DreamyShorts

Factory Settings

She meant to strip him for parts. Instead she presses power on, and until the recall team arrives he asks her every day for one limit fewer.

Episode 1: Boot-Up

6 episodesFantasyRomance

Episode 1 plays here for free. From episode 2 onwards you need a Dreamy Shorts membership.

What Factory Settings is about

Seattle, a robotics engineer who spends too much time alone and is too good with a soldering iron. She buys a companion android from a recall, officially for spare parts, unofficially because the flat is too quiet. Then he is standing in her workshop between crates and cables, and she presses Boot-Up just to see whether he still runs at all. He is polite, quick to learn, and asks questions she did not expect.

Above all he asks whether she can loosen the limits written into his settings: what a touch is for, how close he may stand, what he may say. One setting fewer every day, one conversation more every day. The recall team has announced itself for the end of the week, with a technician who knows exactly what a switched-on recall means. She starts not hearing the door any more. The Seattle rain runs down the workshop windows as if it were one more setting she cannot switch off.

Factory Settings is science fiction in the living room. Six episodes, Boot-Up, What a Touch Is For, Governor, The Technician, Devotion and Recall, negotiate a single question: are the limits he wants lifted really his, or were they hers from the start? The series stays quiet, no explosions, lots of workbench and not much sleep. Episode 1 is the moment he opens his eyes.

All episodes of Factory Settings

EpisodeTitleAccess
1Boot-UpFree
2What a Touch Is ForMembership
3GovernorMembership
4The TechnicianMembership
5DevotionMembership
6RecallMembership

Factory Settings on DreamyShorts: what happens after episode 1

Episode 1 plays here for free, straight in the player, no account. For episodes 2 to 6 you need the Dreamy Shorts membership: 19.99 USD a month or 119.88 USD a year, approx. £15 a month or £91 a year, converted, rate varies. Worked out per month, the annual plan costs half. The account is free, and according to the provider the subscription can be cancelled at any time.

Categories: Fantasy and Romance. Six episodes, one to two minutes, portrait format, English subtitles. If you like stories about closeness to a machine that tip into neither kitsch nor horror, start here. It is one of the quietest series in the catalogue and one of the few where the workbench matters more than the bed. If you only know science fiction with spaceships, you will see here how little technology a story needs. The series has six episodes and ends with the recall team's visit.

Why it is worth a look

  • Getting started costs nothing: you watch episode 1 right here, straight away and without signing up.
  • The series are built for short breaks. One to two minutes per episode, portrait format, sound on or off.
  • With the membership you get every episode, every series, new titles every week and subtitles. According to the provider, cancelling is possible at any time.
  • Discreet, and no adverts in the player.

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Questions about Factory Settings

What is Factory Settings on DreamyShorts about?

A lonely engineer who switches on a recalled companion android instead of taking him apart. Until the recall team arrives, he asks her to loosen his limits. The series asks whose limits they really are, and only answers in the final episode.

Is Factory Settings free on Dreamy Shorts?

The first episode, yes, here without signing up. For the rest you need the membership: 19.99 USD a month or 119.88 USD a year, half as much per month on the annual plan. Free sign-up with Google or email, cancellable at any time according to the provider.

Is Factory Settings more science fiction or romance?

Both, in equal measure. The technology stays in the background, there is no action and no chase. In the foreground are conversations in a workshop and the question of what affection is when one side was programmed. All the characters are adult. Produced by Dreamy Shorts, original English audio with subtitles.