Review Welcome to Paradox (1998) - episode 13 "Acute Triangle"

Did the writers show an acute understanding of storytelling, or were they rather obtuse? Grade it!

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Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5

Brimfin

Member: Rank 3
The show’s final episode deals with a love triangle, man, wife. and mistress. Except the mistress is a “biorob” (short for biological robot, I gather.) She is cloned from a famous video star, but her mental processes are changed so that she will just do whatever she can to please her owner. Sounds a bit more human that a robot would be, but such are the ways of Betaville. Ardley Mendoza goes to the seller and buys the top of the line model, patterned after a vid star named Dorothy Duncan. He names her Dorothy, takes her home, and that’s when we’re surprised to find out he already has a wife. (Or at least we would have been surprised, if the host hadn’t given that plot point away in his opening.)

Though Dorothy is undeniably attractive, Ardley’s wife Aura is played by the intriguing Alice Krige, who made an unforgettable impression in the movie GHOST STORY. She would seem more exciting than the beauty. But curiously, the early scenes don’t seem to bolster the conflict. Aura is seen having a little fling with her co-worker Peter early on. After she gets so upset about Ardley bringing Dorothy home, Peter comments that she hasn’t slept with Ardley in years and she even says at one point, “I can’t even remember what brought us together.” Indeed, when Ardley is with Dorothy, he tells her he hasn’t been this close to a woman in so long. The logic is there that she is frustrated about being unable to fight for her marriage against a biorob, who has everything she has but none of the flaws. At one point, she considers killing Dorothy, but can’t bring herself to do it. Dorothy is always polite to Aura and seems to want to help her as well. It’s not in her nature to fight.

In the latter third of the show, Aura finally begins to remember the closeness they once had. She makes breakfast for Ardley and talks about the old times. But he still runs off to be with his biorob. Only, this time he begins to see how vapid and unreal she really is. It’s done in a nicely subtle way without laying it on thick. He runs back to Aura and catches her just before she is leaving. He asks for a second chance and invites her on a date that night so they can start all over. She smiles happily at this second chance. We than pan over to Dorothy still standing where he told her to stay. We expect it to end with the shot of her pointlessly waiting there, but instead she smiles and says, “I knew there was something nice I could do for you, Aura.”

I liked that little twist and it would have been a great place to end the story. But instead we have a totally pointless final scene where Peter goes to the Biorob Center to buy one for himself and ends up picking Dorothy. Since he was earlier telling Aura that they should just be having fun until they got tired of it, a biorob would be perfect for him. I kept waiting for some kind of a punchline, like for Dorothy to end up looking like Aura, but no – nothing there. He just bought her and seemed happy. My only conclusion is that this was a happy ending for the Biorob. She helped patch up the Mendoza’s marriage, so now instead she is joined up with someone who will just enjoy her for what she is.

Overall, I like the concept. It’s sort of the anti-STEPFORD WIVES idea, the famous book and movie (referring to the original and not the pathetic attempt at a remake) where husbands have their wives killed and replaced with robots designed to look and act like them but never criticize or nag their husbands. This story shows the flaw in the ointment – the biorob isn’t real and never will be. True love is a challenge, but worth the extra effort to make it work. The story would have been better if the earlier scenes had emphasized the relationship the Mendozas had once had, rather than waiting until close to the end to finally let it burst forth almost all at once. I’ll still give this one 8 blueberry breakfasts with talks about dancing and yellow strawberries (I think.)
 

Brimfin

Member: Rank 3
And now for the dreaded words no one ever wants to hear – “We have to talk.”

