Following the success ofThe Man in the High Castle, Amazon continues to make good on their adaptations ofPhilip K. Dick’s acclaimed works. Now, the late sci-fi author finally gets his name in a title withPhilip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams. That name recognition is important considering that Dick’s futuristic-to-the-point-of-being-prophetic science-fiction has inspired some of the most iconic movies and TV shows in recent history, likeBlade Runner,Minority Report,Total RecallandA Scanner Darklyto name a few. Now, Amazon’s excellent anthology series brings some of Dick’s lesser-known works to life in fantastic fashion.
If you’re a fan of the sci-fi aesthetic ofBlack Mirrorbut could do without the series' overwhelming bleakness, or would just prefer the rare story where technology isn’t out to kill us, thenElectric Dreamsis for you. The series should also make its way onto your watch-list if you appreciate high-quality production value, top-tier acting talent, and an award-winning selection of writers and directors;Electric Dreamshas it all. And while it’s a perfectly binge-worthy series, I’d recommend taking your time with it, watching each episode with a friend or loved one (or online community) in order to take some time out of your schedule to mull it over and discuss it after the fact. The contemplative subject matter, how it fits into our timeline and reality, and what we can learn from it are prime examples of what makes Dick’s writing so relevant. This is whereElectric Dreamsexcels.
Where it falls just a tad short is in the decision to over-explain each episodes' internal plot and mythology at the end of the tale. There are a few exceptions to this in the 10-episode run, but most of the stories feature an end-cap of exposition and montage that undercut the otherwise smart writing.Electric Dreamswould be better served trusting their audience a bit more and allowing the conversations to continue well after the episodes end. However, the series' variety of story, themes, and mood, coupled with an incredible cast and high-quality world-building makeElectric Dreamsa must-watch for any sci-fi fan worth their salt.
Rating: ★★★★★ Excellent
You can stream the entire season ofElectric Dreamson Amazon now. For a ranking of the series' 10 episodes, along with some minorspoilers(though I’ll keep them minimal), keep reading below in the order from “worst” to first.
Crazy Diamond
“Crazy Diamond” only loosely adapts this tale, opting to replace robot salesmen with chimeric humans known as Jacks and Jills. One such Jill, played bySidse Babett Knudsen, seduces a worker (Steve Buscemi) at one such facility that produces synthetic humans, eventually involving his wife (Julia Davis) in a high-risk, high-reward scheme that threatens to erode their marriage’s already unstable foundation.
The degree of translation from story to screen in each of these episodes varies quite a bit; some are about as direct a translation as you can get while others, like “Crazy Diamond” take Dick’s core idea in wild new directions. The results vary, with some episodes improving on Dick’s somewhat outdated ideas and others bringing his vision to life word for word. In this particular episode, the strengths are the outright weirdness present throughout, complemented by a bold choice of color scheme that ranges from bright pastels to washed-out atmospherics. Music also comes through strong in this hour, though anything beyond superficial meanings as far as the story is concerned escapes me. But in spite of all that weirdness, like chimeric pig people and a super-friendly trash man, “Crazy Diamond” is just kind of boring and ultimately doesn’t say all that much.
These next five episodes are so close together in their quality that it’s tough to rank them in any meaningful way. Each of them has strengths and outstanding moments and each is either inferior/superior to the others for a variety of reasons. “Human Is”, directed byFrancesca GregorinifromJessica Mecklenburg’s adaptation of Dick’s 1955 short story of the same name is hands down the series' most sensual, sensory, and sexy episode of the bunch.
“Human Is” is one of those cases where a close-to-direct translation of the source material is heightened, transformed, and improved with the adaptation. It helps thatBryan Cranstonstars in the male lead role as Silas, a Commander in Earth’s futuristic military, and a man who’s quite cold and emotionally detached to the point of being abusive to those around him. Taking the brunt of this abuse is his wife Vera (Essie Davis), a fellow officer in the military who finds solace and physical connection in the lower levels of their living facility where taboo sex parties offer a hedonistic escape. But when Silas miraculously returns from a disastrous mission on the alien-infested planet Rexor IV, his newfound passion for his formerly estranged wife raises the alarm.
Cranston and Davis are remarkable in “Human Is”, notably because they play such complicated roles throughout the episode. Cranston is colder than the vacuum of space as Silas, but upon his return, he’s a redeemed and refreshed lover and caregiver. Davis, meanwhile, performs with picture-perfect repression early on, exhibiting a similar sort of coldness as her distant husband. Her best work is in their thawing period together where the episode’s sensuality really kicks in.
