the peripheral rone 10/22 '22

I'm having a tough time enjoying the first two episodes on their own merits.  The departures from the book seem to grate me more than, say, the first season of American Gods (of which i was reminded by the intro sequence, same feel, except for the bit they lifted from The Expanse's intro).

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10/22 '22 12 Comments
Just watched 1 & 2 with Mrs. Waider; we're both quite enjoying it so far. Wifey is particularly taken with the look of the thing. It's been long enough since I read the book that I'm just occasionally wondering what's been changed or left out.

Amusingly, I'd pictured Wilf as an actor I can't quite identify - someone who looks a bit like 90's Quentin Tarantino, but isn't; there's a specific actor I have in my head but can't place him. And this isn't to say "but of course a major character is a white man" - it's more to do with whatever sort of character this actor got stereotypically cast as. I wish I could figure out who exactly it is.
Waider
I envisioned Wilf as looking, well, more weaselly, perhaps more like the actor portraying Daniel. In my mind, Lev's hair should be thinning.
rone
Ha, amusingly https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4878612/mediaviewer/rm555156736 which features the actor portraying Daniel does look a lot what I expected Wilf to look like. Still not the right actor - when facing the camera his face is too long.

I've started rereading the book because I basically couldn't help myself.
Waider
I have eated the book and started in on Agency.

In re: the differences, I think the book takes a bit of time to get to the fact that the future is, like, _the future_. Given that it's a HUGE HOOK I can see why they pulled that right back into the start of the TV series.

I'm also now wondering if that means they'll try to fit the whole book into "Season 1", and keep "Season 2" for Agency? I would like that, if only because it'd preclude this going the way of American Gods.

(I am _so_ disappointed that that ground to a halt.)
Waider
I think they could've spent the first episode as a sort of slow-burn intro to mimic the book's pacing a little, but maybe it would've made a poor pilot.

Changing Wilf from a dodgy PR liar to an assertive fixer still strikes me as off.

AG was such a clusterfuck (and i was into the departures from the book in that case).
rone
Fair call: wild is definitely more of a loser in the book.
Waider
I’m not familiar with either the book or show. Should I be?
Anne Mollo
There are some who say it's the best book Gibson's written. I don't know about that, but I certainly enjoyed it.
Waider
I'd say Agency (its sort-of sequel) is better, but it's quite good. The book does start off a bit slow and maybe confusing. It's near-and-not-so-near scifi.
rone
I read all of William Gibson's novels so I'm biased, but there were a lot of interesting drone and telepresence aspects of The Peripheral. Wheelie Boy was one of the most delightful parts, where a character's presence is largely facilitated by a toy that is an iPad-on-a-stick.
Chris Herdt
iPad-on-a-stick-which-is-a-Segway. It's actually mildly compelling idea that I'd expect to be able to buy on Ali Express or some such.
Waider
You can! https://www.doublerobotics.com/

My department briefly considered buying one for me when I started working remotely in 2015. We couldn't figure out how I would operate the elevators though.
Chris Herdt