The third and final episode of Electric Dreams takes place in the Nineties. A confused decade which had a schizophrenic music scene with an equal dose of the manic depressive and bubbly pop.  The girls are left shocked when they discover a poster of Take That on their bedroom wall with the sudden realisation that the pop charts were just as crap in the Nineties as they are in present day. New technology is delivered to their door at an incredible rate and the family struggle to keep up with the constant need for change.

Having grown tired of Eighties fashion the whole family are pleased with the new décor around the home. Adam marvels at Lara Croft’s assets and then he and his friends sit around like a bunch of clowns bashing buttons on their Playstation controller before figuring out the game hadn’t started yet and they were still in demo mode. The kids can hardly contain themselves at having their own mobile phones and are even more delighted when the long wait is over and they finally have access to the World Wide Web. Ellie is especially thankful for web access as it allows her to finish some homework which asked her how she might survive in the middle of a desert. This appears to be some sort of twisted survival initiation, in which teachers drop pupils out in the middle of nowhere leaving them to fend for themselves, and I am so glad I didn’t go to that particular school.

In the previous episode, The Eighties, the technical support team and narrator went to great lengths to assure the viewer that any claims of the microwave being a killer were unfounded. In this episode we are shown a few minutes of “experts” telling us how videogames turn innocent children into psychopathic killing machines. This followed footage of the James Bulger funeral and a loose connection between the movie Child’s Play 3 and videogame “nasties”. The BBC researcher who was ultimately responsible for this show could have discovered within minutes that the two murderers, prior to targeting young James Bulger, had set their sights on another victim and were intending to push them in front of traffic. Anyone familiar with the media outrage at the time will know the link made between the Bulger case and Child’s Play 3 was the horrific incident which took place at a railway line. Given the murderers’ earlier intentions didn’t involve that particular horrific act I find irresponsible for the BBC or anyone else to suggest, by way of ignoring facts which indicate the culprits didn’t plan their actions around Child’s Play 3, that movies and in turn videogames are responsible for the acts of a small percentage of lunatics in the world.

If there is one negative about the series it’s that the “reality” side of it didn’t really fit well with the technological exploration. More attention could have been paid to the technology itself as any reaction is of secondary importance. I would also have appreciated more screen-time for Gia but that’s a very personal preference and to be perfectly honest I’d happily watch a three-part mini series in which she talks about gadgets and other things which happen to excite her. Please take note Mr. BBC Executive. Electric Dreams proved to be an enjoyable mini-series but it’s a shame that this type of thing is reserved for a special season as I would like to see more of this from the BBC.

You can watch ‘Episode 3: The Nineties’ tonight at 9pm (Tuesday 13^th October) on BBC4. Those who miss the episode can catch it on BBC iPlayer.

Other TTB Posts Like This One

• Review: Electric Dreams – The Eighties (TV – BBC4)
• Review: Electric Dreams – The Seventies (TV – BBC4)
• Review: Micro Men (TV – BBC4)
• Review: Terminator – The Sarah Connor Chronicles – Season Two (Blu-Ray)
• Review: Shameless – Series Six (DVD)