If it weren't for a fascination with Steve Buscemi I wouldn't have stayed with this. It's about a future where there is little food and some replicants called Jacks and Jills do the labor. Of course, with most artificial intelligence in sci fi, eventually they begin to rebel. I have little else to say. The plot is a mess and we aren't given enough information to really understand the world we are witnessing. Oh, who's in charge? What are the motivations?
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Hitchcoc19 January 2018
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Lejink1 November 2017SPOILER: I was less impressed by this episode of Channel 4"s Philip K Dick anthology than others I've watched in the series. Set in the bleak mid-future, it pits hangdog Steve Buscemi as an ordinary average cog in the workaday scheme of things, working in a government scientific facility producing regenerative medicine, living with his childless, nervous wife in their modern house seemingly content, if not exactly happy with his lot.
In this alternative future, however, there is a shortage of natural foodstuffs, so that all things edible have a limited life span, coastal erosion is an everyday occurrence and the population is bolstered by so-called "Jack's" and "Jill's" of seemingly artificially created beings of human appearance.
Our hero is mildly rebellious however as we see him try to grow his own food and also escape the drudgery of his boring existence by retreating to his boat where he plays vinyl records. Then, into his life steps a beautiful femme-fatale, ostensibly trying to sell him life cover but in truth she wants a supply of the life-giving serums, both for commercial gain and also to save her own failing metabolism.
This story had its moments, especially a nightmarish opening and its depiction of not so sweet suburbia in the near-future but for me had too much going on, taking in as it did, a terrorist gang desperate to get its hands on the toxins, a half-pig, half-woman being who dispenses marital advice to Buscemi's wife and in the end a weird union of sorts between the Jill and the wife which leaves him effectively seduced and abandoned by the finish.
I also didn't get the use of Pink Floyd references, from the episode title, to Buscemi's character name of Syd Barrett to the background music. The acting was good though, besides Buscemi, I enjoyed seeing "Borgen's" Sidse Babette Knudson as the double-dealing temptress and Julia Davis as the seemingly timorous wife. I also liked the cinematography, filmed in wash-out grey tones as well as the set design of the house of tomorrow.
No, this story of another brick in the wall who who'd outstayed his welcome to the machine was just a little too madcap for me, sorry. -
PhilipRamone10 October 2017As a story goes, it held my attention, and Steve Buscemi's performance kept a thin script from falling apart.
But it was a version of Blade Runner with androids running out of time. It had nothing to do with the original short story it was based on, called Sales Pitch. Even Blade Runner film lacked correlation to the book it was based on.
Confusion continued to reign over me why it was called Crazy Diamond. But that answered when the music of Syd Barrett permeated the air.
So why use the title "Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams". Ever story so far is a re-imagination. -
jcain163514 January 2018There is a lot that this episode had in it's favor. The set design, acting, soundtrack, and camera work is well above average. Unfortunately, the story never really goes anywhere. While engaging while being watch, the story seems to tactfully avoid any sense of climax and ending. It just kind of stops. The story is adapted from the short story "Sales Pitch", which I found to be a great little story. The problem is: it is severely lacking in material substantial enough to adapt into a one hour television program. So the story has been altered to almost unrecognizable proportions. I normally wouldn't have a problem with this, but the story was strong in every way this interpretation was not. The themes were clear, it had a healthy dose of comedy at the ineptitude of the technology depicted, and the characters were well defined. This story evades any point or theme. (Even though the ideas of manufactured souls is extremely enticing, its used sparingly and is almost irrelevant to the story.) If you love Phillip K. Dick or Science Fiction, give it a try. Just know it's not the best of either. If there are any episodes weaker than this, I will likely be left frustrated with this season.
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I guess my advantage and disadvantage at the same time is that I didn't read the Philip K. Dick short story this was based on. So taking it at face value, I didn't have the same problem with it that so many other reviewers here did. Quite the opposite, as moral dilemmas surface in a number of places that place the characters at odds with each other and even themselves. As in Sally Morris's (Julia Davis) quandary over reporting her husband for potential insurrection against his company, and Ed's (Steve Buscemi) difficulty on whether or not to aid Jill (Sidse Babett Knudsen) with the theft of the QC capsules. There's even the question of whether or not The Director (Lucian Msamati) was retrieving the QC for The Spirit Mill or himself. For a moment, I even thought that Jill might have been working for the Spirit Mill in order to test Ed's loyalty to the company. The story involves multiple double crosses that ends with Ed being on the outs with both Sally and Jill, as he's left to contemplate his fate with the only source of consolation he has left, his vinyl record collection. On a side note, the reference to Ed as Syd Barrett had a striking resonance for this viewer, because for some reason, every time I call up a rock number on Youtube, the automatic selection that plays the very nest time is always 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond'. It almost never fails.
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bobcobb30126 December 2017This show has me intrigued with the big name guest stars, but right now the stories just aren't getting it done. They are trying too hard to create these sci-fi settings and instead are not telling us compelling stories. This one was so predictable with how it played out.
