Dreaming ELECTRIC DREAMS

Article first published as TV Review: ELECTRIC DREAMS on Seat42F.

Amazon has joined the sci-fi anthology trend with PHILLIP K. DICK’S ELECTRIC DREAMS, which premiered yesterday. Each installment of the ten-episode season is based on a different novel or short story by the prolific author. The writers and directors are given wide latitude to adapt the source material as they see fit. A strong roster of actors rotate through the various parts, which have different running times, but are generally between 40 and 50 minutes, so about the length of an hour-long drama sans commercials.

I viewed the first two installments in preparation for this review. “Real Life” finds a future cop named Sarah (Anna Paquin, True Blood) dealing with the aftermath of a massacre. Her wife, Katie (Rachelle Lefevre, Under the Dome), suggests a VR ‘vacation’ to live out another life that her own mind makes up. Sarah accepts, and finds herself in the past from her perspective (roughly our present) as George (Terrence Howard, Empire). George recently, tragically, lost his wife, Katie (also Lefevre), and has invented a VR headset to escape into. But what quickly becomes confusing to Sarah/George as she/he goes back and forth is, which is the real world and which is the dream?

Episode two, “Autofac,” is set in a post-apocalyptic landscape where the surviving humans are being killed off by pollution from the still-running factories. Emily (Juno Temple, Vinyl) and her friends concoct a plan to contact the artificial intelligence running the factory, which sends a customer service bot (Janelle Monae, Moonlight) to meet with them. Will Emily’s plan to shut down the machines work? Or has the Autofac out-thought her every move?

Both of these are entertaining, if dark, installments. They have high-quality concepts that mess with one’s mind and have one guessing the nature of reality. Some of the twists you may see coming, but certainly not all of them. Written by Ronald D. Moore (Outlander, Battlestar Galactica) and Travis Beacham (Pacific Rim) respectively, they make these ideas understandable, couched in relatable characters who are also complex. They also look visually stunning, especially the future parts of “Real Life,” which features flying cars and giant, electronic advertisements.

And yet, ELECTRIC DREAMS is no Black Mirror. It’s hard to put my finger on why exactly it falls short by comparison to today’s defining sci-fi anthology series, which recently released a fourth season on Netflix. Both are similar in makeup and the talent behind them. But ELECTRIC DREAMS just seems a little less cohesive, a little more quickly done, and little cheaper, for lack of a better word.

Perhaps they shouldn’t be held up against one another, as similar as they may be, because there are important differences, and with short seasons, there are room for both. It’s a pleasure to get so much quality science fiction in this era, and no one need choose between the two. Though, if you had to, I think it’s a pretty clear choice in Black Mirror’s favor.

Perhaps because the writers are reigned in a bit by having to go off of Dick’s works, as brilliant as they are, it gives them a little less room be imaginative. That may not be the real issue; I’m really having trouble figuring out what the difference is. That’s just the only thing I can think of that would change the approach in how these stories are told.

Still, it’s not like ELECTRIC DREAMS is bad. I am interested enough to see what other concepts are explored. I just don’t think it will be giving its peer a run for it’s money at the top of the heap.

PHILLIP K. DICK’S ELECTRIC DREAMS is available now on Amazon, free to Prime members.

WAYWARD PINES a Murky Place

Article originally published as WAYWARD PINES Review at Seat42F.

Carla Gugino & Matt Dillon Wayward Pines

 

WAYWARD PINES, premiering this week on FOX, is the story of a Secret Service agent who, while looking into the appearance of two fellow agents, becomes trapped in a mystery-laden town. Produced by M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) and based on the book series by Blake Crouch, it’s a dense thriller that poses far more questions than it answers, at least initially.

My first impression is that Wayward Pines is trying too hard. The pilot, “Where Paradise Is Home,” rips off the beginning of Lost; you’ll know immediately what I’m talking about when you see it. Except, instead of being set on an untethered island or trapped under a dome (like CBS’ Under The Dome, which it will compete with this summer), it takes place in the small town of Wayward Pines, Idaho – a place that is completely isolated in a valley, cut off from the rest of the world. So yeah, it’s just like those other two, at least in this one regard.

Our hero is Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon, Sunlight Jr., Wild Things), and “Where Paradise Is Home” revolves around him, telling a disjointed, nonlinear story. He’s married to a woman named Theresa (Shannyn Sossamon, Mistresses), but cheated on her with his former partner, Kate (Carla Gugino, Entourage, Watchmen), who shows up where you might not expect her. Almost immediately, he makes a connection with a bartender named Beverly (Juliette Lewis, Secrets and Lies, Christmas Vacation), so I guess perhaps hero is too strong a word. Let’s just call him the protagonist.

