Originally Posted by
sonatine
I just mean that traditionally in world building / narrative you string together events that influence the evolution of a character. Billy went from 'somethings wrong, Delores is self aware' to 'welp, I'm going to literally kill everything I find and become addicted to it' in virtually no time at all, arguably within literal minutes of watching his bff gut-stab her. I think thats rather artless and sloppy; the difference between me saying 'wow this show is really great' and saying 'ok so its good eye candy' is in the craftsmanship, and in this case I'm leaning towards the latter. A good writer will create transformative moments where the sum is greater than the parts, leading to a sense of surprise, not skepticism. I dont believe that bar was met here.
All the more so once I realized that sooooo much of the meat on these bones comes from someone taking a course in AI programming and just glibly rehashing the central themes regarding the morality of artificial consciousness.
Also, and very minor point here, the whole show dangles off The Origins of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes. Which, as much as I enjoyed when I read it in the late 80s, has been proven extremely and terribly wrong by people much, much smarter than us many times over.
Still and all, solid B, maybe even B+. And thats no small accomplishment given how esoteric the themes at bar are.