Avacom Data Systems

Doesn’t it seem like some kind of ancient male fantasy? I literally have a flying car. I’m a lesbian with a gorgeous wife who wants to have sex all the time. Doesn’t it seem like somebody else’s fucking fantasy?

You probably won’t be able to tell, but I’ve binge watched Electric Dreams and have been doing each episode in chronological order. I’m half way through and thus far, this is my favourite one. You could glean from that that this episode probably won’t have a happy ending but then I don’t think the majority of any of them do, to be fair.

The story sees Sarah (vampire X-Woman Anna Paquin) married to Katie (vampire non-X-Woman Rachelle Lefevre), the former of which is suffering a chronic bout of survivor’s guilt after living through a load of her police officer colleagues getting shot to pieces. Katie suggests a solo holiday for Sarah to take her mind off the trauma and this being the future, a holiday is obviously taken inside your own head. Beats fucking about with airports, I suppose.

Strangely, Sarah’s ‘holiday’ puts her inside the head of George Miller, the CEO of Avacom. A man desperately trying to avenge the murder of his wife, who also happens to be Katie in this reality. Lines get blurred as to who is real and who isn’t. There are pros and cons for each existence – in one your wife is alive but in the other you do happen to be a billionaire. I won’t spoil the ending but it’s pretty good. I think the general point is that there’s guilt on either side, so you cannot win and you cannot escape grief. Fantastic.

Avacom Data Systems are all about VR, but VR back in the 2010s. The logo is on screen for a few seconds, but awfully skewed, so here’s a modified version in all its glory. I don’t really know what the asymmetrical shape thing is. Wings or antlers my best guess.

They make no bones about all of this happening in Chicago – one of the cast members is a distant relative of Al Capone, even – but special shout out to Lou Mitchell’s, who serve the worlds (sic)* finest COFFEE if their own signage is to be believed. It’s so visible in one shot, you could almost level it as a product placement deal.

*Lack of apostrophe no doubt attributed to large amounts of glass tubes and neon. I’ll let them off.