TVâs Dystopia Boom
Philip K. Dick
Lately  weâve been seeing a boom in TV dystopias. Two of the most successful premieres in the past few years have been HBOâs Westworld and Huluâs The Handmaidâs Tale: the former a solemn  plodding update of Michael Crichtonâs 1973 film  in which subjugated androids revolt and take over a theme park; the latter a stylish and compelling adaptation of Margaret Atwoodâs 1985 novel  in which the United States becomes a patriarchal theocracy. Other recent examples include Amazonâs The Man in the High Castle (based on Philip K. Dickâs 1962 novel about an alternate reality in which the Axis powers have won World War II)  HBOâs The Leftovers (about a world in which 2 percent of the population has mysteriously disappeared)  and Netflixâs new Altered Carbon (a cyberpunk gorefest based on a 2002 novel by Richard K. Morgan). Stretching the criteria a bit  one could perhaps include the long-running zombie odyssey The Walking Dead and its spin-off  Fear the Walking Dead  and sitcoms that play with dystopic elements  like The Good Place and The Last Man on Earth.
The success of Black Mirror is the proximate cause for the existence of  Philip K. Dickâs  Electric Dreams  also produced by Channel 4 and available here on Amazon. Dick  of course  is one of the past masters of the dystopia genre: His 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was the basis for the seminal Ridley Scott film Blade Runner  and his work has been mined by Hollywood countless times ever since.  Electric Dreams  adapts 10 of  Dickâs  short stories  including âThe Hood Makerâ (which imagines a class war between telepaths and normal citizens  who resent their mindsâ being invaded) and âThe Father Thingâ (in which a childâs father is replaced by a sinister alien doppelgÃ¤nger).
 Electric Dreams  is slickly made and intermittently effective  but despite some half-hearted attempts to reimagine or update the material (the boy in âThe Father Thing â upon uncovering the alien conspiracy  posts a video on the Internet with the hashtag â#RESISTâ)  it doesnât really feel of our moment. Part of the problem is that Dickâs work has been adapted for film so many times already that itâs hard to watch a given episode of Electric Dreams  however well executed  and not compare it unfavorably  if unfairly  with Blade Runner  or Paul Verhoevenâs Total Recall  or Steven Spielberg âs  Minority Report.  Dickâs  sensibility is idiosyncratic and sui generis  but at this point it feels more like a piece of intellectual property than the amphetamine-fueled gnostic vision it once was. Is anybody âs  mind really blown by the is-our-world-real-or-just-a-simulation conundrum posed by âReal Life â for example  after weâve seen not only Total Recall but The Matrix and Westworld and a hundred other iterations of it?
The problem  however  isnât just overfamiliarity. Dystopias draw their power from an analysis of the present  and  Dick âs once-radical vision of the future is now as far in the past as H.G. Wellsâs was for  Dick  when  he  began writing. This is what Black Mirror  for all its flaws  has over Electric Dreams: The series feels like itâs about things that Brooker is genuinely worried about  not a dutiful tribute to what someone was worried about in the 1960s; itâs the future as seen from the 21st century  not the 20th. This problem is endemic to many of the recent dystopian shows. The fact that Westworld is based on a movie from 1973  and The Handmaidâs Tale on a novel from 1985  doesnât invalidate their value as entertainments or as cultural commentaries. But it does introduce concerns alien to the dystopiaâs imperative to take the worst of the present day and amplify it.
Lately  weâve been seeing a boom in TV dystopias. Two of the most successful premieres in the past few years have been HBOâs Westworld and Huluâs The Handmaidâs Tale: the former a solemn  plodding update of Michael Crichtonâs 1973 film  in which subjugated androids revolt and take over a theme park; the latter a stylish and compelling adaptation of Margaret Atwoodâs 1985 novel  in which the United States becomes a patriarchal theocracy. Other recent examples include Amazonâs The Man in the High Castle (based on  [TGT] âs 1962 novel about an alternate reality in which the Axis powers have won World War II)  HBOâs The Leftovers (about a world in which 2 percent of the population has mysteriously disappeared)  and Netflixâs new Altered Carbon (a cyberpunk gorefest based on a 2002 novel by Richard K. Morgan). Stretching the criteria a bit  one could perhaps include the long-running zombie odyssey The Walking Dead and its spin-off  Fear the Walking Dead  and sitcoms that play with dystopic elements  like The Good Place and The Last Man on Earth.
The success of Black Mirror is the proximate cause for the existence of   [TGT] âs  Electric Dreams  also produced by Channel 4 and available here on Amazon. Dick  of course  is one of the past masters of the dystopia genre: His 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was the basis for the seminal Ridley Scott film Blade Runner  and his work has been mined by Hollywood countless times ever since.  Electric Dreams  adapts 10 of  Dickâs  short stories  including âThe Hood Makerâ (which imagines a class war between telepaths and normal citizens  who resent their mindsâ being invaded) and âThe Father Thingâ (in which a childâs father is replaced by a sinister alien doppelgÃ¤nger).
 Electric Dreams  is slickly made and intermittently effective  but despite some half-hearted attempts to reimagine or update the material (the boy in âThe Father Thing â upon uncovering the alien conspiracy  posts a video on the Internet with the hashtag â#RESISTâ)  it doesnât really feel of our moment. Part of the problem is that Dickâs work has been adapted for film so many times already that itâs hard to watch a given episode of Electric Dreams  however well executed  and not compare it unfavorably  if unfairly  with Blade Runner  or Paul Verhoevenâs Total Recall  or Steven Spielberg âs  Minority Report.  Dickâs  sensibility is idiosyncratic and sui generis  but at this point it feels more like a piece of intellectual property than the amphetamine-fueled gnostic vision it once was. Is anybody âs  mind really blown by the is-our-world-real-or-just-a-simulation conundrum posed by âReal Life â for example  after weâve seen not only Total Recall but The Matrix and Westworld and a hundred other iterations of it?
The problem  however  isnât just overfamiliarity. Dystopias draw their power from an analysis of the present  and  Dick âs once-radical vision of the future is now as far in the past as H.G. Wellsâs was for  Dick  when  he  began writing. This is what Black Mirror  for all its flaws  has over Electric Dreams: The series feels like itâs about things that Brooker is genuinely worried about  not a dutiful tribute to what someone was worried about in the 1960s; itâs the future as seen from the 21st century  not the 20th. This problem is endemic to many of the recent dystopian shows. The fact that Westworld is based on a movie from 1973  and The Handmaidâs Tale on a novel from 1985  doesnât invalidate their value as entertainments or as cultural commentaries. But it does introduce concerns alien to the dystopiaâs imperative to take the worst of the present day and amplify it.