Electric Dreams

There can be no denying that on first look this episode of Electric Dreams borrows heavily from the likes of Blade Runner, Black Mirror, Children of Men... etc, but of course the source material for this provides inspiration for the aforementioned titles, and so it's get an originality pass in my book.

A key feature for me with sci-fi is the dealing with the creation of alternate universes, where key events change the course of evolution. On this front the episode succeeds within that premise. There have been many mediocre sci-fi presentations that have come and gone - set up with weaker writing and concepts, and possibly better acting (though I will give a special exception to Holliday Grainger, who put in a very good performance). If the future world is unconvincing, however, it drags the performances down. I felt it was convincing enough here.

In summary, is definitely worth a watch, and look forward to other episodes within the series - it's a short story and it's designed to make you think where the themes could possibly go within the world that's been created. And as such, it's succeeded. A test of it's success is that I'd have been quite happy seeing where the world would have progressed after the end scenes. A solid start.

I'm going into this without much knowledge of Philip K Dick and the whole Black Mirrors series (and really enjoying it). I have to say I really like this show. It has interesting stories, some could probably use a little more than 50 minutes to get a better grasp at the characters and the story to really make an impact. But with how they are, they are well done. The cast is amazing, full of well known actors and actresses. The episodes were beautifully shot, so from an aesthetic stand point, it was nice to watch. The stores are interesting sci-fi, leaving me with something to think about, rather than just thinking "well that's pretty cool." I think if you go into this not comparing it to Black Mirrors, you will enjoy it. If you compare, you will more than likely be disappointed, well, because it's not Black Mirrors. Both shows, in my opinion, are very well done, so I won't say one is better than the other. If you love sci-fi and the Twilight Zone feel, you will like this.

Philip K Dick's stories have been shown by films like Bladerunner and Minority Report to be brilliant source material to make great screen adaptations. Black Mirror has shown how great a science fiction anthology series can be. The first two episodes of Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams hint at how great the series could be.

There have been many adaptation's of P K Dick's stories into movies. The makers of Electric Dreams would do well to study those carefully. They would learn that the closer film makers stick to the spirit and intention of P K Dick the better the end product is.

Electric Dreams feels half true to the originals. As a spoiler free example of where they stray, the first two episodes change the endings of the stories. P K Dick is a master of the plot twist and the original endings are not only shocking but made you think. His signature themes make you question the nature of reality, of memory and whether people really have what they want. In the show, these themes are muted: replaced by the writers' own hackneyed ideas and messages.

The first episode looked really cheap. It could have been a cop show set in the seventies. There was no sense that it was the future. The second show was far better and looked believable as a vision of the far future. As a writer, P K Dick doesn't delve to much into how things look or the minutiae of individual's character's. There is so much space for film makers to fill with something incredible as Ridley Scott did in Bladerunner.

I'm excited to see the coming episodes and I hope there are future series. Most of all I hope the makers quickly learn that, as is shown by the first two episodes, P K Dick was a great writer and the further you veer from what he was trying to say with his stories, the weaker the adaptations will be.

Each episode is it's own sci-fi feature, and they are all acted and shot consistently and incredibly. Out of the 10 episodes, four of them for me are remembered as average plots with interesting premises (2,3,4,10), still great television but not incredibly memorable. Each of the other 6 episodes was grade A television. So good that I went to see what people had to say about it on IMDb, and then had to write a review because this show is not getting anywhere near enough credit. I think because Black Mirror, which actually got me to watch this show, has spoiled us with fantastically creative twist endings and foreshadowing. Electric Dreams is not about twist endings, its about the story itself. DON'T EXPECT TWIST ENDINGS. Just enjoy the ride through some excellent adaptations of ingenious short stories.

The episodes do not take place in the same universe and aren't all set in our own reality, and so aren't always as relatable as Black Mirror. If your'e looking to dip your toe in try episode 5 (Real Life, an action packed story of VR and dealing with grief) or episode 7 (Kill All Others, fantastically tense political tale about an everyday guy who notices something).

The Hood Maker was an episode inspired by - but very different to - the short story by Phillip K Dick but the world created on the screen was one I recognized from both Blade Runner and the many short stories Dick wrote from the 1950s onward.

It was dark but laced with a cynical, dry humour - Dick's forte - and was complex and adult - even hard to watch in places - so well done on not copping out on the darker aspects of Dick's work, even for a mass TV audience.

For those who complain about the show changing the stories (but keeping the themes), try comparing Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Blade Runner: Dick's imagination was possibly too wild for any scene-for-scene adaption of his work, as his radically different movie adaptions suggest.

Overall, I was very encouraged by the first episode and look forward to the rest of this intelligent, visually enticing series.