Line #24 Series/WildPalms


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7	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wild1_1876.jpg]]
8	[[caption-width-right:350:Your reality is their business.]]
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11	->''What is that climbing up the stair?''
12	->''It's not a boar, it's not a bear''
13	->''And on its head it has a horn''
14	->''As odd as any unicorn....''
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16	''Wild Palms'' is a six hour science fiction TV mini-series from 1993, produced by Creator/OliverStone and written by Bruce Wagner (who also wrote the comic book the series was based on). It starred Creator/JamesBelushi, Creator/DanaDelany, Creator/BebeNeuwirth, Creator/AngieDickinson, Creator/KimCattrall, Creator/ErnieHudson, Creator/BenSavage and Creator/RobertLoggia.
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18	[[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture Set in 2007]], Harry Wyckoff (Belushi) has got it all: A successful career as a patent attorney, a beautiful wife, a teenage son starting a TV career, and a little daughter who is still too shy to speak. But at night, he is [[CatapultNightmare haunted by nightmares]] of palm trees and rhinoceroses. Accepting a call for help from [[FemmeFatale his former girlfriend]] to find her kidnapped son, Harry is pulled into a web of intrigue surrounding the charismatic [[EvilChancellor Senator Kreutzer]], [[PropagandaMachine TV Channel 3]], a strange religion called [[ChurchOfHappyology Synthiotics]] and old rival secret societies called [[LaResistance The Friends]] and [[TheGroup The Fathers]].
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20	Wild Palms demonstrated an astoundingly sensible projection of future trends, including the rise of retro music as well as believable fashion. Notably, one episode was directed by Creator/KathrynBigelow.
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23	!!Provides Examples Of:
24	%%* AffablyEvil: Senator Tony Kreutzer.
25	* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: Harry's therapy sessions. [[spoiler:Notably, the therapist is a Father, so it's doubtful that he had any interest in Harry's mental health.]]
26	%%* AmbiguouslyJewish: Kreutzer, Wyckoff, Levitt and Schenkel.
27	* AnimalMotifs: A rhinoceros is frequently featured in dream sequences and virtual reality.
28	* ArcWords: "Go." It's the name of the drug, several episode titles, [[spoiler:and Kreutzer's farewell, where he sings "Hello, I Must Be Going."]]
29	* AsHimself:
30	** Creator/OliverStone in a TV interview about ''Film/{{JFK}}'' (where he shows himself as vindicated with his theory in the future).
31	** Creator/WilliamGibson at a party.
32	-->'''Paige:''' This is William Gibson, Harry.\
33	'''Harry:''' Oh, yeah...''Literature/{{Neuromancer}}'', right?\
34	'''Paige:''' He invented the word "cyberspace".\
35	'''Gibson:''' And they'll never let me forget it.
36	* BigScrewedUpFamily: [[spoiler:The Kreutzers. Tony is secretly Harry's father. Bring on the Squick, as his sister Josie is Grace's mother. And also fathered Coty on Paige, then switched him for Harry's son - the Maps to the Stars kid.]]
37	* BrainUploading: [[spoiler:Senator Kreutzer's ultimate goal.]]
38	* BrotherSisterIncest: Heavily implied between Tully and his sister. [[spoiler:Even more heavily implied between Tony and Josie Kreutzer. Especially as he arranged for his son to marry Josie's daughter.]]
39	* ChemicalMessiah: The drug Mimezine (discovered by Harry's father, Dexter, by experimenting on ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugu fugu]]'' toxin), which permitted one to hallucinate interactions with holograms, had religious overtones (overdoses resulted in "image sickness", beginning with hallucinations of churches, progressing into losing oneself in memories, and ultimately death), considering that the Scientology-like antagonist cult (Synthiotics/The New Realism) in the miniseries controlled the pharmaceutical labs where it was manufactured as well as the media outlets which benefited from its use by consumers. Senator Kreutzer, the Big Bad, certainly thought that opening the doors of perception using Mimezine was one of the first steps to enlightenment in the New Realist/Synthiotics paradigm.
40	* ChurchOfHappyology: Synthiotics is a thinly veiled {{expy}} of Scientology. Its founder is said to be a former science fiction writer, and its EliteMooks dress as sailors like members of the Sea Org. Notably, ''Wild Palms'' was released quite a few years before Scientology became widely mocked and displays considerably more subtle knowledge of said religion than most modern digs at it.
