S01.E03: Haptic Drift

[AnimeMania]

Flynne and Wilf work together to find Aelita. Meanwhile, Burton takes steps to eliminate a new threat.

Original Air Date: October 28, 2022

[dwmarch]

I thought it was a little inconsiderate of Wilf to have Flynne walking around in rainy London without any kind of raincoat on. They still have them in the future (despite PVC being a very environmentally unfriendly material), there's a lady in the background wearing one. I guess this means Peripherals are waterproof?

The giant statues are carbon scrubbers. I guess they are shaped like famous statues because no one wants giant normal towers overhead. They, like other technology in this universe, are simply too complicated to explain in terms of how they work. But the essence of them is right in the name. They scrub carbon, all day long. Good to know, thanks for giving us that one, show.

I didn't understand why the cop let Wilf and Flynne go after they started getting romantic with each other. It seems like they exploited some loophole in the cop's programmed responses. Is there some fertility crisis going on here that the police think romance will solve?

Props to the bad guy for just locking his enemies in hot cars to kill them. Sometimes villains will come up with really intricate and absurd Rube Goldberg traps for their enemies. Not Uncle Mean Bastard, he'll just lock you in a confined space and let nature take its course.

The future villain on the other hand... BEES NUTS. Got 'em! This ignores the logistical challenge of finding a swarm of angry, deadly bees that are sympathetic to your cause. Well, maybe she can control them with some future tech.

I would have laughed if that one lackey tried stepping on that invisible ledge only to fall to his doom on account of his boss making him think it was safe to walk across.

[shrewd.buddha]

Three episodes in and it still feels as if we are waiting for the other shoe to drop... (shoes?)

At this point I could could take it or leave it.  Flynne now appears to be using her trips to the 'virtual' future world  .. to have conversations about what is going on.  

Last episode, it was a big deal that Flynne's brother won $250K.  Now he has bought a business and can afford to pay the local drug cartel leader $200K per week.  This  local drug cartel leader is running an actual drug factory, apparently 24-7.  Sure, okay.. 
Flynne's brother isn't much of a sympathetic character, either:  he seems primarily motivated by greed and is petty nonchalant about burying a dozen or so men in his backyard with a backhoe.

[shrewd.buddha]

Three episodes in and it still feels as if we are waiting for the other shoe to drop... (shoes?)

At this point I could could take it or leave it.  Flynne now appears to be using her trips to the 'virtual' future world  .. to have conversations about what is going on.  
The future people appear to have urgent business, but it doesn't seem to matter when Flynne decides to jump back into the future-world-robot.  She takes random breaks and the future people seem to just wait for her randomly timed arrivals.

Last episode, it was a big deal that Flynne's brother won $250K.  Now he has bought a business and can afford to pay the local drug cartel leader $200K per week.  This  local drug cartel leader is running an actual drug factory, apparently 24-7.  Sure, okay.. 
Flynne's brother isn't much of a sympathetic character, either:  he seems primarily motivated by greed and is petty nonchalant about burying a dozen or so men in his backyard with a backhoe.

The possible "good guys" from the future seem to be okay with kidnapping socialites, removing their eyeballs, and discarding them afterwards.  (And was there any need for Flynne to be "present" to experience her robot-body having its eye removed?) 

Edited October 29, 2022 by shrewd.buddha

[AuntieMame]

I’m enjoying it a fair bit at this point. Adding television writers seems to have kept all of Gibson’s good points as a writer and lessened his bad points.  

Then again, I’m a sucker for time travel and this isn’t the usual fish out of water in the past fare. Flynn and her stub are key to history which is why some want to kill her and some want to save her. With the whole paradox thing of time travel and branched universes, you have to wonder if they accidentally created Flynn’s importance in the future. I guess we will see.  

They keep hinting at some kind of environmental catastrophe with the carbon scrubbers and the multiple bee extinctions and the drastically reduced population but aren’t giving us enough information. It seems that catastrophes keep the upper class and their habitats intact.  

The doctor villain in the future is genuinely unsettling and the actress must be having a great time playing her. I love what the costume designer is doing too. I could believe that this character is wearing future couture. That said, I do wish we would get just the tiniest bit of subtlety with both villains. Evil people are scary because of their ruthlessness and sadism, yes, but trying to reconcile contradictions in character, even in a bad person, is one of the things that makes evil so unsettling. When our future villain killed Aelita’s friend so viciously after saying she had always been fond of her it felt one note. 

As for Corbell, too many things just don’t make sense. He feels he’s saving the town by keeping the crime organized and contained, but his sadism runs away with him too. Why didn’t the biker villains try to take off the inner door panels and unlock the doors that way? Would have been bad news for little Jasper. 

I don’t think Jaspers wife betrayed Flynn. I think she is very well aware of Jasper’s weaknesses and plans accordingly. 

Im intrigued to learn more about Aelita and Wolfgang’s back story both before and after their reclamation from the Jackpot. I’m starting to really like Wilf/Wolf but fear he’s in a very tenuous position in terms of pretty much everyone.  

Can anyone comment on whether the book is worth reading? Reviews are mixed. Thanks. 
 

[Joimiaroxeu]

A decapitation strike executed by trapping the enemy in a luxury SUV. Okay. Corbell redefines the meaning of sadistic, and he also has a sick sense of humor.

The younger version of Wolf was very good casting IMO. The actor had Gary Carr's facial expressions down pat.

Wolf kissing Flynne's peripheral kinda creeped me out. He wasn't entirely pretending, I don't think, and he's probably twice as old as she is.

Corbell is playing 3-D chess. He's using the protection money Burton is paying him to try to cut off Burton and Flynne's source. Yikes.

John Snow. Why did I immediately think of Game of Thrones, lol? Not that Jon Snow.

Quote

Can anyone comment on whether the book is worth reading?

I have to vote no and I say that as a fan of Gibson's. The book's plot was impenetrable to me and I was unable to finish reading it. I'm now considering trying the audiobook version.

[Tachi Rocinante]

I'm waaay behind.

The production values of this show are top-notch, and the acting is excellent.  They are giving me just enough story to keep me interested.

I thought it was Jasper that won the $250K?

[KittyQ]

On 2/6/2023 at 4:39 AM, Tachi Rocinante said:

I'm waaay behind.

The production values of this show are top-notch, and the acting is excellent.  They are giving me just enough story to keep me interested.

I thought it was Jasper that won the $250K?

I'm farther behind than you. :-) We were trying to figure out the money angle. Was it Jasper who won or someone else who was related to Flynne and Burton? Based on how Jasper seemed to consider taking some of the payoff money, I doubt it was him. I thought that the lottery win was meant to cover the payment from the future, explaining how the Fishers came into some money - I assume that someone the person who "officially" won would turn over some of the money. But that doesn't explain how Burton can afford to pay $250K / week to the town villain - I'd have to guess that more money got moved into someone's bank account, but then why the original subterfuge? Surely the discrepancy between the win and the ongoing money would be noticed. 

 

On 10/28/2022 at 12:54 PM, dwmarch said:

The future villain on the other hand... BEES NUTS. Got 'em! This ignores the logistical challenge of finding a swarm of angry, deadly bees that are sympathetic to your cause. Well, maybe she can control them with some future tech.

I think she met the other woman at her refuge amongst her own bee hives. She talked about the bees for a bit, too, before she decided to eliminate the disappointing hire. I wondered how she felt sacrificing so many bees, as (at least in our timeline) bees die after stinging, since their stingers stay behind when they fly off. If there's such a loss of bees overall in the world, using her bees to kill someone seems profligate.

This show is confusing but also intriguing.