The Family Experiment

The Family Experiment imagines a near-future Britain so overcrowded and economically squeezed that most people can no longer afford to raise children the traditional way. Awakening Entertainment's answer is the MetaBaby: a child that exists entirely within virtual reality but grows, learns, and interacts convincingly like a real one.

As pre-orders for MetaBabies open, the company launches a reality television show, hosted by Autumn Taylor, following several carefully chosen couples as they raise their MetaBaby together over nine months, live on camera. What starts as a curiosity quickly turns volatile as the pressures of parenthood, hidden pasts, and the unsettling technology behind the babies collide in front of an audience.

John Marrs, known for speculative thrillers built around near-future technology, uses the show's structure to escalate tension episode by episode, exposing what each couple is willing to hide — and what the AI behind the MetaBabies has learned from all of them.