The Peripheral: Fuck You and Eat Shit Show Only

November 18, 2022 4:03 AM - Season 1, Episode 6

Flynne and Wilf discover Aelita’s ties to the Neoprims. Inspector Lowbeer demands to meet Flynne, Burton and Conner.
posted by Coaticass (19 comments total)

Too much torture. And ableism? Or is it? The scenery-chewing continues to impress. Lowbeer seems an interesting new character and has only tortured some metaphors, so far.
posted by Coaticass at 4:10 AM on November 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

That episode title, SO EDGY!
posted by Catblack at 11:15 AM on November 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

Okay, Inspector Lowbeer is intimidating as shit, and also has me wanting to try out wearing tweed.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 11:58 AM on November 18, 2022 [3 favorites]

Say what you will about the old man villian whatisname whitey or something, anyways he's always got great suits tho. Like they're gonna have to dial the suits back about 20% or they're going to just run away with the show.

I like how password policies in the future have come full circle to where they started - 8 characters, make it easy to remember like your wife's name or your social security number or your telephone number. No one unauthorized will ever even see the login screen, after all. They did it folks: they finally solved passwords - and it wasn't as hard as we all imagined - just require two of them!!!!!!
posted by some loser at 7:25 PM on November 18, 2022 [2 favorites]

This show is watchable but frustrating. Twice in the first 5 episodes they had a scene where they demonstrate how dangerous a character is by having them murder some people who are completely unrelated to the plot. It just seemed pointless.

Now having those two dangerous characters face off was kind of good. Not sure what Bob's escape plan was, though. "If only we were soaking wet I could escape!"

The clumsy foreshadowing is so annoying (butcher sharpening a knife? There's going to be a knife fight! Character notices an aquarium? It's gonna get shattered!)

I still don't know what the point of Old Man Villain Whatsisname Whitey is, he's such a "evil rich cowboy who runs this town" cliche. If the writers watched "Ozark" for a few hours they'd have some better ideas. Bob is a slightly more interesting villain but only just.

As a computer security professional I have to agree that the password thing was ridiculous. "I'm not sure how you'd ever access that, you'd need TWO PASSWORDS to even get in!"

(Not as ridiculous as the "Hacker infiltrating an impossibly complex system 90 years in the future by furiously typing" scene an episode or two ago.)

Conner dreaming of being able-bodied does seem a bit ableist but then maybe it makes sense for the character. But if I were him and that was my dream, I'd give "high tech legs made by the same future people" a chance for sure.

Lowbeer came out of nowhere (I'm not a book reader) but she seems to come from a much more interesting show and I'd like to watch "The Lowbeer Mysteries" please.
posted by mmoncur at 12:58 AM on November 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

Not sure what Bob's escape plan was, though. "If only we were soaking wet I could escape!"

Saltwater is pretty conductive. By getting her to trigger the shock collar while they were both connected by it, she would (in TV logic) be knocked out as well. He gambled he'd recover faster than her.
posted by Candleman at 2:54 PM on November 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

ya in one of the final scenes of that encounter they're both lying on the floor wet and he's gripping her calf before she activates the collar so I guess the theory is that wet clothes (I believe she also stated that she insisted on fresh water in the end) and a strong grip would be enough to conduct the electricity through her body as well.
posted by some loser at 3:44 PM on November 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

I can't say I blame anyone for missing pertinent snippets of dialog: i found even with the volume cranked up I had a hard time hearing every word of some fairly important sounding conversations that occurred in the past several episodes, usually in London. Could be on my end I suppose.
posted by some loser at 4:01 PM on November 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

Bob's collar worked by giving him electric shocks. Water conducts electricity. So the next shock would be shared around. (I mean he was banking on his captor not knowing this, so... eh. But the writers think we do know it.)

