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.
Better than The Americans, or Orange is the New Black?
I don’t write cable off at all.
Yeah, felt exactly the same.
“a 22-minute TV story “ is the sweet spot for TV. An hour show needs much more than twice the content of one, and they try to produce hour shows for only a fraction more than a half-hour show. Heck, an hour is almost a complete movie. Lots of filler.
Like Americans very much. I was addressing sci-fi anthologies.
Uh, why flame? Are there really that many idiots?
I agree that the High Castle mini-series is better than the book. Binge-watched seseasons 1&2, then bought the book...which was big disappoint to are. Dick had great ideas, but wasn’t an Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Laumer, etc.
Let’s try this again:
I agree that the High Castle mini-series is better than the book. Binge-watched seasons 1&2, then bought the book...which was big disappoint to me. Dick had great ideas, but wasn’t an Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Laumer, etc.
The best adaptation of a P.K. Dick book is “A Scanner Darkly”
That was animated because it had to be. They took a lot of risks.
Ah, ok. I can’t think of any modern sci-fi anthologies worth watching anywhere.
The electric dream series is about the same quality level as the new outer limits series/new twilight zone series scripts. If you want a comparison to other shows similar to this.
It’s very PC. I’ve watched 3 episodes and liked the 2nd one.
The parts of “Electric Dreams” I watched, were not really worth watching. In an apparent attempt to be edgy, a bunch of gratuitous dirty sex was thrown into the mix, which rarely seems necessary to me. If I were interested in soft porn, I imagine I could find some a whole lot better than that.
I agree. The stories seem to start in the middle of the story and don’t bother to try to fill you in on what is going on. It takes about half the episode to get a idea of what the story is about and most just seem to send with no resolution...
I think the thing is that he comes up with good concepts, but the stories suck, so someone else fixes them up.
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I’d agree that PKD is heavy on concept and originality but the writing can be a jumble.
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