41	%%* CreepyChild: Coty Wyckoff, and ''how''.
42	* CrypticConversation: ''Most'' conversations in this series are cryptic.
43	%%* CuteMute: Deirdre "Little Buddha" Wyckoff.
44	* CyberpunkWithAChanceOfRain: Averted with palms and lots of sunshine. Includes some elements of PostCyberpunk.
45	%%* {{Cyberspace}}: Chickie Levitt spends most of his time there.
46	%%* DarkMessiah: Coty is being set up as one by the Fathers.
47	%%* DeadPersonConversation: [[spoiler:Harry and Grace.]]
48	%%* DiedInYourArmsTonight: [[spoiler:Chickie Levitt, Tommy.]]
49	%%* TheDragon: Josie Ito to Senator Kreutzer.
50	%%* DreamSequence: Harry's nightmares.
51	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Grace Wyckoff, though she survives the attempt... only to be killed off by her mother. Tully also kills himself after killing Josie.]]
52	* EyeScream: When Josie [[spoiler:gouges out Tully's eyes with her thumbs.]]
53	%%* EvilChancellor: Senator Tony Kreutzer.
54	%%* EvilMatriarch: Josie Ito.
55	* FanDisservice: During a nightmare, Harry reaches over to touch his wife in bed -- and she turns into Robert Loggia, snorting like a warthog. May well be the most unsettling moment in the entire series.
56	%%* FemmeFatale: Paige. Paige. And Paige.
57	%%* GeniusCripple: Chickie Levitt.
58	* {{GIRL}}: [[spoiler: Terra, Chickie's cyberspace love-interest is actually Ushio Kawabatake, a Japanese member of the Friends.]]
59	* HardLight: Mimecom TV + the Mimezine drug.
60	* HollywoodCyborg: Tully uses virtual reality glasses [[spoiler:to compensate for his blindness after Josie gouges out his eyes.]]
61	* JapanTakesOverTheWorld: Hinted at. For example, when Josie is attacked, she starts screaming Japanese threats when retreating.
62	%%* LaResistance: The Friends.
63	* LargeHam: Senator Tony Kreutzer just ''loves'' to ChewTheScenery. To be expected from a character played by Robert Loggia.
64	%%* LotusEaterMachine: Subverted when [[spoiler:Chickie kills Chap Starfall.]]
65	* TheMasquerade: The Fathers' scheme; their war with the Friends.
66	* NoNewFashionsInTheFuture: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. Edwardian suits and groovy sixties dresses are both ''back'' in style. [[FutureMusic There's also a sixties music revival going on, including several lounge-style covers of famous pop songs.]]
67	* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler:Josie kills Grace, her daughter.]]
68	* PopStarComposer: The score was composed by [[Music/YellowMagicOrchestra Ryuichi Sakamoto]].
69	* PragmaticAdaptation: The series is fairly trippy in and of itself, but the comic it was adapted from is Creator/PhilipKDick-level bizarre, and unfilmable. Wagner did the best he could, but any fans should definitely read both.
70	* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: The Friends may be the "good guys," but they can be damned manipulative and cold at times.
71	* ShowWithinAShow: The ''Church Windows'' sitcom Coty is playing in, which oscillates between StylisticSuck and the UncannyValley.
72	* ShoutOut:
73	** ''Theatre/AnimalCrackers'' included a song titled "Hello, I Must Be Going". It was the title of the final episode of the miniseries, and the song itself was sung by villain Senator Kreutzer (Robert Loggia) [[spoiler:as he died.]]
74	** T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men" and Walt Whitman's "O Captain, My Captain" serve as the anthems of the Fathers and the Friends.
75	** [[ItMakesSenseInContext "Beat me up, Scotty!"]]
76	* {{Soaperizing}}: The series was essentially a cyberpunk soap opera.
77	* SocietyOnEdgeEpisode: The last episode ups the tension this way by showing society breaking apart at the seams as a result of the power struggle between the crypto-fascist Fathers and the more libertarian and humanistic Friends, secret societies that have been warring over America for decades.
78	* StealthPun: "Everything Must TabletopGame/{{Go}}", as noted in-universe.
79	* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Produced in 1993, set in 2007.
80	%%* ViewersAreGeniuses
81	* WeAreEverywhere: ''Everyone'' Harry knows seems to turn out to be either a Friend or a Father.
82	* YourMindMakesItReal: With the assistance of Mimezine.

Context Series / WildPalms