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My first impression of The Peripheral is that I was again watching Video Game High School but this time with the added benefit of both a big budget and a serious plot.

Well, actually, my first impression was “Did someone just crib the opening credits from The Expanse again?” But after that, it was the VGHS thing.

When The Peripheral was freshly out on Amazon, I very nearly watched it right away. As I told you, though, I chose instead to watch The Boys. For what it’s worth, The Boys ranks a full point higher than The Peripheral on IMDb. The appeal is also more “obvious,” for lack of a better word. Finally, The Boys had three seasons already out whereas The Peripheral was dribbling out its shows bit by bit. If nothing else, the ability to complete my viewing on MY schedule probably would have pushed me into the older of the two shows, all else being equal.

My final impression from watching The Peripheral was… oh no! Not another cliff-hanger ending and another unresolved story!

I can only hope that I will eventually find Peripheral satisfaction. The show seems to have done very well for itself and I’d be really surprised if Amazon didn’t fund another season or two. But given that this “original content” development is such a big unknown in today’s streaming business environment, I wonder how much viewers will want to discount such a possibility. It is one more factor that would drive me to choose an older series over a brand-spanking new one. All else being equal.

As I relayed to you earlier, I pre-judged this show primarily on the basis of the review of it in The Wall Street Journal and I wasn’t really sure whether or not the reviewer liked it. One nebulous statement in that first review has been echoed and clarified by others; many found the pacing a bit to ponderous. It took me a few shows to warm to the story and then a few more to begin to understand what was going on – which is to say, understand enough to care. Fortunately, the pricey CGI special effects and Matrix-meets-Call-of-Duty action were enough to drive interest, even if the story wasn’t yet there. Still, I wasn’t compelled to “binge watch” in an effort to “get to the good stuff.”

Once it became clear, the underlying science fiction provided a solid core. It is a particular take on the “multi-worlds” theory of the universe and its solution to the time travel paradox*. Before that all became clear, I thought the post-millennial, end-of-the-world doom porn was a little over done but I became more forgiving once I got it in context.

It’s not hard science fiction by any means and there are obvious logic holes for those that care to poke for them. For me, though, it was good enough for me wave it all away and enjoy the story… at least as much of that story as I could get my hands on.

This is another 8-series season run. More than a mini-series but not what we weaned-on-the-24-show-season-followed-by-reruns folks would call such. As I was only a show or two in, I started wondering if maybe 8 one-hour episodes is just about right to capture the typical novel on the small screen. That fact that The Peripheral didn’t do so may tie back the complaints of those viewers and reviewers who critqued the slow-moving plot. Maybe this is a case where the source material should have been wrapped up in one shot rather than suspended for a year.

Speaking of source the material… in an I-told-you-so moment, as I was viewing the final credits, I noticed that Amazon, having left me hanging, urged me to purchase the 2014 William Gibson novel of the same name. I have also noticed that is the first of a two-book “trilogy.” I may want to hold off on any book purchases until I know that Gibson isn’t going to leave me in the lurch as well.

I’ll throw out one last complaint at you, and one not specific to this show. I’ve had some real issues with the sound volume in the last couple of TV shows I’ve watch. The action is pretty loud but when I turn the volume down** accordingly, I am unable to hear the dialog. It’s far, far worse in a show like The Peripheral, where it uses accented (to me) English. The London street accents require a lot of extra straining for me to understand clearly; the southern drawl and upper-crust King’s English somewhat less so. To make it even worse, the vogue seems to be to underscore dramatic moments with a thundering, distorted bass note. It was cool when Zimmer did it. It’s not so special when everyone does it all the time.

I’ll admit to you that it might just be me. Maybe my hearing is starting to go and I’m first losing the frequencies that make up human conversation voices. Maybe that hot superhero-on-superhero lovin’ action is far, far louder than I think it is. Fact is, there is no way I can figure this out all by myself.

– Photo by Sebastian Arie Voortman on Pexels.com

*By which I mean, even if nobody else does, the question of what if you traveled back in time and killed your own father. Would you no longer exist? And if you no longer existed, how could you have killed your own father?

**Sometimes it can really get too loud for me. Most of the time, I’m watching the show alone even though I am not alone in the house. I don’t want to disturb the whole neighborhood with my viewing. Especially if I’m viewing something like The Boys where the loud scenes as often as not featured athletic sexual performances feature high-volume vocalizations.