Black Mirror

[D_Davis]

Watched the first couple episodes of Black Mirror.

Didn't like it. It's really well made and all, but I found it too dark and cynical for my tastes these days.

[Irish]

Yeah. No. I mean, you're entitled to your opinion blah blah but your opinion is wrong. LOL ;).

Black Mirror is brilliant. It's a modern Twilight Zone with an acid edge. The second and third episodes are particularly well done and highly, highly fucking disturbing.

I can't think of another tv show in the last 10 years-- especially a genre show-- that comes close to its level of writing.

Edit: The Black Mirror Christmas special premieres on December 16 on Ch4 in the UK. It's three different stories, all starring Jon Hamm.

[D_Davis]

The first two episodes were just people being terrible to each other. Never got that vibe from Twilight Zone. I hear people call it a TZ for the modern era, so maybe that just means I don't jive with the modern era. That's fine.

It's Ballardian, but without the sense of wonder and fascination with humanity that Ballard had.

I'm going to watch a few more to see what else it has in store.

[Irish]

http://i.imgur.com/StFV9XR.jpg

[Dead & Messed Up]

Twilight Zone did mix cruelty into its delicious soup sometimes, but I'm kinda with D, in that the overwhelming feeling I get is a deep humanism and love for people and the human spirit. Its occasional bleak circumstances didn't often match to people being equally cruel to each other, but to oppressive social groups challenging a sympathetic hero.

[[ETM]]

We got a couple of friends over and watched first episode of Black Mirror, and, while everyone recognized the quality, it was depressing enough that none of us have seen more of it yet.

[Irish]

Twilight Zone had different goals depending on the episode. It ran the gamut from satire to horror to sci-fi to fantasy.

Black Mirror doesn't. It's straight sci-fi satire. It's angry and bitter, the way satire is intended to be. Almost all the episodes revolve around the effect of technology on people and social structures.

Admittedly, the focus is much more narrow than The Twilight Zone. But that doesn't make one worse than the other. There's plenty of genre and satire in Serling's show if we look around. Cf: The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, It's Good Life, The Living Doll, Time Enough to Last, Eye of the Beholder, etc.

Those episodes didn't exhibit a "deep love of the human spirit." They were social commentaries meant to jolt the audience out of their complacency. That's what good genre work does. That's what Black Mirror does.

[number8]

There's a persistent sneering in all Black Mirror episodes that I don't think was ever in Twilight Zone, which was more sincere with its social commentaries. Brooker's writing is just dripping with a combative sense of humor that makes me unsure if the commentary is to be taken seriously or if it's just exploiting a social aspect for laffs. Kind of like South Park a lot of times.

[D_Davis]

For me, Twilight Zone seems to be saying things about individuals, where as Black Mirror seems to be painting with a broader brush, trying to say something about all of humanity.

However, with all of this said, I actually don't think that BM is anything at all like TZ. I had heard that it was, that's why I originally mentioned the two together. Had I never heard that, after watching the first two episodes of BM, I would have never made the comparison myself.

[number8]

For me, Twilight Zone seems to be saying things about individuals

I dunno about that, at least when we're talking about the episodes that are most often cited as examples of TZ's social commentary. "I Am the Night-Color Me Black," "Maple Street," "Eye of the Beholder" and "The Shelter" seem to be more about society to me.

[D_Davis]

Like I said, just the feelings I get when watching these.

These days, I tend to be way more sensitive about things like violence and cynicism than I was when I was younger.

All I can say is that TZ is my favorite all time show, and I can watch episode after episode without ever feeling bad about humanity. BM seemed to want to paint us as a terrible species not worth a damn. I just don't have time for that kind of stuff in my life these days.

If I was all angsty, in my early 20s, I'd probably eat that shit up. My response to the show is more of a reflection of where I'm at, and less of a critique of the show itself.

[Irish]

There's a persistent sneering in all Black Mirror episodes that I don't think was ever in Twilight Zone, which was more sincere with its social commentaries. Brooker's writing is just dripping with a combative sense of humor that makes me unsure if the commentary is to be taken seriously or if it's just exploiting a social aspect for laffs. Kind of like South Park a lot of times.

Brooker doesn't feel any obligation to entertain you. He doesn't pander. He doesn't need to be liked. The first episode says all that, loudly. It's a giant fuck you to television audiences. Most American TV is deathly afraid they'll ever make anyone feel bad. Even stuff that feels edgy at times (In Living Color, South Park, The Chapelle Show) always lets the audience off the hook. Black Mirror doesn't, and I love it for that.

Having watched Weekly Wipe & read some of Brooker's commentary in The Guardian, I don't think he's exploiting anything for laughs (say, the way Jon Stewart or John Oliver do). I think he's genuinely pissed at the state of the world.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I watched the first two episodes of Black Mirror and hated them. Well produced and directed, sure, but pathetically misanthropic, with an edginess that lacks any real cut. The social commentary has all the nuance of a Hostel movie. "Let's find something to criticize. We'll start off with politicians and the royal family. Next let's criticize The X Factor and the internet age. Now think of the worst possible outcome in each episode, and there you have it!" I could see it appealing to high school kids with their bitter axe to grind. No thanks for me.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Oh, and comparing something like that to Twilight Zone is such a disservice to what Rod Serling created, I can only shake my head.

[D_Davis]

I watched the first two episodes of Black Mirror and hated them. Well produced and directed, sure, but pathetically misanthropic, with an edginess that lacks any real cut. The social commentary has all the nuance of a Hostel movie. "Let's find something to criticize. We'll start off with politicians and the royal family. Next let's criticize The X Factor and the internet age. Now think of the worst possible outcome in each episode, and there you have it!" I could see it appealing to high school kids with their bitter axe to grind. No thanks for me.


Oh, and comparing something like that to Twilight Zone is such a disservice to what Rod Serling created, I can only shake my head.

Glad I'm not alone. :)

[Irish]

The social commentary has all the nuance of a Hostel movie. "Let's find something to criticize. We'll start off with politicians and the royal family. Next let's criticize The X Factor and the internet age. Now think of the worst possible outcome in each episode, and there you have it!"

I'm not sure it would be possible for someone to misread the intentions of these episodes more.

The first episode wasn't about the Royal family. The second episode wasn't about "X-Factor" style shows. Those were only the vehicles by which Brooker talked about his topics. You may think the show appeals to "high school kids with an axe to grind", but I find your take on it to be a grade-school level analysis.

And here I thought the shows were too obvious on a thematic level. But I guess they weren't. The problem with doing this stuff is that people expect (or rather: demand) to be entertained by it. And if you go too broad, they miss the point entirely (this is, I think, the issue the ultimately fucked with Dave Chappelle's head. He was doing arch satire and his fans reduced it to a catchphrase).

[Irish]

Oh, and comparing something like that to Twilight Zone is such a disservice to what Rod Serling created, I can only shake my head.

Bear in mind the Twilight Zone had 156 episodes compared to Black Mirror's 6 (soon to be 9). Damu & number8 already pointed out it's a rough comparison, and I've already said why I think it's a comparison that still works.

What astounds me is that the harshest critics in this thread haven't even watched Black Mirror's entire run, or even half of it.

[number8]

I do think it's kind of amusing that both Davis and K-Fan stopped after 2 episodes, because the third one was widely considered the best of the first season, and the only one of the series not written by Brooker. It is also, I think, the least misanthropic, which probably explains why it's the only one getting an American remake.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I'm not sure it would be possible for someone to misread the intentions of these episodes more.

The first episode wasn't about the Royal family. The second episode wasn't about "X-Factor" style shows. Those were only the vehicles by which Brooker talked about his topics. You may think the show appeals to "high school kids with an axe to grind", but I find your take on it to be a grade-school level analysis.

And here I thought the shows were too obvious on a thematic level. But I guess they weren't. The problem with doing this stuff is that people expect (or rather: demand) to be entertained by it. And if you go too broad, they miss the point entirely (this is, I think, the issue the ultimately fucked with Dave Chappelle's head. He was doing arch satire and his fans reduced it to a catchphrase).

It was a lighthearted stab, Irish. I'm well aware that the royal family wasn't the target, but they were certainly criticized in the piece (with the queen herself stopping by to ask the Prime Minister to fuck the pig). Same goes with The X Factor. Not the target, but certainly heavily criticized. It has nothing to do with any level of entertainment or catchphrases or anything of the sort. I don't remember mentioning or asking for anything along that line, so I'm not sure why you would include that in your response.

I'm constantly amazed by how personally you seem to take differences of opinion, Irish. I disagree with the effectiveness and the method of the show's satirization of humanity. I'm not insulting you for liking the show (or 8 or Winston*). I wasn't calling you a high schooler for finding the show effective. That's just my personal view of the sophistication of the satire. I'm sorry if you felt that way. Yet you feel it necessary to cherry pick a one paragraph rant for a few choice bits, act as though my rant was any form of serious analysis, and then call it grade school.

[number8]

I'm not a big fan, actually. I enjoy watching them as sci-fi stories; they're pretty gripping and upsetting and that gets me going. But they're so set on making social commentaries that I don't find particularly useful. Social media/digital immersion satire almost always read as old man grousing to me, and this show is all about that shit.

Actually, I can say that I disliked the "15 Million Merits" episode, because it's paying homage to Network but bases its tragedy on a point that Network not only already said, but actually went beyond. It also uses a trope I really hate, the use of porn as a shortcut to show the rock bottom of compromising with the system (ugh, speaking of, a lot of blogs are spreading around this one artist's work lately that shows scenes of gangbang porn where the cocks are replaced by smartphones because WE'RE ALL WHORES TO SOCIAL MEDIA MAN--god, I haaaaaaaate it). I like the world building sci-finess of it, but everything else seemed lazy.

[Irish]

I'm not insulting you for liking the show (or 8 or Winston*). I wasn't calling you a high schooler for finding the show effective. That's just my personal view of the sophistication of the satire. I'm sorry if you felt that way. Yet you feel it necessary to cherry pick a one paragraph rant for a few choice bits, act as though my rant was any form of serious analysis, and then call it grade school.