There’s an old cliché of a person looking over his house, or his garage, or his workspace and sighing, “I’ve got to get organized.” Well, that time has come for me. For years, I’ve been letting the clutter build up in my house, promising over and over that “Someday, I’ll go through all this and get rid of the junk and keep only the good stuff.” A short time ago, I tried to copy one of my old camcorder tapes, only to find to my horror that it was full of static when I played it back. I only have one recorder. I’ve bought a cleaner/demagnetizer but I’m afraid to try it. If it works – great. If not, have I lost all that irreplaceable footage from neglect? That was a wake-up call for me. It’s time for me to do what I’ve been promising for years and go through all my stuff, save the good stuff and toss the junk. To do that, I have to get rid of all my distractions and unfortunately, this is one of them. I’ve enjoyed being a part of this group for almost exactly five years now, but I have to go now. I’m posting this in all the series I was reviewing lately, so I’ll briefly cover each.

Blake’s 7 – Before I decided on this major change, I was just going to drop out of this one show. I politely waited until the first season was over to do it. It’s an interesting show, but to finish it would require a whole year of my life and that wasn’t what I signed up for when I joined the group. Plus as I know, Blake will be gone at the end of season 2 and then Avon will be in charge which seems beyond comprehension. Maybe someday, I’ll go back and finish it without the reviewing but it’s not that big a deal to me. At least I know now what it was all about.

Catweazle – I was hoping I could finish this one up, especially since it’s only a half-hour show. But since season 1 ended on a finale-like episode, it seemed a good place to stop – especially since I was almost done with Welcome to Paradox. Catweazle had its moments and was beginning to improve but I never got into it the way some of the others obviously did. I’m more likely to try to go back and finish this someday, especially since it’s shorter. I am curious how the show changed in the second season. Someone already spilled the beans about who won’t be in the second season, so at least I know he doesn’t go back where he was before.

Welcome to Paradox – I’m glad to have made it to the end of this show. I hung in there since it was only for 13 weeks. For the most part it was interesting and most of the stories were at least good – only a couple were bad to me. I’ll still run the numbers for you before I go.

Overall, it’s been a wonderful experience these past five years. I’ve seen lots of shows I’d never have seen otherwise. I ended up getting NETFLIX partly because of this group. I finally had an excuse to finish EARTH 2. Watching CAPRICA made me curious about BATTLESTAR: GALACTICA and I finally managed to get through that on my own. I enjoy watching Brit Morgan guest starring on any show now because I remember her from THE MIDDLEMAN. And so on.

It was always fun to debate whether an episode was good or bad. Everyone was able to give their opinions without being rude. No one ever called another reviewer stupid. The closest thing to a real fight I got into was when someone insisted I couldn’t use the phrase “tontine story” if the story didn’t involve an actual tontine. I’d thought of doing a paragraph full of phrases like “Shaggy dog story”, “fish story” and other such phrases to disprove the point. But by then we’d moved on to the next episode and it was all forgotten.

People came and went as we travelled along. We still hear from some like dtmuller, but not from others. I’ll try to check in on you guys occasionally in the future just to see how you’re doing. I hope there are enough group members to keep the Sages going. If not, it was a noble effort. And our reviews are still out there for others to read – even the IMDB ones which thankfully some sites like “filmboards,com” have managed to preserve. I wish everyone the best of luck in whatever journeys life still holds for you. And may all your decisions be wise ones.
 

Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5
ACUTE TRIANGLE

This was a typical by-the-book sci fi episode: a man tries on an artificial wife (some robot variant) and eventually realizes there’s no substitute for the real deal. Once again, “Welcome to Paradox” tells the story that’s been told countless times. However, I think in real life things would go a very different way.

First of all, if a man (or woman for that matter) decides to buy a sexbot or some version of that, he is choosing to remain single and celibate. In other words, it doesn’t count as a “relationship with a robot” or something. It’s celibacy with porn, or a masturbation device, or blow-up doll. Nothing shameful about it, really. But humans have been able to count on such crutches for a long time, and they’re just going to get more sophisticated, but will still be crutches.

