I love this show so much. I completely slept on it when it aired, but I'm gonna be rewatching this show for years to come. The genuinely blissful and serene atmosphere, the low lights; what now qualifies as classic, casually sexy lounge attire, and classic haircuts and beautiful people, and the ritualistic verbal coda of the post-wipe wake-up... even knowing all that is bubbling underneath the surface, and all the cyberdystopic, post-capitalist usury scheme, it's still an environment that is so wonderful to revisit. And this episode has a bit of everything that the show is.
I have no idea why they never aired this, but it's a great episode, and no replaced cast members like a lot of show pilots.
Topher really makes the case of being a doll being the perfect dichotomy of ideal, healthful existence, alongside the "active" side, which can make it anything but. And then there's the outside context explored later in the show, which adds to the depth of the ethical equation. The Ballard/Caroline thing was always the least interesting part of the show to me, but it's hiding one of the most fascinating science fiction premises in television or film, and probably the best conceptual work that Whedon will ever produce.
Review by LNeroBlockedParent2023-10-03T02:20:13Z
I love this show so much. I completely slept on it when it aired, but I'm gonna be rewatching this show for years to come. The genuinely blissful and serene atmosphere, the low lights; what now qualifies as classic, casually sexy lounge attire, and classic haircuts and beautiful people, and the ritualistic verbal coda of the post-wipe wake-up... even knowing all that is bubbling underneath the surface, and all the cyberdystopic, post-capitalist usury scheme, it's still an environment that is so wonderful to revisit. And this episode has a bit of everything that the show is.
I have no idea why they never aired this, but it's a great episode, and no replaced cast members like a lot of show pilots.
Topher really makes the case of being a doll being the perfect dichotomy of ideal, healthful existence, alongside the "active" side, which can make it anything but. And then there's the outside context explored later in the show, which adds to the depth of the ethical equation. The Ballard/Caroline thing was always the least interesting part of the show to me, but it's hiding one of the most fascinating science fiction premises in television or film, and probably the best conceptual work that Whedon will ever produce.