S07.E03: Hotel Reverie

[QQQQ]

Issa Rae stars as A-list actor Brandy Friday, who's signed on to star in a remake of the vintage British film Hotel Reverie. There's just one catch: This isn't a normal movie shoot. Instead, thanks to a new system called Redream, Brandy's consciousness will be projected into Hotel Reverie. There, she'll replace the male lead, the dashing Dr. Alex Palmer, and act against AI constructs of the film's characters in real time.

[txhorns79]

I thought the premise of the episode was somewhat dumb.  The idea of creating a world where you take the place of a main character in a movie and interact with movie characters might make for an interesting choose your own adventure-style video game (since depending on your choices, the original movie storyline could be changed), but I don't know who the audience would be for the movie.       

[libgirl2]

15 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

I thought the premise of the episode was somewhat dumb.  The idea of creating a world where you take the place of a main character in a movie and interact with movie characters might make for an interesting choose your own adventure-style video game (since depending on your choices, the original movie storyline could be changed), but I don't know who the audience would be for the movie.       

I agree, I didn't care for the premise and I thought it went on way too long. 

[CarpeFelis]

Premise was so-so and the episode was about twice as long as it should have been.

[QQQQ]

For me, when Issa Rae's character was supposed to be "acting" it came across as so unnatural and clunky in comparison to the other actors/characters. I never bought that she was a highly sought-after actress or that anyone would want to watch this  cut-and-paste remake.

Edited 17 hours ago by QQQQ

[txhorns79]

2 hours ago, QQQQ said:

For me, when Issa Rae's character was supposed to be "acting" it came across as so unnatural and clunky in comparison to the other actors/characters. I never bought that she was a highly sought-after actress or that anyone would want to watch this  cut-and-paste remake.

I guess you could chalk that up to it seeming like the entire project, from concept to casting to filming, appeared incredibly rushed and she had no rehearsal time.  However, I agree with you that she was wooden and clunky when we saw her acting against the movie characters.  There was also the fact that the characters would have been reacting to her as though she was the original actor who played the role, so any chance of doing something new by having them see her as a black woman was lost.          

[DrSpaceman73]

I liked this episode though not as well as the first episode of the season 

It seemed to mix some old twightlight zone themes with the star trek holodek

It did go a bit long. 

[SoMuchTV]

On 4/12/2025 at 5:37 PM, txhorns79 said:

I thought the premise of the episode was somewhat dumb.  The idea of creating a world where you take the place of a main character in a movie and interact with movie characters might make for an interesting choose your own adventure-style video game (since depending on your choices, the original movie storyline could be changed), but I don't know who the audience would be for the movie.       

Yeah, I also had a problem understanding the basic premise. If you can recreate movies with AI, what’s the point of getting an a-list star at all? Who is your target audience, and why would they care?  

That said, I’ll continue to watch the new season a little at a time. There’s always going to be something there.