We need twists and big moral lessons, that's what we like from this show. -
soraya-ririe7 February 2020Came to see the reviews to try to understand what the hell I just watched. Parts of it were okay. The set was beautifully done, and the soundtrack great. But that's where it stops. I'm still trying to understand how everything ties together. Is this about consciousness? About salvaging relationships? Commercialism, production, global health, isolation/lonliness, reproduction, black market gangs, racism, sexism? I'm not quite sure because they touched briefly on all of these, but not enough to actually make sense in context. How does the puzzle fit? It felt like there wasn't a point to any of it, because there wasn't enough depth to anything. Just kinda skimmed the surface and left it hanging. There wasn't a connection between the plot points, or even chemistry between the cast. Not my favorite episode.
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Tweekums10 October 2017This story is set in a distant future where the land is crumbling into the sea and artificial people known as Jacks and Jills live alongside regular people. Ed works is one of the facilities where 'Quantum Consciousnesses' are created and injected into bodies; these QCs are effectively artificial souls that makes the Jacks and Jills who they are. The QCs are valuable and one day a Jill approaches Ed and proposes that he helps her steal some; she needs one for herself as her own is failing and proposes to sell the others. The robbery goes according to plan but the buyer steals them all now she wants them back.
While this isn't the best story in the series to date it is still rather fun. Given that its length it does a fine job creating an interesting world thanks to the little details such as food that goes bad soon after one buys it and rules against trying to grow your own. The setting, largely filmed at Dungeness, gives an otherworldly feeling. The story of an artificial being seeking to extend her life does of course remind one of 'Blade Runner', itself inspired by a Phillip K Dick story, and there is also an obvious reference to 'Double Jeopardy', the classic film noir which should set alarm bells ringing. The central characters are interesting; Steve Buscemi does a fine job as Ed, a dreamer who has plans for a different future and Sidse Babett Knudsen impresses as the Jill who just wants a future. The rest of the cast are pretty solid too. There are a few moments of violence but nothing too extreme. Overall an enjoyable little story. -
philipjcowan-119-6466026 October 2019Supposedly based on the Philip K. Dick short story, Sales Pitch, this has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the story. Indeed, it is so far removed from it, I suspect the writer had some heist movie all written up and, with a few tweaks, passed it off as an adaptation.
Steve Buscemi plays a down-at-heel worker at a factory that makes artificial people. He is drawn into a conspiracy to steal from his employer, and things get twisty and violent.
Moderately distracting as a sort of sci-fi noir, but most people will have something better to do with their time than watch this.
Hey, here's an idea - read the Philip K. Dick story - it is actually quite good. -
No matter what Ed plans, seems that he will never get his Dream of seeing the World by boat.
Repeatedly Ed helps a manmade "Jill", repeatedly "Jill" screws over Ed. And still Ed survives being thrown overboard by "Jill" and his Wife Sally.
Even Ed's House is falling into the Sea. -
cutefooter11 February 2018Horrible. I had to watch it twice and still was like "Huh?" Finally, I came here to find out what was going on. I can usually understand these by the end but this one just left m confused. Thanks to the reviewers on this site, I figured it out. On to the next one.
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Graybell19 January 2018I thought "Crazy Diamond" was a compelling show, right up there with the best of the other "Electric Dreams." I only had one problem, which is how Jill dumps Ed at the end. Ed's boss is holding a gun to Jill's head, threatening to shoot Jill, unless Ed uses the QC gun/vacuum to vacuum out Jill"s consciousness. Meanwhile, Jill is begging Ed not to do it; but if Ed had point-blank refused, then Jill would be dead. By going along with his boss, Ed arguably saves Jill's life, since he gives her time to get a gun and kill the boss. Nevertheless, she judges him harshly and elopes with his wife, which seemed like a sop to the LGBT movement. The fact that Jill and Ed's wife take over what was Ed's dream seems deeply unfair. Ed's wife, after all, was considering turning in her husband to the authorities, and she considered Ed's dream to be a farce. So it doesn't make any sense that she gets rewarded at the end. I think if Ed had been allowed to sail off by himself at the end, while Jill and Sally went to Vegas or somewhere, would have been a much more satisfactory ending. But except for the ending, it was an entertaining story. The acting by Ed's character and especially Jill's was superb.
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robfollower24 January 2020This episode isn't uniformly great, but it has all of the interesting angles and moral dilemmas that populate the best of Dick's stories. Steve Buscemi is perfect as Ed, a shabby man with a good heart who nevertheless keeps making bad decisions. Sidse Babett Knudsen (Westworld) is engaging in the femme fatale role of Jill, tempting Ed less with her sexuality and more with her cunning insight into his prosaic dreams. There are a lot of fascinating ideas that percolate just under the surface, such as why the world needs replicants or DNA spliced humans and why everything seems like it is running down into ruin. Unfortunately, they remain window dressing, but the story itself is clever and thoughtful.
