Protagonist Flynne Fisher (Chloë Grace Moretz, in the biggest role of her adult career) is living with her terminally ill mother Ella (Melinda Page Hamilton) and her brother Burton (Jack Reynor), a veteran who was subjected to technological experiments and now makes money doing jobs in hyper-realistic videogames. The former is a recognizable extrapolation of present-day America, with virtual reality and 3D printing advancing-and poverty, the cost of healthcare, and the drug crisis worsening. I say “futures” plural because The Peripheral takes place primarily in two different settings: 2032 North Carolina and 2099 London. The Peripheral was his return to inventing new futures, and watching the streaming version eight years later, his vision feels all too plausible. Gibson actually quit writing sci-fi in favor of realistic fiction in the 2000s because reality had caught up with his fiction. Novels like Neuromancer, written before the public internet was even a thing, read as prophetic decades later.

Considered one of the founders of the cyberpunk genre, Gibson’s writing has influenced countless other books, movies, and TV shows, but has rarely been directly adapted to the screen. It is, however, T’Nia Miller’s archly evil antagonist who steals the show, radiating quiet menace in every scene and delighting in her villainy while casually floating mortal threats or feeding an underling to a swarm of stroppy bees.Prime Video’s new science fiction series The Peripheral is based on the 2014 novel of the same name by William Gibson. Some of the sci-fi trappings fall slightly flat - invisible cars and robo-cabs have been done better elsewhere - but others feel fresh and organic in their implementation - sonic knuckle-dusters and synaptically connected special forces soldiers - facilitating some punchy, well-orchestrated action set-pieces to liven up the chin-stroking speculation about the nature of reality.įlynne is a more generic heroine than her literary counterpart, but Moretz attacks the role with a steely determination, backed - despite some rather upsetting London accents - by a uniformly solid supporting cast.

The end-result is a streamlined neo-noir that explores its bifurcated premise to great effect, ping-ponging between futures as Moretz’s Flynne gradually begins to redefine the boundaries of her accepted reality.

Some punchy, well-orchestrated action set-pieces liven up the chin-stroking speculation about the nature of reality.

The peripheral gibson