Max Headroom

They do say that success has many fathers until the Paternity test.  This can't be truer than in the case of Max Headroom.  A media circus, a pitchman, a vj, and the star of his own tv show; Max Headroom for a brief instant owned the media.  Then, in an instant (or 13 episodes) it was all done.  The only thing to survive was the actor behind Max, Matt Fewer, who went on to become on of the more interesting character actors in film.

The TV show, based on a british movie, is set 20 minutes in the future though the future looks a lot like that in "Brazil" and "1984,"  Corporations rule the world and none are more amoral than network 23.  In the pilot they are showing "blipvert" commercials though they know that it will kill some of their viewers.  Brave journalist Edison Carter tries to rip open the secret of blipvert.  An accident involving a barrier reading "Max Headroom" leaves him in the care of young, amoral Bryce.  Bryce downloads Carter's memories online and the result is the computer generated ADD Max Headroom.  The rest of the series has Carter on a story, Bryce learning to be human, an Max flitting about with one liners. 

The best thing about the series is actress Amanda Payes who is Carter's Producer/sidekick.  She's the best lady out of Britain since Diana Rigg.  Matt Fewer does a good job with a rare hero's roll for him, and as the wisecracking Max.  Bryce is fun as a character ho's a genius but is a borderline sociopath that is slowly brought to care.  The show has a strong design sense and its retro future look helps hide how badly eighties technology ages on screen.  If there's a problem it's that the show is a bit slow despite the frentic style.  It sometimes feel too much like standard TV show gussied up with computers and techno talk.  It's all on DVD now so why not see for yourself?