User reviews

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.

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.

I've read a couple of books from Philip K. Dick and in all honesty, I didn't like them as much as they are hyped. The stories are good, but they lack something in suspense for me. But I'm also not a big reader... Having said this, I like the series Electric Dreams. Not all episoded are equally good and overall they all lack a certain tension. But I think that's because of the stories of Dick. They're more philosphical than action driven.

But as a whole: it's a good series, some episodes are carried more by the appearance of great actors than the story and don't expect 10 action packed stories in the line of Bladerunner.

I really enjoyed watching these, although I have to admit there were a couple of episodes that were weaker than the rest. I really hoped they'd make some more but I guess it's not gonna happen, though if I understand correctly the show hasn't been officially canceled either.

It's like the writers had the beginning of a great idea but then don't know how to end it or write a complete story.

The best analogy I can make is: imagine the movie Martian, after he was left on the planet alone and left to die, he suddenly takes off his helmet and was breathing normally, then he was suddenly on the moon. And then the movie ends. With out explaining anything.

There's some interesting plots in some of the episodes but temper your expectation of a satisfactory ending or a coherent story.

Barely passable but here's my issue with this Electric Dreams show - too much artificial mystery and no payoff for the viewer. So unfaithful to the short stories too. If you're putting Philip K. Dick's name on anything, make sure you're actually telling HIS stories, not 2nd-rate knockoffs. Yet again, most of these film adaptations are so frustrating for the ardent PKD literary fans.

So this is basically a collection of short sci-fi/mystery stories, like The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror, and some stories are a bit weak while others are great. There is quite a bit of cliché virtue signaling, you know, everyone is strong but white men get the roles of the weak or bad. As the series was made by two white men, you can almost smell their fear and see them checking boxes, haha. It's not done well like Game of Thrones where everyone can be strong/good/weak/bad and it's much more real. Some A-list actors, but surprisingly not in the best stories. I'll excuse the one with Bryan Cranston, as that one was just a bit of unpretentious, campy fun as an ode to a classic B-movie, he must have enjoyed that one. While some stories and premises are a bit simple or not original, I still give it 7 stars because I was still entertained and because there were some real gems in there as well to counter my criticism. I especially loved The Commuter, it's original and the sci-fi is just a tool to tell a very moving, human story. That is how you do it.

IF you like black Mirror you must also see this serie , its not as good , but its total ok even if the balance with the episodes are really up and down , sometimes very good and sometimes hard to follow and weird - but its well done and very good acting.

If i were not already a PDK aficionado and had not read all these stories beforehand, I would have found this a most interesting, entertaining, and provocative series.

Well written, well acted, and well photographed, though. The actors make the series palatable.

Still doesn't compare to the original written tales.

Then again, this series exemplifies the difference between the written word of classic writers and the interpretation/repurposing of modern video/imagery cinema masters.

Do recommend the series--but read the original tales as well.

All episodes are entertaining and provide food for thought.

Not deserving of the sub 5 star reviews.

Most of the episodes in Electric Dreams are thought provoking and move along at a brisk, entertaining pace. They are not quite up to Black Mirror standards -- 9-stars -- but most have endings that make you think about reality vs illusion or some moral dilemma the protagonist faces.

I am only familiar with Phillip K Dick's Man in the High Castle, so do not know the short stories or how faithful the adaptations are. He seems to have been a good predictor of the future if these episodes are true to his writing.

My favorites:

--Impossible Planet. The ensemble cast is great. They really play well off one another. It's also an engaging story about aging and extreme old age. The characters and actors who play them are endearing.

--The Commuter. Reminds me of an old Twilight Zone episode. The decision to rewrite or not rewrite a life's history is a tough one. This episode has haunted me for days.

--Kill All Others. So very relevant in 2022, though Dick wrote this in the 1950s. A good take on our herd-like news media and no principled, win-at-any-cost politicians. Mel Rodriguez as sort of a 2050's-era "Everyman" is totally on target as a generally unquestioning man suddenly aroused by what he sees as a wrong. Good take on what the future may hold.

--Safe and Sound. Presages the red / blue geography we have today in the U. S. The western mountain states are anti-social media, tech, and questioning of modernity to the points of paranoia. The east, dominated by an Apple-like corporation, is obsessed with security and terroristic threats that may or may not be real. It has very modern "morals." The far west is, on the maps, cross hatched with black lines, like what does that mean? Reminds me of Dick's three-part, post WW2 USA in Man in the High Castle.