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"Sales Pitch" by PKD is a decent little story, a funny take on over-intrusive advertising. It actually could have more resonance these days with the advent of ad companies that exist to spy on users and sell their personal information to the highest bidder, like Google and Facebook. But instead of maybe taking the story more in that direction, this idiocy ditches any semblance of the PKD story except a couple character names and replaces it with basically nothing. There is nothing of any interest at all in this episode, just an incoherent mess and a complete waste of time.
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johnmilus19 January 2018...by the end I thought Ed was an Android too, since he was playing the record with his hand. I know, kind of a stupid leap, but it made for what I thought was an intriguing understory, one where the non-normals were all trying to get in good with the (higher-status) normals for survival. The pig lady, for example, chumming it up with the half wit wife, who is eventually stolen away from bored Ed by his droid mistress, who in the end has the relationship with the 'normal', exposing Ed as a droid too, who once had it made but got played and lost his gravy train, now back to square one with nothing. The undertone of this is that the 'normals', no matter how stupid, were at an higher status that the non normals, no matter how superior, and that they were vied for and manipulated by the desperate non-normals, while being unaware of the game or the immorality of the cast system of which they were at the top. Ok, So I over extrapolated. I came here to see what the story really meant, and it seems that it's a bit thin. So maybe I'll just pretend my interpretation is the 'real' insider's plot line, which is in keeping with P.K.Dick's style of shifting perspectives: I.e. which plot is it?
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alienhanni9 July 2022Flawed, for sure! A mess? Definitely! Motivations mostly unclear.
On the other hand I liked the atmosphere of this episode, the good acting of the main characters and that some scenes were over the top. It was grotesque. This is probably what got me. Seeing a lot of parallels to our more and more narcissistic society. Things just happen and nobody cares. This is somehow exaggerated, but this dystopia got me thinking and that's what this show is about. -
evill_the_cat10 August 2018Like the show. Hate this episode. Too short, too poorly explained, symbolism that really never meshed, some kill bill deaths for some reason.
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What's the line.... "that's an hour of my life I'll never get back"? This is how I feel after watching this miserable episode of an otherwise compelling collection of short stories. As others have noted, great cast, great sets, and BORING, PLODDING SLEEP-INDUCING plot that should never have been made into one of these mini-stories. One has to wonder, was it bad direction? Was it just a story that couldn't be told well regardless of who starred in it (my personal theory)? This was so bad I actually gave up after what seemed like hours of trying to get through this story, although I had only been watching for 30 min or so. The next day I figured "ah this has to get better" so I finished it. Nope. Lackluster to the end, an end that was incredibly unsatisfying to boot. Don't waste your time on this one.
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chrisg_19836 October 2020We have watched 5 episodes so far (randomly) and this episode is the only one (so far) that we hated. It was garbage from beginning to end. So ridiculous and ashamed to have watched through to the end of the episode.
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jgw3219 October 2017A simple little short story, a touch of menage a trois, a touch of life in the future, pipe dreams to escape an authoritarian regime; interesting enough on its own, but the real delight is afterwards, when we reflect on the film and what it means. Are we back with Blade Runner? The final scene when Ed finds his LP record seems to say this to me.
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drpunkrock3 December 2019There is not much good to say about this. In general, Electric Dreams has been a slightly worse Black Mirror of Amazon but this episode is WAY worse than subpar Black Mirror episodes. The story is unengaging, the direction and camera work looks like a low budget short film and there is just no point to it all. The special effects (for example the blood) are really off, it is just not immersive which is also the fault of the writing. Buscemi falling in love with the Jill without having any chemistry at all is just really weird. There is no dread about a dystopian future setting or a sense of doom that often accompanies Black Mirror episodes that I like so much. This just is so damn neutral and emotionless. Some Electric Dreams episodes are servicable, this one is not.
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korereviews20 November 2017The set design was about the only positive here. Buscemi was okay, but had little to work with. This episode literally looked and felt like it was directed by a high school student. Appallingly bad storytelling. Terrible editing. Pointless use of music. Just amateur hour. In better hands, could have been a decent episode.
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fxdillinger-uno8 November 2018As Steve Buscemi and Sidse Babett Knudsen (Borgen) are not only two of my favorite actors, they are also known and respected for their craft in a few continents. I can't therefore blame this misfortune entirely on them. However I do not see what they were seeing about the script when they accepted it.
This episode might be a good way to demonstraet how in the end directors might still matter, for good or, in this case, for worse.
10 for this cast, but in other films 3 for their acting in this particular piece of work 2 for the script 1 for the overall episode, including directing, make up, costumes, camera, color grading, editing. -
rskolek23 August 2019I have never seen such a laughably bad episode in an otherwise good TV series. The most frustrating thing is that there were at least five interesting elements that could have worked splendidly if the episode focused just on one thing. But this mess is like ten stories told together.
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feritciva15 August 2018Obviously jacks & jills didnt like this episode. no problem, their program may not appreciate this gem. unlike steve buscemi i dont believe in "neural pathway equality" and i dont care about jack's & jill's comments. this episode is for beings with soul.
meanwhile madcap keeps on laughing..