The Peripheral premieres worldwide on Prime Video on October 20th.
Surprisingly, author William Gibson’s cyberpunk noir hasn’t been adapted in abundance for film or television. He certainly is difficult inspired some seminal sci-fi films like The Matrix and Strange World. But Prime Video’s series of The Peripheral, based on Gibson’s book of the same name, is the first direct adaptation by executive producers Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy and Vincenzo Natali. An intricate story set in the near future years of 2032 and 2070, it explores how technology is amplified as a conduit for war, atrocities, connections and perhaps the salvation of the human species. Despite being skillfully produced with top-notch graphics, The Peripheral sags under the weight of a story with too many storylines to follow that aren’t that compelling and a criminally sluggish pace.
If anyone is qualified enough to bring Gibson’s style of futuristic sci-fi storytelling to the big screen, Nolan, Joy and Natali certainly deserve the right to try. Nolan contributed person of interestwhile Joy directed reminiscence and Natali directed episodes of Hannibal, The strainand western world. You know their high-end sci-fi, half of which The Peripheral fits into its 2070 storytelling. The other half is set in a small rural town in Canton in 2032. That’s where the Fisher family lives. Siblings Flynne (Chloë Grace Moretz) and Burton (Jack Reynor) take care of their blind mother on a meager salary. She works in a small 3D printing shop and he is a military veteran who plays VR SIM games for money or beta testing. However, Flynne is better at it and often uses his name/avatar to earn the money to buy Mom’s expensive uninsured medicine. In this scenario, she beta tests new technologies and software that transport her to the future London, where she is guided by the voice of Aelita (Charlotte Riley) to complete tasks in remarkably realistic environments. One of these missions is near-fatal and places a real bounty on Flynne/Burton.
They are eventually contacted by Wilf Netherton (Gary Carr) and Lev Zubov (JJ Feild), who actually exist in 2070 London and, for reasons that will later be revealed, need Flynne’s help in finding Aelita. Only interested in making enough money to take care of their mother for free and clearly, an agreement is reached to scratch each other’s backs. And of course that doesn’t work. With the storyline swinging back and forth between 2032 and 2070, the series covers both the broad view of how machinations in 2070 are key to humanity’s survival, the information Aelita possesses, and the micro view of the family’s drama Fisher in her remote small town.
On paper there is an interesting story here about the dangers of our future selves trying to use technology to redeem themselves from the mistakes of the past and the equalizer technology may be due to economic limitations and classicism in SIMS scenarios are semi-arguable, as evidenced by the abilities of the Fisher siblings. But alas, even after the initially impressive production design and special effects, the series is more boring than breathtaking. The episodes are way too long, all averaging over an hour, meaning the storytelling is sloppy rather than driving. There is a lot of of scenes with characters conversing in cars or on the city streets or at the dinner table, but it’s never balanced with sustained suspense, suspense or breathtaking action. There are occasional bursts of the latter here and there, but otherwise it’s exceptionally chatty, with a host of 2070 actors munching the scenery while delving into the big book of British accents. Only Carr does well, giving the most understated and sensitive performance of the future ensemble.
Carr also has good chemistry with Moretz, but overall she seems a bit underfit for the demands of the role. As Flynne, she doesn’t have the presence to switch back and forth between her everyday Canton selves and the pride and charisma they lack during their London stints. She plays Flynne in a gang, which adds to the overall overwhelming energy that the series can’t seem to overcome. The writers’ commitment to telling the Canton stories equally doesn’t help, either, because this portion of the show plays like a small-town soap opera, complete with a local drug tycoon storyline and the individual stories of Burton’s comrades trying to get into them navigating post-military careers. They’re kind of interesting, but not in comparison to the more melodramatic and visually grandiose future London stories. They don’t live well next to each other.
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The show is also icy slow when it comes to revealing any information or mythology that would be helpful in picking up the overall pace. Tighter editing and a commitment to communicating the overarching goals of Flynne and the 2070 contingent would have greatly helped the series. At the end of Episode 6, it feels like what eventually happens should have come three episodes earlier. And worse, there’s not much value in knowing what’s coming next.
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