Amazon Prime’s The Feed season 1 premiere recap

In the season 1 premiere of Amazon Prime Video’s The Feed, we are introduced to a questionable technology implanted into people’s brains that allows people to share memories and emotions.

The Feed“begins with a large ceremony at the British Museum for the family of Lawrence Hatfield (David Thewlis). Hatfield is the inventor of “The Feed,” an omnipresent brain-implanted technology that lets people share their experiences with others globally. As there is increased concern over “anti-Feed rhetoric,” we see one of the kitchen staff, Sara Hoyt (Milly Thomas), has glitches.

As Lawrence gives a speech predictably praising his technology, we’re also introduced to Ben Hatfield (Jeremy Neumark) and Miyu (Jing Lusi). Also, Tom Hatfield (Guy Burnet) is using his Feed to listen to music in his head, and he gets flirty with Kate (Nina Toussaint-White).

However, that gets interrupted by Sara Hoyt, who holds a knife to Ben’s throat for some unknown reason. After mentioning someone’s voice in her head to Tom, Kate sneaks up behind her and wrests the knife from Sara’s hand! Surprisingly, the party is so momentous that it doesn’t end with this scene. As Ben insists he’s fine, Feed CEO Meredith Hatfield (Michelle Fairley) and Gil Tomine (Chris Reilly) debate Hoyt’s future. Also, Tom and Kate get it on, perhaps as a logical extension of their teamwork.

Sometime later

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The Feed picks up at least several months later, where we see that Tom and Kate are a couple. She wakes up mentioning a strange dream. She is also pregnant, presumably with Tom’s child. Later, Tom tries to have a one-on-one chat with Danny Morris (Shaquille Ali-Yebuah), but the young man seems addicted to the feed (much like some people with their cellphones).

Then, in a nod to the previous scene with Sara Hoyt, Danny has an odd glitch that makes him start to mumble. Shortly after this, Lawrence requests Tom’s expertise on a missing man named Dmetri Garin’s (Oleg Mirochnikov) son, Anton (Anson Boon). He accepts, not really knowing what to expect. Tom meets Anton later, seeing that Anton’s eye is damaged.

It’s determined that Anton has some sort of dissociative amnesia, perhaps linked to his father being missing. We also see that, as a way to earn money from clicks in his feed, Anton performs amateurish, daredevil tricks on a roof ledge. As Tom looks deeper into Anton’s feed, he sees Anton murdering his father with a pitchfork! Dmetri’s body is soon located, and Anyon wants his “mundles” deleted (presumably, a “mundle” refers to a memory bundle or some such thing). Much like with Sara Hoyt, Anyon complains of feeling like someone was in his head. The question is, who or what is it?

Who are the resisters?

The Feed regularly refers to Feed resisters in the premiere, often implying that they’re either radicals or “just don’t get it.” In fact, though, it seems anyone can resist the Feed at times. When Kate meets Meredith, she is hesitant to follow Meredith’s recommendation to use The Feed to establish a closer bond with her baby. Kate later tells her doctor that she doesn’t feel the motherly connection to her unborn baby. Kate also complains to Tom about a voice in her head.

At the same time, some who initially resisted The Feed end up as converts. A good example would be Tom and Kate’s pals, Evelyn “Evie” Kern (Clare-Hope Ashitey) and Max Vaughn (Osy Ikhile). Evelyn recently purchased an “enhancement” which allows her to look like anyone, to help spice up their marriage. Max admits it’s weird, but suggests it’s helped.

However, near the episode’s end, The Feed starts going wild for many, if not most. It shows them random life event snapshots spliced with jarring scenes of political turmoil. It results in massive power outages, car accidents, and presumably worse. Lawrence Hatfield thinks it’s the resisters at work, but also feels it may be someone from inside his company. He wants to start scanning employee and former employee mundles, wanting to know who the mole might be. Much like Lawrence, Meredith blames the resisters.

However, Meredith soon steps away from the company to attend to Kate’s giving birth in the hospital. Although the baby is fine and they name it Bea, Kate confuses Tom. She says she doesn’t remember worrying about a voice in her head. Also, rather strangely, Kate ignores Tom when he asks to hold the baby. The episode wraps up with the investigation into Sara Hoyt.

What do you think of The Feed? Let us know in the comments!