After the string of high-budget fantasy shows that have graced our screens recently, The Peripheral is here to make waves in the sci-fi genre. An adaptation of William Gibson’s 2014 novel of the same name, the series follows Flynne Fisher (played by Chloë Grace Moretz) and her brother Burton (played by Jack Reynor) who are hired to beta test a cutting-edge VR game, but soon realise it’s not a game at all — they’ve been hired by resistance fighters from the future to help avert a global crisis and save the world.
The Peripheral has tapped some of the biggest names in sci-fi to deliver its vision of futuristic intrigue and deception. Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy are executive producers, along with Athena Wickham, Steve Hoban and Vincenzo Natali, who are also known for their thriller and horror films.
The series knits together classic sci-fi tropes like alternate timelines, virtual reality, and the climate catastrophe, and infuses its near-future setting with a sense of dread and urgency. Flynne is drawn into a high-stakes conspiracy that crosses timelines, and her actions in the future come back to haunt her and her family in the present.
The first two episodes of The Peripheral premiere on Prime Video on October 21, when it will no doubt become our new streaming obsession.
A Near-Future World
Spaceships and aliens are fun, but there’s something especially intriguing about a sci-fi set in the near future. The Peripheral is set in two timelines — 2032 and 2099 — which both feel grounded and realistic. We can see ourselves living in Flynne’s version of the future, and it’s easy to understand how society evolved into a functional dystopia in the 67 years following that.
In 2032, Flynne works at a 3D printing shop, acting as a kind of futuristic courier — customers buy things online, but instead of the manufacturer sending the product directly, they send the 3D files to the shop, who then print it and deliver it to the customer. Similarly, Burton — an ex-Marine who was part of an elite Haptics Recon unit – has cybernetic implants that let him share a consciousness with his squad mates and control drones and other devices.
The technology in 2032 is recognisable to anyone watching in 2022, but offers a tantalising — and, at times, terrifying — glimpse at what life could be like 10 years in the future. The Peripheral understands that good sci-fi is a window into a version of the future that might exist, with all the benefits and dangers that future may contain.
A Post-Apocalyptic World
Like so many sci-fi stories before it, The Peripheral presents a vision of the future that’s been ravaged by disaster — but it’s not defined by disaster. The 2099 timeline takes place in London after a series of cataclysmic droughts, famines and pandemics killed 80% of the human race. But instead of plunging into an endless chaos, the world advanced rapidly to rebuild.
The massive statues towering above London’s skyscrapers are “air scrubbers” designed to make the air breathable again. Animals like bees and thylacines have been brought back from extinction. Robots called Assemblers perform service, hospitality, and security jobs. Only the elite can afford to survive in 2099, and as a result, London looks peaceful and sophisticated — and strangely sinister. It’s hard to put your finger on why it’s so unsettling until Flynne spends more time in the future and we learn about the image society rebuilt itself into.
As T’Nia Miller’s character Cherise muses in 2099: “All the things that killed them off in the first place, they’re still out there. We do our best to keep them at bay, but one momentary lapse in vigilance and the whole cascade of crisis descends.”
Unravelling the Big Question
The sci-fi thriller part of The Peripheral becomes apparent when Flynne helps track down a woman from the future named Aelita (played by Charlotte Riley). After going into hiding, Aelita leaves a series of clues and riddles to find her, all which Flynne can easily solve while Wilf (played by Gary Carr), who’s known Aelita almost all their lives, remains clueless. Once is a fluke, twice is a coincidence, but when one clue requires a grandfather clock in 2099 to be set to the same time as the broken grandfather clock in Flynne’s house in 2032, it becomes impossible not to consider that Aelita left these clues for Flynne to find.
Technological Terrors
The show gets its name from the cyborg avatars people control from another location or time, which they call peripherals. The technology has potentially life-changing possibilities for accessibility, and Flynne is promised that she’ll be safe no matter what happens to her peripheral — but anyone who’s familiar with the genre may suspect that this isn’t entirely true.
At one point, she’s told “It’s a great gift I’m giving you. I hope you’re worthy of it,” as the camera cuts to a close-up of her peripheral’s bloodshot eye. It makes you wonder what this “gift” really is, and what invisible strings are attached.
Even in 2032, technology has evolved to be a much more intimate part of our lives. The show starts with Flynne and Burton freelancing as “sim jockeys”, skilled gamers who are hired by the rich to help them reach higher levels in virtual reality games. We see technology helping people in 2032, which makes you wonder what goes wrong before 2099 that makes people so disconnected from technology — Flynne’s peripheral is kept in a box when she’s not logged in. It looks uncomfortably like a coffin, and no one from the future sees anything wrong with this. They’re also happy to think about Flynne’s timeline as “not real”, even as they depend on it for salvation. Only time will tell what part technology plays in the downfall and possible salvation of The Peripheral’s two timelines, but it’s sure to be a breathtaking journey.
