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

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.

Worth reading the book tho??

The book has a beginning, middle, and an end, which already puts it well ahead of the series. Plus, if you've watched some, you won't be as confused by Gibson's drop-you-in-cold style.

I finished the book last week and quite enjoyed it, though the climax is a bit lackluster (won't spoil why). I found the writing took a moment to get used to, as well: Gibson changed his to terse, subject-dropping sentences ala James Ellroy. For example, rather than writing "Flynne woke up, walked over to the computer and turned it on," it's now "Flynne woke up. Walked to the computer, turned it on". (I haven't read the Blue Ant trilogy, so maybe that change predates The Peripheral.)

He’s always had a taste for the hard-boiled

i notice there's a TV company called Blue Ant now, caught their logo on the end of something

One more episode so I’ll finish it but this hasn’t seemed bad-bad to me, just aggressively mediocre.

Thought the Blue Ant books had many more interesting ideas of the near-future than these two, and probably better for TV… but they wouldn’t require a massive CGI budget so less likely to get a green light.

I enjoyed this? I thought visually the wordbuilding looked awesome. Wasnt massively invested in Flynne's family and they were way too sketchy explaining their backstory for too long, but yeah it was fine to me. Not a huge amount ended up happening but re the book's "beginning, middle and end" - cmon this is a 1st season. Why does everyone expect everything to happen all at once these days.

There are some dumb holes - the haptics are so strong Flynn's brother almost killed a guy because of a slight against someone else 15 years ago, they're constantly aware of each other... but when one dies violently they don't know unless they check (also yeah, one guard when they know someone wants them dead enough to send a super assassin).

maybe the haptics need an upgrade after 15 years

Watched all of it over the past week here. Now I haven't read the book yet (don't give me grief, I can't get to everything), but while parts of it were annoying/frustrating, I kinda appreciated it as an ominous mood piece at its best (the credits music helped in that regard). The fact that the local US crime lord guy was like an elevated Ben Gazzara from Road House did amuse me a bit, but also meant I couldn't entirely take that whole arc seriously; I kept waiting for him to throw a full pool party. I guess I'm also aware of enough general tropes and used to imaginative fiction in general that whatever I didn't quite catch or understand as it went I handwaved.

Disappointing ending - instead of trying to fight back against the silo attack I'll just... make one of my two friends in the world execute me and let my mother think I'm dead for the last week of her life?

Given that she'll be walking around future London in the same body, I don't know if that's a particularly effective camouflage from the RI.

We didn't actually see her get shot so....

the ending was so puzzling and vague as to what's going on it was probably intended to be a big teaser for the next season but I just found it dissatisfying

I felt like it was meant to be vague in case there is no Second Season

also a strong possibility!

I had to concentrate REALLY hard to get what was happening in that last ep!
- she realises she and her stub are for the chop
- her solution is to use some kind of portal to... make a new stub and jump into it?
- leave old body in initial stub, get shot to throw off Cherise and her goons
- but wait how does all this work if her body's dead, what is piloting the body in the new stub halp?!

Addendum: is it the new stub's version of herself? Oh god this is convoluted.

it's kind of a mess

there isn't stub-hopping, at least not in the book. the only thing that they could really do is contact a completely different Flynne earlier in the timeline and explain the whole thing to a different version of her

This is the kind of bullshit you get when you get the Westworld people involved. Next season we'll get a whole bunch of "but what about the peripheral's emotions?" crap, probably.

- but wait how does all this work if her body's dead, what is piloting the body in the new stub halp?!

I guess the assumption is that her consciousness can live forever in the future in her robot - but they spent two episodes earlier talking about how the guy with no legs would have to be in a medically induced coma forever to do that.

I still maintain that they ran out of Westworld ideas after two seasons and just started reusing other plot scraps they had laying around. There's an entire season that seemed more like a spinoff of Person of Interest

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...