# William Gibson's 'The Peripheral' Season 1 Trailer



## Vince W (Sep 9, 2022)




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## Swank (Sep 9, 2022)

I'm down. Those books are incredible.


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## Vince W (Sep 9, 2022)

The trailer doesn't fill me with confidence that the story has been followed. It feels like a *Ready Player One* clone based on the trailer. We'll have to see.


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## Swank (Sep 9, 2022)

Well, keep in mind that there's the future and the future gamescape. I think we're seeing both. However, it does seem to be using SQUIDS.


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## Elckerlyc (Sep 9, 2022)

Don't know the books, but it looks interesting.


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## MrCHansen (Sep 9, 2022)

I have not read the series, so I can't speak to it following the story line.  As for Ready Player One, I see the similarity as well.  I was surprised on how off the story line RP1 the movie was from the book.  Key one in the book was a car race of all things in the movie.  So, making a TV series mirror the book is harder than it seems.  I feel like the Expanse series did a fairly good job of it.  Ender's game was pretty good as a translation to the big screen.  The whole Valentine and Peter dynamic is lost of coarse. Time will tell on this one.  We need a  good new Sci Fi  show out there.  Seems like slim picking for quite a while...but then again, I hail from the Babylon 5 days.  Fingers crossed!


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## Vince W (Oct 20, 2022)

First review is in and it’s not that great. As a Gibson fan from the beginning I’ll still give it a look.

Amazon’s The Peripheral turns a piercing William Gibson novel into generic sci-fi


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## Swank (Oct 21, 2022)

Vince W said:


> First review is in and it’s not that great. As a Gibson fan from the beginning I’ll still give it a look.
> 
> Amazon’s The Peripheral turns a piercing William Gibson novel into generic sci-fi


The TV Guide review was more glowing. But maybe they all are.

The best thing is probably to watch it as is, rather than as a fan of the book. It might surprise us.


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## Vince W (Oct 21, 2022)

I've watched the first two episodes and for the literary Gibson fan it's a dud. However, if you let go of any expectations of an accurate adaptation it's okay. It's spoon fed to you so you don't need to think too hard to watch it, which is probably a point in its favour.


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## Elckerlyc (Oct 21, 2022)

I just watched episode 1 and I liked it a lot. Never read the book, so that's probably a plus in this case.


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## Vince W (Oct 21, 2022)

Elckerlyc said:


> I just watched episode 1 and I liked it a lot. Never read the book, so that's probably a plus in this case.


It is certainly a point in your favour since you won’t know what Gibson intended.


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## Swank (Oct 22, 2022)

Vince W said:


> I've watched the first two episodes and for the literary Gibson fan it's a dud. However, if you let go of any expectations of an accurate adaptation it's okay. It's spoon fed to you so you don't need to think too hard to watch it, which is probably a point in its favour.


To be fair, one of the things I adore about the novel is the mystery of what the hell is happening for the first 100 pages. I have the patience and memory to just passively let events happen that I don't understand. Other readers with similar tastes had a really hard time with it.

Dune losses much of it's mental gymnastics on screen, but is so rich that it still makes for a decent film. The Peripheral has so many interesting ideas (time travel that isn't, for one), that seeing any of it live might still be rewarding.

But, I haven't seen it.


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## Ensign Shah (Oct 22, 2022)

So I have the delicious dilemma of not having read it, nor seen it. What do I do first…


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## ctg (Oct 22, 2022)

I have to ask, is this a Time-Travel story or is it just a first twist to blow minds? It's also interesting that Nolan and Joy are associated to the story, but neither one of them penned the first two scripts.


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## Vince W (Oct 22, 2022)

Ensign Shah said:


> So I have the delicious dilemma of not having read it, nor seen it. What do I do first…


If you aren't a big fan of Gibson's written works then I would say dive into the show and don't worry about it. You won't have to contend with Gibson-style storytelling.



ctg said:


> I have to ask, is this a Time-Travel story or is it just a first twist to blow minds? It's also interesting that Nolan and Joy are associated to the story, but neither one of them penned the first two scripts.


It is not time-travel in the physical sense a la Doctor Who. It's time travel in the style of Gregory Benford's Timescape but still a little different than that. If you watch the show they will explain it in detail.


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## Vince W (Oct 22, 2022)

Swank said:


> To be fair, one of the things I adore about the novel is the mystery of what the hell is happening for the first 100 pages. I have the patience and memory to just passively let events happen that I don't understand. Other readers with similar tastes had a really hard time with it.


Exactly. If you're expecting that same sense of mystery then don't. It's laid out in a very linear fashion so there is no guesswork involved. I will be posting a review on my blog soon.


