GenXer

As a fan of ambitious sci-fi, I was intrigued by The Congress and its blend of Hollywood satire and dystopian philosophy. The film starts strong with a fascinating premise: actress Robin Wright (playing herself) is offered a deal to digitize her likeness, letting the studio use her image forever while she steps away from acting. This first act is gripping, grounded, and eerily relevant, poking at the entertainment industry's obsession with youth and control. It's a sharp look at what it means to "sell" your identity in an age of CGI and deepfakes.

But about a third of the way in, the movie takes a wild left turn into a surreal, animated dystopia inspired by Stanislaw Lem's The Futurological Congress. Suddenly, we're in a world where people escape reality through drugs that plunge them into a shared hallucination. The visuals are stunning-think psychedelic cartoons meets philosophical fever dream-but it feels like a completely different film. The shift is so jarring that I struggled to stay invested.

The movie tries to tie these two halves together with the idea of surrendering identity, whether to a studio or a drug-induced fantasy. It's a clever concept on paper, but the execution feels forced, like two separate stories mashed together. Robin's emotional arc, especially her search for her son, is meant to bridge the gap, but it gets lost in the chaotic second half. I admire the ambition, and the themes of reality, escapism, and commodification are thought-provoking, but the tonal whiplash left me disoriented.

Visually, the animated sequences are a highlight, and Wright's performance carries the film through its rough patches. Still, I can't help but wonder what could've been if the story had stuck with one idea or found a smoother way to blend the two. The Congress is bold and brainy, but it's more admirable than cohesive. Worth a watch for sci-fi fans who don't mind a messy ride.

Black Mirror is supposed ot be insightful dark comedy.

Is this episode insightful? Very much so. It shows how marketing tactics that monopolies use to gouge their customers can spill over to critical areas like medicine and healthcare -- thanks to modern technology.

Is it dark? This episode is DARK! Pretty much nothing good happens in it anywhere ... which brings us to ...

Is it comedy? HELL NO! The appeal of Black Mirror has always been its knack for presenting absurd possibilities in a way that creates a sense of wonder with a nod and a wink that leaves the audience chuckling, at least inside. This episode doesn't make you chuckle. It makes you cringe. It is NOT a fun episode to watch.

No, this isn't Black Mirror. It's a depressing tragedy that could have used a rewrite.

This was not meant to be a mini-series, but a series.

The original RMPM was groundbreaking television and the reason why so many restaurants are closed on Mondays even today. Monday nights were "Rich Man Poor Man night", and people stayed home to watch the mini-series since very few people had VCRs back then, and recording shows was not a common option.

After the mini-series, the producers saw an opportunity for a steady stream of cash from an open-ended series. They offered Peter Strauss more money than he thought he would ever be able to make in his life, which he of course accepted. They made the same offer to Susie Blakely, but she declined because she believed she was destined for movie stardom. She did accept to appear in the two-hour pilot on the condition that her character be killed off in the first hour!

The ratings of Book II were consistently good but not great. Production costs were very high since they had hired the very best writing talent and had them working around the clock. By the middle of the first season, it was becoming obvious that the ratings were simply not strong enough to justify the costs. The audience missed Julie Prescott / Susie Blakely and just couldn't get used to Maggie Porter / Susan Sullivan. Bringing back Kay Lenz as Kate Jordache and making her part of a love traingle with Rudy didn't lift the ratings. So they wrapped up the story toward the end of the season 1 and repackaged the whole thing as a second mini-series.

The legacy of Book II, though, was that it became a template for prime time soap operas. Dallas premiered a year later, and they were off to the races.

Interestingly, there was a plan for a Book III with major production redesign. This one would be more of a police drama vs. Soap opera. Rudy will have survived the gunfight with Falconetti, but he leaves the senate to become the Director of the CIA. The show was supposed to be about him leading an agency to battle terrorism. All networks hated the concept and refused to pick it up. But the creators hung on to the idea and made it into a TV movie called Under Siege a decade later. Peter Strauss returns but legally they were not allowed to make any references to RMPM since ABC owned the rights and the TV movie was produced by NBC. That said, the character that Strauss plays is clearly Rudy Jordache, by another name. That TV movie was meant as a pilot for a new show which was never made.