Kill Switch

"Kill Switch", a brisk little episode written by William Gibson, feels like 2 decades worth of cyberpunk distilled down to 45 minutes. We have hackers, sentient AI, fringe lowlifes, virtual reality, rogue viruses evolving like fauna amidst the "wildlife" of cyberspace, shadowy Japanese tech corporations, killer satellites, robots with claws, martial art loving butt-kicking-programs, the once popular idea of "uploading consciousness", and of course a very 1980s SF obsession with a post-singularity, post-human future (a cyberpunk aesthetic which would give way to the nature-loving tone of solarpunk).

None of this should work, and it all should feel very dated, but Rob Bowman's direction is so good, his tone so pitch perfect a replication of cyber-punk and tech noir ("Terminator", "Akira" and "Blade Runner" being the big influences at the time), that the episode still works.

Indeed, I'd wager that had Bowman directed "First Person Shooter", the other William Gibson X-files episode, it would be more fondly remembered. My guess is, Chris Carter's brand of broad comedy is what sabotaged "First Person Shooter" (he directed the episode). Carter's written a number classic, funny, quirky X-files episodes, but he could also be painfully unfunny.