"Lighthearted stab." Right, dude. Right. :lol:

[D_Davis]

I really hate, the use of porn as a shortcut to show the rock bottom of compromising with the system (ugh, speaking of, a lot of blogs are spreading around this one artist's work lately that shows scenes of gangbang porn where the cocks are replaced by smartphones because WE'RE ALL WHORES TO SOCIAL MEDIA MAN--god, I haaaaaaaate it). I like the world building sci-finess of it, but everything else seemed lazy.

Those paintings immediately sprung to my mind while watching Black Mirror. Wow! So edgy!

[Kurosawa Fan]

"Lighthearted stab." Right, dude. Right. :lol:

Always a pleasure when you stop by, Irish. Always goes so swimmingly around here.

[Irish]

Actually, I can say that I disliked the "15 Million Merits" episode, because it's paying homage to Network but bases its tragedy on a point that Network not only already said, but actually went beyond. It also uses a trope I really hate, the use of porn as a shortcut to show the rock bottom of compromising with the system (ugh, speaking of, a lot of blogs are spreading around this one artist's work lately that shows scenes of gangbang porn where the cocks are replaced by smartphones because WE'RE ALL WHORES TO SOCIAL MEDIA MAN--god, I haaaaaaaate it). I like the world building sci-finess of it, but everything else seemed lazy.

I thought this one was far too on point, but not quite lazy. Because I don't think Brooker took an easy swipe at "social media." I think he was criticizing stuff like this (http://www.ted.com/talks/jesse_schell_when_games_invade _real_life), which caused a stir in tech circles back in the say ("You can get points for brushing your teeth"). Or this (http://gamedeveloper.com/view/news/126484/PlayGen_Gamification_Can_Bring _A_Gaming_Layer_To_Everything_ We_Do.php). There are people running around in the world, right now, working tech and saying things like "Your bank balance is your high score" and saying them seriously.

He's concerned with the eventual gamification of nearly everything, but especially human interactions. This makes the episode not so simple, and deeper than it appears, because I'm not sure people realize how badly Facebook, Twitter, et al are intentionally designed to manipulate them. Or how easy it is. I'm not sure they know how services like Task Rabbit and Uber work, where your continued employment is based on a user score.

The ending should resonate with a anyone who's ever worked a retail job-- people with prestige and power present workaday slobs with a choice that's not really a choice, in a society that has narrowed choice to nothing (ie the complete collapse of a middle class).

[Irish]

Always a pleasure when you stop by, Irish. Always goes so swimmingly around here.

Right, dude. Right.

[number8]

I thought this one was far too on point, but not quite lazy. Because I don't think Brooker took an easy swipe at "social media." I think he was criticizing stuff like this (http://www.ted.com/talks/jesse_schell_when_games_invade _real_life), which caused a stir in tech circles back in the say ("You can get points for brushing your teeth"). Or this (http://gamedeveloper.com/view/news/126484/PlayGen_Gamification_Can_Bring _A_Gaming_Layer_To_Everything_ We_Do.php). There are people running around in the world, right now, working tech and saying things like "Your bank balance is your high score" and saying them seriously.

He's concerned with the eventual gamification of nearly everything, but especially human interactions. This makes the episode not so simple, and deeper than it appears, because I'm not sure people realize how badly Facebook, Twitter, et al are intentionally designed to manipulate them. Or how easy it is. I'm not sure they know how services like Task Rabbit and Uber work, where your continued employment is based on a user score.

The ending should resonate with a anyone who's ever worked a retail job-- people with prestige and power present workaday slobs with a choice that's not really a choice, in a society that has narrowed choice to nothing (ie the complete collapse of a middle class).

I didn't find any of this as revelatory as you did, because my memory of the episode (I watched it maybe 3 years ago at this point) is that it uses the gamification aspect as world-building currency, but doesn't actually comment on it much, because it shifts gears to be about breads-and-circuses as its central satire and the guy's character arc. I'm not even sure it was self-aware about the fact that the guy treated the girl as another purchase, since it seems to position that relationship as an example of a "real" human interaction breaking through the system.

[dreamdead]

Guys, guys.

This is glossing the fact that, as Irish states, the third episode is just killer. And the fourth episode is equally good. Still processing thoughts on it, but I don't think it's misanthropic as a series. Rather, it's deeply committed to exploring how much we prioritize, both healthily and bitterly, sex in our daily lives. All four of the first episodes grapple with the fundamental act of sex as a core human behavior, and in turn study how we respond to those we love, or believe we love, when they move beyond "normal" sexual relations.

The third episode is what I always wanted Bigelow's Strange Days to be. While I quite like that film, this episode captures all of the vital aspects that Cameron and Bigelow develop even as it grounds the themes in personal drama rather than film noir. This episode is just absolutely phenomenal.

The fourth episode moves outside the cynical nature of its climax, struggling to reinvigorate AI and the artificial intelligence body, when it's last two minutes grant technology the humanity that the show is elsewhere conveying.

[EyesWideOpen]

How is it 2015 and I can't legally watch the Black Mirror Christmas special?

[number8]

How is it 2015 and I can't legally watch the Black Mirror Christmas special?

You can. They put it up on YouTube.

[EyesWideOpen]

You can. They put it up on YouTube.

Just watched it. Episode was fantastic but the quality was lacking. Besides the small little box that Black Mirror puts their youtube videos up in it was fine for the first half or so but then the sound cut out 3 or 4 times for 30 seconds or so each and then the sound got out of sync for the last half which was annoying.

[Grouchy]

Wow, the Christmas episode is excellent.

[number8]

I recently marathoned all the episodes again because my roommate hadn't seen it, and I told her that she should start with "The Entire History of You" instead of the first two episodes, and that got her hooked to see the rest. I think that was a good decision. I still think it's unfortunate that the show's first two episodes are what I consider its two worst. Well, maybe tied with the Waldo one.

[number8]

Come to think of it, I like the show best when its critique on society serves more as a backdrop to a personal story, like in "Entire History of You," "Be Right Back," and the Christmas episode. Less so the other way around, which is what the other episodes did.

[Spun Lepton]

So, you're saying the first episode is not a good gauge for the rest of the series? Because I watched it and I was wholly unimpressed.

[number8]

I dunno about representation, I just think that with anthology shows, there's no harm in seeing the best received episodes first to see if the show at its best can hook you. I certainly never tried watching Twilight Zone or Tales From the Crypt in order.

[Grouchy]

But... the first episode is the one with the pig, right? Who in the world is not inmediately hooked by that?

[number8]

It's dumb.

[Irish]

How so?

[number8]

It's a satire on the media's relationship with social media conformity centered on pig fucking. And it turns out to be performance art. It just... Everything about it reeks of low-hanging fruits. Like I said, I don't find the show all that compelling when it overreaches to make a statement on our relationship with technology on a societal level.

I can see why they started with that, though. A head of state being forced to fuck a pig is probably a more headline grabbing pilot than broken dreams and relationships.

[Irish]

Hm. Okay. What would be an example of "high hanging" fruit, then?

Ps: I think it's more than "a satire on the media's relationship with social media conformity." And the final reveal has to happen in order for the larger story to resonate.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Just watched the first episode. Some real tension and dread. I didn't buy some of the more minor touches, like the idea that people would watch 60 minutes of a man fucking a pig, even a PM. The ticking clock element was pretty effective given that it seemed a foregone conclusion that the guy was gonna fuck the pig. The tech stuff was more useful as a means of raising the stakes than as meaningful commentary on our relationship with gadgets. The more interesting idea, that a fundamentally useless relic of old government captures the public fascination more than a bureaucratic but truly powerful prime minister, is more subdued but a little more fresh of a subject. Fine acting from the lead. Looks like it was shot by David Fincher's first assistant director.

Fascinating moment by moment but a little vaporous as an experience. Irony being that I'll remember mostly as that one where a guy fucked a pig, when it seemed judgmental of our interest in shocking images. Hypocrisy or provocation? Who knows. I'm gonna mix me a White Russian and watch the next one.

Criminal that the tag at the end wasn't the PM and the pig smoking cigarettes in bed.

[Dead & Messed Up]

"15 Million Merits" is about as good as the first episode, which is to say... pretty good. The best element by far is the production design, which reminds me of the elegance of Gattaca in keeping sci-fi advancements simple and clean - worlds seemingly devised by Apple. Number8 points out quite rightly that the episode lurches into a strangely obvious Network reprise, and that dampens the effect (although Bing's Shard as a collectible Mii item is admittedly a great touch). The central performance is pretty grand, even with that eye-rollingly obvious speech at the end (to say nothing of the inevitable response). Again, I'm finding myself enjoying the little details more. My favorite bit is how something like the twitchy vending machine is first a mundane detail, then a means of two characters interacting, and then a way for the hero to save points by grabbing stuck apples. That's some sharp storytelling economy. I also liked how the Miis and graphics on-screen were simple to the point of almost being retro.

I get the Twilight Zone comparison given that this is a fantasy anthology show delivering social commentary, but I gotta go with my original take (and the take of Davis) that the attitude of the show couldn't be further from Serling's enduring humanism. This often seems snide and self-righteous.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Third episode with the eye recordings. Uh, good? I was surprised they took such a potent premise and made it about a couple descending into distrust and acrimony. And very surprised that the hints about false memories weren't followed up on. Instead, it's mostly a series of lies emotionally beaten out of the wife. The parallels to records like text and online messaging give it a feel of plausibility, and, again the lack of exposition regarding the main device makes for engaging watching. But my interest peaked in the first half and slowly diminished.

I also wonder if part of the problem is that things never felt all that tragic because the husband adjusted so quickly into a drunken, violent boor, while the wife doesn't exhibit guilt so much as shame of being caught. To wit, they shed their sympathetic veneers with reasonable speed (you quickly realize every admission by the wife is just another lie). I don't know that any drama would've been lost by making the husband more pained and less aggressive - that scene with him interrogating the maid was tedious, boilerplate business. One level above a Lifetime movie.

