two away. The themes are contemporary, but magnified, concerned with privacy, power and control in an internet-obsessed world.

Electric Dreams seems to have a much broader SF palate, perhaps because it's based on Philip K Dick's original material written up to seventy years ago and set in the then-distant future. We don't expect to see telepaths as a major social concern in the near future. There are broad issues of mistrust, isolation, ghettoisation of stigmatised people and so on, as well as some themes that are recognisable as characteristic of Philip K Dick's other works.

 

[StrawberryJam]

Finished the second episode just now. The changes from the original short story really did not work for me. Spoilers from here.

Spoiler

The love story made no sense at all and neither did the ending. How was Norton her grandfather? Was she her grandmother? If not, why was she seemingly in love with her grandfather? I'm assuming they both just died on the planet's surface? Why did he feel strongly enough to go down and die with her? It was good up until the changes from the book came into it.

 

[Bits N Pieces]

That ending made no sense at all, thought it was great up until that point then it just started to unravel, shame really.

Next weeks episode is the one with Timothy Spall, yes!

 

[GavinUK86]

I agree that the ending was pretty bad. I loved the ending to the story, it was pretty heartwarming. This was just... weird.

Spoiler

Were they related? Did they travel through time while trying to get to "earth"? She became her own grandmother? He became the grandfather? Were the flashes we saw his or hers? I didn't like the unnecessary love plot. Needed 5 more minutes for an explanation

.

I enjoyed everything up to that point though. Hopefully next weeks is just as good but sticks the landing. I love Timothy Spall and Tuppence Middleton is a great actress.

 

[StrawberryJam]

That ending made no sense at all, thought it was great up until that point then it just started to unravel, shame really.

Next weeks episode is the one with Timothy Spall, yes!

I agree that the ending was pretty bad. I loved the ending to the story, it was pretty heartwarming. This was just... weird.

Spoiler

Were they related? Did they travel through time while trying to get to "earth"? She became her own grandmother? He became the grandfather? Were the flashes we saw his or hers? I didn't like the unnecessary love plot. Needed 5 more minutes for an explanation

.

I enjoyed everything up to that point though. Hopefully next weeks is just as good but sticks the landing. I love Timothy Spall and Tuppence Middleton is a great actress.

Glad it wasn't just me. Still got high hopes for the rest of the season though, how else could they get so many quality actors and actresses?

 

[Celery&Lager]

I agree that the ending was pretty bad. I loved the ending to the story, it was pretty heartwarming. This was just... weird.

Spoiler

Were they related? Did they travel through time while trying to get to "earth"? She became her own grandmother? He became the grandfather? Were the flashes we saw his or hers? I didn't like the unnecessary love plot. Needed 5 more minutes for an explanation

.

I enjoyed everything up to that point though. Hopefully next weeks is just as good but sticks the landing. I love Timothy Spall and Tuppence Middleton is a great actress.

Did you.notice the name of the ship and the make of the bicycle? What if,

Spoiler

earth was them waking up to reality? What if the whole space setting was them dream?

 

[tonysidaway]

Did you.notice the name of the ship and the make of the bicycle? What if,

Spoiler

earth was them waking up to reality? What if the whole space setting was them dream?

That's the closest I can come to making that story work, too. It felt a bit like one of Bradbury's stories, except for the bit where she didn't gobble him up and go back to the spaceship.

 

[cjp]

Yeah, I’ve got to to be honest, the ending just left me mildly confused but mostly empty. I didn’t really have a reaction to it. It was mostly “oh”.

 

[The One Who Knocks]

I was really enjoying it until the ending which could have been good if executed well, but felt unsatisfying to me. I think the first two episodes, while certainly both decent, hasn’t really lived up to the potential I think the series has. Hopefully it improves as it goes along though.

 

[Carn82]

Having watched just one episode, Black Mirror isn't the first show I'd compare it to. It really felt more like The Twilight Zone.

The distinction is Brooker's use of detail and nuance, and particularly the way he builds a world that fits seamlessly into the present day. Using familiar settings and contemporary cues, he really works hard at giving the viewer the feeling that the events portrayed could be just an iPhone update or two away. The themes are contemporary, but magnified, concerned with privacy, power and control in an internet-obsessed world.

Electric Dreams seems to have a much broader SF palate, perhaps because it's based on Philip K Dick's original material written up to seventy years ago and set in the then-distant future. We don't expect to see telepaths as a major social concern in the near future. There are broad issues of mistrust, isolation, ghettoisation of stigmatised people and so on, as well as some themes that are recognisable as characteristic of Philip K Dick's other works.

