Electric Dreams

Philip K Dick's stories have been shown by films like Bladerunner and Minority Report to be brilliant source material to make great screen adaptations. Black Mirror has shown how great a science fiction anthology series can be. The first two episodes of Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams hint at how great the series could be.

There have been many adaptation's of P K Dick's stories into movies. The makers of Electric Dreams would do well to study those carefully. They would learn that the closer film makers stick to the spirit and intention of P K Dick the better the end product is.

Electric Dreams feels half true to the originals. As a spoiler free example of where they stray, the first two episodes change the endings of the stories. P K Dick is a master of the plot twist and the original endings are not only shocking but made you think. His signature themes make you question the nature of reality, of memory and whether people really have what they want. In the show, these themes are muted: replaced by the writers' own hackneyed ideas and messages.

The first episode looked really cheap. It could have been a cop show set in the seventies. There was no sense that it was the future. The second show was far better and looked believable as a vision of the far future. As a writer, P K Dick doesn't delve to much into how things look or the minutiae of individual's character's. There is so much space for film makers to fill with something incredible as Ridley Scott did in Bladerunner.

I'm excited to see the coming episodes and I hope there are future series. Most of all I hope the makers quickly learn that, as is shown by the first two episodes, P K Dick was a great writer and the further you veer from what he was trying to say with his stories, the weaker the adaptations will be.

I've enjoyed the whole series of stories. Well acted, great sets, great effects, good design. I have also enjoyed reading the works of P K Dick. The short stories are excellent and introduced many of the key ideas upon which all sci-fi was based. However watching the shows and reading the stories are two different things.

There is barely anything to compare them except perhaps a single key idea. The situations are changed, the characters are different, the settings, to time-frame, just about everything in the TV series is altered.

Are today's writers so devoid of ideas, that they have to take ideas some of them over sixty years old? Or is it that the TV corporate entities are such poor judges of writing talent that they dare not fund a series unless it has some big name at the top of the bill to exploit.

I'd hope that Mr. Dick, were he alive would enjoy the series, but I can't help thinking that he would not recognise his own story were is name not plastered over the top of the credits, and if it were not he'd be saying ' "oh I think I had an idea a bit similar to that in 1958"

There can be no denying that on first look this episode of Electric Dreams borrows heavily from the likes of Blade Runner, Black Mirror, Children of Men... etc, but of course the source material for this provides inspiration for the aforementioned titles, and so it's get an originality pass in my book.

A key feature for me with sci-fi is the dealing with the creation of alternate universes, where key events change the course of evolution. On this front the episode succeeds within that premise. There have been many mediocre sci-fi presentations that have come and gone - set up with weaker writing and concepts, and possibly better acting (though I will give a special exception to Holliday Grainger, who put in a very good performance). If the future world is unconvincing, however, it drags the performances down. I felt it was convincing enough here.

In summary, is definitely worth a watch, and look forward to other episodes within the series - it's a short story and it's designed to make you think where the themes could possibly go within the world that's been created. And as such, it's succeeded. A test of it's success is that I'd have been quite happy seeing where the world would have progressed after the end scenes. A solid start.

This is an anthology series based on the works of futurist sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick. It's ten episodes switching back and forth between American production and British. Despite loving the Blade Runner franchise, I don't think I've ever read his work. This has a darker tone. Some of the British ones remind me of Black Mirror which was probably the original intent. It's a murky hit-and-miss proposition. I don't know about the Philip K. Dick part. His name is useful for selling this. It has some good sci-fi ideas. I like the darker tones but the lighter tones is awkward at times.

Each episode is it's own sci-fi feature, and they are all acted and shot consistently and incredibly. Out of the 10 episodes, four of them for me are remembered as average plots with interesting premises (2,3,4,10), still great television but not incredibly memorable. Each of the other 6 episodes was grade A television. So good that I went to see what people had to say about it on IMDb, and then had to write a review because this show is not getting anywhere near enough credit. I think because Black Mirror, which actually got me to watch this show, has spoiled us with fantastically creative twist endings and foreshadowing. Electric Dreams is not about twist endings, its about the story itself. DON'T EXPECT TWIST ENDINGS. Just enjoy the ride through some excellent adaptations of ingenious short stories.

The episodes do not take place in the same universe and aren't all set in our own reality, and so aren't always as relatable as Black Mirror. If your'e looking to dip your toe in try episode 5 (Real Life, an action packed story of VR and dealing with grief) or episode 7 (Kill All Others, fantastically tense political tale about an everyday guy who notices something).