[dreamdead]

The show does dabble pretty extensively in tropes of masculinity and manhood, so the husband being aggressive was something that I took for granted. On some level a lot of this show comes out of an assessment of the everyman not as virtuous but as perpetually wounded, perpetually wanting to strike out and assert his (as the show's more typically focused around a male protagonist) virility.

There are ways in which I do agree with those who believe that "The Entire History of You" is the show's best episode. While the husband doubles down on craziness pretty quickly, so much of that episode is about hyper-competitiveness and self-assessment that the masculinity angle is just one more approach. The whole business with the maid is where the show's treatment of class is, admittedly, more cartoonish.

Sarah's teaching "White Bear" from season 2 in her sci fi class, so I'm interested to see what that one gains, or loses, when one knows the twist ahead of time.

[number8]

Kind of confusing news. (http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-09-07/charlie-brookers-black-mirror-to-become-a-netflix-show)

If I'm understanding it right, Channel 4 has commissioned a 3rd series, but Brooker is also writing original American-set episodes for Netflix.

[number8]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mYrWSY6Asg

[Peng]

Funny how many come in here after two episodes of the first season, and I just did the same. I am not overwhelmed or underwhelmed by the two, just whelmed. Gorgeously crafted with many on-point details and good performances, but feel like they are conceived as thesis statements first then get worked backwards into a story, but not quite fully there yet. The second episode, especially, makes the characters feel such pawns to the plot and world-buildings instead of fully realized characters (I know the situations mean the people in this story are subservient, but it would be nice to have them extend beyond their archetype details so the horror of this story hits home more), so that I wasn't quite the whole way emotionally engaged, although the world disturbs me in a good way. In this regard I like the first episode more; having it be a present world means also more time with the characters so they just feel more like real people, I guess.

I am not turned off and gonna watch every episode, although I have heard so much about "White Bear" being brutal and/or highly disturbing that I am bracing myself a bit for that episode.

[Grouchy]

I am not overwhelmed or underwhelmed by the two, just whelmed.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/e1/10/85/e11085ba91aca6b22eb322e624a96b 27.jpg

[Peng]

"The Entire History of You" In some ways, this might be the best episode of the first season, and the most convincing expression so far of the show's thesis in how technology can amplify our worst impulses as a human being, or at least make us arrive at the inevitable faster. The tech is believable and only just slightly exaggerated from the present to give chills, the integration into everyday life is seamless, and the way it is used to advance a familiarly grueling story like distrust and paranoia in a relationship is just great. But again, one stumbling block, and the clearest example of why people often compare this show unfavorably to The Twilight Zone: the humans in that relationship. I feel the disturbing horror and discomfort of their disintegration, but never the keen sense of loss. I don't know whether it's the nuance in writing or the performances (but highly suspecting the former), but the way the couple is presented, I never get a handle of them as complex people, which is crucial for a story like this. The husband especially just becomes this raging, jealous, overbearing asshole from the get-go; I don't expect characters to be sympathetic, but some empathy beyond what the situations are doing to them would be nice. A twinge of sadness I feel in the last scene comes from the stark contrast in what the technology allows him to see what used to be, but not necessarily for him. So, still prefer "The National Anthem" most out of the first season.

Ranking for now:
1. "The National Anthem" B+
2. "The Entire History of You" B+
3. "15 Million Merits" B

And next episode features Haley Atwell! Gets briefly excited before wondering what fresh hell will await her character.

[Henry Gale]

I've been watching these in the last week too, some fully for the first time, others because it's been so long since I have seen them that I wanted to revisit them before starting with the Netflix ones. And.. as much as I get the issues some of you had with them (but never actually read until now), I kinda love them all to varying degrees.

"The National Anthem" is particularly different episode in a post-Brexit world where David Cameron has now had vengeful allegations leading to an actual scandal about fucking a pig, and Kate Middleton (the closest proxy to Princess Susannah here) has become even more of a public deity. But beyond its marquee shock pitch, I thought the most interesting aspect of it was its way of imagining the media's morality and actions in keeping with what they think they had the responsibility to divulge and the integrity not to, all while agreeing to the PM's office terms to an extent and falling behind while it's already wildly spun out through YouTube and social media. Also focusing on how the public's sympathies easily shift simply based on the information they have about when and why they were given other previous information regarding things, and how that influences the powers that be and the media to act as a result, is maybe a tad over-exaggerated here, but it's an avenue of ideas so few other modern things tackle, so its over-the-top nature just drives at it faster. Writing this in the final days of the circus that has been this American election, especially compared to the other episodes in this show, this barely feels like a world other than our own now.

I think "Fifteen Million Merits" is the one that understandably works really well for you or totally doesn't, but honestly, for me, it's great in all its antiseptic, gaudy, insular, grim ways. Growing up in a generation that's felt a lot of the struggles of simply buying time and devices in your life and work to achieve the "freedom" of time glued to a screen, and seeing even younger generations of people in my life revolve their time more and more around gaming and fed entertainment without ever having been removed from those habits to see it as either good or bad, but simply a weird necessity. Sure, the episode is simplistic, narrow satire, but it's not like it's coming from an incorrect fear. To me, a lot of my favourite sci-fi just simply takes a look at a current moment and says "What if we just did what we're doing now forever" and throws it directly into its most interesting extreme of a future, and to me, this episode's world is as much a time capsule of 2011 fears as it is a warning to the augmented reality, everything-is-documented/snapped "or what is it for??" world we're still pushing new levels of. My only nitpick of it is that Bing's big performance does feel a bit more along the lines of rehearsed-slam-poetry (whether that's intentional or just what Kaluuya's otherwise very good performance unconsciously brings to it) than a genuine, revolutionary, unpolished outcry. But it gets the job done emotionally and thematically, even when the expected judges' response flips things in an even more gutting way with its falsely uplifting veneer. The happy ending he gets is not having to live a life of looking at a screen, but being a part of the machine that pumps his heroic musings to others for their own corporate profit instead. In broad strokes, the forever-fame-obsessed / constant social media approval aspects of our society have the choice of Bing's natural views, but still consider being a part of our own broadcasted machines for all to see as an ultimate privilege of sorts.

"The Entire History Of You" is probably the most confident and intelligent in its approach to premise and tonal execution, but it elicited the least powerful response in . I think the first half is significantly more effective than the second, but I do think beginning with the overanalysis of his interview at the law firm was a good way to show how didactic and crazy with minutiae of feelings with people he didn't even care for getting the approval of (categorizing them as terrible people even if he did get it) opened the door pretty perfectly for why he'd care so much about a potential fork in the road with his own wife. I think as easy (even cheap) as him getting very drunk might be to have accelerated the heightening of the emotions towards it all (as it is only 50 mins long), Kebbell's performance largely helps navigate that in a smart, engrossingly messy enough way away from feel like it only stems from a crazed bender. Your sympathies largely leave his situation the further he goes -- and you want him to unravel it to its full extent for the episode take its ideas to the furthest extent rather than actually want to experience any of it with the characters -- but the sci-fi tilt of its world does make you wonder exactly what extremes and habits you'd take on yourself. What you'd store, delete, and replay for yourself to better your day. I actually really look forward to the film version that Robert Downey Jr got the rights of this for, because as long as it keeps its core edge, it's a great storytelling to explore further.


And next episode features Haley Atwell! Gets briefly excited before wondering what fresh hell will await her character.

Just watched this one last night. She's pretty tremendous in it and the episode might be my favourite so far.

[Dukefrukem]

So. An episode of this was forced upon me this week at a gathering, annoyingly, as the person kept saying "it's the best show ever" and proceeded to show me the episode where a girl gets her memory erased everyday because she's on a gameshow. "See I bet you didn't see that coming"...

...yeh. Best show everrrrrrrrrr.... not.

[Skitch]

Season one, episode one has still not been topped imo. This show is tough watch. Every episode is heavy. I feel emotionally tired after every one.

[Henry Gale]

Pleeeease spoiler that Duke. I literally just watched that episode for the first time yesterday and if I'd read that I would've been pissed.

But I also loved it.

[Dukefrukem]

Sorry, didn't realize this was the generic thread and not a season specific thread.

[Peng]

Can anyone tell me which episode in that spoiler is (just say something like, Season 2 Episode 1)?

[dreamdead]

Can anyone tell me which episode in that spoiler is (just say something like, Season 2 Episode 1)?

Peng, the spoiler concerns Season 2 Episode 2. After you watch that, you're good to go on the spoiler.

[Grouchy]

That episode is very good, though.

[Peng]

That episode is very good, though.

This. And so totally not what it is in the spoiler at all.

[Peng]

"Be Right Back" My favorite episode of the first two seasons, in part because it takes the complaint I consistently have with the show: the concept and its morality swallowing its human characters whole (and not in a metaphorically fitting way), and reverts that. The technology and the commentary on it are a natural, subtle extension of the story of how grief can stop us from moving forward. Not coincidentally, it also has the most fully fleshed out character, whose agency of choices in her own story make her more than pawns to the plot like most characters in other episodes (only "The National Anthem"'s scale benefits from that kind of inevitability, in my opinion). Of course, it helps that Hayley Atwell is phenomenal in the role, giving each choice of her character's heartbreaking arc full emotional weight. Also nice that even while having humanism countering the show's nihilism more than usual, the episode still doesn't avoid some disturbing touches here and there, including its ending, which manages to be both beautiful but very chilling. A-

"White Bear" Such nightmare fuel of an episode, and the only other time apart from "The National Anthem" where I feel Brooker goes full nihilism and justifies it. Such a great premise and some astounding reflection back on the viewers, to implicate us in questions about mob mentality, the notion of justice, and violent entertainment that are worthy of Haneke. Find the protagonist's journey a bit too repetitively horrific for my taste, but being in Thailand at a nationally vulnerable moment where emotions can run high and flare up in the same manner as depicted in this one, I find this episode highly disturbing. B+

"The Waldo Moment" Torn between finding the drama/story not very effective, blunt and kind of grating, and finding the concept soooo scarily prescient about today's political landscape that I am in deep admiration despite myself. Maybe next time be perceptive about something more utopian and have it come true, please, Brooker? B-

[number8]

This. And so totally not what it is in the spoiler at all.