Another aspect that the episode doesn’t take into consideration is that the male protagonist realizes a biobot was not the real thing because it wouldn’t have a mind of its own and would only try to mindlessly please its owner. Well, the thing is that an AI can be programmed in many different ways. And the more AIs develop, the more indistinguishable they’ll be from a real human being. So, a robot could be programmed to have a sense of humor, or seem to have opinions, tastes and preferences of its own. It could appear to challenge its master in so many different ways. Well, well, if a man wants to be humiliated, one could even program a robot wife to be a hardcore feminist!

Star Trek did it very well, with a clever way to punish Harry by making 500 copies of his nagging wife Stella. “Harcourt Fenton Mudd, what are you up to this time, you worthless slob? If I catch you drinking again, you’ll have much to regret!” So, even if our hero realizes the real wife was better, as time passes, many people will come to a different conclusion.

A couple curiosities about the actors. It was interesting to see MacKenzie Gray so young. He actually looked presentable. Now, an older man, he has a weird look that usually goes well for the role of henchman or assassin. And I could never blame him for not wanting to remain married to the Borg Queen (Alice Kriege)! Monika Schnarre, on the other hand, usually played sexually charged characters in the 1990s. In Total Recall 2070 she played an alluring woman in the episode Allure, as you may remember, and in Earth: Final Conflict she plays a woman who’s made young and sexy (and brainwashed!) by the Taelons through an alien tech process of genetic manipulation.

An OK episode. The dialogue was good and the emotions shown by the characters seemed authentic, but the story was not very original. Acute Triangle gets 7 hot celebrities with a crystal brain.
 

Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5
People came and went as we travelled along. We still hear from some like dtmuller, but not from others. I’ll try to check in on you guys occasionally in the future just to see how you’re doing. I hope there are enough group members to keep the Sages going. If not, it was a noble effort. And our reviews are still out there for others to read – even the IMDB ones which thankfully some sites like “filmboards,com” have managed to preserve. I wish everyone the best of luck in whatever journeys life still holds for you. And may all your decisions be wise ones.
Well, Brimfin, it's been an honor and a pleasure to have you in the group. It's unfortunate I only got to read your farewell message now, but better late than never I guess. I'll send you a more thought-out reply soon, just so you know. And I really would like to read your final by-the-numbers review. I think this is the end for me as well, by the way. It's been a real fun, but as the saying goes, all good things...
 

Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5
Aura is seen having a little fling with her co-worker Peter early on.
Irrelevant nit-picking: Peter is the actor's name. The character's name is Jean Paul. It's funny, but I think Jean Paul suits him better and makes him sound less ordinary.
 

Cloister56

Member: Rank 3
And now for the dreaded words no one ever wants to hear – “We have to talk.”

There’s an old cliché of a person looking over his house, or his garage, or his workspace and sighing, “I’ve got to get organized.” Well, that time has come for me. For years, I’ve been letting the clutter build up in my house, promising over and over that “Someday, I’ll go through all this and get rid of the junk and keep only the good stuff.” A short time ago, I tried to copy one of my old camcorder tapes, only to find to my horror that it was full of static when I played it back. I only have one recorder. I’ve bought a cleaner/demagnetizer but I’m afraid to try it. If it works – great. If not, have I lost all that irreplaceable footage from neglect? That was a wake-up call for me. It’s time for me to do what I’ve been promising for years and go through all my stuff, save the good stuff and toss the junk. To do that, I have to get rid of all my distractions and unfortunately, this is one of them. I’ve enjoyed being a part of this group for almost exactly five years now, but I have to go now. I’m posting this in all the series I was reviewing lately, so I’ll briefly cover each.

Blake’s 7 – Before I decided on this major change, I was just going to drop out of this one show. I politely waited until the first season was over to do it. It’s an interesting show, but to finish it would require a whole year of my life and that wasn’t what I signed up for when I joined the group. Plus as I know, Blake will be gone at the end of season 2 and then Avon will be in charge which seems beyond comprehension. Maybe someday, I’ll go back and finish it without the reviewing but it’s not that big a deal to me. At least I know now what it was all about.

