The Peripheral is an Amazon Prime Original TV series based on a book series that was released a few years earlier. I was interested in this show as it has a time travel/sci-fi premise and stars, Chloe Grace Moretz and Jack Reynor, two actors I have liked over the years.
How to Download The Peripheral
You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice. Check out also Westworld (another show besides The Peripheral that was created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy).
The Movie Review
Now, I will be honest right away and say that I am completely ignorant of the book of the same name! As a matter of fact, I never even knew that this was based on a book until after, I started watching it. I am kind of glad, to be honest with you as I came into this with zero expectations and ended up being very entertained by what I was seeing.
So, what is The Peripheral all about? Well, we have our two main characters as sister and brother, Flynne and Burton. Flynne is a video game prodigy that has a real knack for VR games and her brother, Burton is a badass military guy. As Flynne is so good at vid games, she is sent a special kind of headset type device to play a game that is very special.
This game is unlike any other game that Flynne has ever had, it feels real and she is kind of into it at first. After Flynne dies in the video game, she gets a strange call that informs her that her life is now in danger. Of course, she is a little rattled, but Burton kind of just blows it off and says it’s nothing.
Well, a military-grade drone shows up and they know that they have fallen into something here! Look, The Peripheral is a pretty wild ride and basically, this “game” is not a game, but it is the future. That is right, Flynne has been controlling a robot that is 70 years in the future and not actually playing a video game.
I found this to be a really neat concept and there is an alternate timeline thing going on here too. I have heard that some people have said that The Peripheral is hard to follow, but I did not find that the case at all. This is a sci-fi show that has time travel, alternate timelines, and quite a few characters, but I never once found it hard to keep track of.
What I will say is that I do feel those first three episodes are amazing and fly by and that the “big reveal” is something I did not see coming. I feel that the middle three episodes kind of drag and just sort of repeat things over and over. They are not bad episodes by any means, but I think this show could have been even better if it had been condensed into say, 6 episodes instead of 8.
As this is a show with the muscle of Amazon behind it, The Peripheral has some amazing special effects. Sometimes sci-fi TV shows can have really cheesy special effects, but for the most part, this show is movie quality! I was very impressed with the way the show looked and also, and I was surprised at just how much action was in the show.
While I did like the show, I am not sure I would watch it again. However, it does end with a cliffhanger and as far as I know, no season 2 has been announced as of yet! If you like sci-fi, I would certainly say that you can do a lot worse than this so it is worth giving a try, especially if you like stuff like Ready Player One, Tron, and things like that.
