User Reviews

This, the opening story of this series of unrelated stories based on the works of Philip K Dick, is set is a world where telepathy is a reality and the 'Normals' who don't have these abilities are not happy with the 'Teeps' who do. Our protagonists are Agent Ross, a Normal, and his new partner, Honor, who is a Teep. We are introduced to them as Honor 'reads' members of a crowd to spot those who are really dangerous; one of them is wearing a strange mask and she can't read him at all. Ross chases him down and it emerges that somebody is making these hoods which stop Teeps reading the wearer's thoughts. Ross and Honor set about finding the eponymous Hood Maker and in the process Honor learns an interesting truth about her partner that makes her question whether she can trust him.

In many ways this story feels like a chapter in a longer story; we are not told too much about this world before the story gets started and the ending feels like a cliff-hanger before a next episode that will never come. Some may find this a little frustrating but I didn't particularly mind. I liked the grim, noirish, post-industrial look of the story and the protagonists were interesting characters; Richard Madden does a fine job as Ross and Holliday Grainger really impressed as Honor. The story was intriguing and deeper than one might expect for something only an hour long (including adverts). The conflict between 'Normals' and Teeps was well handled as it was hard not to feel sympathetic to both sides. Overall this was a solid start to this series; I hope future episodes are as good.

Never had a chance to read any of Philip K Dick's books so this was a great chance to step into his world. It's drawn comparisons with Black Mirror, and no doubt the similarities are there, but Electric Dreams very much has its own style. Electric Dreams is harder to directly link to the present but still leaves lots of issues to ponder about after the credits roll.

The Hood Maker is an excellent start. Like Black Mirror, it's a realistic and not-too-distant future. There's a lot going on, tensions between normals and "teeps", humans that can read minds. They are used by the state to control the masses and prevent an uprising, a true progression of 1984's Thought Police. In the fantastic opening scene, telepathic Honor is seen reading protesters' minds to let the authorities know which ones are the biggest threats. She can work out people's reasons for protesting by looking inside their minds, enabling the authorities to crack down on them with ease. It's not so simple though, as people are getting hold of hoods to block the brain signals from reaching Teeps. What's so great about this setup is that none of the characters are evil; they all have their motivations for doing what they do. The teeps are shunned by society yet are used for their abilities and the hood maker sees himself as doing the right thing in helping people resist the state's encroaching on people's thoughts.

Parallels can be drawn between this story and current events, such as how governments are more and more interested in reading what you say privately online, especially in the UK where the Snooper's Charter allows the state to read your most private messages. Will it one day be possible to read your thoughts? "The Hood Maker" is a success because it explores these concepts that we've all thought about at some point and it does so in a way that lets us come to our own conclusions. The open-ended ending may annoy some, but it does manage to wrap the story up nicely.

When Philip K. Dick wrote his original stories, this one in 1955, he could not have imagined the extent to which technology has become such a big part of our lives. In this episode, the government's Clearance Division has enlisted a 'Teep' to partner with a 'Normal' to identify subversives who might lead an uprising. Not unlike the government today pressuring a global company like Apple to unlock the phone of someone who's considered a terrorist. There comes a point though, when the honorable intentions can be turned against the very citizens it's purported to protect. That's when we get things like an 'Anti-Immunity' bill to provide cover for actions that might otherwise prove to be illegal. When you take all this into consideration, then who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Unfortunately, this episode doesn't reach a resolution between the fate of the principal characters, or the larger question is appears to posit, that is, insuring an individual's freedom of thought. I don't think it gets easier from here.

Was not exactly what I imagined. Really could have done much better.

Really dislike the unwatchable dark scenes, of putting a dark filter over the camera lens. Do not know of anybody that likes that "effect", of literally being kept in the dark.

The description is inaccurate. As should be, Law Enforcement starts using Telepaths, to read minds without permission and interrogate detainees.

The Public starts to go against Talepaths, and even developed a Hood to block the Telepaths mind reading abilities.

Unknown to his Telepathic Partner, the Detective has been trained to block her Telepathic capabilities.

