Amazon’s ‘Rings Of Power’ Replacement, ‘The Peripheral,’ Is Worth Your Time

Rings of Power is no more, having ended on a Sauron-laden note last week. Amazon is committed to the show for the long haul, so it will be back soon enough, but in the meantime, they’re attempting to fill the void. If Rings of Power was Amazon’s stab at a massively popular fantasy series like Game of Thrones, than The Peripheral is their attempt to replicate HBO’s Westworld to a certain extent, using many of the same people involved. Namely Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, who are producers on the series.

On top of that, The Peripheral is based on a William H. Gibson novel, of Neuromancer fame, and responsible in part for the “metaverse” craze currently going on in tech. And while The Peripheral seems like it may be doing something with hyper-realistic digital worlds, that’s actually…not what it’s about at all.

The Peripheral stars Chloe Grace Moretz of Kick Ass and Let The Right One In fame as Flynne, a girl who lives with her mother and her brother Burton (Jack Reynor). The two make extra cash by essentially doing paid carries in VR video games, with Flynne being the better gamer, but often forced to use her brother’s avatar because people online won’t take her seriously as a girl. I guess not all that much has changed by 2032.

While the vision of technological progress here by 2032 is…ambitious, fully realistic VR, subdermal bionic implants, that’s only half the story. In episode two, which also airs today, you’ll get the “twist,” which normally I wouldn’t share, but it’s kind of important to understand the actual scope of the series, and where things are headed.

Spoilers follow.

After Flynne is asked to test a new form of screenless, brain-controlled VR (think The Matrix) which transports her to a surreal, hyper futuristic version of London, she begins to wonder just what sort of company she’s gotten into bed with, despite the fact that the money is stellar. As it turns out, the reveal is that this is not VR, but instead, 70 years in the future, technology has advanced to the point where human consciousness itself can time travel, transported as “data” through quantum tunneling. So when Flynne appears in the “game,” it’s actually the very real London in the year 2100, and she’s “piloting” a hyper realistic robot built to look exactly like her.

Whatever Flynne is up to attracts the attention of dangerous folks, which results in assassins being commissioned back in her own timeline to take out her entire family. Luckily, her brother and his friends are all hardened combat veterans, and a wild firefight ensues.

I’ve only seen the first two episodes, but the overall arc of what’s going on here remains as murky as your typical Westworld season. There’s talk about fractured timelines and saving the world, but we don’t know a whole lot just yet.

I…actually like the show quite a bit, so far. It’s not reviewing terribly well, but the story is interesting, the tech is cool and Chloe Moretz is stellar here, and it’s great to see her onscreen again. No, perhaps it’s not as much of an instant hook as Westworld was, but even with two episodes totaling over two hours, I enjoyed my time and will be tuning in Fridays for more. Amazon has a mixed history with sci-fi, saving The Expanse but killing it before it could finish. It’s invested in truly bizarre shows like Outer Range and Night Sky. Here, it’s very clearly going for Westworld, and while it may not get all the way there, this is something that’s worth checking out compared to most other current Prime shows, I’d argue. We’ll see where it goes.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.