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## Vince W (Oct 22, 2022)

Here's my review:
Amazon Prime’s ‘The Peripheral’ Is A Series For The Uninitiated


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## Swank (Oct 22, 2022)

Vince W said:


> Here's my review:
> Amazon Prime’s ‘The Peripheral’ Is A Series For The Uninitiated


Great review! Though I think _Pattern Recognition, Spook Country _and_ Zero History_ are SF.


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## Vince W (Oct 22, 2022)

Swank said:


> Great review! Though I think _Pattern Recognition, Spook Country _and_ Zero History_ are SF.


They skirt the edge of sf for me but don’t quite immerse themselves in it.


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## Ensign Shah (Oct 23, 2022)

Vince W said:


> Here's my review:
> Amazon Prime’s ‘The Peripheral’ Is A Series For The Uninitiated


Have watched the first episode. I picked up a stack of Gibson books yesterday, but in reality they would just sit on top of my other stack of books until my daughter leaves home 

All the elements of what I love in Sci Fi were present for me in that one episode. I do love feeling immersed in another world and I got that pretty quickly.


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## Vince W (Oct 23, 2022)

Ensign Shah said:


> Have watched the first episode. I picked up a stack of Gibson books yesterday, but in reality they would just sit on top of my other stack of books until my daughter leaves home
> 
> All the elements of what I love in Sci Fi were present for me in that one episode. I do love feeling immersed in another world and I got that pretty quickly.


That's why I think for people who don't have strong feelings about Gibson will probably enjoy this series. If I can let go of my bias a bit I could well end up enjoying it for what it is.


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## Ensign Shah (Oct 23, 2022)

Vince W said:


> That's why I think for people who don't have strong feelings about Gibson will probably enjoy this series. If I can let go of my bias a bit I could well end up enjoying it for what it is.


Also, most Nandos do deliveries now. So grab yourself a peri peri chicken for the next episode and really let yourself go.


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## ctg (Oct 24, 2022)

> If _The Peripheral_ is to be believed, we’re all pretty much doomed.
> 
> Based on the William Gibson novel of the same name, the new Amazon series finds Flynne, a young computer-savvy woman played by Chloë Grace Moretz, unwittingly bouncing between the bleak near-future and the even bleaker distant future. She’s been enlisted by her cyber GI brother to test some new mystery tech, and the pair quickly realize they’ve become embroiled in a thriller for the ages. The series is rife with outlandish inventions, brutal fights, and faceless cyborgs, plus local no-goods, hints of romance, and even some good old-fashioned drone warfare. Not enough dystopia for you? _The Peripheral_ also features behemoth sculptural air cleaners hovering over a staggeringly empty future version of London, just in case you weren’t freaked out enough already.
> 
> As with all things Gibson, the vision in _The Peripheral_ was meticulously crafted—a blessing for readers, but a challenge for executive producers Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan to translate to the screen. To do it, the pair—already experts at crafting future dystopias as creators of HBO’s *Westworld—*worked with showrunner Scott Smith to reframe the story for the show and craft props and sets that nodded to both the future and the present. WIRED talked to Joy and Nolan about digitally creating “giga-size” carbon collectors, finding human connection amid all the tech, and the joy of a well thought-out set of rules.











						The Creators of 'Westworld' Built a William Gibson Dystopia
					

Executive producers Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan say making their new Amazon show 'The Peripheral' was like being “futurists with an infinite R&D budget.”




					www.wired.co.uk
				




Not a word about the TT. I cannot understand how a 3D printed headset can create a quantum connection, or rather pair the device with the future and work through the internet.

This is the explanation on how the quantum mechanism works and thus we have a scientifically proved multiverse. 


> When the particles go their separate ways, they still maintain this united wave function. Physicists call this process quantum entanglement — what Albert Einstein referred to as "spooky action at a distance."
> 
> When we retrace all the steps of a measurement, what comes out is a series of entanglements from overlapping wave functions. The electron entangles with the atoms in the screen, which entangle with the electrons in the wire, and so on. Even the particles in our brains entangle with Earth, with all the light coming and going from our planet, all the way up to every particle in the universe entangling with every other particle in the universe.
> 
> ...











						'Spooky action at a distance' can lead to a multiverse. Here's how.
					

A new reality might be produced by every possible quantum interaction.




					www.space.com
				






> Quantum tunneling refers to the nonzero probability that a particle in quantum mechanics can be measured to be in a state that is forbidden in classical mechanics. Quantum tunneling occurs because there exists a nontrivial solution to the Schrödinger equation in a classically forbidden region, which corresponds to the exponential decay of the magnitude of the wavefunction.











