The Peripheral Connects In Adapting Cyberpunk Master’s Novel
Amazon’s Prime Video has been adapting the works of some heavy hitters in genre fiction this year. First was Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, and now a series adaptation of the novel The Peripheral by the godfather of cyberpunk, William Gibson. The novel and the series portray a slightly more nuanced and grounded near-future dystopia than Gibson’s previous works. Below is my spoiler-free review of the series which debuts tomorrow, Oct. 21.
Set in rural North Carolina in 2032, Flynne Fisher lives with her ailing mother, and Marine Corps. veteran brother Burton. To make money, Burton plays virtual reality shooter and combat games for rich players, using their characters and his military background to win matches, but it is Flynne who excels at the more puzzling parts of such games and who sits in for Burton regularly.
Burton gets sent a new full-immersion headpiece device from an unknown Colombian tech firm that he is paid to beta test. Flynne is the one who uses it first, and winds up in a virtual world that seems to be a version of London even further in the future. As her handler in the virtual reality gets her involved in an increasingly disturbing mystery, Flynne isn’t sure the world she is experiencing when using the device is virtual at all.
Saying anything else about the world or the story and plot would be spoiling the discovery of both Gibson’s book and the solid adaptation. Doing that adaptation as showrunner and head writer is Scott B. Smith. That name may not be familiar because Smith has just a few credits to his name. But he started with a bang, writing the novel and then the screenplay for A Simple Plan, one of Sam Raimi’s few non-horror movies. That film got Smith an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay and a Best Supporting Actor nod for Billy Bob Thornton. Watch it if you haven’t.
In the first six episodes of The Peripheral that I got to pre-screen, the changes from the novel (as I read in wikis — I haven’t read the book) to the series mainly seem to rein in some of Gibson’s wilder ideas, making the story and setting even more grounded than Gibson made it. There are still some Gibsonisms on display though — the pharmacy chain that Flynne goes to get her mother’s medicine is called Pharma Jon. The story is tight, even as it bounces from 2032 to whenever the London setting is supposed to be (must be vague!). A number of the side plots from the novel get dropped or condensed to keep Prime’s The Peripheral on a tight timeline.
Great cast
Chloë Grace Moretz is very good as Flynne, moving between a hard-headed smart country girl in North Carolina to an almost Bond-like swagger when in the London setting. Jack Reynor (Midsommar) as Burton does a great job portraying a seen-some-shit Marine vet who tries really hard to not show it. In fact, the whole cast is really good, with Burton’s triple-amputee vet buddy Connor, played by Riverdale and One Night In Miami… actor Eli Goree, as a particular stand out.
The cast in the London setting are all very good as well, with Gary Carr (Downton Abbey, The Deuce) as Wilf Netherton standing out. But it is American trans actress Alexandra Billings, playing London Detective Ainsley Lowbeer that completely steals the show in Eps. 5 and 6. At the end of each episode I was very eager to start the next because of how well paced and directed the series was. But I yelled at the end of Ep. 6 because I couldn’t watch any more of Det. Lowbeer until seven weeks after the series starts airing. Please start a spinoff series ASAP.
The special effects are very well done in The Peripheral — believable in a way that makes it clear that was the assignment for the FX team from the get-go. While it would be tough to classify any of Gibson’s work as true hard science fiction (he writes really deeply thoughtful social science fiction — which also happen to have assassin bodyguards with mirror eyes and nanowire blades from their fingernails) this is as close to hard sci-fi as he has come. It is also very grounded military science fiction at times, but which comes at it from the standpoint of the individual effects of military tech on the soldiers.
Think of The Peripheral as two parts The Expanse, one part Neuromancer, and one part Forever War — with some Casino Royale tossed in. Shaken and stirred.
I almost regret having watched the screener episodes because I now have to wait so long before I can continue the story from where it left off. It’s that good and compelling.
I give The Peripheral (Amazon Studios; 8 eps.; no rating as of 10/19, but lots of swearing, violence and some gore) an 8 out of 10 with a potential jump to 9 depending on the last two episodes.
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