I feel the same way. I like it a bit better. Many of the episodes leave the storyline somewhat open (not all though, “Safe and Sound” definitely wants you to think about the tech in a certain way and “The Father Thing” is also saying something particular).
Finished the series yesterday. I think my favorite episodes are The Commuter and the one with Bryan Cranston. I don’t recall reading the stories the episodes were based on, and I understand that many big PKD fans were quite upset with some of the changes and choices. I thought the worst episodes were The Hoodmaker, which I found kind of boring, and Crazy Diamond, which I found incoherent.
I read a summary of the changes to Impossible Planet (which I also really liked) - the story had a fantastic ending that I wish they’d have included.
Basically the ‘fake Earth’ they were on was the ACTUAL Earth, unbeknownst to anyone. At the end of the story, the operator finds a coin that says “E Pluribus Unam” and just throws it away - there is no dying in a dream type of thing.
I like the Commuter as well. Human Is was great due to Cranston’s acting. I really enjoyed Real Life and Autofac. I’m not entirely sure what to think of K.A.O.
The first episode with Greg Kinnear was fine. But ‘Crazy Diamond’ was absolute garbage. The world building was garbage, the characters made no sense, the conflict was contrived, and in the end the whole thing was bloody incoherent. Terrible waste of Steve Buscemi.
Does anyone feel like explaining this episode?
I can’t. It IS a mess. It appeared to want to be at least 2 plotlines at once and couldn’t figure out what it was. That made for messy scenes, messy acting because the writing was messy.
The one very chilling element, to me, was the Jill who was the gate guard. The actress brought enormous nuance to what was on the surface a gag role.
Otherwise? Crap. And the ending? Mucho crap.
Yep.
Is it as sadistically bleak as Black Mirror?
Sadly, no.