TV

Tom Hanks’ New Web Series Electric City

It took two years for Tom Hanks and his production company to produce Electric City, but the dark futuristic world they created was worth the wait

By Will Harris /

The web show Electric City was developed by Tom Hanks’s production company

Tom Hanks shows off his dark side in the bleak, post-apocalyptic vision of his new animated sci-fi series Electric City

“I live in the shadows, between truth and consequence.” No, that’s not a quote from The Dark Knight Rises, but it’s delivered by a character who seems to have about as cheery a disposition as Batman: Cleveland Carr, a so-called “grid operative” who stalks through the 20 episodes of Tom Hanks’ new Yahoo! web series, Electric City.

Hanks, who also voices Carr, developed the series with his production company, Playtone, in conjunction with Reliance Entertainment. (Other voice actors include Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chris Parnell and Two and a Half Men’s Holland Taylor.)

Electric City — the city, not the series — is described in the press release as “a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world . . . which seems like a utopia at first glance but soon reveals its darker side.”

But given that the first glance/episode is less than five minutes long and features a violent, bloody demise, it’s fair to say that the darkness overtakes the light very, very soon indeed.

If you recall the value that water had in the Mad Max films, energy is at least as valuable in the world of Electric City, and the powers that be aren’t afraid to do away with those who work against what they view as their best interests.

Whether or not you end up enjoying Electric City, you can’t help but appreciate the way Hanks and company have fleshed out this world they’ve created, offering an interactive map, behind-the-scenes featurettes and more.

The animation could take a bit of getting used to for some — this ain’t no Hanna-Barbera — and the bleak tone certainly won’t appeal to everyone, but you won’t be surprised to learn that two years of work went into bringing Electric City to fruition.

For sci-fi fans, who will appreciate the scope of the series, the time has been well spent. 

Originally published in TVW. For daily programming updates and on-screen Entertainment news, subscribe to the free TVW e-newsletters, or purchase a subscription to the weekly magazine.