Catweazle – I was hoping I could finish this one up, especially since it’s only a half-hour show. But since season 1 ended on a finale-like episode, it seemed a good place to stop – especially since I was almost done with Welcome to Paradox. Catweazle had its moments and was beginning to improve but I never got into it the way some of the others obviously did. I’m more likely to try to go back and finish this someday, especially since it’s shorter. I am curious how the show changed in the second season. Someone already spilled the beans about who won’t be in the second season, so at least I know he doesn’t go back where he was before.

Welcome to Paradox – I’m glad to have made it to the end of this show. I hung in there since it was only for 13 weeks. For the most part it was interesting and most of the stories were at least good – only a couple were bad to me. I’ll still run the numbers for you before I go.

Overall, it’s been a wonderful experience these past five years. I’ve seen lots of shows I’d never have seen otherwise. I ended up getting NETFLIX partly because of this group. I finally had an excuse to finish EARTH 2. Watching CAPRICA made me curious about BATTLESTAR: GALACTICA and I finally managed to get through that on my own. I enjoy watching Brit Morgan guest starring on any show now because I remember her from THE MIDDLEMAN. And so on.

It was always fun to debate whether an episode was good or bad. Everyone was able to give their opinions without being rude. No one ever called another reviewer stupid. The closest thing to a real fight I got into was when someone insisted I couldn’t use the phrase “tontine story” if the story didn’t involve an actual tontine. I’d thought of doing a paragraph full of phrases like “Shaggy dog story”, “fish story” and other such phrases to disprove the point. But by then we’d moved on to the next episode and it was all forgotten.

People came and went as we travelled along. We still hear from some like dtmuller, but not from others. I’ll try to check in on you guys occasionally in the future just to see how you’re doing. I hope there are enough group members to keep the Sages going. If not, it was a noble effort. And our reviews are still out there for others to read – even the IMDB ones which thankfully some sites like “filmboards,com” have managed to preserve. I wish everyone the best of luck in whatever journeys life still holds for you. And may all your decisions be wise ones.
Well, Brimfin, it's been an honor and a pleasure to have you in the group. It's unfortunate I only got to read your farewell message now, but better late than never I guess. I'll send you a more thought-out reply soon, just so you know. And I really would like to read your final by-the-numbers review. I think this is the end for me as well, by the way. It's been a real fun, but as the saying goes, all good things...
To you both it has been a great pleasure over the past few shows to read your reviews and comments.

In terms of Paradox I am just finishing the last few episodes so I can fully contribute to the last "By the Numbers"
Good luck with the clean up Brimfin. Reading your post has made me look around and consider how much stuff I have accumulated and to do an inventory. Your "By the numbers" has been a great way to summarise sometimes a year of viewing and reviewing. I really appreciate the time and effort that goes into this.
Mad-Pac thank you for being the go to guy for this group during my time as a member. Your "This week" introductions have formed the spine so I can write my reviews and hearing little things about where you are from and your often unique perspective on popular culture has been something I look forward to reading.

It's a shame the IMDB did shut down the forums as I remember looking at the entries then and there was many members and lots of posts going back and forth. It was great that the group was open to new members throughout and I am glad I got to join in.

Maybe there will be some future Sages, I'm not sure what format would have the ability to allow new members to join at any time, have space for deep reviews and back and forth discussion. I don't think Twitter and Facebook really fulfill this. So I hope interest in these forums continue to grow and eventually someone thinks "You know what how about a weekly book group type thing for movies".
If either of you think in the future, I fancy being a Sage again, send me a message the facebook group still exists and I am happy to swap emails if you wish.

I think we did our best to keep things going and I did have hopes that the new infusion of interest might be the start of the next era.
I have enjoyed our time on the imdbforums and I hope you guys won't be strangers round here, posting your thoughts on shows when you have the urge.
 

Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5
Mad-Pac thank you for being the go to guy for this group during my time as a member. Your "This week" introductions have formed the spine so I can write my reviews and hearing little things about where you are from and your often unique perspective on popular culture has been something I look forward to reading.
Thank you for the kind words, @Cloister56 . I'm giving some thoughts to what we could do next and as soon as I have something I'll share it with you. There are many different directions we could go and do something interesting. the important thing is that everybody should have a good time. Until then, I wish you all the best. Take care!
 

Cloister56

Member: Rank 3
The concept of androids and humans interactions with them must be one of the most used sci fi concepts.
I recently played a game called Detroit Become Human which features androids heavily. It does a survey at the beginning asking if you would sleep with an android, would you let one look after your kids. There is the excellent UK version of Humans which is about Androids but in current day (basically all technology is the same except we have androids, it nicely grounds it) which covers (better than Westworld I think) Androids become sentient.

Dorothy the android is a bit of stereotypical "mans fantasy" complete with the slightly dim sounding breathy voice.
It does raise something interesting about her being a copy of a famous film star. It sounds like in this case it was consensual she was paid to have her body scanned. There is a concept in porn of deepfakes which take celebrities faces and blend them onto pornstars. This is done without their permission so understandably they are upset by the use of their image in this way. The technology will continue to progress as will computer graphics and is fast approaching the point where it will be difficult to know what is real and what isn't.
There was an episode of Star Trek where I think it was Dwight Shultz used crew likenesses for his own fantasies, or most recently in the Black Mirror episode USS Callister. No-one can stop you fantasising about who you want but when does it become wrong if technology steps into to make it more tangible.

And I could never blame him for not wanting to remain married to the Borg Queen (Alice Kriege)!
It would have taken me ages to recognise her. She has such dark eyes I thought it was part of the borg queen look but it seems to be natural. It makes her look very striking and like she is boring into your soul.
It is an interesting angle that Ardley just buys her in addition to having a wife, especially as she is the one sleeping with another person. He isn't technically cheating but it is a little more intrusive to her life than just watching porn.
This is the second episode in a row where the wives seem to be desperate for their husbands to notice them with Aura admitting she only had her affair to get Ardley to notice her. She is the one that seems to try the hardest to save their marriage where as Ardley seems to just drift through doing what he wants.
I guess he has just disconnected from the relationship more than Aura had, plus he had taken a step out of the door by purchasing Dorothy.

Another aspect that the episode doesn’t take into consideration is that the male protagonist realizes a biobot was not the real thing because it wouldn’t have a mind of its own and would only try to mindlessly please its owner. Well, the thing is that an AI can be programmed in many different ways. And the more AIs develop, the more indistinguishable they’ll be from a real human being. So, a robot could be programmed to have a sense of humor, or seem to have opinions, tastes and preferences of its own. It could appear to challenge its master in so many different ways. Well, well, if a man wants to be humiliated, one could even program a robot wife to be a hardcore feminist!
But he still runs off to be with his biorob. Only, this time he begins to see how vapid and unreal she really is. It’s done in a nicely subtle way without laying it on thick.
I do wonder given the outcome if Dorothy was manipulating the situation. She begins to suspect that Ardley still loves Aura and that is what would make him truly happy. She could easily have learned he didn't want her to move when he gesticulated, he told her he didn't mean that and the look on his face but she continued to do it.
I guess as much as you could program an android to challenge you and be as real as possible you would always know you could change these parameters if they began to frustrate you. You would know that the responses were carefully crafted to meet your requirements, was that laugh real or forced. I guess you can begin to think these things about real people, is what I am seeing what they really think.

I hope the Dorothy at the end is a new model. Would you buy a used sex doll?

Overall not a bad episode, but having seen the idea handled with more scope elsewhere it just wasn't as interesting.
6 tennis partners that Dorothy has thrashed into the ground, out of 10
 
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