Least favorite:

--The Hood Maker (the pilot?). Too dark -- literally, awful lighting -- and kind of a predictable plot and ending. Though Richard Madden, as Agent Ross, is drop dead sexy with his Scottish accent and blocky, athletic good looks. The telepaths are just annoying.

****

If there are any more stories left I look forward to another season. Maybe branch out to other authors?

I enjoyed almost every episode. I just felt the lack of continuity of some of them. With absolute certainty only the fact that Timothy Spall is a fabulous and vastly underrated actor.

An above-average SciFi anthology series, loosely based on Philip. K. Dick's short novels, with various degree of quality in the production. Be well rested before watching, as the episodes have a tendency to make you fall asleep.

Electric dreams was a decent run of stand alone stories with a science fiction twist. Some were better than others. Some were similar to previous classic science fiction. Such as 1 episode which was practically identical to Invasion of the Body Snatchers. There was a real good mix of famous actors in the cast which was cool. The whole series was much like Black Mirror or even had some similarities to The Twilight Zone. 1 or 2 of the episodes could have been rated higher than a 7 but there was a couple which were a little underwhelming and dragged the overall rating to a 7. I appreciate the difference and the freshness of the approach and applaud the attempt to bring some leftfield storytelling into the mainstream. A solid and worthwhile watch.

Overall is a good series and now I am very curious to read original stories by Philip K. Dick. I always loved science fiction, and in this case there are also very important critiques to our society. Some episodes feel so close to reality, and quite depressing if you really stop thinking about the real meaning. They want to denounce social injustices, criticize our way of living based on consumerism and warn about the negative impact that media have on us. Nothing new under the sun, but if I think that these stories were written during the 50's , before all this became mainstream thanks mainly to Black Mirror, it sounds prophetic and scary at the same time.

Many great names are involved in this production such as Steve Buscemi, Ryan Cranston, Anna Paquin and Richard Madden just to name a few. So I won't even lose time to write down about amazing performances. Visually speaking is outstanding, especially for episodes "Impossible Planet" and "Crazy Diamond".

Almost every story captured me, except for "Father Thing" that I felt flat, incomplete and overall boring, but for the rest screenwriters managed to create a nice narrative universe. Most of the episodes have an open ending and the viewer can give his own interpretation. I love when I can make my own mind about how a thing will finish, it gives space to creativity.

I highly recommend "Electric Dreams" and I hope to see soon a second season (hopefully, because almost 3 years passed since the original airing on Channel 4).

This series features ten unrelated stories, each inspired by the works of Philip K Dick. As one might expect the stories often make the viewer wonder if what they are watching is meant to be real or the result of characters' paranoia or delusion. The stories are nicely varied with some set in future dystopias, some in the present day and others in space. The cast includes plenty of familiar faces from both sides of the Atlantic without feeling like obvious star-vehicles. Given that each story is unrelated it is inevitable that some are better than others; the good ones were really good but the weaker ones were still fairly enjoyable. Overall I'd recommend this series to fans of the genre but as I haven't read the original works I can't say how this compares.

What would make the show awesome is reduce each episode to 30 min and take the money from that added 30 min and put in great special effects.

When you go to watch it have the fast forward button at the ready. There are so many parts that could be cut out or sped up.

The overall story is good... it's PKD so of course it's awesome.

The first few were pretty decent stories with direction and flaws. After that it was awful.

Really great selection of Pillip K Dick's stories. It'd be great to see an episode based on The Holly Quarrel

...with some very interesting stories, though a bit of a mixed bag for me.

Not quite so much of a dark twist as Black Mirrors, a bit more Outer Limits than Twilight Zone, I actually found this a rather enjoyable season. Some of the episodes delve a bit too deeply into socio-political issues for me to find enjoyable(call me shallow if you want, I prefer my entertainment interesting and...well...entertaining, and some of these episodes push a bit too far into preachy for my taste) which is the reason this is a 7 rather than a 10.

Acting: Whether the faces are newcomers or one of the plethora of familiar faces the acting in this series has been top shelf in my opinion.

Writing: Smart and well done. Occasionally too focussed on making their statement at the cost of story. While there are numerous familiar plots, they are well presented with some interesting twists.

Special effects, CGI and production values outstanding in context.

Overall, well done and well worth the price of admission. Looking forward to season 2.