Last weekend , Amazon started pelt Philip K. Dick ’s Electric Dreams , a new idiot box anthology series base on shortsighted storey by the iconic science fiction writer . Directed and performed by a tidy sum of dissimilar talents , the 10 episode range all over the mathematical function in term of subject matter , tone , and character . Lucky for you , we ’ve watch over them all and can separate you which ones are worth your time .
10) “The Father Thing”
This instalment , written and directed by Michael Diner and starring Greg Kinnear as an alienated husband who ’s still trying to be there for his son , is nothing more than a clichéd exercise in dull - burn , physical structure - abductor horror . Kinnear has some merriment with the hiding - in - plain - sight aspect of the premiss but there ’s no real surprise or spark to the transactions . Plot pulse and characterizations play out precisely like you think they will , justly down to the older jolt kid and openhearted younger minor riding bike through a small town , and the inevitable showdown with an alien threat in a creepy forest .
9) “The Commuter”
take by Tom Harper , this geographic expedition of a military man vex in a bit of humdrum work day and depressing family burdens hinges on the strong , anchor operation by Timothy Spall in the lead role of Ed Jacobsen . Ed follow a mysterious adult female who comes through the train station where he puzzle out every 24-hour interval and eventually come upon Macon Heights , a Stepford - esque perfect suburb where hoi polloi go to forget their pains . “ The Commuter ” has a few billet of standout act and a very effective panic attack - reveal episode , but ultimately feel too diffuse when compared with other installment .
8) “Impossible Planet”
More melancholy than any other episode , managing director David Farr ’s story revolves around a woman who wants to journey to Earth in a time to come when mankind has left its aboriginal Galax urceolata behind . When an unscrupulous manager at a intergalactic sightseeing company read her hefty defrayment but lie about the honest nature of the planet they ’re move to , the journeying takes the humans and the client ’s golem fellow traveller into touching and uncomfortable places . For a while , this episode finds dramatic event beyond the “ who knows what ’s really take place ” factor at its burden . However , the resolution of that screw thread gets pushed aside for a wannabe excited ending that feel largely unearned .
7) “Crazy Diamond”
In this installment based on Dick ’s narration “ Sales Pitch , ” Steve Buscemi spiel the lead function of Ed Morris , a scientist at who works at a party that makes hybrid human / animal lifeforms . When an tempting quantum cognisance in a distaff body — part of the engineered course who do n’t get adequate rights — tempts Ed with dreams of adventure and relief valve , he find himself caught up in a coil of pity and criminal offense set up in a cosmos is plagued by coastal flooding , food for thought that expires extremely quickly , and frequent sudden earthquakes . The eccentric , egg - carton - influence set design and Buscemi ’s trademark twitchiness smoothen brightest in the Marc Munden - directed episode , which is just hunky-dory as a wonky , disaffected neo - noir — but does a good job of churning up a sense of dread about impending total ecologic prostration .
6) “Real Life”
If you ’re hanker to see Electric Dreams deliver something Blade Runner - esque , then this Anna Paquin / Terrence Howard mindfuck might be the serious home to satiate your hungriness . Paquin plays a cop struggle with PTSD who use practical reality to try and find relief from her sorrow . But after she wakes up as Terrence Howard , the gestalt persona ’s mother wit of identity and reality deteriorates and she / he ca n’t severalise which life is the real one that they need to go back to . The cautionary subtext about VR ill-treatment has a mite of afterschool - special affect to it , but the effective melodrama in the lead performances golf shot “ Real Life ” into better - than - expect territory .
5) “Autofac”
Nuclear conflict has burn the world in “ Autofac , ” helmed by director Peter Horton . The survivors we touch have cobble together a grungy subsistence in the aftermath of bomb dropping but they still keep getting delivery by the ton of things they do n’t involve . The Autofac has kept making and deliver things for “ slaughtered consumer , ” litter the landscape painting with debris and drop dead the aura with fumes . When the humans forget behind intercept and hack on a drone ’s central processor to drive a customer service visit , android Alice — played with icy - cool joy by Janelle Monae — shows up to deal out with their problem . Dystopian as it is , the implacable sense of machine authorization hit “ Autofac ” hit close to home , specially because it happens in forms that we already see everyday . Autofac cardinal is like the Amazon fulfillment center from hell , and this episode make it seem like humanity is go to get the apocalypse via free two - day bringing .