Amidst all this sexiness are some familiar themes from Dick’s work and sci-fi at large: The Other, the abuse of power and authority, loyalty to the State and Nationalism, and the use of torture to obtain a desired confession. We’ve seen these play out before and you’ll probably have a good idea of how it all turns out in “Human Is”, but the emotional connection between the leads really ups the tension. So even though this episode feels more like an hour ofStar Trekor evenThe Twilight Zone, it’s a solid entry.
Impossible Planet
SomethingElectric Dreamsdoes surprisingly well is relationship stories in all manner of pairings. There are humans, mutants, robots, cyborgs, chimeras, and aliens all paired up with each other in a number of ways, some of them romantic, others familial, and a few are actually abusive. The best examples of these relationship dynamics are the episodes that blend a few of them together in order to keep you guessing. “Impossible Planet” is one such tale.
Written and directed byDavid Farr(The Night Manager) and based on Dick’s similarly titled story, the tale follows a pair of jaded space tourism employees–played byJack ReynorandBenedict Wong, who make for an interesting odd couple–who decide to dupe a deaf, 350-year-old woman (Geraldine Chaplin), and her companion robot (Christopher Staines/Malik Ibheis), who is offering a hefty sum if they take her to Earth. The problem is that Earth has been long abandoned; the spacefarers aren’t even sure if it’s still there … but the money is too good to pass up, so they use technology and charm to convince the woman that a much closer planet is, in fact, the former Earth. But just who is playing whom remains to be seen …
Some things that surprised me in “Impossible Planet” were the charisma of Reynor and his chemistry with both Chaplin and Wong, and the skewed exploration of Dick’s tale that bears some similarities to “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale.” A lot of these episodes hint at something greater than what’s presented on the surface; most of them pay off in this regard, but only one or two exceeded this viewer’s expectations. Honestly, I’m still not sure where “Impossible Planet” lands for me; it’s one of those episodes that requires more conversation (a plus) since its ending is a little vague. What’s clear, however, is that Farr’s willingness to portray a non-traditional love story–there’s nearly a 50-year difference between the leads–goes a long way toward making “Impossible Planet” another compelling entry, despite its faults.
While voting celebrities into the U.S. presidency is all the rage these days, you might want to think twice about voting forVera Farmigaafter watching “K.A.O.” Written and directed byDee Rees(Mudbound), this adaptation of Dick’s 1953 short story “The Hanging Stranger”, takes place in the mega-nation of Mex-US-Can and feels like a spiritual companion to the classic cult film,They Live. (That film was adapted fromRay Nelson’s 1963 short “Eight O’Clock in the Morning” but the message is similar.) Dick’s story centered on a TV repairman who was justifiably disturbed to find a dead body hanging from a lamppost in his hometown; more disturbing still was the blasé attitude of everyone around him regarding this apparent lynching.
“K.A.O.” is another example of howElectric Dreamselevates the source material it draws from. Dick’s tale ended up involving alien creatures to explain people’s strange behavior, but Rees' treatment puts the responsibility for reprehensible actions squarely on human beings themselves. This is one area I believeElectric Dreamstruly surpassesBlack Mirror, which has a tendency to blame technology en masse rather than the sentient people behind it. That’s an important distinction.
Rees' treatment hooks into the frustration and emotional dissonance that arises when a morally strong protagonist (Mel Rodriguez) eventually gets broken down by the immoral and amoral behavior of the majority of folks around him. Egged on by The (one and only) Candidate (Farmiga), citizens of the mega-nation slowly begin to suspect everyone around them of being the Other, without an actual definition of what that even means. Sound familiar?
“K.A.O.” strikes incredibly close to home, but it suffers some minor faults: It’s almosttoofamiliar and even realistic to be effective; it doesn’t go far or absurdenough. That’s a tough task to achieve these days, but “K.A.O.” would have been helped by allowing our beleaguered hero Philbert to keep his moral center rather than be psychological (and pharmacologically) broken down by authority. The ending just about saves this one from some minor stumbles.
The Commuter
“The Commuter” is probably the episode I’ve gone back and forth on the most in my mind. Compared to the other tales in this series, it’s rather tame, pared down, and relatively subtle.Tom Harperdirects fromJack Thorne’s adaptation of Dick’s short story by the same name. It’s a tale that, in both the original written form and in this TV version, centers on a transit worker who encounters a mysterious passenger purchasing tickets for travel to a town that doesn’t exist. Further investigation leads the worker to discover that the planning for the town of Macon Heights was initially approved before being canceled a short while later, lending an evanescent nature to the suburb. But where Dick’s tale ends with the worker acclimating to a new reality after visiting Macon Heights,Electric Dreamstakes things a step further.