I was actually initially confused which episode Duke was referring to.

[Peng]

"White Christmas"

I tend to not like Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror at his most nihilistically unpleasant, which has a tendency to bludgeon me to death with that sentiment instead of forming something that has a solid emotional and logical throughline, for it to be more truthfully shattering. Two exceptions though: "White Bear", and now the middle section (out of the three) in "White Christmas". It stars Oona Chaplin and the concept of 'Cookie', which is utilized in a story that is swift, fascinating, and very, very nasty, despite not a shed of physical violence to be found. This story if expanded to full episode length might be the best Black Mirror has to offer yet, although I can imagine it being so traumatic one might not be able to crawl out from under the bed for days.

Alas, it is bookeneded by an unremarkable first story, which has a very convenient ending, and the intriguing third one with a fairly haunting concept of Blocking, but which is utilized in a pretty nonsensical real-world context, in order to engineer that gotcha ending. Still, other series can only hope for its middling entry to have a high quality threshold like this one. B

[Peng]

Before finally delving into the third series and that season thread, my ranking so far:

1. "Be Right Back" A-
2. "The National Anthem" B+
3. "White Bear" B+
4. "The Entire History of You" B+
5. "15 Million Merits" B
6. "White Christmas" B
7. "The Waldo Moment" B-

[number8]

This is a still from the upcoming season. I cannot wait to see what this is about.

https://i.imgur.com/KWUzzfC.jpg

[Henry Gale]

Haha yeah, same one instantly jumped out to me. Also a full director / confirmation Brooker wrote them all / cast list (without synopses, thankfully):


“Arkangel”
Cast: Rosemarie Dewitt (La La Land, Mad Men), Brenna Harding (A Place to Call Home), Owen Teague (Bloodline)
Director: Jodie Foster
Written by: Charlie Brooker

“USS Callister”
Cast: Jesse Plemons (Black Mass, Fargo), Cristin Milioti (The Wolf of Wall Street, Fargo), Jimmi Simpson (Westworld, House of Cards), Michaela Coel (Chewing Gum, Monsters: Dark Continent)
Director: Toby Haynes (Dr Who, Sherlock)
Written By: Charlie Brooker & William Bridges

“Crocodile”
Cast: Andrea Riseborough (Birdman, Bloodline), Andrew Gower (Outlander), Kiran Sonia Sawar (Murdered By My Father)
Director: John Hillcoat (Triple Nine, Lawless)
Written By: Charlie Brooker

“Hang the DJ”
Cast: Georgina Campbell (Flowers, Broadchurch), Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders, Green Room), George Blagden (Versailles, Vikings)
Director: Tim Van Patten (The Sopranos, Game of Thrones)
Written By: Charlie Brooker

“Metalhead”
Cast: Maxine Peake (The Theory Of Everything, The Village), Jake Davies (The Missing, A Brilliant Young Mind), Clint Dyer (Hope Springs)
Director: David Slade (Hannibal, American Gods)
Written By: Charlie Brooker

“Black Museum”
Cast: Douglas Hodge (The Night Manager, Catastrophe), Letitia Wright (Humans, Ready Player One), Babs Olusanmokun (Roots, The Defenders)
Director: Colm McCarthy
Written By: Charlie Brooker

[number8]

This is the first season of this show where I'm actually familiar with the director of every episode.

[Irish]

Really hoping that "Hang the DJ" isn't a reference to The Smiths

[Irish]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yef_HfQoBd8

"Arkangel" directed by Jodie Foster.

Release date still unannounced (?!).

[Peng]

Season 4 drops today.

[Russ]

The first episode, USS Callister is great and has a very Black Mirror-y twist. The extra budget did not go to waste. Lots of pointed jabs at fanboys, gaming culture, plus a knowing wink nee affectionate homage of classic Star Trek.

They started this Series 4 off with a top tier episode!

[Skitch]

Uss Callister was great.
Arkangel I didn't like. Not sure if its the fault of the episode or similarity to having to deal with a teenager irl.

Two eps in and the core ideas are kind of retreads of previous episodes. Not complaining too loudly, just an observation.

[Grouchy]

Two episodes in. Skitch is right that these themes have been run before by the show but it's no big deal.

Both episodes are very good but I liked Arkangel more.

[Irish]

Lots of pointed jabs at fanboys, gaming culture, plus a knowing wink nee affectionate homage of classic Star Trek.

Yeaaaaah. I dunno about that. I couldn't tell what they were really going for. The opening was a superficial parody of "Star Trek," but the ending uses worn-out genre tropes to become a typical chase/thriller. The episode becomes what it criticizes and does it for entertainment value.

And there was a happy ending! This makes it fan service that also turns up its nose at fan service. (So, wtf, Brooker? What are you trying to get at?)

I couldn't take it as a jab at gaming, either, because what happens is more or less a dramatic variation on what people did while playing "The Sims," which predates the obsessiveness found in GamerGate and 4chan. I'm not sure what insight Brooker thinks he has, or if he has any at all. (Really, the script boils down to an 80 minute riff on Penny Arcade's "Dickwolves" comic strip from 2013.)

I was disappointed that the writers studiously avoided the main question---whether simulated people in a simulated world are "real" enough to matter. They take the answer on faith, as obvious, and then write characters who dismiss themselves as artificial. So that point seemed muddled to me too.

(Also, as a general criticism and in a fit of super-nerdiness I need to point out that if I made a digital copy of someone's DNA to reproduce them on a fucked up Holodeck that wouldn't include their memories and identity.)

(Also, in another sort of fit, stealing the fucking lolipop would have done nothing because the DNA was digitized, which means the potential for millions of copies of that little boy, tucked away on servers all over the world.)

[Skitch]

I, for one, enjoyed that an episode ended and I didn't feel sick to my stomach.

[Russ]

Yeaaaaah. I dunno about that. I couldn't tell what they were really going for. The opening was a superficial parody of "Star Trek," but the ending uses worn-out genre tropes to become a typical chase/thriller. The episode becomes what it criticizes and does it for entertainment value.
I didn't see it as criticizing it so much as just having fun with it (and the aforementioned tropes).


And there was a happy ending! This makes it fan service that also turns up its nose at fan service. (So, wtf, Brooker? What are you trying to get at?)

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down... -- Mary Poppins

I'm with Skitch on this one.


I couldn't take it as a jab at gaming, either, because what happens is more or less a dramatic variation on what people did while playing "The Sims," which predates the obsessiveness found in GamerGate and 4chan. I'm not sure what insight Brooker thinks he has, or if he has any at all. (Really, the script boils down to an 80 minute riff on Penny Arcade's "Dickwolves" comic strip from 2013.)

You have gone so over my head with this response, I'm just going to concede this one to you on points. :)


I was disappointed that the writers studiously avoided the main question---whether simulated people in a simulated world are "real" enough to matter. They take the answer on faith, as obvious, and then write characters who dismiss themselves as artificial. So that point seemed muddled to me too.

Not sure I see your point here as I didn't feel as though the characters were self-dismissing (especially given the sacrifice that Jimmi Simpson's character made).


(Also, as a general criticism and in a fit of super-nerdiness I need to point out that if I made a digital copy of someone's DNA to reproduce them on a fucked up Holodeck that wouldn't include their memories and identity.)

Yes but wasn't that intentional for purposes of controlling/torturing them (by essentially using Tommy as a virtual hostage)?


(Also, in another sort of fit, stealing the fucking lolipop would have done nothing because the DNA was digitized, which means the potential for millions of copies of that little boy, tucked away on servers all over the world.)

I thought he only uploaded the digital clones locally (ie, they weren't intended to go to the cloud).

But you make some good points. However, seeing as how I loved this episode, It appears that we are destined to agree to disagree.

[Irish]

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down... -- Mary Poppins

Pandering isn't really medicine, is it? It's just sugar. 100% sugar. I like sugar, I can get it anywhere. Network. Cable. A dozen shows off Netflix or Amazon. If "Black Mirror" doesn't leave the audience shaking their heads and mumbling, "Jesus, that was fucked up," then what's the point of it?


You have gone so over my head with this response, I'm just going to concede this one to you on points.

"The Sims" was a game where you could create digital avatars and play around in a open-form, sandbox-y suburban universe. People loved the game...but after awhile, they started intentionally torturing the sims to see what these artificial people would do under stressful conditions. Things like putting them in a house with no doors, no windows, no food, and no bathroom. Or placing them in a nice meadow, but the surrounding them with heavy furniture and lighting it on fire. It was both dark and funny, mostly because players went online and swapped stories and screenshots of their bad deeds.

So if Brooker sought to jab nerds by either portraying them as either sadists or sociopaths, I think he failed. Because regular, workaday players in a low-impact, non-combat game went a little nuts in their artificial universe when given the chance. I think rando stories out of "The Sims," and other MMORPGs, say more about human nature than this episode of "Black Mirror."


I thought he only uploaded the digital clones locally (ie, they weren't intended to go to the cloud).

That's the conceit, which they needed for the lollipop heist subplot. But the core idea is ridiculous for a bunch of characters who are supposed to be professional programers.

"Black Mirror" is a show about the oppressiveness of technology but this plotline ignores exactly what makes a purely digital world equal parts groundbreaking, dangerous, and scary.

Wanna really fuck with someone's head? Don't turn them into some shambling, Star-Trekian monster. Put them in a closed universe that's populated only with 1 billion copies of themselves.

[Russ]

Wanna really fuck with someone's head? Don't turn them into some shambling, Star-Trekian monster. Put them in a closed universe that's populated only with 1 billion copies of themselves.

Or put their six year old child into an airlock, where they're blasted into open space, and you're forced to watch. And threatened to have it repeated. Over and over. Ad infinitum.

Yeah, I think I got the head-fucking concept down.

[Irish]

Yeah, I think I got the head-fucking concept down.

