THE PERIPHERAL - our stub contemplates the Jonathan Nolan/Lisa Joy show based on the book by William Gibson

Lol, I found it pretty entertaining as OTT diabolical bad guy stuff

I kind of wish they’d left the Jackpot thing fuzzier, too. Throwing specific events in really isn’t necessary right now, I’d think, after the last few years demonstrating how emergent events can go sideways

execution by bee scene was quite effective in telling you exactly who this character is

there are two kinds of people in the world

those who execute people with bees and those who are executed by bees

what was the point of flynne being present for the eye thing? couldn’t aelita say “hey, this is going to be pretty intense, log off for a few hours”?

there are two kinds of people in the world

― TWELVE Michelob stars?!? (seandalai), Sunday, November 6, 2022 6:38 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

those who execute people with bees and those who are executed by bees

― Tracer Hand

Type A personalities

And

Type Bee personalities

I liked the way this episode didn't force the plot forward, just people doing stuff, bit of a reveal or two. Also appreciated how they didn't even attempt to explain the intertemporal hacker battle (who was that guy anyway?).

― TWELVE Michelob stars?!? (seandalai), Sunday, 6 November 2022 18:46 (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink/

This week kind of the same, but replace unexplained hacker battle with unexplained martial arts skills (maybe peripherals come with preinstalled fighting software?)

Presumably she’s spent years playing VR-ish martial arts fighting games and was able to adapt that to peripheral-existence. A good fight scene - as was the bridge scene.

This show is dumb as fuck

yeah it started out on a good note but this last episode is just dumb as shit, why are they wasting half the episode on this obnoxious hit man bullshit it's trash

This sounds intriguing but I can’t trust it with my time after Westworld

It's simultaneously more approachable than Westworld or Expanse, whilst having even more unnecessarily convoluted lore behind it than those productions.

Feels more warmly human, I guess. Of these shows I think I like Peripheral better, if only because it has some likable people in it. I guess I am a softy.

One can root for Flynne, Wilf, or Burton in a way you never quite could for Dolores, Bernard, or Maeve.

Probably the show will find a way to kick me in the emotional nads, now that I have said that. It's 2022; I should know by now that we don't get heartwarming entertainment anymore.

Expanse had nothing but likable people!

Purple bass face

So many of the changes from the novel—Cherise, Wilf as a fixer, Pickett as a Stephen King baddie rather than a Justified one—seem primarily to re-center this as an action thriller. But it’s not as though Gibson’s work is lacking in action! It just tends to be more low-key, dismissed in a few sentences. I began the novel after the second episode and it’s really made me think less of the show, though I still do like elements. I feel as though I know exactly where this is going, though: peripheral gun-fu fights that culminate in Flynne et al preventing the nuke/jackpot in their stub in traditional action movie style.

Expanse had nothing but likable people!

― dan selzer, Sunday, November 13, 2022 8:27 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Marco had a certain charisma but was definitely not likable imo

oh yeah, I meant the good guys.

All these future weirdos are great, although they kind of make me hate Wilf because his whole job seems to be hanging around looking emo while everyone else does crazy future shit. It was kind of hilarious how he just kind of hung back and watched while Flynne was having a massive matrix kung fu session with the two chop shop people.

I would have liked the future butchers run simulations of the fight which only they can see and then give up immediately based on the projected outcome while Flynn is cycling in a mortal kombat stance waiting for something to happen while saying, "whut's goin oannn y'alll? awr y'aalll gunna fahhyiiit ur whuuuut?"

I think Wilf hung back because if he gets stabbed he actually dies, Flynne just gets whomped back into the present and they have to make a new future peripheral for her

I mean, it makes sense, but it's also just unusual how passive his character is throughout most of the show, I sense there's going to be a big reveal about him and some secret powers.

Dude is passive, yes, but he remains an emotional center. I like his soulful puppy-dog eyes and the way his shirt and tie are the same fabric.

There are a lot of unpleasant things about the show but Wilf is not one of them.

I do not want to see him do a heel turn.

All these future weirdos are great, although they kind of make me hate Wilf because his whole job seems to be hanging around looking emo while everyone else does crazy future shit. It was kind of hilarious how he just kind of hung back and watched while Flynne was having a massive matrix kung fu session with the two chop shop people.

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Saturday, November 19, 2022 12:53 PM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Read the books. In Pheripheral he is this, in Agency you can feel him starting to evolve. We’ll see about book 3

(I haven’t seen any of this show and am not sure I need to)

this is about the show where Wilf is kind of an Alelita simp and is now a Flynne simp lol

I binged the first four episodes and kinda had a handle on what was happening in this show. But then I left two weeks go by before I watched eps 5 & 6 and apparently I retained nothing from the initiate binge because I have no idea what is happening in this show.

I feel what makes this show bad but digestibly bad vs the book which is presumably good (I couldn't make it past a few chapters) but indigestibly good is the complicated plot and boring protagonists are only there as a backdrop for other characters to do some increasingly hammy mustache-twirling. This last episode really amped it up in that department!

