![]() ![]() Viewed today the effects and the sets are dated. Ironically the backgrounds would be made by computers today, but they used what they could get. The dystopian future the show portrays is interesting and complex, and they do a good job of creating that world with a very limited budget. Ultimately it's discovered that the Censors and the police received their orders from a computer that didn't want any changes in the status quo. Edison wonders why the Censors are involved, but when he tries to broadcast the story it is censored automatically and doesn't go out over the air. That's so there will be a permanent underclass to perform the menial labor. The people running the school were using pirated TV shows from a pay site to teach the ghetto kids how to read, something that is verboten. In this story Edison witnesses the police and Network 23 Censors raiding an illegal school in the slums. One episode that illustrates this best was the last one broadcast, Lessons. The masses are lulled with lowest common denominator programming, game shows and cliché filled dramas, and any order given by a computer is considered unquestionable. The bad guys are always the advertisers and TV executives that are actively trying to dumb-down the populace so they'll be easier to manipulate. The show uses the medium of television to rail against that very thing. The thing that separates this show from all the others is that it's very subversive. The shows are fairly episodic, with Edison chasing down a story with Max providing periodic comic relief. In a compromise Network 23 gives Max his own show with the understanding that he doesn't interrupt broadcasting otherwise. ![]() Max is able to 'see' people that are watching him on TV and can even broadcast himself whenever he wants to. He can't be removed without shutting down the whole station and the board will never let that happen. The simulation takes his name from the first image he remembers, the Max Headroom sign.Įdison makes a full recovery and Max manages to integrate himself throughout the Channel 23 computer. Running the pattern through a program creates a virtual version of Edison, though one with his brain partially scrambled. In a coma and dying, Edison's brain pattern is scanned into the mainframe computer at Channel 23 by the local whiz-kid Bryce (Chris Young) in an attempt to discern what information Carter had learned. Unfortunately a ramp is raised at just the wrong time and Carter is thrown through the air where he hits his head on a sign warning of "Max Headroom." While on a particularly hot story Carter is chased by a gang of thugs and tries to escape on a motorcycle.
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