						Quantum Tunneling | Brilliant Math & Science Wiki
					

Quantum tunneling refers to the nonzero probability that a particle in quantum mechanics can be measured to be in a state that is forbidden in classical mechanics. Quantum tunneling occurs because there exists a nontrivial solution to the Schrödinger equation in a classically forbidden region...




					brilliant.org
				




I get that the time dilation can be negated with the quantum physics, and we've proven that the pairing happens in extreme distances, like for example with Alice being on Earth and Bob on Moon, and the "particles" talk to each other, thus creating a tunnel effect through the time-dilated zone. But these are known quantum dots, whereas the series is creating a hypothesis on the 2030's 3D printing being able to create a dot that the future can connect, thus creating a telepresence TT effect. 

In my mind, it just doesn't make sense, just like the cybernetic implants on the US veterans. I know that this is Nolan and Joy product, and they like to toy with the quantum side of things, but I'm intrigued by Gibson's explanation on the subject. He must have thought one. 

I also found the Peripheral on my shelf, where I had started and stopped at around 1/5th mark, because Gibson's style of writing didn't sit with me.


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## REBerg (Oct 24, 2022)

Ensign Shah said:


> So I have the delicious dilemma of not having read it, nor seen it. What do I do first…


Watch first. If you want more, read.


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## Ensign Shah (Oct 24, 2022)

REBerg said:


> Watch first. If you want more, read.


Yes this the track I am on


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## REBerg (Oct 24, 2022)

I watched the first episode last night as I was waiting for the season finale of _Dragon_ to drop.
I liked this series. If it has been significantly dumbed down for TV, I appreciate it.
_Westworld_ frequently makes my brain hurt.


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## hitmouse (Oct 24, 2022)

I just watched the first 2 episodes and enjoyed them. I read the books some time ago and really enjoyed them. I think this is a decent adaptation. It takes its time. Altogether more complex than Ready Player 1, so the comparison is not very helpful.


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## TomMazanec (Oct 27, 2022)

Watching now.
Anyone read the book? How do they compare? Which is better?


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## Vince W (Oct 27, 2022)

Yes. The book is better. But that's usually the case.


Vince W said:


> Here's my review:
> Amazon Prime’s ‘The Peripheral’ Is A Series For The Uninitiated


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## Vince W (Oct 28, 2022)

Well, episode 3 had dropped and while I've given up all expectations that it will be close to the book there are some pretty bad elements to contend with.



Spoiler



There is the added back story for the characters. This is pretty understandable given the basic changes to the characters and the amount of time needed to fill but why is every story a tragedy?

The d**k measuring confrontation between Pickett and Burton was stupid on so many levels. As viewers I can't believe anyone can take this sort of thing seriously any more. Never mind the basic fact that Burton had information that Pickett was unaware of and then gave up any advantage this might have presented.

Cherise Nuland should have been twirling her moustache in every scene she was in.



The scenes with Flynne, regardless of where she is, are the most interesting and should remain the focus. There is far too much info dumping from the secondary characters.

I think the good outweighs the bad in this episode but only just.


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## ctg (Nov 1, 2022)

Spoiler






Vince W said:


> The d**k measuring confrontation between Pickett and Burton was stupid on so many levels. As viewers I can't believe anyone can take this sort of thing seriously any more.


Do you mean the bar thing where he ordered the trooper to shoot a glass? Or killing the bikers at public place at front of the used cars sales?

Where the hell is the police and why the round didn't penetrate the wall and go into the bar?



Vince W said:


> Never mind the basic fact that Burton had information that Pickett was unaware of and then gave up any advantage this might have presented.


I don't think it was stupid. There are stupid things that people do in Gibson's novels. This is drama, and they had to answer someway to the added up tension on the threat with that Pickett were portraying to their characters. 

The stupid thing was to drop 200k offer per week on the table, when some other ways of persuasion could have done the same effect. What happens when the future money stops coming in?


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## Vince W (Nov 1, 2022)

Spoiler






ctg said:


> Do you mean the bar thing where he ordered the trooper to shoot a glass? Or killing the bikers at public place at front of the used cars sales?
> 
> Where the hell is the police and why the round didn't penetrate the wall and go into the bar?



I was thinking the bar thing. The bit at the beginning was just the producers showing the audience that Pickett is a Very Bad Man™. I found that laughable.

I wondered why the bullet didn't go through the wall too. And the police were there. He was picking up his order so no police work is allowed it seems.



ctg said:


> I don't think it was stupid. There are stupid things that people do in Gibson's novels. This is drama, and they had to answer someway to the added up tension on the threat with that Pickett were portraying to their characters.
> 
> The stupid thing was to drop 200k offer per week on the table, when some other ways of persuasion could have done the same effect. What happens when the future money stops coming in?


