Crazy Diamond episode synopsis and character bios

Episode synopsis

Crazy Diamond is set some time in the not-too-distant future where developments in genetic engineering have given rise to a new kind of conscious synthetic being; ‘chimeras’ built of flesh and blood that are known as Jacks and Jills. Powered by a Quantum Consciousness, or QC, Jacks and Jills are indistinguishable to Normals: their only difference is inbuilt obsolescence, an early expiry date, as it were.

This film noir centres in on the lives of Ed (Steve Buscemi), his wife Sally (Julia Davis) and Jill (Sidse Babett Knudsen). Ed is a corporate man with a nostalgic love of Pink Floyd who works at the Spirit Mill – a high tech facility that creates the Quantum Consciousness. He’s in the midst of a mid-life crisis and has dreams of sailing away on his timber boat.

Ed’s life is turned upside down when he meets Jill, a femme fatale synthetic conscious being who’s as beautiful as she is deadly. Her inbuilt obsolescence is imminent: she’s dying. Jill needs a new QC and Ed’s position at the Spirit Mill makes him the perfect partner in crime. Hesitant at first, Jill convinces Ed that if they can steal the QCs, Jill will be given a whole new life and Ed will have the money to finally sail away on his boat. In Ed’s mind, he’s doing it for the money and for a new life with his wife, Sally, but the truth is he’s falling in love with Jill.

Unbeknownst to Ed, Sally has secrets of her own. Her only confidante is a security guard at the Chimera Farm called Su (Joanna Scanlan). Su is a pig, her genetic make-up is 60% porcine and 40% human. Sally’s worst fears come true when Ed agrees to help Jill steal the QCs and he is drawn into a world of crime that will end in murder. But even this pales in comparison to the explosive consequences to come. Ed’s very existence and everything he cares about will never be the same again.