I'm a fan.

Brainscan came out in that time period when MTV was saturated with those grungy Aerosmith music videos, and I can't think of one without the other. Part of it is that Edward Furlong had a starring role in Living on the Edge, but it's way more than that.

There was a particular mainstream appropriation of Seattle grunge and alt as aesthetic that lasted between late 92' to 94 (possibly into 95). Dead At 21, Arcade, My So Called Life, Poison Ivy, The Crush and SFW are a few notable titles but this was all over, even if only as a singular character within a cancelled-after-10-episodes sitcom nobody remembers. But sometimes it was far more subtle than Seth Green popping up with shoulder length hair and a flannel tied around his waist--It can simply be a pair of loose mom jeans or someone that carries the style and attitude of a reject from the cast of real world 3.

Maybe techno-grunge would be appropriate since it runs in parallel and would sometimes converge with the cultural fascination we had with virtual reality and CYBER-whatever.

Lipstick Camera immediately springs to mind as adjacent to Brainscan. I doubt many remember it. It was a made for cable thriller, of many that got produced, that would bleed into one another in your later night channel surfing if you didn't have a love for them. This one premiered on Showtime in 1994.

Here are some screencaps

You have characters and fashion that walked off MTV, whether that was a music video, show or skittles commercial. You have technology, which in this case is mundane video equipment and computers rather than something more futuristic. As a film it's rooted in De Palma exploration of voyeurism in the context of thriller, but it's very 90s in its approach of technology as simulation to supplant real experiences while also being a document of truth. Pretty much what The Real World brought to the table in its initial seasons. Both Lipstick Camera and Brainscan posit that the non-virtual world is more rewarding even if that opens you up to pain and rejection.

I'm thinking this could have been a movement that bled into the rise of the chat room internet if America was as hip and now as it ever pretended to be.