My critique of the episode is that it posits a digital world, but treats it like the real one. Meaning: a single person, place, or thing can only exist in one place and at one time. But that wouldn't be true about that spaceship. The airlock scene is a case in point---it's torture, sure, but it's an analog form of it.

Anyway, I'm afraid you've misread my intent by addressing your post directly. I apologize for the offense. I wanted to suss some things out and talk about them, that's all.

[Russ]

No prob, I think we just got different things out of it. I hate that it didn't really work for you.

[Russ]

My critique of the episode is that it posits a digital world, but treats it like the real one. Meaning: a single person, place, or thing can only exist in one place and at one time.
But we (and they) know that's not the case, right? I mean, wasn't that the purpose of Cristin Milioti's character blackmailing herself on the outside with the racy photos in order to get her to assist in their escape plan?

Irish, I'm enjoying our in-depth discussion of this episode -- something only the best episodes inspire! (you don't have to agree with that last bit :) )

[Grouchy]

I was disappointed that the writers studiously avoided the main question---whether simulated people in a simulated world are "real" enough to matter. They take the answer on faith, as obvious, and then write characters who dismiss themselves as artificial. So that point seemed muddled to me too.
How would you write an episode like that, though? That might be the main question for you and me because we're sci-fi nerds and we argued about what constitutes "real life" in the BR2049 thread but for the purpose of this TV movie, we need to get invested in the characters. Theoretically, Todd from Breaking Bad could have reset their consciousness at any point after their latest rebellion, but that would make the arc of the episode unfeasible. High concept science fiction about A.I. kind of dares you to think ahead all the time and shoots itself on the foot at times. I think that the fact that the whole Star Fleet universe is purposefully sadistic explains a lot of possible plot holes like this. It's about punishing his partner and his work buddies.


(Also, as a general criticism and in a fit of super-nerdiness I need to point out that if I made a digital copy of someone's DNA to reproduce them on a fucked up Holodeck that wouldn't include their memories and identity.)

What Russ said. If they didn't know why they're there, that'd kind of defeat the whole purpose of torture and punishment. It becomes something else entirely.

[Grouchy]

Third one was good. Not excellent, but good. The main actress knocked it out of the park.

John Hillcoat directs!

[number8]

I'll post more thoughts on individual episodes after the parties are done but suffice to say this is my fav season not because of the consistent quality but because of the variety. I think San Junipero was a marker for the show and they've now stopped sticking to the patented Black Mirror somberness and started offering a romcom ep, a straight up action ep, and even a grindhouse pulp ep. This has now evolved into a genre show and I'm digging the new direction.

[Skitch]

Man thats good to hear. Previous seasons have been so heavy and depressing its hard for me to watch more than one a day.

[Grouchy]

Damn, Hang the DJ is a classic episode

Enviado desde mi CAM-L03 mediante Tapatalk

[Grouchy]

I'm beginning to see what 8 is talking about. The black and white episode is a classic Horror movie.

Enviado desde mi CAM-L03 mediante Tapatalk

[Peng]

I agree that there's variety, but I do think that's it's the weakest season, although I still gave it 7 on trakt like the other three. It lacks the sheer consistency of 1, the first hopeful/brutal double doses of 2 ("Be Right Back" and "White Bear"), and the first variation in tones and creative inputs of 3 (even though that leads to some outright clunkers more than usual, although "San Junipero" easily makes up for that). I feel like 4 even mimics the structure of 3 quite a bit, what with first episode's "now for something different", the absolute downer of third ep before the love story of fourth, and ending with playful genre mix, with detective noir last season and goofy anthology here. Anyway, here's my take:

1. USS Callister A-
Love how it simultaneously uses in earnest and parodies Star Trek tropes. And the flip to exploring toxic masculinity/"Nice Guy"/fanboy culture is clever. One of the funniest Black Mirror too, and Cristin Milioti is always awesome. Maybe the first episode of the show that I wish will get sequels, as I could watch the further adventures of Milioti-clone and her crew.

2. Arkangel C+/B-
Weakest of the season for me. See almost every beat coming a mile away, with ones that doesn't (the over-the-top rage beating) just taking me out of the story, and not enough nuance along the way to make up for it.

3. Crocodile B
The final beats become over-the-top Black Mirror in its simple reach for the grosteque for me, but otherwise this is a nicely nasty portrait of downward spiral, parallel with a compelling, interesting tech-aided investigation that keeps closing in on that spiral. Andrea Riseborough is fantastic throughout (I just watched Battle of the Sexes and barely recognized her at all in this), and director John Hillcoat really milks the empty landscape and bleak atmosphere for all their worth here.

4. Hang the DJ A-
Favorite of the season. Even more than "San Junipero", this really depends on the two leads' chemistry since the plotting and world-building are not as sublime as that one, but they sell both roles wonderfully.

5. Metalhead B
Relentless, but could have used a little more something on its bones. As an exercise in lean, mean chase thriller with tech bend (that box monster design is just superb) and unobtrusive world-building on its sides though, this gets the job done.

6. Black Museum B-/B
Really admired the episode's ambition of being both a Black Mirror-within-Black Mirror anthology, and borderline parodic meta commentary on its own series. But many of its elements in each short story are just too simplistic in its very broad strokes to be much engaging (especially the second one). Douglas Hodge is such a wonderfully sleazy delight though, especially if Brooker intends to write this character as mocking himself.

[Grouchy]

Done. Last episode was an instant classic, being a more playful version of the Christmas special. I love that, even though 8 is right that this season attempts to explore different genres within dystopian sci-fi, this is surprisingly also the first bit of internal continuity from the series.

Gotta disagree with Peng, though - Arkangel was best of the season for me, while USS Callister was good for the laughs and had a bizarre high concept but it won't be the most memorable story this season gave us.

Overall:

1. Arkangel
2. Black Museum
3. Hang the DJ
4. Metalhead
5. USS Callister
6. Crocodile

[number8]

USS Callister
I did not expect this episode to go where it boldly went. I thought it was going to be an episode that would comment on gaming or something using cute Star Trek tropes, but this is actually a commentary of Star Trek ideals using games, almost in a perfunctory way, given the numerous eye-rolling portrayals (Irish already laid out most of what I found silly about it, but I'll also add that I'm never keen on Reboot-style interpretations of VR where hacking and deleting have to be done by completing a physical act). What's great about this episode is the exploration of power structures in real life versus fantasy--the virtual reality aspect is actually kind of a distraction, because this would work the same, hell, maybe better, if the Star Trek portion is just some kind of dream or something rather than making us think the episode would say something about digital doppelgangers. I think out of all the episodes this season, this gave me the most to talk about in terms of social commentary. It's certainly the most topical, addressing the way a white male in power sees himself and the diversity around him. It's funny as hell, yet simultaneously disturbingly revealing. Jesse Plemons is very good with the range necessary for that. I keep thinking about the way he gingerly asks for his black employee to make him a coffee versus the way it plays out virtually in the bridge. This may actually be his best work, trumping Fargo. The interesting thing about putting something like this upfront is I wondered if it's meant to be the mission statement for the season: Don't think I didn't notice that the lead or co-lead of every episode is female!

Arkangel
Worst of the season, easily. Aside from the fact that they couldn't really come up with a new and interesting technology to talk about parenting, and instead just transplanted "The Entire History of You"'s same extrapolation of how tech aids an oppressive marriage into oppressive parenting, this is one of those Black Mirror eps like "Shut Up And Dance" and "The Waldo Moment" that thinks it's a commentary of our relationship to technology but really isn't making the tech itself scary, and only using it as a shortcut to dramatize something that we already know about. What does this ep really have to say at all? That helicopter parenting is bad?

Crococile
My favorite of the season. Here's the aspect of Black Mirror I've always really liked even when the social commentary falls flat: it's when a sci-fi tech is treated normally and you see how society adapts to it. I really like the mundane of a hi-tech memory visualizer being used to suss out insurance claims, complete with not just its own laws, but also already a common sense sidestepping of said laws. That's world building that rubs me the right way. There's a subtle bit about Wisdom of the Crowd-style aggregation of facts in how the memory machine is legally acceptable even though it's entirely subjective, but instead of being about that this just goes right into a straight up noir story that feels lived-in. That is when it clicked for me that this season is trying to diversify its formula a bit. I used to criticize this show for the edgelord humor that torpedoes the social commentary, but because this is an escalating noir story, I was able to find the ironic ending hilarious. For once, I think going over-the-top fits the narrative.

Hang the DJ
What else is there to say? Black Mirror firing on all cylinders. Of course this is one of everyone's favorites. I love that this is very much a classic rom-com, using basic rom-com tropes, but it feels like a meta exploration of rom-coms just by adding a Prisoner-style dystopian setting. Very clever, but very endearing all the same, and a testament to how well the rom-com formula works, rather than a tearing down of it. It's not the subversion of expectations that "San Junipero" was, because that barrier's broken already, but a wonderful carrying of the torch.

Metalhead
Not much to say other than awesome. To me this is the most fan service episode. Though by fan I mean people who pay attention to technology news. The genesis is pretty obviously those Boston Dynamics videos, where most of us watched them and commented about how creepy it would be to encounter one of their robots. Brooker, however, is one of us who is then able to commission someone like David Slade to make a kickass monster movie out of that comments-section anxiety. Bravo.

Black Museum
The continuity's fun, but I think it's better to not think of it as literal since I don't think that would line up. I like that it pokes fun at itself ("There's a but, right?"). This is Black Mirror channeling Tales From the Crypt. Not so much stories about the dangers of technology as it is just mini supernatural horror stories with a sci-fi makeover. All in all a fun closer--very fitting to end with something this pulpy/grindhousey after a season of genre experimentation.

[Grouchy]

One thing that a friend pointed out that I hadn't noticed is that USS Callister and Hang the DJ end pretty much the same way - with artificial life forms escaping their artificial world.

