Ex Machina should’ve been episodic TV

This started as a tweet…

So, I’ll use the medium of Medium to elaborate a bit.

The film (if you’ve seen it, go on ahead, but you may want to do so before reading the rest of this mini-essay/diatribe/bullshit) was already broken out into very tense and sequentially compelling sessions. It’s rather brilliantly done, in fact — things breathe and flow with immense quiet atmospheric effect, so the deliberate pacing brought on by closing a scene and announcing a new day’s session is one of the film’s best qualities.

One almost needs a moment to gather thoughts after each mindblowing sequence draws to a close; the film creates intrigue and wonderment and curiosity in equal measure, leaving the viewer like an A.I. rapidly processing astonishing new inputs against its existing notions of data and structure. The scenes where we get a break from the film’s “Turing test” by unwinding with our cipher Caleb and his ultramega-brilliant-rich newfound tech CEO pal Nathan over drinks are refreshing for this very reason. This is more than breathing room, however — it’s the only place we get much-needed characterization for Nathan. I came to like him a great deal. This probably wasn’t what was intended. And this is also what I see as the key flaw in the storytelling: that you’re supposed to hate Nathan, that he’s a cold and machine-like scumbag hellbent on unleashing a new species to replace mankind. Whatever. He himself seems resigned to the fact that it’s going to be somebody — and it is, no doubt. And because you hate Nathan you’re supposed to cheer for his house guest to unseat him and do what’s necessary to scuttle his unholy work.

The genesis of the above tweet (Ex Machina should’ve been a TV series) was with my post-viewing concerns about these characterization gaps, in both finding Nathan detestable and finding Caleb’s actions plausible. A multi-episode arc would’ve served to deepen the mindfuck of each Turing session, and legitimize these twin central deficits of the story: Nathan is a scumbag and he deserves to die, and Caleb became disturbed enough by the relationship he was making with Ava, and the perceived inhumanity of Nathan’s development practices, that he needed to do extremely rash and irreversible actions in order to extricate himself from the situation in a manner which would comport with his morals and motivations (he didn’t have a significant store of material in either one of these areas, mainly because of the brisk pacing of the film, btw).

I don’t see how it wouldn’t have been much, much better with episodic centering of each tense session, perhaps a day for each episode (and think of the marketing synergy you get with “and on the 7th day…”!). For instance, imagine the crazy reveal of [major spoilers] Nathan’s video logs taking place in the 5th or penultimate episode. And then having a week (or a Netflix button press / prompt acknowledgement) to discuss and await the next installment!

It would’ve been beyond True Detective level hot. With the thriller movie format constraints compressing the huge, fascinating ideas and characterization/motivations, we’re left merely with a must-see standard sci-fi thriller. With modern TV as we’ve come to appreciate it, it would’ve achieved “this is mandatory viewing for any serious human.” Instead, it came out to “it was brilliant and compelling, totally worth seeing if you’re into the moral quandaries and interactive possibilities surrounding A.I., but I didn’t exactly love it for the following reasons…”.

Television in 2015, in aggregate, is so much better than even the best movies. You are asked to put in more, as a viewer, but you get back so much more. Ex Machina was a pretty sweet damn sci-fi/fantasy movie, but would’ve been fucking full-on culturally electrifying if given the chance to both ask for, and deliver, more.