I think they could have built tension in better and less cliched ways. Pickett could have been stroking a white cat.

The money thing bothers me all around. The figures in the show are generally an order of magnitude smaller than in the book.


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## Stephen Palmer (Nov 4, 2022)

We watched episode 1 last night and really enjoyed it. Intriguing. Haven't read the book, but I'm a fan of his early work. Will definitely continue with this series. Stunning visuals.


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## Vince W (Nov 4, 2022)

Where do I begin with episode 4?



Spoiler



Some elements are starting to come together. Flynn remains the most interesting aspect. Cherish Nuland is a joke. Whomever came up with that character and storyline should be slowly flogged with the power cable of their own computer before a warmly applauding audience. The way the character is portrayed is nothing short of juvenile. The director should be ashamed. If they could just drop her and everything associated with her I think the series would much improved.

The Ash and Ossian characters are not being given the respect they deserve. In the book extremely competent and needed no hand holding. They are mere lackies here.

The needless explanation of the Jackpot feels a bit desperate. As if they looking for an easy way to fill things out.



The story bears little resemblance to Gibson’s but there is still enough here to keep me watching.


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## ctg (Nov 8, 2022)

Spoiler






Vince W said:


> The Ash and Ossian characters are not being given the respect they deserve. In the book extremely competent and needed no hand holding. They are mere lackies here.


Do you mean the team guys? Thing is they might have filmed what's needed, but it was cut out to make the timeslot instead of giving an in-depth look into all important characters. 

The craziest idea that they had in this episode was asking for more future robot bodies and trusting that it's just a headset problem? Are they dumb, or do they not see the evidence with their own eyes?


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## Vince W (Nov 8, 2022)

Spoiler






ctg said:


> Do you mean the team guys? Thing is they might have filmed what's needed, but it was cut out to make the timeslot instead of giving an in-depth look into all important characters.
> 
> The craziest idea that they had in this episode was asking for more future robot bodies and trusting that it's just a headset problem? Are they dumb, or do they not see the evidence with their own eyes?


I choose to ignore the headset thing because it gives me a headache.


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## ctg (Nov 14, 2022)

> Sci-fi legend William Gibson's 2014 densely layered novel _The Peripheral_ ingeniously combines elements of _noir_ murder mystery, time travel, and the author's trademark cyberpunk futurism. It's those features that make the novel so challenging to adapt for television, but Prime Video managed to pull off that feat with its new nine-episode series, _The Peripheral_, starring Chloë Grace Moretz.











						The future exists now: Bringing William Gibson’s The Peripheral to television
					

Ars chats with series producers Jonathan Nolan, Vincenzo Natali, and Scott Smith.




					arstechnica.com


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## REBerg (Nov 14, 2022)

> The increasingly convoluted and interconnected plot involves a hunt for a missing woman named Aelita (Charlotte Riley), corporate espionage, political corruption, timeline shenanigans, and multiple attempts on Flynne's life.


What's not to like? 
I suppose I should feel illiteracy gnawing at my ego, but I enjoy evaluating a show or film without being prejudiced by source material. I'm free to love or hate something on its own merits.
A series like this could motivate those unfamiliar with the books to read them.
Or not.


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## Vince W (Nov 14, 2022)

Episode 5. Ugh.


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## Vince W (Nov 19, 2022)

Episode 6 - More of the same. At the moment it's spinning its wheels without much forward movement.


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## Dave Vicks (Nov 20, 2022)

Shouldn't Cyberpunk be called Cybertech?


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## Swank (Nov 20, 2022)

Dave Vicks said:


> Shouldn't Cyberpunk be called Cybertech?


No?


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## Ensign Shah (Nov 20, 2022)

Vince W said:


> Episode 6 - More of the same. At the moment it's spinning its wheels without much forward movement.


Not progressing as you’d like?


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## Vince W (Nov 20, 2022)

Ensign Shah said:


> Not progressing as you’d like?


No, not really. Most of the mystery of the book is gone and there are too many characters trying to prove just how badass they are all the time.


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## Ensign Shah (Nov 20, 2022)

Vince W said:


> No, not really. Most of the mystery of the book is gone and there are too many characters trying to prove just how badass they are all the time.


Hope they crawl it back to what Gibson fans would like!


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## Vince W (Nov 20, 2022)

Ensign Shah said:


> Hope they crawl it back to what Gibson fans would like!


Chance would be a fine thing.


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