The contemporary setting for “The Commuter” and its blue-collar focus does away with all the shiny, futuristic tech and gets right to the core of the tale: the strained relationships between Ed Jacobson (Timothy Spall), his son Sam (Anthony Boyle) and his wife. While smitten with the mysterious commuter (Tuppence Middleton) and the comforting waitress who works at the Macon Heights diner (Hayley Squires), this is not a story of infidelity but one of escape and a search for peace. The question “The Commuter” poses is, what price would you pay for such a peace once you found it?
This episode’s a bit like a bleak thematic companion to movies likeGroundhog’s DayandIt’s a Wonderful Life, but it actually ends on a somewhat more uplifting note than Dick’s original tale. It’s still a bittersweet ending, to be sure, but an earnest one. It’s for this reason, this honest and heart-breaking decision, that “The Commuter” has moved up on my own personal list ofElectric Dreamsstories.
Safe & Sound
Here’s another episode I struggled with when it comes to the ranking. “Safe & Sound” might grate some people the wrong way as it did for me at first, but after letting its messages marinate a bit, I think it’s one of the best-executed entries in the list.Alan Taylordirects from a script byKalen EganandTravis Sentell, adapting Dick’s 1955 short story, “Foster, You’re Dead!” The original tale was a tongue-in-cheek satire about the ubiquitous-to-the-point-of-ridiculous amount of advertising in the modern world. The titular character is a student struggling to keep up his daily war-preparation activities and the son of an anti-war, anti-capitalism member of the community. When the Fosters invest in the latest model of bomb shelter, their popularity skyrockets … at least until it’s revealed that the Soviets have developed weaponry that makes said shelter obsolete.
The short story would have proved a bit silly and unwieldy as a direct translation, especially as a contemporary tale, though with the right tone this anti-consumerist story could have worked. “Safe & Sound”, however, takes the tale a couple of steps further by dropping viewers into a slightly enhanced version of our modern world in which society is split between government/corporate-controlled zones with tight security, restricted freedoms, and promises of safety, and “bubble” cities where the exact opposite is true. These conflicting ways of life occur in an America that is literally divided East from West by a rift that physically separates them. Think Berkeley, California vs New York City.
While “Safe & Sound” does a fantastic job as positing both sides of the philosophical debate of “freedom vs safety vs security”, it does much better at portraying the dangers of allowing invasive and pervasive technology into the hands of children and teenagers. There’s a lot going on in this episode: Foster (Annalise Basso) has traveled east with her uber-liberal politician mother (Maura Tierney), who busies herself with behind-the-scenes political strife. Foster finds herself out of sorts and ostracized in the local school since she lacks a Dex, a sort of high-tech wearable that tracks your every movement and provides access to just about everything in this society. Add to this the fact that “bubble” dwellers are stereotyped as terrorists, and you can quickly understand why Foster wants so badly to fit in with these new kids in their “certified semi-safe zone” school.
There is a fantastic amount of high school drama and real-world danger on display here: peer pressure when it comes to sex, drugs, and skirting the rules; succumbing to faceless authority; mental illness; paranoia and its causes and justifications; and the abuse of power on a number of levels. There’s a lot to unpack in “Safe & Sound, and though it veers into rather absurd and unintentionally hilarious territory at times, it’s a fascinating look at the power and ever-expanding reach of technology in today’s world and the foreseeable future.
The Hood Maker
Here’s where theElectric Dreamsepisodes start to separate themselves between the “really good” and the “great.” Again, these next three episodes are very similar in terms of execution, compelling narratives, gorgeous production design, and flat-out great acting, writing, and direction, so your own ranking may vary.
I’m a sucker for meta-human/mutant stories set in a sci-fi world beset with either technological blessings or difficulties. ThinkLooperandX-Men: Days of Future Past. If you’re a fan of those, you’ll love directorJulian Jarrold’s “The Hood Maker”, adapted from Dick’s tale of the same name byMatthew Graham. In the short story, telepaths known as “Teeps” act as the instruments of surveillance for the state. When people begin wearing hoods that block the telepaths' scanning abilities, behavior that was soon outlawed. Ultimately, those who wear the hoods are political refugees while the teeps seek to use their abilities to overthrow their current bosses in high-ranking government positions.
