Created by: Scott B. Smith

covers season 1

4 out of 5

There’s a version of these reviews that give half stars, though in the here and now, I’ve relieved myself of that extra level of consideration, figuring most things can fall into somewhat general ‘bad,’ ‘good,’ and ‘great’ buckets. But: in that alternate version, Scott Smith’s 8-episode adaptation of William Gibson’s The Peripheral would be a solid 3.5: absolutely better than average, but whiffing on a few solid points and preventing it from being something more grand. Here in whole-star-reviews world, we’re rounding up, though, as the extra efforts stuffed into the gills of this bloated thing are truly noteworthy, even if it’s also a bit undercooked. 

Gibson, a huge influence in modern sci-fi, has – in my limited readings of his – proven great at grounding sci-fi, and thus exploring it from a kind of street-level view, even when the scope is quite big. I haven’t read Peripheral, and internet chatter suggests this series does the usual TV thing of combining and unnecessary subplotting, but: our writers have absolutely maintained that grounding feeling, and it’s the most important attribute of the show, anchoring lead Flynne’s (Chloë Grace Moretz) experience such that even when things are kicking off crazily or confusingly – which they do as soon as the opening scene – we don’t feel like we’re just spiraling in high concept. 

The actors, really all around, are also a huge part of this, though admittedly some characters seep in and out as needed, giving them less rime to be fleshed out; Grace-Moretz however, is almost always front and center, balancing trickily between varying states of being a badass and emotional frailty throughout Peripheral, turning some clunk expository dialogue inro emotive moments, and being present for both the action and the drama. Without her, Peripheral is still interesting, but not nearly as watchable. 

I’d mentioned the show as being, perhaps, confusing at points, and that isn’t exactly the case, as Peripheral’s central conceit is easy enough to grasp: in a near-future 2030, Flynne and her brother, Burton (Jack Reynor) are testing out some VR gaming tech to make some extra scratch to take care of their ailing mother – the tech having come through a scrupulous source, but the offer paying well – when Flynne discovers something in the “game” that suggests its simulation may be more than virtual, and also leads to a chase for a macguffin she may have absconded with and that some violent bad guys are after. 

However, surrounding that is quite a bit of world-building and jargon, and the show has a way of delivering it exceedingly casually (except in a pretty goofy, effects-heavy info dump midway in that tries to speed us through some important in-universe history) which can lead one to feeling like they either missed a scene, or that we’re being given info as a tease for further details. …And it’s often both and neither: because the lore is quite dense, there’s a lot of inbetween stuff that was either cut for time or just kept lean for the same reason, and when we do get more details, it’ll arrive in that same casual fashion. On the one hand, I love when shows assume the audience can connect dots and moves things along; on the other, characters jump ahead to asking questions that seem very besides the point (to the extent of being silly), which knocks the immersion. Circle back to that grounded feeling, and Moretz’s performance, and it ultimately works to keep you hooked, and also satisfies when you’re able to slot some pieces together on your own. 

This balance is furthered in the setup, which hops between near future and the true future of the VR – we can see the small stepping stones to pretty believable tech, which further underlines the actual relevance of that macguffin, as well as the importance of events which have caused differences between now, 2030, and later dates. 

You will absolutely still be left asking Why This Person? and How Does This Work questions, though we get attempts to explain away many things, and that attention to attempted logic and consistency is very appreciated; internally, Peripheral feels like it makes sense, and perhaps the most glowing praise I can offer: once I felt like I had a grasp of how the world worked, and the macguffin, and the stakes.. I wasn’t let down. The show’s writers / directors smartly don’t focus on plotty twists and turns as much as they do character; it’s very interesting seeing how these people are connected, and then the sci-fi trappings atop are kind of the bonuses – if you stripped them away and made this more strictly good guys vs bad guys, it would still work. 

Peripheral is an appreciated modern sci-fi entry: its fears regarding what the future holds are not new, but Gibson’s method of showing how / why we might realistically get there helps to modernize these things, and there are some really unique wrinkles in the setup that are brought to life by a great cast, and solid direction throughout.