The Peripheral Series Review

The Peripheral (2022)

Season 1 - 8 episodes (2022 October 21)
Rent The Peripheral on Amazon Video (paid link)
Created by: Scott B. Smith
Based on: The Peripheral by William Gibson
Starring: Chloë Grace Moretz, Gary Carr, Jack Reynor, JJ Feild, T'Nia Miller
Rated: TV-MA
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Plot
Set in the future when technology has subtly altered society, a woman discovers a secret connection to an alternate reality as well as a dark future of her own.

Verdict
While it's only one season, we get answers for what's going on, which was my concern with the cancellation. This is concept over story. It's easy to get lost in what's going on with all of the technology and worlds. This doesn't try to explain too much about the sci-fi, not that it could, but I also wish it explained more of the plot. For much of the season I wondered about the stakes and how any of the events mattered. It weaves a complex tale of past, future, and alternate realities. Flynne is at the center of it, a group from the future having contacted her and another group trying to take her out because of it. Even when we learn the motives of the groups, it rings a bit hollow.
It depends.

Review
Based on William Gibson's 2014 novel, Gibson pioneered the cyberpunk genre with his 1984 novel Neuromancer. While this was picked up for a second season, it was later canceled due to the actors and screenwriters strike in 2023. Reviews stated this ended on a cliff hanger, but I disagree. It concludes the story arc in this season with a preview of what would come in the second season. I've been disappointed with plenty of shows that needed a second season for answers and this isn't one of them.

Set in the near future, Flynne (Chloë Grace Moretz) lives in rural North Carolina, working in a 3d print shop and taking care of her ailing mother. Her brother Burton (Jack Reynor) makes a living playing virtual reality games. She's more skilled than he is, though she doesn't like to play.

Gary Carr, Chloë Grace Moretz play Wilf Netherton, Flynne Fisher

He's sent an advanced VR prototype to test because he got so far in other games, but the catch is that Flynne is the one that got that far. She tests it, and it's so real it's unreal. She can feel the wind and surfaces when in the game. With the very nature of the show, you assume there is more to this simulation. Someone contacts Flynne, urging her to log back in, and then goes to lengths to warn her that a group is out to kill her. It's a great first episode that sets the stage and conflict while generating many questions.

It's convenient that Burton and his friends are former military. If they weren't, the show might be over before it starts. Not only that, they were recruited and fitted with haptics that allow them to link together, making them quite effective. While they thwart the attack, the question is who wants Flynne dead.

Jack Reynor plays Burton Fisher

Two groups from the future are at odds. They've found a way to 'travel' to the past to explore a catastrophe that ravaged the world and also use that world as an experiment for future technology. The whole concept is that once the future contacts the past, it creates a splinter alternate universe or "stub" unrelated to the future.

Flynne can leap forward through time into a robot with her likeness using the peripheral. It's unclear how that works exactly, but I'd guess that any explanation would only be more convoluted. The future is able to send technology or the plans to the past, including cars that can appear invisible.

The root of the problem is that Lev Zubov (JJ Feild) is after information from Cherise Nuland's (T'Nia Miller) company. Flynne can be an operative that's difficult to track since she doesn't exist in the world, but Cherise contracts people in Flynne's timeline to take her out. It's never quite clear who is good and bad. Cherise seems bad based on how she's portrayed, but we don't know that Lev is altruistic. Lev has appointed Wilf (Gary Carr) as Flynne's handler, and he seems good.

T'Nia Miller plays Cherise Nuland

It appears that Flynne did indeed take something from Cherise, neither we nor Flynne know what or how. We later learn that Lev killed his alternates in these stub worlds so that he would be the "only" one. The more time Flynne spends in the future, the more it affects her physically in the present. Even dying in a virtual world messes with your mind. Flynne gets worse throughout the episodes. It seems like the effects of using the peripheral, but there's more to it than that.

In the future, the cops are investigating Lev. The cops have higher powers that prevent people from lying to them, but I don't know how that works. The question remains what is this all about. It revolves around whatever catastrophe happened in the world.

I like how this resolves. While reviews stated it ended on a cliffhanger, I disagree. This concludes Flynne's arc as she manages to use the technology to find a way out and disconnect from the future. While there's a lot of story left, and this sets up another season, it's not completely open ended.