Miscategorized Media, or: Bummer, No Fembots.

[jolshefsky]

Watched Atlas (2024) ... it was okay at best. Pretty much by-the-book action design: overconfident military goes in; untrained advisor is left to save the day. There is a large part in the middle where Atlas (Jennifer Lopez) is reluctantly building a relationship with her "Arc" semi-autonomous AI exoskeleton. But most important, there are no fembots, aside from a three-second nudity-blurred-out "news" footage of a female android. Oh, and there's an "Arc" named Zoe, so there's a female voice in one of them if that's your thing.

[jolshefsky]

Almost not worth mentioning, but I was watching Frozen Scream on RiffTrax and it's kind of vaguely robot-related. Like a lot of low-budget horror films, the plot is scattered and nonsensical, but there was something about these electronic(?) devices stuck to the necks of dead people that make them immortal. Something something "cranial circuits need to be adjusted to keep the body temperature low enough..." More like half-alive zombies, but there are a few women.

[1986 Chevy S10]

I have an ear to the ground in the indie "mascot" horror sphere, and recently I came across a game called "Mint's Hints". As you can probably imagine by the title, it's another generic mascot horror title that basically boils down to "Blue's Clues but scary". Normally this wouldn't be worth bringing up; but as I played the game, I noticed something. Heavy spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk.

In one of the game's hidden tapes, you find out that the player character, a woman named Amelia (who was one of the show's main writers) was replaced by an AI program by the show's producers; along with the rest of the cast members. Right before the final boss fight, the boss gives some expository dialogue informing the player that you've been playing as an android doppelganger of the writer the whole time.

Obviously because this is a major plot point in the game that's only given to you by a hidden lore tape and some expository dialogue; I'm posting this here because it falls pretty squarely into GINO territory. You're only TOLD that you're playing as an gynoid; you never get to see what the player character looks like, nor are there any telltale sound cues.

I'm not sure if the game's developers will go anywhere with this revelation; but I'll keep an eye on this one. It would be nice if they really took advantage of this revelation in future DLC chapters; but I won't hold my breath.

[jolshefsky]

Just searching around, and I forgot all about Judy (2016) in which a guy gets a mysterious delivery of a fully functional sex robot. But *spoilers* she is actually a human woman pretending, and it all falls apart when her husband shows up...

[jolshefsky]

I'm on the fence about including Cassandra (Germany, 2025) ... it's a TV series about a family that buys a "smart home" made in the 1970s that includes a robot avatar with a female face on a screen. I guess it's kind of "fembot on wheels" if you will. The show is pretty good, actually, with an interesting story and a lot of suspense. I personally fault it for the AI computer with a rendered face from the 1970s that was just impossible, but that's just me being pedantic. I also thought the husband-and-wife dynamics were strained for the plot, with the husband believing his wife is crazy.

But yeah, is this "miscategorized"?