[Irish]

Arkangel
Worst of the season, easily. Aside from the fact that they couldn't really come up with a new and interesting technology to talk about parenting, and instead just transplanted "The Entire History of You"'s same extrapolation of how tech aids an oppressive marriage into oppressive parenting, this is one of those Black Mirror eps like "Shut Up And Dance" and "The Waldo Moment" that thinks it's a commentary of our relationship to technology but really isn't making the tech itself scary, and only using it as a shortcut to dramatize something that we already know about. What does this ep really have to say at all? That helicopter parenting is bad?

Yep. They could have told the story without the tech angle. So what was the point? Why is it a "Black Mirror" episode and not a "very special episode" of some other show?

(Although, to her credit, Foster was efficient. She didn't bloat the thing to outsized proportions.)

[number8]

(Although, to her credit, Foster was efficient. She didn't bloat the thing to outsized proportions.)

It's lean and efficient directing, but I wondered if her treatment of the world of the episode in such a grounded way actually added to my impression of that story being so not about tech. Other Black Mirror eps usually like to pepper cool future amenities here and there to help make the world seem consistently modern (the digitized apartment doors in "Callister," the automatic pizza truck in "Crococile," the solar car in "Black Museum," etc.), but in this one, the story spans about a decade but all the scenes look like they're taking place in the late 90s, with the Arkangel seemingly the only modern technology around. That results in such a focus on that one thing as an "other" to be afraid of, and I found it underwhelming.

[Grouchy]

How do you guys figure the Arkangel episode is not about the technology? I agree that it repeats the themes o Entire History Of You, but I feel like the tech is really the center of the plot.

[Skitch]

Arkangel
Worst of the season, easily.
I disliked it so much I haven't gone back for any more episodes yet.

The directing was fine, I just didn't like the story.

[number8]

How do you guys figure the Arkangel episode is not about the technology? I agree that it repeats the themes o Entire History Of You, but I feel like the tech is really the center of the plot.

How is it about the technology? What is it saying about the device itself, rather than about the erosion of trust between an overprotective mother and her child?

Most of Black Mirror is about how our relationship with media and technology affects the way humans behave with one another. To compare it to "Entire History," that episode had a lot of creative scenes showing how the memory tech fundamentally changed the social norms of that world: characters were constantly fact-checking each other's memory of events using replays, from trivial stuff to serious stuff. There were also scenes of people using their video replays of better experiences to enhance their present experiences. The fun of this show to me is seeing the new ways people connect or destroy one another when new technologies are introduced, and I don't think "Arkangel" did that. This particular story, beat for beat, has been done before using other methods of spying and sheltering. It's not unique to the technology that it is centered on.

[Skitch]

I would say most BM eps are cautionary tales about dangers of tech. Arkangel was dangerous enough that the episode itself banned it before it developed into a societal problem.

[Grouchy]

How is it about the technology? What is it saying about the device itself, rather than about the erosion of trust between an overprotective mother and her child?

Most of Black Mirror is about how our relationship with media and technology affects the way humans behave with one another. To compare it to "Entire History," that episode had a lot of creative scenes showing how the memory tech fundamentally changed the social norms of that world: characters were constantly fact-checking each other's memory of events using replays, from trivial stuff to serious stuff. There were also scenes of people using their video replays of better experiences to enhance their present experiences. The fun of this show to me is seeing the new ways people connect or destroy one another when new technologies are introduced, and I don't think "Arkangel" did that. This particular story, beat for beat, has been done before using other methods of spying and sheltering. It's not unique to the technology that it is centered on.
You have a point that the technology itself didn't cause the mother to be manipulative and overprotective and acted only as an enabler of her already bad tendencies. I understood that. It just seems to me that you and Irish are minimizing the role the device itself had on the story. After all, the point is that a machine that monitors you 24/7 is considered acceptable when it's used on a child but not on an adult. And parents of teenagers often have a hard time coming to grips with the fact that their offspring has ceased to be a child. I thought those were the themes of the episode instead of a broad statement like "helicopter parenting is bad". On that note, I liked the callback in Black Museum when Rolo says Arkangel technology was eventually banned.

On reflection, I don't know if it's really the best of the season, but Jodie Foster directs the hell out of it and the closing scenes were great. The brutal beating and the fact that when she woke up the first thing she did was check out the Arkangel were devastating moments, and the closing shot when the girl is completely out of her mother's reach was a perfect image to end it on. I liked the fact that I simultaneously empathized with the mother and hated what she was doing - I usually call that good writing. *shrug*

[D_Davis]

https://i.imgur.com/nvpFKsz.jpg

[number8]

I think this is interesting: 'Black Mirror' Equated the Morning-After Pill with the Abortion Pill (https://tonic.vice.com/en_us/article/9kn3m3/black-mirror-conflated-the-morning-after-pill-with-the-abortion-pill). I definitely noticed the goof when I was watching it, but I shrugged it off as a dumb narrative shortcut by a poorly written episode and didn't really think much more of it, until my partner pointed out to me later that this (inadvertently?) parrots anti-abortion activism rhetoric. Then I saw this article, and turns out the goof is getting a lot of notice. The episode is already being used by right-wing propaganda. (http://thefederalist.com/2018/01/02/black-mirror-right-emergency-contraception-can-cause-abortion/)

Spoiler for Arkangel.

[Grouchy]

I also noticed that while I was watching it!

In fact, it was kind of confusing for me whether the mother bought it because the Arkangel told her her daughter was pregnant or if she just bought it as a security measure like a day after pill is supposed to work.

[Skitch]

I also noticed that while I was watching it!

In fact, it was kind of confusing for me whether the mother bought it because the Arkangel told her her daughter was pregnant or if she just bought it as a security measure like a day after pill is supposed to work.

I assumed the latter, I guess I didn't really think about it. Man if they meant it to be the former thats kinda messed up. Either way the episode sucked.

[number8]

They definitely meant the former. In the scene with the nurse, they specifically had a conversation about how she was pregnant but now it's gone, and her feeling sick is a side effect of the termination. It also wouldn't really make any narrative sense for her to be so furious at her mom if it was just a morning after pill. The dramatic climax was supposed to be the ultimate overreach of violating her body.

[Grouchy]

Eh, she could be furious because the mother was giving her medicine without her knowledge.

[number8]

I'm trying to be generous here, because bashing your own mother's face in would be a much better writing choice for your character after she's been given a forced abortion, versus being given a preventative pill. One makes gigantically more narrative sense than the other.

[Grouchy]

She was also angry because the mother was essentially fucking up her life. It's not too much of a leap to figure out that she was blackmailing her boyfriend to leave her given how strangely he was acting - he didn't tell her anything because her mother might be watching and might send him to prison.

Also, a "day after" pill is not inocuous. It can cause stuff like vomiting if you're not used to it. Which is why I don't know if the writer actually conflated the two things because of ignorance or was just too vague.

[Russ]

All of a sudden, the Arkangel episode is even more interesting; think a 2nd viewing is in order.

[Irish]

Surprised but also not. The first episode misrepresents DNA and the last repeats that old saw about "unused" parts of our brains.

This is a science fiction show that doesn't care about science.

[Peng]

Can't believe this is being debated because it definitely has to be the former, because Arkangel showed the mom something that she was horrified by before she rushed to the pharmacy, and she already knew her daughter had sex and it's been a long time since, so...?

[Skitch]

Can't believe this is being debated because it definitely has to be the former, because Arkangel showed the mom something that she was horrified by before she rushed to the pharmacy, and she already knew her daughter had sex and it's been a long time since, so...?

Do you mean outside of MC? I don't feel we're really debating it, just saying what we initially thought it was.

[Kirby Avondale]

Yeaaaaah. I dunno about that. I couldn't tell what they were really going for. The opening was a superficial parody of "Star Trek," but the ending uses worn-out genre tropes to become a typical chase/thriller. The episode becomes what it criticizes and does it for entertainment value.
That it's a chase sequence where the typical leader-hero is turned villain and the crew is on a mutinous suicide mission scuppers that notion, far as I'm concerned. I had a good laugh at "I hope we all die." Outside of McPoyle, there isn't a sacrifice for a higher purpose, and I guess his sacrifice is for their not-so-higher purpose of just putting themselves out of their misery.



And there was a happy ending! This makes it fan service that also turns up its nose at fan service. (So, wtf, Brooker? What are you trying to get at?)
I don't see how Brooker is supposed to be criticizing fan service of itself or happy endings or whatever. He's criticizing bad fans whose happy-meal idealism in fiction-form curdles into repressed, toxic sentiments in real life. That could always happen to the new crew of the USS Callister after its Gamergate enema, but the latter part is the focus of the episode. The show does turn into a kind of twisted Star Trek episode that, in the final moments, embraces the values of exploration and community, but with a little tongue in cheek. They're still just digital people in a digital universe populated by a lot of petty people with God-complexes. It obviously gets its too-good-to-be-trueness.




I couldn't take it as a jab at gaming, either, because what happens is more or less a dramatic variation on what people did while playing "The Sims," which predates the obsessiveness found in GamerGate and 4chan. I'm not sure what insight Brooker thinks he has, or if he has any at all. (Really, the script boils down to an 80 minute riff on Penny Arcade's "Dickwolves" comic strip from 2013.)
People fucking with their Sims aren't the target of the episode. I'm sure Brooker understands that there are plenty of people who've fucked with their Sims but don't harbor toxic sentiments in real life. Gamergaters do and Robert fits the profile.



I was disappointed that the writers studiously avoided the main question---whether simulated people in a simulated world are "real" enough to matter. They take the answer on faith, as obvious, and then write characters who dismiss themselves as artificial. So that point seemed muddled to me too.
Some people claim that free will is a complete illusion and then continue to go about their lives as if that isn't the case. If these digital people make an offhand comment or two about not being real, but otherwise don't practice what they preach, I'm fine living out the ambiguity with them. I consider the social dynamics of the episode more of the focus.



(Also, as a general criticism and in a fit of super-nerdiness I need to point out that if I made a digital copy of someone's DNA to reproduce them on a fucked up Holodeck that wouldn't include their memories and identity.)
The premise is obviously outlandish, but as far as self-consistency goes, it seemed like the point of keeping their identities was purely sadistic.