I'm a big fan of closed captions myself! Better on a larger screen, ie they can be intrusive on a phone screen.
posted by Coaticass at 5:01 PM on November 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

Of course he then has to get away. Also a problem.
posted by Coaticass at 5:03 PM on November 19, 2022

Salt water's a much better conductor, though, and the voltage would have to be insanely high for her to get a shock through fresh water six feet away...

I can't say I blame anyone for missing pertinent snippets of dialog: i found even with the volume cranked up I had a hard time hearing every word of some fairly important sounding conversations that occurred in the past several episodes, usually in London. Could be on my end I suppose.

It's not just you, I watch tons of British TV so the accents aren't a problem, but I turn on captions during the London scenes. Everyone (except Lowbeer, who ELOCUTES) is hard to understand.
posted by mmoncur at 6:17 PM on November 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

In the London scenes there are at least four different British accents being used in most conversations so it’s not unexpected that it would be hard to follow outside the UK!
posted by ellieBOA at 2:53 AM on November 20, 2022 [3 favorites]

All I can say is:

FINALLY LOWBEER YES
posted by jquinby at 8:10 PM on November 20, 2022 [1 favorite]

And ableism? Or is it?

Conner dreaming of being able-bodied does seem a bit ableist

No, as someone with a congenital birth defect that I've spent my whole life wishing didn't make me disabled as well as someone who suffered a knee injury over two decades ago that left me unable to walk for months, run for years, and has caused and will continue to cause me continual pain for the rest of my life, I can assure you that depicting someone who has a massively more traumatic injury than me wanting to be mobile and normal is not ableist. And it's kinda insulting to suggest that it is.
posted by Candleman at 12:12 AM on November 21, 2022 [8 favorites]

I guess what bothered me was the extreme nature of Conner's solution, the fact that he's literally willing to throw away the entire world he lives in and everyone he knows in order to be mobile, and I don't think he's considered what sort of world he'd be 'living' in and how he'd be treated there.

But yeah, I have a couple of mobility-impairing conditions I'd gladly get rid of and I take your point. Thanks for the perspective and apologies for the insult.
posted by mmoncur at 4:05 AM on November 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

Lowbeer came out of nowhere (I'm not a book reader) but she seems to come from a much more interesting show and I'd like to watch "The Lowbeer Mysteries" please.

She would’ve appeared much earlier if the show had anything to do with the book.

I agree about The Lowbeer Mysteries. I’d watch the heck out of that show. In just a few minutes, Lowbeer has more depth and character than most of the rest of the cast. Lowbeer was my fave from the book, too. I’m very happy with this version.

This was an okay episode, I guess. There was no reason for the knife fight. Old Whitey McWhiteguy breaking the saltwater tank was just dumb. The backstory of how Connor got blown up was dumb. The actor playing Connor (Eli Goree) though, is terrific.

I don’t get Burton being such a dick with Tommy. He needs an ally in the sheriff’s department, and Tommy’s trying to help.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:12 PM on November 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

The backstory of how Connor got blown up was dumb.

I thought it was interesting because it was exactly what Grace described to Aelita in "What About Bob?": (quoting this recap)

The implants were then tweaked to affect the brain’s compassion centre. A visual on the wall shows Aelita a group of soldiers on a battleground who have been told that the enemy is going to use injured animals to draw them out. A wounded dog appears. The implant influences them into making a different choice from the obvious one. Instead of shooting the dog, one of the soldiers runs up to it. And gets blown up in the process. Aelita is shocked and protests that these are real people. Grace berates her for being too good a person.

posted by mmoncur at 3:35 AM on November 22, 2022 [3 favorites]

This was the episode that made us drop out. The last few have really demonstrated that they don't fully understand what worked about the early episodes.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:18 AM on December 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

Ah hah, I was right, shiny beautiful post-Jackpot London isn't actually bright, shiny or beautiful, it's all RI sim magic.

Honestly, this is doing a great job of making me want to read Gibson again for like the first time in probably 20 years.
posted by Kyol at 6:32 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]