What does any of that have to do with the story? Well, something. There’s a Truman Show-esque twist that ties Ethan’s messy love life into the town, but to what end, I have no idea. Nor do I know why someone says Beverly isn’t really a bartender, nor why Nurse Pam (Melissa Leo, Treme, The Fighter) acts in such a sinister manner, nor why Sheriff Pope (Terrence Howard, Empire, Iron Man) won’t help, nor why Reed Diamond (Franklin & Bash, Moneyball) has been cast as a toymaker. The only thing that makes much sense is Toby Jones (Captain America) playing a psychiatrist, which seems perfectly natural.

I love dense, genre mystery shows. If you give me a solid cast and a well-thought out story, I couldn’t possibly be any happier watching television. I’m much more reticent to jump into WAYWARD PINES than others of its ilk, though. Part of it is that they are selling themselves as a “Twin Peaks-like” drama and stealing so much from other stories along the way. Now, some of that may come from the book; I haven’t read it so I don’t know. But the way the program is presented doesn’t even feel like those involved are trying to do something new.

It also concerns me to see the cast list. They’re almost universally strong performers, so that makes me think perhaps I should give the material a chance. But part of being so strong is that many of them have other jobs on currently running shows. Wayward Pines season one is announced to be only ten episodes, and presumably, subsequent seasons could be equally short to allow scheduling to work out. I just can’t see all of these people agreeing to stretch themselves so thin over any extended period of time, though.

WAYWARD PINES has a lot of good ingredients. The question will be, did the chefs take some liberty with the recipe, tossing in the unique spices that will make it a fresh and delicious dish (like Lost), or did they follow the book exactly, making something bland and derivative (like Under The Dome)? The answer to this will be what makes or breaks this show.

WAYWARD PINES premieres Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on FOX.

EMPIRE Crumbles Under Scrutiny

Article first published as EMPIRE Review on Seat42F.

Do you like the idea of ABC’s Nashville, but aren’t a fan of country music? If so, FOX’s EMPIRE, premiering this week, might just be for you. A similar structure, a soap opera-style drama set in the music scene, with natural performances interspersed but no spontaneous bursting into song, is the format. EMPIRE goes for the hip-hop world, though, and keeps the plot more concentrated with a five-member family at its heart.

Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard, Law & Order: LA, Iron Man) is a former criminal, now the head of a major record label that he plans to take public. He’s also secretly dying, so he begins looking to his three sons to figure out who to groom as his successor. There’s Andre (Trai Byers, Selma), the businessman married to a white woman, who seems the natural choice, but Lucious thinks the company might need a more artistic figurehead. Hakeem (newcomer Bryshere Gray) is going to be a big music star, so he might give Andre some competition. The dark horse in the race is Jamal (Jussie Smollett, On Our Own, The Mighty Ducks), who is musically talented, but uninterested in the spotlight, and, much to his father’s disappointment, gay.

Of course, EMPIRE needs plenty of drama, not just a singular through-line, so enter Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson, Person of Interest, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). Ex-wife of Lucious, she helped found the company before spending the past decade-plus behind bars, likely for something they were both connected to. She re-enters the scene determined to win her rightful place in the EMPIRE (sic), and thinks Jamal is the way to do it, positioning the middle child against his younger brother, Hakeem.

There are multiple layers to every character, albeit not necessarily interesting ones. We see much of Lucious’s shame concerning Jamal in flashback, but Cookie may not be as accepting as she pretends to be, with selfish motives only for now in line with her motherly instincts. The boys don’t want to fight amongst themselves, but it’s easy to pick at old battles and reignite them. Andre’s wife, Rhonda (Kaitlin Doubleday, Catch Me If You Can), smells money and power and wants both. Cookie feels jilted since Lucious has moved on with Anika Gibbons (Grace Gealey). An old business partner (Malik Yoba, Alphas) may find his loyalty shifting.

It’s convoluted and cheesy. EMPIRE presents the glitz and glamor of the record industry as it once was (before its current downslide), while also keeping the thug life alive, and allowing the grittiness of the characters’ pasts to come to the forefront. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do any of this all that well, feeling like a repeat of so many other efforts, paling by comparison, and even sticking the always-wonderful Gabourey Sidibe (Precious, The Big C) in a recurring role doesn’t save it.

For me, part of the turn-off is this particular style of music, which isn’t my favorite (yes, I know that’s going to earn me some mean-spirited comments, but it’s true). However, a bigger disappointment is the lack of character development and thin story, which are also the reasons I stopped watching Nashville.

There is an argument to be made that African Americans deserve more representation on television, and that’s a valid point. But they also deserve better fare than EMPIRE, very much a black copy of an existing white show. If one wants to delve into subject matter like this, I wish a stronger voice shone through. Or you can just watch Starz’s Survivor’s Remorse, which contains many of the same themes and is a far superior program, smartly written. For music in this genre, well, this is your only real option on the small screen right now, so maybe you’ll want to watch this.

EMPIRE premieres Wednesday, January 7th on FOX.