(Also, in another sort of fit, stealing the fucking lolipop would have done nothing because the DNA was digitized, which means the potential for millions of copies of that little boy, tucked away on servers all over the world.)
I mean, if he made copies. Presumably if he kept the lollipop, it's because he didn't. But I'm in more of a Hitchcock mode with an episode like this regardless. Doesn't really matter to me if all the little loose ends tie up into a nice bow or not if the larger emotional and narrative picture hangs together for me.

[Irish]

That it's a chase sequence where the typical leader-hero is turned villain and the crew is on a mutinous suicide mission scuppers that notion, far as I'm concerned. I had a good laugh at "I hope we all die." Outside of McPoyle, there isn't a sacrifice for a higher purpose, and I guess his sacrifice is for their not-so-higher purpose of just putting themselves out of their misery.

Sure, but why be subversive in the dialogue and then so rote in the execution?


He's criticizing bad fans whose happy-meal idealism in fiction-form curdles into repressed, toxic sentiments in real life.

Except the villain never expresses anything to anyone outside of his fantasy. There isn't anything "toxic" about his life from the outside and he doesn't harm anyone in the real world. (He's essentially a mashup of Walter Mitty and that kid from "The Twilight Zone" who sends people to the cornfield.) I waited for the real life counterparts of those trapped avatars to find out about Robert's ugly little fetish hobby---because that might have said something about something. But they never do.)

As for bad fans---eh. I think SNL (Shatner yelling "Get a life!" at Jon Lovitz) and The Simpsons (Poochy, et al) had more pointed criticisms of fan culture than this episode does.


The premise is obviously outlandish, but as far as self-consistency goes, it seemed like the point of keeping their identities was purely sadistic.

It was a nitpicky complaint, but I'm pretty sure there was a way to get to where they wanted to go without ignoring grade-school level science. So the choice struck me as lazy.


I mean, if he made copies. Presumably if he kept the lollipop, it's because he didn't. But I'm in more of a Hitchcock mode with an episode like this regardless. Doesn't really matter to me if all the little loose ends tie up into a nice bow or not if the larger emotional and narrative picture hangs together for me.

The writers cared so little for their setting they created a bunch of engineers who don't even acknowledge the potential for a million copies, or local backups, or remote servers, or anything having to do with computers at all. Instead, the plot runs them through a standard heist conceit. I thought it was silly because anybody who's ever selected "copy" then "paste" from a dropdown menu shoulda been like, "Waaaaaaaait a sec."

Hitchcock got away with his absurdities because of his supreme technical chops. Brooker isn't playing at that level so I can't suspend my disbelief as easily.

[Kirby Avondale]

Sure, but why be subversive in the dialogue and then so rote in the execution?

I think it's more than the dialogue. I think it was in the whole set-up and the subtext I was talking about. If we want to take the subversion further, we need only consider our condescending laughs at the first scene of the show played out as vintage camp, and then reflect on ourselves experiencing almost the same set-up, astroid belt and all, as it plays itself out at the end, and we're all in. (Well, not you, but me and a lot of other people.) And if we wanted, we could say that humanity doesn't escape the feedback loop of fantasies, but carries them on in different ways.



Except the villain never expresses anything to anyone outside of his fantasy. There isn't anything "toxic" about his life from the outside and he doesn't harm anyone in the real world. (He's essentially a mashup of Walter Mitty and that kid from "The Twilight Zone" who sends people to the cornfield.) I waited for the real life counterparts of those trapped avatars to find out about Robert's ugly little fetish hobby---because that might have said something about something. But they never do.)
I said his idealism curdled into repressed, toxic sentiments, which still sounds right. I didn't say that he was toxic to people in everyday life. But as Gamergate and the Trumpian moment illustrate, you only need the right circumstances for the "nice guys" of the world, huddled and seething behind their keyboards, to loose their ids on the world. Fantasy is a perfectly valid target. I would've liked to see some revelations and fallout at work, but as is, I enjoyed the focus of his bubble-universe taking on a life of its own and turning into a "real" episode of Space Fleet.



As for bad fans---eh. I think SNL (Shatner yelling "Get a life!" at Jon Lovitz) and The Simpsons (Poochy, et al) had more pointed criticisms of fan culture than this episode does.
I don't see what's so pointed about "Get a life!" but oh well. I don't think any of the examples you've mentioned so far really dig into the sinister side like this episode did.



It was a nitpicky complaint, but I'm pretty sure there was a way to get to where they wanted to go without ignoring grade-school level science. So the choice struck me as lazy.
Despite a lot of work to make the tech feel real and lived-in, I look at Black Mirror a lot like I look at The Twilight Zone. The central conceit is ridiculous after you scratch the surface, an excuse for talking about other things or creating general dramatic tensions to work through, and details are purposefully waved away.



The writers cared so little for their setting they created a bunch of engineers who don't even acknowledge the potential for a million copies, or local backups, or remote servers, or anything having to do with computers at all. Instead, the plot runs them through a standard heist conceit. I thought it was silly because anybody who's ever selected "copy" then "paste" from a dropdown menu shoulda been like, "Waaaaaaaait a sec."
I thought only two of them were really engineers. Sure, Brooker could've wrote in some aside to wave away this concern, but not a lot is riding on that for me. He could've telegraphed in some other way that backup copies were kept on a specific hard drive, that there was something stopping him from uploading copies to the cloud, etc., but at bottom it all still would've rested on the fairy tale logic of being told take one thing as something else, given a few simple rules of the game and then rolling with it. "Just push a button - like, literally, any button..."



Hitchcock got away with his absurdities because of his supreme technical chops. Brooker isn't playing at that level so I can't suspend my disbelief as easily.
If Hitch directed the episode, would you have brooked these flaws?

[number8]

Right on time.

950426602722283520

[Russ]

Ranking S4:

1. Metalhead
2. Hang the DJ
3. USS Callister
...
4. Black Museum
5. Crocodile
...
6. Arkangel

Kind of surprised that Metalhead was (imo) this season's Best in Show; but then again, that Boston Dynamics shit has always been my ultimate nightmare fuel. Reminded me somewhat of Spielberg's Duel (ie, the tension of a chase unaided by expository backstory), it played like a truly classic Twilight Zone episode.

Possibly strongest season yet, but Booker does seem to be recycling a lot of ideas.

[transmogrifier]

All Black Mirror episodes ranked:

1.White Christmas (Special)
2. White Bear (S2)
3. USS Callister (S4)
4. The Entire History of You (S1)
5. The National Anthem (S1)
6. Be Right Back (S2)
7. San Junipero (S3)
8. Metalhead (S4)
9. Men Against Fire (S3)
10. Fifteen Million Merits (S1)
11. Shut Up and Dance (S3)
12. Hang the DJ (S4)
13. Black Museum (S4)
14. Playtest (S3)
15. Hated in the Nation (S3)
16. Nosedive (S3)
17. Crocodile (S4)
18. Arkangel (S4)
19. The Waldo Moment (S2)

[dreamdead]

I have an essay on Black Mirror's episode "White Bear" contracted with an academic book collection that's analyzing every episode of the series, and I have the ability to include two images. I have mine chosen, but does anyone have mad resolution skills to make the images as high-res as possible for the editor? If so, please private message me your email and I'll send over the two images.

[transmogrifier]

Am I the only one with no interest whatsoever in "choose your own adventure" movies and TV shows? The very thought of it just frustrates me. I'll wait for "Bandersnatch" to be re-edited into a proper form.

[Skitch]

I find it a curiosity at best. But as someone who has watched Black Mirror, I will wait to see if the masses are sucked into the Borg collective by this venture before risking my peepers on it.

[Peng]

I would probably watch it through one time with my own choices then read about the rest (both graph (https://twitter.com/gemko/status/1078751740449546240) and article (https://slate.com/culture/2018/12/black-mirror-bandersnatch-endings-spoilers.html)).

[Henry Gale]

Oh I watched/played/navigated it for about two hours once it posted and thought it was great. And then after I felt I had exhausted most of the big options as well as my general stamina for it for one night, I decided to watch the trailer and realize there was a lot of footage I hadn't even cracked in my ventures.

So not just as a feat of making something that's essentially video game dynamics working so nicely in polished narrative film/TV, or even just how many legitimately different paths they committed to writing and producing, but I thought the experience was as engaging as it was because of just how much of its central gimmick it immersed into the actual mechanics of its storytelling and themes. That results in some directions that go from uneasily sinister to then knowingly goofy in ways of doubling down on its self-awareness to hilarious branches of ideas. But then again, that may have just been in the version(s) I got, which I know I got myself to at least two very unique conclusions, with at least three of four significant variations within one of them.

So in the end, I don't think there's really a "correct" version to cut together, especially since the more you get through it, the more you realize just how much your participation in the guiding of it is a vital component of its story.

[Skitch]

I have completed my first play through. I say play, because this feels more like a narrative video game than a film, and I'm glad. This is not the future of movies. Its a fun novelty, and the best place it could have started is from the demented minds of Black Mirror.

This obviously wont be everyones cup of tea, but (trans I'd like your thoughts) it went far smoother than I ever couldve imagined. Once you reach a dead end it back tracks to different possibility via dream or sleep or time travel(?) in very inventive ways. I feel like I saw a lot of different possible endings in one movie length sitting. You don't have to sit through the same scenes either, because they edited it to recap in seconds which path youre on then on to next option path. That was very well done and hurts my brain to try to map out that editing process.

The choices...I expected them to be more direct. The first half of them are not that crazy. Like what cereal you want for breakfast or what music you want to listen to. Im very curious if a second play through those options change the path drastically or if at all.

My best advice going in: First round, play it dead serious. Don't try to be funny or crazy with path selection, play it like you care. I say this because on the way back down revisiting the other options, the sillier ones are funny and take away from the good story at the core. This was just my experience.

All in all, I had extremely low expectations, and now I want to see my wife play it and see what choices she makes.

