Almost 10 Years Ago I Discovered This Show

It was sometime in 2003, anyway. I'd had it on in the background for a while before it first caught my full attention.

When it did, the first thing I thought of to compare it to was _Blade Runner_. I've said so more than once, but I'm not sure people understood what I meant. This assessment, from Wikipedia, may help explain my meaning better:

" Although Blade Runner is ostensibly an action film, it operates on multiple dramatic and narrative levels.

It is indebted to *film noir* conventions: the femme fatale; *protagonist-narration* (removed in later versions); *dark and shadowy cinematography*; and the *questionable moral outlook of the hero* – in this case, extended to include reflections upon the *nature of his own humanity*.[50][51]

It is a *literate* science fiction film, thematically enfolding the philosophy of *religion* and *moral implications* of human mastery of genetic engineering in the context of *classical Greek drama* and hubris.[52]

It also draws on *Biblical images*, such as *Noah's flood*,[53] and literary sources, such as *Frankenstein*.[54]

Linguistically, the theme of mortality is subtly reiterated in the chess game between Roy and Tyrell, based on the famous Immortal Game of 1851,[55] though Scott has said that was coincidental.[56]

Blade Runner delves into the implications of technology on the environment and on society by reaching to the past, using literature, *religious symbolism*, *classical dramatic themes*, and *film noir*.

This *tension between past, present, and future* is mirrored in the retrofitted future of Blade Runner, which is high-tech and gleaming in places but decayed and old elsewhere."

To me, _Big O_ was a lot like that. Actually, all that and more besides.


And I stood where I did be; for there was no more use to run; And again I lookt with my hope gone.