Night City comes to the small screen. This all-too-short-lived series chronicled life at Network 23. Each show opened with the statement: "20 minutes into the future," clearly identifying the dystopian cyberpunk time frame.
Edison Carter is a roving reporter for Network 23. Armed with a video camera, a satellite hook-up, and a taste for bad news, Edison is always out there, exposing the dirty deals that swirl around in a world running straight down.
Edison does not, however, lack support from the network. He has a control agent, Fiora (played by the ultra-attractive Amanda Pays). She is in constant voice and visual contact with Edison. She is also a master hacker, playing her retro-deco computer terminal like a Stradivarius, guiding Edison on his perilous missions.
Max Headroom is an electronic personality based on Edison. He is the chaos agent in this cyberpunk mystery play. You can never tell where or when Max will pop up. He is, quite literally, the ghost in the machine. Fiercely irreverent and wise cracking, this totally synthetic "talking head" always provides his unique perspective on life in a dark future.
There are great supporting characters as well. Murry- the balding, anxious news producer; Bryce- the brilliant teenage hacker who is able to do almost anything, totally unconcerned about moral implications; Blank Reg - the proprietor of Big Time TV, a pirate video broadcast operation.
Even with actors and plots scrubbed-clean for network TV, make no mistake about it, Max Headroom had some fairly strong statements to make about our corporatized future. More often than not the scripts were good, the direction taut, the sets excellent. This was a TV show actually worth watching. Bring back MmmmmMax!
(P. Sugarman)