Maybe the next Episode 1.2 will be better.

I personally couldn't stand this episode. The story is trying to make you feel sympathy and outrage for the the telepaths being held down and forced to live in poverty while the people desperately trying to keep their own thoughts private are portrayed as one-dimensional monsters. Everyone who wants to not get mind raped and puts on a mask to block out the telepaths also turns into a sadistic psychopath lol. So the people who mind rape are really being persecuted by not being able to mind rape everyone? That alone is a pathetic attempt to reverse the normal psychology of victim/oppressor often found in scifi.

Also I can't imagine how you could be expected to buy into these telepaths living in poverty. They'd be ruling the world and everyone else would be helpless victims desperately trying to survive in a world where every thought they have can be exploited at will. The masks should be a symbol of revolt against an oppressor who dominates because they can. I think the story just tries to be too clever and spin logic on its head but loses any sense of logic in the process. At the end the telepaths get sick of being outcasts and start destroying everything around them indiscriminately which only further shows that they should've been the bad guys in this story. If the story was structured to show there are no bad guys/good guys and both sides have merit I'd get it more. This story tries to make you side against the poor fools getting mind raped though and I can't imagine how that makes sense. By the end I didn't feel bad for the telepaths any longer, I was left thinking they needed to go lol. I felt bad for the normals who had no defense against these people except the hoods which no one seems to think should exist. It's like trying to make it seem that people with pepper spray to deter rapists are horrible people for not letting the rapists do their thing. Just abhorrent story telling..

Also like everyone else said, way too dark on the camera filters. Reminded me of watching Tim Burton without the cool quirky stuff that makes it interesting. Episode 1 is garbage.

The first episode was a massive disappointment for me, It was the first time in a while i actually struggled to get to the end of a TV show. The story itself was bad enough but when you factor in the bad acting that is sometimes cringeworthy (not really helped by the ridiculous outfits they're made to wear) It becomes almost un-watchable. There is no indication to me that this show is set in the future other than the unconvincing words from the actors themselves, The whole set was cramped dingy rooms in which they'd replaced every bulb with a yellow one and then proceeded to film the whole thing with a dark brown filter, there you have it that's your convincing "Dystopian future". There's also a few moments that make little sense whatsoever, One in particular at the beginning during the riot. They were set upon by a mob of angry citizens fuming at the latest trend of mind reading taking this small city by storm. One local hoodied hoodlum unconvincingly throws a molotov cocktail that lands nowhere near them yet they still manage to pull off the dramatic dive to the ground before staring into eachothers eyes for a few painfully long seconds. But that's not the most senseless moment of all, No! that comes a minute later after the "agent" gives chase to the hoodies villain, hitting him with small leather bag that somehow leaves a bloodied mark on his face. After he comfortably subdues the villain someone greets him, who could it be? Oh it's the mind reading girl that whole mob of civilians were trying to get at, How on earth did she suddenly easily bypass this mob? were they left there still mobbing away doing their mob stuff before one confused mobber turned around to the rest to querie "hey, Where's she gone?". What on earth did i just watch?

If this episode was any indication this show is going to be very politically-driven as we could easily see the parallels with this episode and the perceived vision of President Trump's take on foreigners.

It wasn't great, this is not Black Mirror or Twilight Zone quality, but it was a somewhat entertaining premise. The show needs to give us a twist though. There wasn't much of a twist or a big ending, it just went as expected.

Each episode is different which is nice for a change. Always futuristic. Some stories are slow to the plot. Not gonna spoil anything because it is worth watching, however, Amazon needs to fix the order of the episodes either on this site or on prime. They aren't in the same order.

This episode a kind of an origin story of the novel and this is why its story doesn't makes sense at all. If people of the society didn't shared their thoughts and telepaths not even on the high level at the police why would the hood maker made the hoods? To prepare for what? To make civil war to a powerless minority? Also missed the HUGE plot twist compare to the novel. Acting was just ok, scenery, mood and costumes were great but the desing of the "hood" was ridicously lame...