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So I saw Joe mention that his episodes were going to run on Chiller, so I set up my DVR to catch a bunch of them. I don't think I recorded all of them, but I have a few.
"The Mind of Simon Foster" (by J. Michael Straczynski)
I like this episode - the "future" in 1999 when a depression has brought unemployment to larger than 30% - our nominal "hero" in this story has no job and needs money. Going to the pawn shop he finds a guy willing to buy his memories - they literally remove them from his brain and he gets the cash. His landlord is kind of an ass to him and asks for more rent (apparently no housing department in the future) so he needs even more money and gets more memories. In the end he goes for a job interview and can't remember enough to get through, so he demands memories from the pawn shop owner - and gets so many that they are all contradictory. When he has another job interview, none of it makes sense, except to him.
It's an interesting analysis in what makes a person themselves - is it something core, or just a sum of their experiences? I like the line in there how the pawn shop owner says people are willing to pay a lot because of their voyeuristic instinct, saying that's why soap operas do so well - and he says people don't want to watch "sagas or aliens" (!). The major events in Simon Foster's life, like graduation, his birthday, and the first time he had sex are all things that create his self, as it were, and I find it realistic that he finally blows up at the pawn shop owner at the end when he realizes it was all much more important than he was led to believe.
I'll give it a B (on a ABCD scale)
"The Mind of Simon Foster" (by J. Michael Straczynski)
I like this episode - the "future" in 1999 when a depression has brought unemployment to larger than 30% - our nominal "hero" in this story has no job and needs money. Going to the pawn shop he finds a guy willing to buy his memories - they literally remove them from his brain and he gets the cash. His landlord is kind of an ass to him and asks for more rent (apparently no housing department in the future) so he needs even more money and gets more memories. In the end he goes for a job interview and can't remember enough to get through, so he demands memories from the pawn shop owner - and gets so many that they are all contradictory. When he has another job interview, none of it makes sense, except to him.
It's an interesting analysis in what makes a person themselves - is it something core, or just a sum of their experiences? I like the line in there how the pawn shop owner says people are willing to pay a lot because of their voyeuristic instinct, saying that's why soap operas do so well - and he says people don't want to watch "sagas or aliens" (!). The major events in Simon Foster's life, like graduation, his birthday, and the first time he had sex are all things that create his self, as it were, and I find it realistic that he finally blows up at the pawn shop owner at the end when he realizes it was all much more important than he was led to believe.
I'll give it a B (on a ABCD scale)
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