‘The Peripheral’ season 1 follows Flynne Fisher as she contends with unprecedented perils from the future while finding herself at the centre of a worlds-altering conspiracy.
Story
‘The Peripheral’ opens with Flynne Fisher, a brilliant gamer going through her life filled with not-so-promising prospects for a better future. She strives to provide for her family of three regardless, with a blind mother and an elder brother who’s retired from the military.
Flynne is a brilliant gamer as well, and when his brother Burton gets sent a new VR headset from a big-time company, the test run falls on Flynne, who plugs into it and finds herself in a world that feels almost too real.
After completing what she thinks is a mission quest inside a realistic game, Flynne comes to realise later on, that it’s indeed the real world. It’s a post-apocalyptic London of the future, of a timeline that’s not hers.
Soon, the woman that led Flynne to commit some crimes and high-stakes stealth quests disappears and unwanted enemies start pestering Flynne and threatening her and her family’s life.
With the help of some not-so-reliable allies in the future London, Flynne tries to contend with the enemies and the situation she’s inadvertently put herself in. Meanwhile, back in her own timeline, her family faces perils after perils when enemies from Future unleash killers-for-hire on them.
The dangers increase and Flynne come face-to-face with enmity and takes it on with great courage, while her brother Burton, his friend Conner, as well as other friends, do commendable jobs protecting their family as well.
As Aelita, the woman who got Flynne into this mess reappears, she reveals her grand plan to take on the big, morally corrupt forces of the future timeline. Meanwhile, Flynne makes a radical move to gain an upper hand in the battle, before ‘The Peripheral’ season 1 concludes.
Performances
Chloe Grace Moretz leads the sci-fi cast with an expected acting prowess that she wields in all her scenes throughout the eight episodes.
A notable performance comes courtesy of T’Nia Miller as the prime antagonist Cherise Nuland.
Miller is a delight in the way she articulates her contempt and relishes her merciless acts, and amidst a slate of several villains, her antagonism entails the most authority and impact.
Positives
‘The Peripheral’ has a truly intriguing premise, thanks to the sci-fi source material that provides a ready-made world replete with all the riveting elements that a competent work of said genre possesses.
The VFX employed in the show is splendid, albeit sparsely used. Furthermore, the post-apocalyptic unease of the future world is conveyed with staggering efficacy.
Negatives
‘The Peripheral’ fails to sustain the same intrigue it has at the start of the season.
While one might expect some zany and surreal elements to be incorporated into high-octane action sequences, there’s not only a biting lack of action scenes, the sci-fi elements within these scenes are disappointingly grounded.
There are sneak peeks of some absurd visuals that stand in congruence with the absurdity that London’s future landscape, which makes the longing for more such content only more intense.
The show also suffers from an inconsistent pace where things unravel and develop erratically and the finale seems to be one hastily crammed-up job.
While setting up a seemingly promising sequel, the first season of this sci-fi drama isn’t as thrilling and satisfying as viewers might hope it to be.
Verdict
‘The Peripheral’ is a sci-fi drama with a brilliant premise and strong characters. However, by the time the season concludes, the pacing and the overall unremarkable preceding events make the affair a slog to navigate through.
The Peripheral season 1
Director: Vincenzo Natali, Alrick Riley
Date Created: 2022-12-02 10:30
2.5
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