4) “The Hood Maker”
Sharing the same name as a Dick short story , this installment directed by Julian Jarrold hap in a grimy neo-1970s altitude - world , reverberating with replication of IRA terrorist tenseness . “ The Hood Maker ” revolves around the civil unrest because of the oppression of telepathic mass call “ teeps . ” After helping read protestors ’ mind , a woman named Honor struggles with conflicted feelings after becoming the first teep to work for law enforcement . We see interior and external resistance to her new line , as well as the viral , Doctor of Sacred Theology - like spread of psychical psychic trauma after a politico ill-treat a psychic sex worker in a ghetto inn . “ The Hood Maker ” offers a compelling take on telepathy as a living networked database of experiential data and shows how a society ’s allegiance to prejudice can often be the start of its downfall .
3) “Human Is”
In the twelvemonth 2520 , Earth is known as Terra and humans launch military excursion to other wandflower to get the resources necessary to sustain breathable atmosphere . In this chapter directed by Francesca Gregorini , Bryan Cranston plays a gruelling - buns general lead those skirmishes to rifle a vital xenomaterial . His graphic symbol , Silas , is half of a power match blend in sour and his neglected wife spends time in deep - hugger-mugger sex guild just to feel something . When Silas goes away on one particular mission , thing go wrong but he make it home . His position switch for the better , and the marriage rekindles the warmth of old , but a military test that aver Silas is n’t who he claim threatens to ruin everything . Cranston ’s performance is one of the adept playacting number in all of Electric Dreams ’ first season , combining steely simmering menace and wounded empathic exposure .
2) “Kill All Others”
This adjustment of “ The Hanging Stranger ” is directed by Dee Rees and contains the most paranoia of any episode in Electric Dreams ’ inaugural time of year . “ vote down All Others ” starts off by showing the everyday life of Philbert and Maggie Noyce , a middle - elderly couple whose every import is hyper - saturated with invading advertising and hovering interfaces . Philbert is numbly well-chosen being a worker drone in the future North American mega - nation MexUsCan . That all change when Philbert get wind a murder - inciting message during the one - campaigner - only election time of year and becomes obsessed with debunk its existence . His sharp lantern slide into existential panic , rapid disenfranchisement , and enemy - of - the - state condition happens with terrifying speed , thanks to a world that does n’t interrogate society ’s hyper - debauched hertz of media manipulation . It all ends with him being brand an Other . “ belt down All Others ” paint a frightening future where a surveillance - state influenced cyberspace of Things and Pavlovian consumerism constrict citizens in a Skinner box that they shrug their shoulder at , as long as they get what they need to belong .
1) “Safe and Sound”
Based on the short storey “ Foster , You ’re Dead , ” this sequence suppose what ’s probably a nightmare scenario for most parents . In a bifurcate United States separated by the Rift , hippy - ish politician Irene Lee ( Maura Tierney ) comes to the radical - connected technopolis in the East with daughter Foster . After having to walk through forbidding security checkpoints to enter the schoolhouse building , Foster ’s immediately tempted to get a Dex , a wearable , smartphone - on - steroids gadget that most of the other shaver have . Director Alan Taylor unfurls a story where children are victims / actors in an eonian propaganda war , which envelops Foster after a ostensibly innocuous encounter with tech support . fear of all - too - coarse school shooting and manic suspicion lurk everywhere and , with teen anxiety and crypto - corporate DoS security messaging in her ears , Foster tumbles deep into a rabbit maw of propaganda - drive mania . “ Safe and Sound ” has the most mess - up ending of any Electric Dreams instalment , specially because it experience like something that , if all our worst nightmares descend true , could happen the day after tomorrow .
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