Before Netflix, before the Matrix, before Y2K, the viewing public of the late 20th century knew that computers would be important in the future, somehow, and Hollywood studios scrambled to try and produce TV shows and films that capitalized on and read into that unexplored digital frontier. The result was a 1990s that was awash with stories about how the Internet would change everything, from Keanu Reeves having an 80GB brain implant to Sandra Bullock ordering a pizza...from her computer! (gasp!) Most of these efforts followed the template established by the authors of the early Cyberpunk movement, providing paranoiac thrillers in the style of William Gibson. But one series broke from that mold to attempt to integrate the technothrills of tomorrow with the soapy, prime-time thrills of today: Wild Palms.
In this episode, we discuss the "weirdness" of '90s TV and the long shot that was the series' production, the viability of cyberpunk soap opera, the complicated alchemy of going off the TV formula, the intersection of culture and fame in LA, the chilling parallels between Wild Palms and our new millennium, human weakness in the face of technology's temptations, subverting the "Blade Runner aesthetic", how media is used to control us, and what cyberpunk tells us about the media's affect on culture. We also talk about Nazi gas-lighting robots, grading the Turing test on a curve, Stacked Clippy, Brisco County Jr., future = Edwardian collars, Cyberpunk Jim Belushi, postmodern law firms, not understanding your mantra, Patriots vs. Quakers vs. Solid Snake, the tacky harbinger of the Apocalypse, writing off into the sunset, and cyberpunk vampires!
Hitler, take the wheel!
The new edition of Lyda's book, Ressurection Code, is out now!
https://wizardstowerpress.com/books-2/books-by-lyda-morehouse/resurrection-code/
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