The Dragon Portal
 

By Chaos
Max Headroom

Original air-date 1987, is now available on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time.

Max Headroom was, sadly, a show before its time. It lasted a mere fourteen episodes before it dropped into the wasteland of “never to be heard from again.” Luckily, we have DVD to bring back the best of what once could have been.

Max Headroom is the dystopian world “twenty minutes into the future” where television networks rule the world, where everything you do is monitored by the networks and you live your life “on the grid.” Existing as the (perhaps) only check on the network is the crusading reporter Edison Carter (Matt Frewer). His investigation of a new ad campaign the "blip-vert", which delivers ads so quickly, directly to the brain viewers heads literally explode, ends up in Network 23, his employer, putting a contract on his life. In an escape attempt he is wounded, and "saved" by Bryce Lynch (Chris Young) erstwhile child prodigy, hacker and Network 23's one man tech department. Bryce's solution is download Carter's memories into the computer, and Max Headroom is born. Of course, Carter didn't die, and he is back making life miserable for the Network within days of his presumed death.

Max Headroom was originally conceived as a British movie, and the "pilot" of the television covers a lot of the movie, the show expanded the universe in an amazing way. From the Network head (Charles Rocket) played with Eighties yuppie glee, Edison's overworked editor Murray,(Jeffrey Tambor, who, let's face it is always wonderful, to Edison's partner and "controller" Theora Jones (Amanda Pays) the show is well cast and the characters believable.

A later addition, Blank Reg, (W. Morgan Shepherd) was a personal favorite. A man who has dropped off the grid and was in fact just a "blank" was an outstanding addition to the show and the storyline that developed around his character and the "blanks" became one of the highlights of the show. His small TV station, run out of his motor home was a counter to the big networks. "Big Time Television" and its motto "all day every day, making tomorrow seem like yesterday," seems almost a commentary on today's programming.

Over the course of its very short life Max Headroom touched on controversial topics--homelessness, identity, forced organ donation, the State being one with big business. Truly a show before its time.

With the relentless growth of reality TV (predicted by Max) and the continuing invasion of personal privacy by our ever-expanding connection to the internet, Max Headroom is no longer "twenty minutes into the future" but here and now. Its social commentary is as fresh as the morning headlines and deserves to be discovered anew.


 


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