The Peripheral: Pilot Show Only

October 21, 2022 4:32 PM - Season 1, Episode 1

Stuck in a small town without many prospects, Flynne Fisher is a brilliant gamer who works a dead end job to support her veteran brother and ailing mother. When her brother enlists her help playing an advanced video game known as a SIM , Flynne sees something she shouldn't, bringing real life danger to the family's doorstep.

Amazon's adaptation of a William Gibson novel, now streaming on Prime Video.

posted by Zonker (26 comments total)

This is excellent.

The FX is progressively better than Altered Carbon, and used more artfully too.

As for my mind's eye view, this is very close - just the polish (or rather the lack of the lack of it in "the real world" - I would have thought that they would have updated it to include severe weather effects) was off.

I don't care about book cannon, even as a Gibson fan since childhood, I want to see what they do with this.

I can see how The Peripheral was made before Neuromancer, which I think can't be done anymore - at least for mainstream audiences. It was a good choice to do The Peripheral. "Day after tomorrow" fiction.
posted by porpoise at 7:05 PM on October 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

I am calling it now (having not read the books). I think Flynne's "Tennessee" is a sim, and what she thinks is a sim is actually the real world.
posted by Mogur at 4:39 AM on October 22, 2022 [1 favorite]

I can see how The Peripheral was made before Neuromancer, which I think can't be done anymore - at least for mainstream audiences.

I think it could but you'd need to hang a lampshade on it being a different timeline like Cyberpunk 2077 quietly did from time to time.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 6:05 AM on October 22, 2022 [1 favorite]

I got about half way into this ep last night, before I was interrupted by family stuff. So far, from what I saw, I am very happy with this. I read (and liked) the book, and this has the look and feel of what I imagined in my mind’s eye, especially the house and trailer where Flynn, her mom, and Burton live. That actually felt nice.

For some reason, I had envisioned Forever Fab located in one of those cheap, side-of-the-road, 3-or-4-store strip centers, but the in-town location works for me, too.

I’m pretty pumped for this show. It’s kind of rare that a show is made based on a book I’ve read. Altered Carbon was the last such show and, well, I didn’t hang around to the end of that one.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:06 AM on October 22, 2022 [3 favorites]

This was way better than I expected it to be. I read the book and really liked it. This is a little different from what I remember but good, the story is moving much faster in some places and much slower in others iirc. I had imagined the tech in Flynn's world would be grubbier, more vintage. This is like an Amazon commercial set in a Silicon Valley conception of rural Appalachia.

Also confused about locations - the opener says it's in the Blue Ridge mountains, which Wikipedia says extends from PA to TN but no one from here calls them that. The State Trooper was clearly a Tennessee State Trooper. But in the book they were in Eastern KY?

There's a few directorial choices that were ugh - that initial shot of Flynn washing dishes with the camera travel up the legs, rear, back, then she turns and looks contemplatively behind her before moving into action... ugh. Both amateur and gross. But pretty much everything else was right on.

Loved the closing music.
posted by natteringnabob at 7:42 AM on October 22, 2022 [3 favorites]

The State Trooper was clearly a Tennessee State Trooper. But in the book they were in Eastern KY?

I suspect the explanation for that (a detail I didn’t catch) would be that the Jackpot kind of obliterated borders and jurisdictions.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:01 AM on October 22, 2022

It’s very much filmed in western NC where I used to live. I thought it was set in Kentucky or West Virginia - I also have read the book, like it very much - so I was not expecting the rush of familiarity when I started watching! I know those stretches of road well and the fab shop is in downtown Marshall, NC

I like it with reservations. I could have done without the super gory stuff - not in the book fyi - and I’ m confused by the plot changes, but I think it’s going to be good. The actress who plays Flynne is excellent. Just once I would like to see american tv dare to cast people who are not gorgeous and in peak physical condition but I know better than to expect it, sigh.
posted by mygothlaundry at 10:17 AM on October 22, 2022 [5 favorites]

Note that this (these) are now designated "show only" threads.

“I am calling it now (having not read the books). I think Flynne's 'Tennessee' is a sim, and what she thinks is a sim is actually the real world.”

I'd been feeling very uncomfortable with the scenes in Flynne's world, that they're an urban coastal idea of this region with cartoonish dialogue, while finding some (not most) of the London scenes more natural, when suddenly I was struck with the same suspicion as you.

After consideration, I don't think it's correct, but I'm really enamored with the idea of a story where an AI character in a simulated world thinks that when they're interacting with the real world via android remote, they're "real" and the real world is a sim. So many interesting possibilities in that story!

I do think that however this story goes, it's going to be some variation on that theme of competing ideas about which world and which lives are privileged.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 10:26 AM on October 22, 2022 [1 favorite]

It’s very much filmed in western NC where I used to live.

That explains a lot. Eastern KY and Western NC are the same mountains but completely different places. Eastern KY has been strip mined and logged for generations. Western NC was where the rich folks built their second homes. Totally different vibe
posted by natteringnabob at 11:10 AM on October 22, 2022 [1 favorite]

Eye gouging in the very first episode?! Jeez; at least buy me dinner first.