The TV version of this story flips the script in a number of interesting ways: First, it takes a neo-noir approach and pairs a hard-boiled detective (Richard Madden, who should get more of these roles) with a Teep named Honor (Holliday Grainger) with something to prove. Their chemistry is fantastic and both actors play their parts with a stunning combination of toughness, intimidation, and vulnerability when the occasion calls for it. A second twist on the tale is making the Teeps themselves low-class members of society who are scorned, ridiculed, beaten, and forced to live in the slums because everyone around them fears their abilities. It’s these fearful Normals who develop the techniques, in a rather technologically stunted world, to craft the scan-blocking hoods. Thirdly, rather than put the focus on a single protagonist trapped between warring factions, forcing him to question his loyalties, this episode pulls back the point of view a bit to allow the relationship between Agent Ross and Honor to spark, kindle, and ultimately burn out of control.
The only knocks on this episode are that this relationship dips into cliches before righting itself at the end, and the sense of riot and rebellion isn’t sufficiently felt until the last few moments. The production design is some of my favorite work in the series, and both the Teeps and the titular villain are fantastic elements of Dick’s mythology. There’s also a solid third-act twist that adds another level to the whole story. However, the cliffhanger ending soured me a bit, so if that sort of thing bothers you, be prepared for it.
The Father-Thing
If you’re a fan of 80s action movies featuring a gang of plucky kids, then stop reading right now and fire up “The Father-Thing.” This is pretty much a distillation of Spielbergian cinema and daddy issues, one that has a decidedStranger Thingsvibe to put it in contemporary context. Amazingly, it all works quite well and even feels fresh becauseMichael Dinner’s direction from his own adaptation of Dick’s similarly titled tale is picture perfect. The 1954 short story is quite similar toJack Finney’s sci-fi/horror novel “The Body Snatchers” which was released around this time, and famously adapted for the big screen a number of times. What all these tales have in common is some alien entity infecting or duplicating a human host which is recognized and defeated by heroic protagonists (and fire).
“The Father-Thing” is another solid example of a near-direct translation of Dick’s writing but with additions that greatly improve the emotional drama at play. In this tale, baseball and numbers-obsessed Charlie Cotrell (Jack Gore) absolutely adores his father (Greg Kinnear), who takes him on a weekend camping vacation that gets interrupted by a strange meteor shower. The father/son dynamic is great here, which makes what happens next incredibly heart-breaking.
Dinner pulls no punches when it comes to the “is he or is he not?” question as to whether the father has been replaced. Charlie–and the audience–sees the alien’s consumption of his father in gruesome and pretty spectacular fashion. From there on out, it’s up to Charlie and his neighborhood pals to take out any of the other adults snatched up by the alien invaders, including his own Father-Thing.
This story is great to enjoy on a literal, surface level, but if you have any lingering daddy issues then boy are you going to have a field day with this one. The idea of a father figure either acting so differently as to appear like another person, or a literal swapping out of a father figure in the case of a divorce/remarriage, is something that’s often explored in fiction (and psychologist’s offices). Adding that body horror element and the terrifying prospect of a young boy physically standing up to his not-father, and you’ve got a very compelling tale. There are some really fun sequences on display and you can just tell that Kinnear had a blast performing them;Mireille Enos, who plays Mrs. Cotrell, is excellent as always for her part as well. “The Father-Thing” is one of the few episodes ofElectric Dreamsthat made me want to see another chapter for our protagonist, but the tale that’s told is wrapped up quite well.
I really enjoyed “Real Life”, directorJeffrey Reinerand writerRonald D. Moore’s take on Dick’s rather unwieldy and adaptation-unfriendly story, “Exhibit Piece.” With the pedigree of Reiner and Moore, it’s hard not to enjoy their work, but add in the casting ofAnna Paquin,Terrence Howard,Rachelle Lefevre,Lara Pulver, and the criminally under-usedSam Witwer, and you have a signature episode.
Dick’s “man out of time” story centers on George Miller, a man obsessed with the 20th century and tasked with recreating a 1950s exhibit for a history museum. However, as his attention to detail with the exhibit reaches an unhealthy level, Miller begins to slip rather easily into his role as patriarch of a 1950s family. He’s pulled between the two worlds, but ultimately realizes that the exhibit is a time gate that allows him to travel … as long as the newly developed Russian bombs or his own government’s threats don’t destroy it first.
It’s fascinating to think that Dick’s protagonist looked back on the period of McCarthyism is American history as an idealized era of free expression, suggesting that his own future time was much worse by comparison. However, “Real Life” took a different path, opting to connect two very disparate characters across time through virtual reality technology that taps into a person’s neural pathways. It’s a much “harder” use of modern sci-fi tech to tell the tale, but it’s also a lot more action packed since both protagonists in the TV tale are attempting to solve a very brutal, very personal crime.
