The Hood Maker

This episode was the most boring of all. Were the teeps a different species? Where did they come from? Did they have neuro typical parents and were born that way due to a change in the environment? This episode never answers that. Instead, it left me with more questions than it provided me answers. Aside from the confused mess, it was also incredibly BORING. If you haven't seen this episode and want to watch it because there are only ten episodes in the series and want to watch all of them, prepare yourself to be confused and bored. Don't say you weren't warned.

I think there are a couple failings here. One has to do with the history preceding this episode. How did all this come to be? Give us some sort of milieu to work within. Once we have telepathy, there are factors that need to be addressed. How does one put in filters in a mind that is not a machine? Do they occur naturally? Also, when we reach a stage where there is utter bad on both sides, who are we sympathetic toward? This seemed endless at times and I have to admit I never understood the point. If it was simply that telepathy takes away our humanness, that would have worked. But I'm not even sure that's it.

Unbelievable dull. A lot of drama is anticipated. There is actually not one single original thought or emotion found here. Cinematography is sub part, too. Just a big yawn is all you get.

I'm being rather generous with the rating here as this is the best made and produced episode of a weak series that I've averaged out to a 5, with too many below that.

It's less reliant on a surprise twist-to-the-twist premise and is instead written and shot to stand on its own merits as though it's part of a larger milieu: if feels like a pilot for its own series. Not a great series, not one that would get greenlit, but still slicker and more confident than the rest of Electric Dreams.

The characters have actual personality both in their writing and performances. For once, the lines feel more than just straight exposition, and Madden and Granger have some effective chemistry, this time thankfully unmarred by unnecessary and tawdry flesh grinding. However, I could have done without Madden using his actual accent, which to a Scottish ear sounds like Ned gutter trash.

The budget is also well spent on creating an alternative dystopian near-past using well dressed sets and some small crowd scenes, a sharp departure from the barren, hushed and deserted feel of the other episodes. The creative director clearly put some thought into this and films it carefully to give the impression of a bigger budget production, helped by an effective score that compliments but doesn't over-sell what we're being shown.

One nitpick is that the premise has been skewed slightly from Dick's original to make the teeps more sympathetic than sinister, but the core dynamic of the relationship is preserved, and it's decently presented.

If I were going to recommend an episode of this series, it would be this one, but don't get your hopes up, it's all downhill from there.

Having seen this episode, I can only hope the rest gets better. In my opinion it was too dark (I get the feeling darkness in a movie/TV show is usually designed to hide the poor scriptwriting). Too quiet ( Straining to hear speech). And too slow. As I said hope it improves, will give it another couple of episodes.