Well put. I would describe Booker's stuff to be more 'grounded' and extrapolated from our current society and its technology, while Dick's stories often tackles its big questions from the perspective of a what bigger and diverse scif-fi context. But they both question how 'our society' would deal with certain social and personal events.

 

[Monochromaticx]

This is £9.99 on iTunes for the whole series, first one available now.

sweet. hope it is not itunes UK only

 

[MudoSkills]

I'm not a reader of Philip K Dick's stuff, but have tuned into this because of the strength of the cast. I thought the first episode was a weak story to start the series with, and was enjoying the second episode until the point they landed.

I agree with everyone else that the ending didn't work - how does the original short story end?

 

[Koriandrr]

I.... really didn't like this. I want to like it, as it's totally right up my alley, but I couldn't like it. There was no twist, no development, it felt very flat overall. The best thing about it was the visuals and colours. I do hope it picks up and gets better.

 

[tonysidaway]

Radio Times has an article on the differences between the original 1953 Philip K Dick story Impossible Planet and this episode.

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/201...-different-from-philip-k-dicks-original-story

To summarise the original:

Spoiler

no love story, no Norton background subplot, and only the robot and the passenger go out onto the surface and vanish into the horrible weather. Then the twist: Captain Andrews spots a small metal disc on the ground. It bears the words "E pluribus unum". Andrews doesn't recognise it as a United States penny (the reader does). Emphor III really was Earth after all.

 

[MudoSkills]

That would have been a much better ending - wonder why they didn't go for it.

 

[tonysidaway]

That would have been a much better ending - wonder why they didn't go for it.

It would have fitted a fifteen or thirty-minute episode, but the writer had to stretch it out to nearly fifty minutes to fit the slot. In view of the direction they took it in, the twist ending wouldn't work as well.

Spoiler

It would also be difficult to believe that Andrews was such a terrible navigator that he didn't recognise the solar system from its position on his star map. Stuff that works on the page sometimes bombs on screen.

 

[jvm]

Still no Amazon release date? 🤔

 

[tonysidaway]

Still no Amazon release date? 🤔

Amazon UK seems to have it to stream now. But we can get it free via All4 or just watch the episodes live on Channel 4.

If you do search for it, it may be difficult to distinguish it from many other identical titles. In the UK market at least the relevant content is distinguished by a Channel 4 logo, a digit 4 constructed from 9 different solid lines. Thus:

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Channel_4_logo_2015.svg

 

[berzeli]

Still no Amazon release date? 🤔

I checked earlier today and found nothing. It's really weird, but then again Amazon has been flailing around a lot lately when it comes to Prime Video.

 

[jvm]

Amazon UK seems to have it to stream now. But we can get it free via All4 or just watch the episodes live on Channel 4.

If you do search for it, it may be difficult to distinguish it from many other identical titles. In the UK market at least the relevant content is distinguished by a Channel 4 logo, a digit 4 constructed from 9 different solid lines. Thus:

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Channel_4_logo_2015.svg

I checked earlier today and found nothing. It's really weird, but then again Amazon has been flailing around a lot lately when it comes to Prime Video.

Wait, so Amazon UK has it but not US? Sorry ... should have said that I am in the US...

Edit: Just checked and only the teaser is shown in Amazon Prime Video app. 🙁

 

[OmegaTreeFish]

Well i enjoyed episode 2 up until the end where it just face planted the floor. Not even clever hints at what happened. Ruined it really because up until then i was curious to see what was going to happen. After seeing what happens in the book from this thread i dont think that would work either. Was just nonsense.

The first episode did something similar but not as bad. A simple 'what happens next is up to you'. Frankly i found both endings somewhat lazy. A way to just do some random shit and go "you decide, thought provoking huh?". Felt super forced. That type of situation only works when set up really well like at the end of children of men or something.

Will give episode 3 a go but if it ends on a similar note i will prob drop it.

 

[Ghost_Messiah]

Not reaching its potential so far and coming across as a poor man's Black Mirror.

Don't get me wrong. I did enjoy both episodes to a certain extent and think this is well produced and competently made, but that's two completely fucked endings now with the second episode's ending being inexcusable. Without posting spoilers, it made zero sense, rendering everything that happened in the build-up pointless. Really unsatisfying.

I'll probably stick with it, since I can't see them fucking up every ending, but so far not that impressed. Black Mirror is the superior show.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

I'll be the first to raise their hand and admit that I really didn't get this week's episode :/

 

[StrawberryJam]

Third episode finished and I've got the same problems with it that I've had with the past two. They just don't have enough time to explore these ideas fully. It starts with an interesting premise then about 40 minutes in something just happens without enough context and it ends. Timothy Spall was great, there was some really good direction, but it, like the other episodes, has done nothing more than be good. Which, for me anyway, is just not good enough with the amount of quality TV out there right now.

