Posted on 01/27/2018 2:10:08 PM PST by pabianice
Amazon Productions has just released season 1 of “Electric Dreams.” Allegedly based upon Dick’s short stories and produced somewhere in Europe, it is a vastly disappointing mishmash. Badly written by screenwriters, incoherently directed, and produced apparently by people who don’t know a hologram from a hamster, it is, IMHO, the biggest Amazon TV disappointment of the year.
Amazon, which is about to release season 3 of the excellent Dick's “Man in the High Castle,” has gone way off the rails with “Electric Dreams.” How could they have screwed up this badly?
“Electric Dreams” has no understanding of scifi or of narrative fiction at all. One of the episodes, “The Commuter,” immediately reminds one of the excellent Twilight Zone episode, “A Stop at Willoughby.” But where Willoughby is tight, electric with possibilities, and about as perfect as a 22-minute TV story can be, “Commuter” is vague, uneven, and crappily written enough to leave a bad taste in the viewer’s mouth. “Kill the Other” is simply incoherent; I had no idea what was happening or why. Another wasted hour. I could go on, but you have the idea.
Phillip Dick spent his life writing some of the world’s best scifi. He died in 1982 at age 54, after writing “Do Andriods Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner), "The Adjustment Bureau," “We Can Remember it for you Wholesale” (Total Recall), and so much more. He was paid a pittance as a writer during his life (typical scifi payment in the 1950s and 60s was 1 to 3 cents a word); his estate has become very wealthy posthumously.
That thumping sound is him rolling over and over in his grave.
Shame on Amazon for producing this grating disappointment.
I enjoyed most of the High Castle series (except the Nazis on LSD episode) that I decided to read the book. The book was an unfinished mishmosh that focused way to much on the fake American antiques subplot. It was unsatisfying. The series fleshes out the book and uses the films as a macguffin to wrap it around. It works. Also, the woman who plays Julia is perfect for the part. I haven’t seen this new series, but as reading High Castle convinced me that Dick is too undisciplined a writer, I’ll pass.
I watch these during my insomniac nights.
I’m amazed how many of Philip K Dick’s books have been made into movies and series over the years as his sci-fi topics differ greatly from the usual and delve more into the speculative what-is-reality sort of theme. Some adaptations of his work have been great, like “Minority Report” or “Blade Runner” (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep). Others are more iffy like “Total Recall” (We Can Remember It for You Wholesale). Amazon has good adaptation of “Man in the High Castle” if one allows for it being a loose adaptation. I’m actually glad to see some film producers are willing to give some of these great stories a shot instead of doing the 42 installment of some comic book superhero.
I watched the entire series. There were good parts and bad parts, but mostly bad parts. Honestly, it was as if each episode was a three hour movie that they trimmed down to one hour, and removed key information regarding what was going on. I was very disappointed. But there was SOME interesting stuff.
You hit the nail on the head regarding dick. I few years ago I finally read the book on which one of my favorite movies was based, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. It is the only time in my life I thought the movie was better than the book. I was sorely disappointed.
I realized his poorest skill is coming up with titles for his works. They all seem to be complete sentences.
I think the thing is that he comes up with good concepts, but the stories suck, so someone else fixes them up.
I watched about five minutes and then they had the obligatory PC lesbian love scene so I turned it off.
PKD is fantastic. Leave it to hollywierd to screw up Dick.
There was a movie in the 80’s called Electric Dreams. It was a pretty good movie.
I just finished binge watching The The Man in the High Castle seadons 1 and 3. I thought it was marvelous. The nuanced depiction of the Japanese as being extremely cruel and dominating, but capable of honor and love reminded me of the original 47 Ronin. Made in 1942. When my wife and I watched it, it was hard to accept that a film of such beauty could have been made by the same culture that orchestrated the Bataan Death March. I am sorry to hear about Electric Dreams. I was going to watch. O well, guess I will start Seadon one of Bosch.
I, uh, ummmm *blush* nvrmnd
Is there are release date for the third season of Man in the High Castle? It’s one of the best series on in any format.
I like Black Mirror on Netflix. Twilight Zone vibe. Futuristic use of technology. I also liked ED but I admit to being only a superficial fan. I agree with the comments good and bad.
I think both of these are as good or better than cable series.
They’re just as good as later seasons of Blackmirror — which I think it tries to emulate rather than be wholly dedicated to Philip K. Dick.
Most of Philip K. Dick works deal with reality not being reality, particularly when we examine ourselves.
That’s not too tough to translate into other story lines by good script writers and directors. By the time Amazon decided to make that series almost all of PKD well known works were already committed to film.
I found the series rather boring. Love High Castle though.
it is a vastly disappointing mishmash
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