Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams

7.0
2017

A diverse anthology of ambitious, moving tales inspired by Philip K Dick's short stories.

Production

Logo for Sony Pictures Television
Logo for Channel 4 Television
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Trailers & Videos

Thumbnail for video: Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams - Official Trailer [HD] | Prime Video

Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams - Official Trailer [HD] | Prime Video

Thumbnail for video: Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams | Watch Now On All 4

Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams | Watch Now On All 4

Seasons

10 Episodes • Premiered 2017

Still image for Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams season 1 episode 1: The Hood Maker

1. The Hood Maker

6.3

The world is without advanced technology and mutant telepaths have become humanity’s only mechanism for long distance communication. But their powers have unintended implications and when the public begin to embrace mysterious, telepath-blocking hoods, two detectives with an entangled past are brought in to investigate.

Still image for Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams season 1 episode 2: Impossible Planet

2. Impossible Planet

6.3

Two disillusioned, disenchanted and indifferent space tourism employees take up an elderly woman’s request for a trip back to Earth… the existence of which is a long-debunked myth.

Still image for Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams season 1 episode 3: The Commuter

3. The Commuter

6.5

Ed Jacobson, an unassuming employee at a train station, is alarmed to discover that a number of daily commuters are taking the train to a town that shouldn’t exist.

Still image for Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams season 1 episode 4: Crazy Diamond

4. Crazy Diamond

5.4

As average a man as ever there was, when approached by a gorgeous synthetic woman with an illegal plan that could change his life completely, a smitten Ed decides to help... and then his world really begins to crumble.

Still image for Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams season 1 episode 5: Real Life

5. Real Life

6.9

Sarah, a policewoman living in the future, shares headspace with George, a brilliant game designer. In a race against time, sharing a bond that no one else can see, they learn the very thing that connects them can also destroy them.

Still image for Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams season 1 episode 6: Human Is

6. Human Is

6.8

A woman suffering in a loveless marriage finds that upon his return from battle, her emotionally abusive husband suddenly appears to be a different man - in more ways than one.

Still image for Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams season 1 episode 7: The Father Thing

7. The Father Thing

6.2

The world is under attack as aliens quietly invade our homes. Charlie, our young hero, must make the most difficult decisions imaginable, to protect his Mother and the human race, as he is among the first to realize that humans are being replaced by dangerous monsters.

Still image for Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams season 1 episode 8: Autofac

8. Autofac

7.8

Despite society and the world as we know it having collapsed, a massive, automatic product-manufacturing factory continues to operate according to the principles of consumerism - humans consume products to be happy, and in order to consume continuously, they must be denied freedom of choice and free will. When a small band of rebels decide to shut down the factory, they discover they may actually be the perfect consumers after all.

Still image for Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams season 1 episode 9: Safe & Sound

9. Safe & Sound

6.9

A small-town girl, already gripped with social anxiety, moves to a big futuristic city with her mother. Exposed for the first time to urban society’s emphasis on security and terrorist prevention, it isn’t long before her school days are consumed by fear and paranoia. She soon finds guidance and companionship in the most unexpected of places.

Still image for Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams season 1 episode 10: Kill All Others

10. Kill All Others

6.8

A man hangs dead from a lamppost, apparently murdered and inexplicably ignored by passersby, after a politician makes a shocking statement encouraging violence. When one man dares to question the situation he becomes an instant target.

More Like This

Reviews

W

No

4/10

Generally a strong cast, although there are exceptions, they guy from Game of Thrones is a stand-out for charisma vaccuum, but you've got Timothy Spall, Benedict Wong, Bryan Cranston etcetera etcetera - in fact, there's pretty much every reason for this to be good, with excellent source material and an excellent cast.

I suspect as this was a co-production by Channel 4 (UK) and Amazon (fronting the monies) that this was used as some kind of testing ground for directors to have an episode each.

The problem is that none of them are good. Passable, sure, but not good and certainly not great. I'm not going to write much beyond the first episode as I'm going to match the effort that's gone into this.
You get GoT's nepo-baby as future-detective, you know he's a detective because he's wearing a noir-style detective hat... it follows the story fairly faithfully, but that's not how you throw a petrol bomb at police - you'd throw many and have a source of petrol to douse between their feet - but who cares about realism when you've got "angsty", detective noir-hat to suck the life out of every scene. I very nearly canned the entire thing at this point.
Again, it follows the story fairly well, but it's just so unambitious and lifeless, at best it looks like a high-end advert for a kitchen appliace (as opposed to a car (which would have been far more ambition than we got)) and has about as much emotional pull.

After a clumsy, charmless start there's 9 more episodes that get a bit better, but again all in the hands of the cast and falls through the fingers of various directors.

Skip the first episode if you have a rainy day and nothing else to watch, it's fairly passable.

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