 

[The One Who Knocks]

I enjoyed this episode more than the previous two, but it still feels like the show isn't living up to its potential which is very disappointing given the quality of everyone involved. It's competent, but it just isn't resonating with me very well.

EDIT: Speaking more about the episode itself, I think this is the first one that managed to deliver the emotional effect it aimed for, and this was largely because of the more focused/smaller story combined with some fantastic acting. It was quite blunt but it did touch on some interesting questions.

 

[Guerrillas in the Mist]

While I've enjoyed this mostly, it does make you appreciate just how good Charlie Brooker is at writing episodes of an anthology series like Black Mirror. He just gets how to squeeze as much as he can into an episode without overdoing it or wasting a scene.

 

[GavinUK86]

Again, it was another good episode, but just good. Not amazing. I really loved the story this one is based on but they really failed to capture it. I didn't like the Linda twist. She was basically, what, god? She picked and chose who could stay at Macon Heights and alter peoples realities. I feel like the writers aren't cramming enough information into these episodes. They're leaving too much open and unexplained. You can't even fall back on the ol' "PKD stories don't ever make sense and aren't ever wrapped up" because every story so far in this series was wrapped up pretty neatly by the end of the written story. Every week, it feels like the episode could do with another 30 minutes.

 

[jelly]

I'm not enjoying these stories so far. It's not holding my interest enough through an episode. Feel like I'm watching in hope.

 

[Slightly Live]

I'm not enjoying these stories so far. It's not holding my interest enough through an episode. Feel like I'm watching in hope.

This. I really liked the first but the last two was pretty terrible. In terms of quality, any series of Black Mirror just shits all over this.

I'll watch to the end though. In hope.

 

[CitizenVectron]

How did episode 2 end that everyone is so down on it?

 

[tonysidaway]

How did episode 2 end that everyone is so down on it?

Spoiler

They let their oxygen run out and die, and are somehow also rejuvenated on old Earth with its warm sunlight, trees and lakes. They have a bicycle that has the same name on the frame as the tour company.

 

[MudoSkills]

That's 0/3 for me. Same thing other people have said - doesn't take the time to explore or explain anything fully enough, which makes every twist/ending feel like it has come out of nowhere.

 

[Bits N Pieces]

That was my favourite out of the three so far but I don't know if it was mainly because of Timothy Spall. I think I've came to the realisation that none of the episodes are going to be conclusive or even be cohesive, lol and its really all about what you take from it personally.

I'm going to stick with it.

 

[wetflame]

Watched the third world today. Enjoyed it because of the more grounded setting (aside from the straight fantasy elements towards the end) and Timothy Spall's acting, although my wife turned to me at the end and said "they should have ended it without seeing who he was looking at" and I couldn't help but agree. Would have made it slightly more ambiguous (although the clues are there with the dirtier street returning) and left you thinking. Still, it was decent. Feels like this show likes to just leave an idea to stay with you over the credits rather than make a big impact like Black Mirror, with this episode leaving you wondering if his future life will have nothing but pain, and the first episode ending with the policeman's rescue uncertain. I haven't seen the second episode yet though so I may be wrong if that doesn't fit the theme.

 

[milamber182]

Episode 1 - Solid
Episode 2 - Good until the crap ending
Episode 3 - Good but could have been great as an 80-90 minute film. The character focus was better than the previous episodes. Timothy Spall the standout actor so far.

 

[berzeli]

Finally Amazon has a release date (of sorts), and you're not going to like this:

There is a trailer too. (region locked to US)

 

[tonysidaway]

I caught the very beginning of the Timothy Spall episode, then the television said the episode was not available and all attempts to persuade it to the contrary were fruitless. Perhaps that had something to do with whatever hideous thing he was doing to that used teabag. I think Channel 4 could at least have had the decency to give a warning.

 

[jesu]

Watched the third world today. Enjoyed it because of the more grounded setting (aside from the straight fantasy elements towards the end) and Timothy Spall's acting, although my wife turned to me at the end and said "they should have ended it without seeing who he was looking at" and I couldn't help but agree. Would have made it slightly more ambiguous (although the clues are there with the dirtier street returning) and left you thinking. Still, it was decent. Feels like this show likes to just leave an idea to stay with you over the credits rather than make a big impact like Black Mirror, with this episode leaving you wondering if his future life will have nothing but pain, and the first episode ending with the policeman's rescue uncertain. I haven't seen the second episode yet though so I may be wrong if that doesn't fit the theme.

I was expecting

Spoiler

his son to have murdered his wife