The Peripheral: Chloe Grace Moretz leads a cerebral, visually impressive sci-fi mind-bender

The 2014 William Gibson novel The Peripheral was a bit of a return to vintage form for one of the most acclaimed science fiction writers on the planet. It’s the kind of novel that revels in Big Ideas from page one, but the narrative is never overwhelmed by the intellectual heft of these ideas. In an obvious nod to A Tale of Two Cities, the book connected the London of the distant (post-apocalyptic) future with rural America from the not-so-distant future. And like Dickens’ book, the idea of the doppelganger is a major theme here as well: the ‘peripheral’ of the title is a cyborg avatar that users can control remotely.

Amazon Prime Video’s series adaptation of the book premiered today (this review is based on the first three episodes provided to the media) with an intriguing, slow-burn of an episode that shows off its technical virtuosity. And though the pace picks up in the second and third episodes, this is never a show interested in the flash-bang approach to storytelling: showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy (who also created the HBO science fiction series Westworld) understand the importance of the classic Hollywood action set-piece, but never overuse it or center an entire episode around it. This is a more measured, even deliberately meandering approach to that much-abused phrase: world-building.

The show’s protagonist Flynne Fisher (Chloë Grace Moretz) works at a 3D printing shop at a small, rundown American town in the near future; by night she is a competitive gamer-for-pay, using the money to buy hard-to-come-by drugs for her sick mother. Her brother Burton (Jack Reynor) is a US Army vet who is traumatised by the cybernetics implants installed in his body before combat. During a game that Flynne plays on behalf of his brother, she realizes that the game itself is a portal to the future—specifically, to 22^nd century London, a post-apocalyptic wasteland where ordinary people are swept up in extraordinary, planet-altering secrets and technologies. One of these people, Wilf Netherton (Gary Carr, excellent), is a contact for a shady super-corporation called Milagros Coldiron, an entity that seems to hold the key towards the worlds-colliding scenario brought about as a result of Flynne’s ‘game’.

All of this is an excellent setup for the kind of cerebral sci-fi storytelling The Peripheral is deeply invested in. The only problem is that the show’s screenplay is not always up to the task of streamlining Gibson’s novel. Yes, like any Gibson novel, there are too many ideas swarming on the page (“shards”, ‘Assemblers’, swarms of cloud-like nanobots) too many neologisms (‘polts’, ‘klepts’) on occasion. But even so, The Peripheral could have done with better writing: on occasion, it flattens Gibson’s novel way too much (Wilf, for example, is a much more flawed and chaotic character in the book than the smooth-operating fixer-upper version Gary Carr plays here) and on other occasions, it inherits the novel’s flaws — long passages of terminology-heavy exposition and not enough attention paid to emotional stakes.

Here’s what works, though: the show’s visual and production design, costumes and special effects are brilliant and go a long way in differentiating the two futures constantly juggled by the story (very important if you want viewers to retain the important plot stuff). This is a definite win for the technical departments. The ‘game’ sequences themselves are truly awesome, a treat to behold and also responsible for some of the most rapid and revelatory plot shifts in this otherwise sedate affair.

Another positive is the show’s ambition in mirroring some contemporary American problems—like the prohibitive cost of healthcare, or the way public spaces are marked by ableist behavior. Chloë Grace Moretz is a good choice to anchor the show and while her character takes a while to wise up to the dual-worlds reality, you do root for her once that narrative momentum picks up. The rest of the cast, especially Gary Carr, does a great job as well despite a screenplay that seems to revel in affectless, sardonic lines (much like Westworld, come to think about it).

I like the fact that The Peripheral is paced very differently from the usual action or sci-fi fare dished out by Hollywood of late. I like its large-canvas approach and I like its insistence on holding its cards close to the chest. With a tighter, more focused screenplay, the latter half of the season could transform this from a good show to a great one, I feel.

Rating: 3 (out of 5 stars)

Aditya Mani Jha is a Delhi-based independent writer and journalist, currently working on a book of essays on Indian comics and graphic novels.

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