The florid dialoue between Lowbeer and her assistant and then Lowbeer and Zublov, was a wee bit overdone, like some kind of hammy verbal ballet. I'm enjoying this show all that said, if a little confused at times by the plot (I like they dont handhold the audience though I guess?).

And that whole "eat my damn roast beef it is delicious and you will like it" was stupid.

the roast beef is people

(I was thinking this but I do not believe it was actually people)

It was hot, the night we burned roast beef till it was the color of television…

i also left it too long to watch the last ep or two and can't remember what a koid or neoprim or whatever else named people are

Polts and kleps and sims, oh my!

If I was watching correctly they barely explained neoprims and koids not at all.

Not yet, no. Probably this week.

Neoprims seems to be like... luddites? Am I right?

The book is slow to kick off because Gibson does that for like 150 pages, introduces terms and names and gives you no explanation at all for any of them

I’m going to drop this show. Another gratuitous action sequence, more time spent on dull characters like Tommy and the assassin. Despite being the protagonist, Flynne doesn’t get to do much. And so many plot conveniences: why didn’t their monitoring drones catch the assassin waiting out? Why have a single dude escort the mom after last week’s attack? A rural clinic in drug country without security? Hell, a drug lord didn’t have at least one goon in the house with the prisoner and his wife?

I recall reading press before the show that Gibson had a lot of support for the adaptation, loved it, etc., but you gotta figure that’s just "getting behind the product”; I can’t imagine him watching this and thinking, “Yes, this gets to the essence of my novel." I guess even Stephen King has to wait a few years before saying, "this sucked" re: adaptations.

The beat-em-up sim was utterly pointless but idk otherwise it was the same show it's been: inscrutable characters who know more than we do, blank slates who know less than we do, a ~~mystery~~, big statues.

I can’t even believe people made it to ep whatever— after the first three, we stopped watching. Utterly stupid, and we like stupid tv shows in this house.

Yeah I think I made it to ep 3

I'm definitely not loving it. It is making me want to re-read the book, though, from a "I remember liking this...maybe I should re-check my conclusions" perspective.

would be up for a list of stupid tv recommendations from tables (or anyone else)

would be up for a list of stupid tv recommendations from tables (or anyone else)

Ever watched Banshee? It's streaming through HBO Max now. (CW: a whole fuckin' lot of blood. Also some incest.)

another HBO Max show we love that is very stupid is Wellington Paranormal, which is about two idiot cops investigating paranormal events in New Zealand. horrible dad jokes and that kind of thing.

as i’ve gotten older, i’ve discovered that the 25 minute sitcom is one if my preferred viewing lengths/ experiences. funny enough, one of my other favorites is the long, drawn-out, molasses pacing of many art films. feathers or stones, i guess.

wellington paranormal is the best!

ty will check out

Having watched the season finale I am going to wall off this stub and go back to the one in which only the book exists.

I kinda checked out of this series, it threw loads of interesting ideas at me at the start and I feel it petered out a bit, too much of the 'kill all the level bosses' type stuff. Worth reading the book tho??

Evidently had already been lost/not paying attention, but totally didn't realise that last week's was the final episode?! Quite enjoyed the first four or five, but then it just squandered any promise or momentum it had.

I think the idea is:
- Create a new stub that branches off the old stub
- New Flynne has the same memories as Old Flynne up to the branching point, so she generally knows what's up
- Old Flynne gets shot, is dead
- Sharice realises there's no point blowing up the old stub because Old Flynne is dead (and the old stub still has value for the RI). Sharice knows there is a new stub with a New Flynne but doesn't know where it is so can't mess with it.

that's the best I can do at least, may be totally wrong

ooh a stub off a stub, that’s a wrinkle (in time and space)

I think the now-destroyed stub map may have had one of those

I'm still going with old Flynne isn't actually dead. It's nearly an unbreakable TV rule that an implied death with no body will be a fake out.

they sent back the files to 3D print a peripheral in 2032 maybe and that's what got shot?

it wasn't a stub of her stub, she started the new one before her friend got Lt. Danned (2028 IIRC)

NONE OF THIS IS HELPING lol

none of it is worth watching either, tbf

did you ever find out why the roads are glossy and transparent in the future?

Isn't a lot of that just AR sort of stuff?

So I'm reading the book. About 10% of the plot has been translated to the TV show but so much is different - does the show cover any later books in this series?

If I was watching correctly they barely explained neoprims and koids not at all.

About 95% of the way through the book they finally explain what e.g. 'Homes' means that they have been using throughout - obv you can guess but it's kind of lol he then bothers to set it out.

There's only been one more (Agency) in the series, it's not touched at all in the show (and wouldn't make much sense as season 2 with the way they handled things).

If nothing else, this show is kind of great for its costuming -- future fashion that actually looks like fashion.

Renewed:

https://gizmodo.com/prime-video-peripheral-s2-chloe-grace-moretz-sci-fi-1850094151

Glad they renewed. Enjoyed season 1 and plenty more to explore.

...then again:

https://deadline.com/2023/08/the-peripheral-canceled-unrenewed-season-2-strikes-amazon-1235454772

In retrospect, perhaps it's for the best.

now if they would just cancel the jackpot as well...