“Real Life” gets to play “Blade Runnerin Chicago” by dropping viewers in on traumatized cop Sarah (Paquin), who is wrestling with survivor’s guilt from a massacre of her fellow cops perpetrated by a local arms dealer who’s still in the wind. Needing a break from reality, her wife Katie (Lefevre) gives her a prototype VR game that drops her into a full-body immersive experience. That nested story drops Sarah into the body of George (Howard), a tech billionaire who finds himself with amnesia and unable to remember why he and his pal Chris (Witwer) are in the middle of a gun battle. [I also love that Howard is essentially playing Paquin, who’s playing Sarah, who’s playing as George, which allows for fun moments with his character.] As the story flashes back and forth between Sarah and George, it’s up to the viewers to decide whose story exists in the real world, and who is a merely a simulation.
I absolutely loved this neo-noir mystery thriller. The writing is solid, keeping the audience guessing and pushing the protagonists into a corner that they can’t wriggle out of, which forces them to make some interesting all-or-nothing decisions. This episode could honestly have been written/directed byChristopher Nolansince it had a veryMemento-meets-Inceptionvibe to it. The neon lighting of Future Chicago, the subtle setting differences between timelines, and the subtle similarities that both worlds shared really had me paying close attention to every little detail. The only negatives here are that the ultimate resolution, though a bit heart-breaking and a real gut-punch, was delivered with a hit of heavy-handed exposition that suggests a lack of confidence in the ability to bring it all home, and that it could have even gone another level deeper into the mind game. That’s a shame because “Real Life” was a real pleasure to watch from beginning to end.
I’ve thought long and hard about this one, and I’m reasonably certain that “Autofac” is my favorite episode of the bunch.Peter Hortondirects fromTravis Beacham’s script, adapting Dick’s story by the same name. The 1955 short story centered on a group of men waiting for delivery from the Autofac, a perpetually running mega-factory that produces good for them even though they no longer require what it provides. They attempt to destroy the goods, convince the customer service bots that the goods are faulty, or defeat the robots in a game of logic. When these options fail, the humans manage to pit the various Autofac facilities' self-defense war machines against each other, eventually destroying the factories and allowing human civilization to rebuild itself … for a time.
Horton and Beacham’s take on “Autofac” is close to a translation but with very important differences. The tale centers on Emily Zabriskie (Juno Temple), a gifted hacker who’s shown narrowly avoiding the destruction of a nearby city, only to emerge later as part of a small band of post-apocalyptic survivors. Emily is instantly likable thanks to Temple’s performance; she soon establishes herself as a sort of Rey-meets-Ripley kind of protagonist. She’s a strong, take-charge, hands-on kind of character, and these personality traits are reinforced by the fact that she is the big spoon in a relationship with the much larger Avi (Nick Eversman, who’s also completely naked while Emily’s not, reversing a long-standing trope; their love relationships is delightful), and that she’s both the brains and the brawn behind the colony’s attempt to put a stop to the resources-draining-and-contaminating Autofac once and for all. Sure, there are other leaders in the camp, but ultimately the buck stops with Emily.
That’s refreshing in and of itself, but Emily’s story is deeper still. She has layer after layer of intrigue and interest unveiled as the story goes on, with levels of interaction increasing in complexity whether we see Emily on her own, with her fellow humans, or with the artificial customer service representative for the Autofac, dubbed Alice (Janelle Monáe). Emily’s an incredibly richly developed character who has a new surprise around every turn, even in the titular facility itself.
And speaking of keeping things surprising, “Autofac” cycles through a few interesting motifs, from aFallout/Mad Maxkind of world to aTerminator/The Matrixkind of story. It also features my favorite production design of the bunch; the settings feel chunky, slapped-together, and tetanus infection waiting to happen, and it’s fantastic. The writing will also keep you guessing, giving you just enough to think you’ve got it all figured out before slipping just one more twist in before the credits. Ultimately, the antagonist’s resolution is a bit clunky, though it makes sense in the world that’s been set up, but Emily’s conclusion is stellar.
Again, the only knock against “Autofac” is the decision to lay everything out for the viewer in the final moments, just in case they weren’t paying attention or didn’t quite get it on the first watch. IfElectric Dreamsreturns for another season, I hope the writers will learn to trust themselves and to give their audience a little something extra to chew on.
When you get a chance to check outElectric Dreams, be sure to share your favorite episodes, moments, and characters in the comments below!
