Philip K. Dicks Electric Dreams
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
You have to build an entire world in an episode.
You have to take the audience on a complete journey to a definitive endpoint.
You have to build to a resonant theme to justify the episodes very existence.
And you have to do this in half the runtime of your standard movie.
might be an alien.
Its a story youve seen before, and theres sadly not much more to it.
Again, theyre pulpy, but our ultimate enjoyment of them is based on the execution of that pulp.
I keep thinking about one of Charlies lines from early on.
As he tried to explain the alien moment, he confides, Im not sure what I saw.
The problem is the episode relies on this tactic repeatedly.
Were never sure what were seeing or, more important, what it means for us as an audience.
I say it all the time, but mystery is not about being vague.
This allows our understanding of the mystery to evolve, just as the conflict changes, too.
But that fact doesnt stop some people from thinking mystery is just about hinting at and foreshadowing things.
Its always, Hey, this will be important later!
ARENT YOU CURIOUS THO?!
That isnt real conflict; its the texture of conflict.
And so, the audience justwaits.
But no such insight ever arrives.
This is an episode with only one card to play What if your dad was replaced by an alien?
They fret and fight and are all so desperately terrified that theyre trapped in hell.
But were with them every step of the way because their input and ideas shape our own understanding.
And I have no idea what Father Thing is really about, just the fears it wants to exacerbate.