I've never read the book. I really like it so far; just finished the second episode. Definitely a lot of potential.
posted by confluency at 1:07 PM on October 22, 2022 [3 favorites]

I can't remember the book well, so I don't have many points of comparison.

Really dug this episode. Good stuff.
posted by minsies at 2:33 PM on October 22, 2022

Have we ever had a good William Gibson adaptation? I'm a lifelong fan of his, and The Peripheral has become my favorite of any of his books. I have never been more excited for a TV show, and I am so happy this is here now and seems to be doing justice to the source material. Or forget that—this is actually so, so fucking deliciously good.

I would never have caught the inauthentic details mentioned in the last comment, but the property itself is a lot like how I pictured it, too. The cast doesn't have a single weak link so far. Future London looks very convincing. I'm also not fussed if this show strays from the text, which it has most noticeably in what Flynn sees to make shit hit the fan.

One thing I'm not clear on: why was that shown to her? In the book, it was something she saw accidentally IIRC. Here it was intentional. Have I missed the motivation/explanation for why she has been taken down into that chamber in the first place?
posted by tovarisch at 3:13 PM on October 22, 2022 [2 favorites]

One thing I'm not clear on: why was that shown to her?

but wasn't that act repremanded? Shortcut for a deep conflict of interest?


GCU - ...hang a lampshade on it being a different timeline...

Are you predicting a Gibsonpunk that's a throwback to Sneakers, Hackers, maybe culminating in the Matrix (landlines) series?

For alternative timelines, I have a soft spot for Shadowrun.
posted by porpoise at 10:20 PM on October 22, 2022

Loved it. I was initially frown-y about the shards being giant sculptures, but I’ve settled to it and anyway it meant that I got to be a little unsettled from my expectations, which is kind of germane.
posted by aesop at 1:12 AM on October 23, 2022

Are you predicting a Gibsonpunk that's a throwback to Sneakers, Hackers, maybe culminating in the Matrix (landlines) series?

No, just that a Neuromancer show/movie might work if it regularly mentioned stuff that happened what's now our past, or ignored changes that happened here. Same way Cyberpunk casually mentions that Johnny Silverhand and his robotic arm and Rogue tried to save Alt Cunningham in 2013.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 5:42 AM on October 23, 2022

Aesop: I think the statues aren't the shards, but the scrubbers:. https://twitter.com/GreatDismal/status/1583614223531520002?t=GPuXv7iG5ALRl7w_LnSKdw

(Unfortunately I can't remember right now if the shards *were* the scrubbers. But I thought I saw multiple shard-like buildings in one of the flyover scenes, too...)
posted by pantufla_milagrosa at 4:46 PM on October 23, 2022

Have we ever had a good William Gibson adaptation?

Yes! At least, I'm very fond of this 12 minute adaptation of The Gernsback Continuum

Tomorrow Calling
posted by thatwhichfalls at 6:40 PM on October 23, 2022 [1 favorite]

There's a Books Included thread now too.
posted by mygothlaundry at 3:20 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

There's a Books Included thread now too.

Thank u for the link!
posted by tovarisch at 11:06 AM on October 25, 2022 [1 favorite]

That "southern" accent she was using in the trailer came off as groan-inducingly bad. But it sounds like the other stuff lines up right and I need to check this out.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:26 PM on October 26, 2022

That "southern" accent she was using in the trailer came off as groan-inducingly bad.

Moretz was born and raised in Atlanta, so I would hope she can pull it off!
posted by pjenks at 7:47 PM on October 29, 2022 [3 favorites]

I am pleased to see she does well. It's the cleaned up, somewhat more enunciated stage version of the accent, but it works.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:14 AM on November 3, 2022

I have only gotten a few minutes in. Am pissed off that when I started, CC was on, and Wilf was captioned as "Wolf". Never considered he was a black man, always thought of him as a typical British simpy white dude, but, OK, I can roll with that.

And Burton's trailer is way too nice. Where is the spray foam to cover the gaps in the windows and such? But, looking forward to watching more.
posted by Windopaene at 7:48 AM on November 8, 2022

I don't think it's a spoiler to say that Wilf's nickname is Wolf, so that's not a glitch when you know who is talking to him.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 2:17 AM on December 6, 2022

A year and a half later, still haven't made it to episode 2. (Family doesn't want to watch, but did play it while my son was in the room, home from college for a month, he dug it, so there is hope).

Now I need to reread it. And I can't even find my copies of Neuromancer and Count Zero. WTF?
Need to reread the Bridge ones.
posted by Windopaene at 8:31 PM on January 25

Still haven't made it past episode 1.

Have watched that one a bunch though.

Conner: "You know what's the worst thing that could happen tonight? Is that I only kill two of you" is a great line.

Am rereading this right now, has pretty much jumped to my favorite. Going to be rereading Count Zero again though, so we shall see. Hope I can watch more before amazon pulls it.
posted by Windopaene at 2:30 PM on November 21