HWD Daily – Oh, Brave New World…
Oh, Brave New World…
Aldous Huxley isn’t just for your ninth-grade English class anymore. The author’s classic dystopian novel Brave New World has been reimagined for Peacock, NBCUniversal’s forthcoming streaming service, for a modernized adaptation that TV critic Sonia Saraiya found engrossing. “The upshot of this version of Brave New World is that the characters aren’t static; this dystopian story doesn’t have to end with a tragic thud,” she writes. And while the series isn’t perfect, it does have one advantage over a similar project: “For contemporary sci-fi series, there seems to be no way around doing some kind of Westworld-esque discourse with some sort of artificial intelligence, and Brave New World is no exception. But at least this series is ultimately interested in how people function, not how computers do.”
Elsewhere in HWD, Anthony Breznican catches up with the teams behind two potential Emmy contenders—Mrs. America and Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist—as nominations for TV’s biggest night approach; K. Austin Collins is unmoved by Relic, the latest uneasy indie that wants to be more than a horror movie; and Julie Miller learns the secrets of Unsolved Mysteries, which recently returned for new episodes on Netflix.
…That Has Such People in It!
Smart adaptive choices help Peacock’s flagship series bring a classic dystopian tale into the 21st century.
A Lonely Victory
Mrs. America directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck on Phyllis Schlafly’s anti-feminist campaign against the ERA—and the day Cate Blanchett suggested the song “Little Weaver Bird” for the finale.
The Horror, the Horror
Emily Mortimer stars in Relic, a film that falls into the same trap as several recent movies trying to serve depth as well as scares.
More Questions
Unsolved Mysteries cocreator Terry Dunn Meurer on the baffling cases featured on the show’s rebooted first season with Netflix.
High Note
The cast of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist on reaching a heartbreaking crescendo in their first season finale, set to Don McLean’s “American Pie.”
