Retro Review - Tom Hanks' Electric City (2012)

 

    Treasure. A word that describes something valuable and precious. A word that can pertain to many things or people in our lives. It can be several things in cinema and other visual media: a unique program you recorded on VHS on a late Saturday night, a rare copy of an obscure film, or maybe a home movie you made with your dad's video camera without his permission. Whatever it may be for you, "treasure" is the perfect word to encapsulate today's subject, Electric City. An animated mini-series created by the most excellent person in Hollywood, Tom Hanks. The story of a future where humanity has rebuilt itself from the ground up, only to find itself (unknowingly) at the mercy of a knitting club. Trust me, it's much more fascinating than I'm making it sound. 

    Set in the distant aftermath of a prolonged and mysterious war, society has reverted to the old-west style of living. While electrical power is still around, it has become a rare commodity, challenging to generate, and heavily regulated by the totalitarian underground government: a group of women who secretly took over the city's previous controllers and have been operating as covert governors ever since. They enforce their will in the city through their special agents, known as grid operatives, who perform the tasks most others aren't willing to do. 

    One such operative is a man named Clevland Carr (Tom Hanks). He is the right hand of the leader of the underground government, Mrs. Ruth Orwell (Holland Taylor), a calculating and intelligent leader who will stop at nothing to protect her city. In his own words, he lives "in the shadows between truth and consequence." According to Mrs. Orwell, there is a surge of people overusing electrical power for their tap machines: a new form of morse code for distant communication. A luxury enjoyed by many, but at the cost of much-needed electrical power for heaters come winter. 

    Further complicating matters is a group of underground resistance fighters seeking to liberate the city and provide an alternative option for living in their brave new world. 

    Cleveland Carr is tasked with tracking these tap users & manufacturers and shutting them down with extreme prejudice. 

    The series can best be described as a neo-noir post-apocalyptic drama emphasizing compelling characters, stunning visual styles, and nuanced commentaries on the human condition. Exploring relevant themes such as freedom of information and justification of horrible actions. It's the kind of story with no clear heroes or villains because everyone involved in the narrative has a sympathetic reason for who they are and why. With a few exceptions, no one is loved nor hated; just understood. 

    That's not to say that all of the character's actions are justified, only to say that there is no honest answer as to their validity. Under the circumstances of the narrative, some actions seem to make sense, despite how much you likely don't agree with them. It causes you to genuinely examine the story and the events therein in the real world. Because not only is it possible for our own society to become like the one found in this story, many places are already like it. 

    The visuals and animation style are breathtaking. Electric City chooses a more traditional hand-drawn style in an age when computer animation tends to dominate the landscape. This classic format provides the show with a greater sense of old-fashionedness and better illustrates the intended tone of the story. 

    According to Mr. Hanks himself, making the show animated (and airing it exclusively on Yahoo) was twofold: to showcase that animation is a universal medium not exclusive to children's entertainment and demonstrate how the internet can be a powerful source for storytelling. A concept that would prove itself more accurate as the age of streaming services came to rise. 

    By now, I hope I have sparked your interest in this series. It is one of the few genuinely mature works of western animation helmed by one of Hollywood's most extraordinary talents. Sadly, despite the show's fantastic quality, it is fading away into obscurity, and I cannot, in good conscience, allow that to happen. 

    There are physical DVD copies of the series, but they are apparently only formatted for outside the USA. Plus, it is damn near impossible to search for. For a time, the entire series was available on an IOS app, which is one of the ways I rediscovered it, but it is no longer functional on the latest IOS firmware update. 

    The good news is that the entire show is available to stream on YouTube (link below). It can also be found on a few Vimeo channels here and there. Whatever way you can find and watch this series, I highly encourage you to do so as soon as possible. It is possibly the rarest of rare gems in episodic storytelling. 

Ladies & gentlemen, I am TheNorm; thank you all for reading. 

ALL IN SERVICE TO ALL

Electric City on YouTube