[Irish]

Possibly relevant to your interests:

- Ebert's essay on the future of interactive film (https://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/dim-future-for-interactive-film) from 1994

- Siskel and Ebert discuss "Mr Payback," (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB3-ypalMS8) an interactive movie from 1995 (spoiler: they hated it)

Personally, I think "interactive" movies have always been gimmicky as hell and violate the strengths of the medium. Having to make a series of choices while watching will always draw me out of a film and make me more aware of just how artificial the experience really is.

Maybe that's the point of this episode, I dunno. But if it is it's a tired one.

[Skitch]

I dont want to give it away, but Black Mirror was the perfect venue for this. It was easy for me to go with it because like I said, it felt like a game story and not a film. I rarely accept an alternate ending for a film, so it's a no brainer that I dont consider this a film. A film for me tells a story, a b c. This is a game story. This is not the future of film. Arcade game from Rick and Morty, sure.

[Ivan Drago]

On my third full playthrough now. My strategy on the first one was to make the choices I would make, then make the exact opposite on the second playthrough, which ended abruptly on one of the sillier divergences that was crazy enough to make me want to go back to that moment and find out what happens when I make the alternate choice.

That said, there's too many instances where I make the opposite choice from my first but the episode diverges into the first choice, anyway, that I can't help but feel like this would have been a great standalone episode without the CYA gimmick. It feels pointless to not give us another divergence if I as the controller select it, but perhaps, that's the point? It's a great narrative, though, and either way, I'm having fun.

[Skitch]

On my third full playthrough now. My strategy on the first one was to make the choices I would make, then make the exact opposite on the second playthrough, which ended abruptly on one of the sillier divergences that was crazy enough to make me want to go back to that moment and find out what happens when I make the alternate choice.

That said, there's too many instances where I make the opposite choice from my first but the episode diverges into the first choice, anyway, that I can't help but feel like this would have been a great standalone episode without the CYA gimmick. It feels pointless to not give us another divergence if I as the controller select it, but perhaps, that's the point? It's a great narrative, though, and either way, I'm having fun.

I wondered if that was the case. I assume the cereal meant nothing lol. #frostedflakesbitch

[Irish]

Lol, I hit a brick wall on the first real choice (whether to accept a job offer) and the show made me to choose again. So I obstinately made the same exact choice. Then made me do it again, presenting only one option. That's interactive, baby!


That said, there's too many instances where I make the opposite choice from my first but the episode diverges into the first choice, anyway, that I can't help but feel like this would have been a great standalone episode without the CYA gimmick. It feels pointless to not give us another divergence if I as the controller select it, but perhaps, that's the point?

The same problem exists in story driven RPGs. I remember reading a dev blog from Bioware years ago where they talked about how branching story paths get out of control very easily, because it becomes too much work once the player is two or three levels deep. The size of the tree increases exponentially the farther you go.

ETA: I paused the show to post and now I can't find my f'ing remote!

[Skitch]

Lol, I hit a brick wall on the first real choice (whether to accept a job offer) and the show forced me to choose again. So they presented two options and then narrowed it to one. That's interactive, baby!



The same problem exists in story driven RPGs. I remember reading a dev blog from Bioware years ago where they talked about how branching story paths get out of control very easily, because it becomes too much work once the player is two or three levels deep. The size of the tree increases exponentially the farther you go.

I did the same thing. I had the same issue with CYA books lol. Its like a window into multiverse.

[Irish]

I did the same thing. I had the same issue with CYA books lol. Its like a window into multiverse.

The original Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books were ruthless, though! I liked that about them. If you made a wrong choice, you'd die and the story would be over.

It would have been hilarious if they had followed that model here---like 15 minutes in, nope, sorry, show's over and the credits roll.

[Dukefrukem]

Yeh I'm not really a fan of it. Watched it, made decisions, made the same decision again, got to the end. Meh.

[transmogrifier]

This obviously wont be everyones cup of tea, but (trans I'd like your thoughts)....

Unfortunately, now that I have a bit more free time to catch up on stuff, I will have to watch Roma, The Other Side of the Wind, BlacKkKlansman, The Sisters Brothers, A Simple Favor, Bad Times at the El Royale, Revenge, Teen Titans Go to the Movies, Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse, Sorry to Bother You, Leave no Trace, Eighth Grade, Widows, The Favorite, Can You Ever Forgive Me, Cold War, The Hate U Give, The Old Man and the Gun, Shoplifters, They Shall Not Grow Old, The Tale, Blindspotting, Bodied, Disobedience, The Day After etc before I even think about diving into a gimmick that annoys me :)

[Irish]

I was entertained, but maybe not in the ways Brooker intended. (I tried to kill the protagonist more than once).

I think it would have been a contender for cult film of the decade if it didn't take itself so completely seriously, because the material is so over the top and gloriously cheesy. (When the hero looked at the ceiling and called out, "Who's there? Who's' controlling me?" ... I laughed and waved at the screen.)

The theme around free will is seriously overworked and not interesting. Mostly, it plays like dorm room philosophizing, a conversation between a coupla stoned freshman who've just taken their first Phil 101 class.

Characters aware they're in a narrative is such a tired idea I won't go into it.

I thought it interesting that the show baits you with the idea of an optimal outcome for the character---except that outcome is based on (a) being good at your job and (b) producing an exceptional consumer product. Like, really? Could you be more middlebrow, Brooker?

Other nitpicks: There are several times when the choices and the repetitive nature of the loops undermine the show's ideas about parallel universes and one path influencing others. I was disappointed in that lack of depth, even though depth in this context would have been impossible to pull off.

Shout out to Netflix laying on thick brand awareness right in the middle of some options and dialogue.

Finally, I do admire the size of Brooker's balls. In one moment, he has one character ask another, "If you were in a tv show, don't you think it'd be more interesting than this?" Careful, Charlie. Careful!

[Dukefrukem]

I felt on a few occasions, if the movie thinks I made the wrong choice, it asks me again "am i sure I want to choose that choice?" and then the movie plays out to avoid my choice....

[Peng]

I generally like Black Mirror more than most critics I follow, but this 'gimmick' indulges the show in its worst tendencies, with any depth, subtext, and enjoyment only at surface level, tied almost exclusively to its interactive nature. So if that aspect does nothing for you, the interminable length can easily make this the worst Black Mirror ever.

Worse, doing this episode apparently delays their usual season further away! Ugh.

[Irish]

Season 5 is out now.

U.S. link: https://www.netflix.com/watch/80186674

[Peng]

This feels the least like a Black Mirror season ever. Not a value judgement, just an observation.

1. Striking Vipers - B+

It seems like every three year, director Owen Harris returns to one more Charlie Brooker script so he can add to his "Love in the Time of Black Mirror" entries. This one might not be as good or fully fleshed out as "Be Right Back" or "San Junipero", but it's still gratifyingly character-focused, in no hurry to rush into cynicism, and full of gentle nuances as in his previous works. The degree of difficulty may be even higher, as its complex issues and story threads require a tricky balancing act and really depend on the outcome, where so many things can go wrong in the process. But the full characterization and autonomy granted to all characters here make the conclusion it arrives at all the more beautiful. Genuine, generous curiosity in the fluidity of human experience is already apparent in Harris' first two outings, but it's even more pronounced and profound here, especially regarding sexuality and love. Would love to read a longer piece from those who know more about these topics than me, but I love that this story is throughout about the flexibility of sexuality and monogamy/polygamy, then arrives at a conclusion that acknowleges the complex fluidity of both, while placing autonomy, consent, compromise, and equally shared happiness above all.

2. Smithereens - B

Andrew Scott acts the hell out of it, but his climatic revelation/speech never escape the feeling of something a reactionary Black Mirror parody bot might come up with, and that kinda sours the whole thing (it's as if this is an adaptation of that famous joke about the show, "What if phones, but too much?" lol). A shame, because otherwise this is some tense grim fun, with the escalation of spiraling criminal mishaps and corporate management troubles piling on top of each other in a deliciously Coen-esque way.

3. Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too - B

For having some sinister undertones at the beginning, this ends up being one of the least Black Mirror-esque episodes ever. Its messiness is part of the charm for me though, where it always threatens to go to some place darker, then only to swerve and go with something outrageous(ly fun) instead. Feels like there's some parody of a Disney-esque story that Miley Cyrus (who's quite good and really fun) might do in her early career going on, but on the surface fun alone (the doll unfiltered, the over-the-top villain), I have a good time with this.

[Irish]

"Striking Vipers" was bad.

Going to an hour or more killed "Black Mirror's" momentum. Brooker wastes too much time establishing his premise and then wallows in incidentals. Seriously, somebody should halve his budget. It might force him to make better creative choices.

The tech angle is interesting but unexplored (their VR experience is about sex, but not race --- I can't imagine two black men would role play as Asian characters and have nothing to say about it). So the episode is little more than an hour long soap opera about infidelity, and all the scenes around the cheating are the same.

The way the show represents gender and sexuality was dull and lifeless. 20 minutes of Contrapoints is smarter and more entertaining about similar subjects, and much more thought provoking. And my God that's a one-woman show shot out of an apartment.

ETA:


What's especially weird is that the episode's POV is from Mackie's character, except he's just fucking some hot Asian chick in a video game. He isn't exploring jack shit. The other guy is, and we don't hear enough from him.

The episode also doesn't dare switch it up or suggest anything too outre, such as one of them saying hey, this time I want to be the woman or hey, let's both be the polar bear. The sex is always straight as straight, the two of them going at it like kinky Mormons.

The ending "let's kiss" scene was nonsense. The episode didn't have the guts to admit the friend, who is represented as womanizer, must enjoy dick on some level -- or show him experimenting with cross dressing IRL, or exhibiting signs of gender dysphoria. And wouldn't Mackie's character, as a grown man, have the faintest idea whether he wanted dick IRL?

It's like they made a show that was largely about sex but didn't want to admit actual penises were involved.

[transmogrifier]

What's especially weird is that the episode's POV is from Mackie's character, except he's just fucking some hot Asian chick in a video game. He isn't exploring jack shit. The other guy is, and we don't hear enough from him.



Yep. The entire episode is botched at a fundamental level because of this. My wife and I watched and were both "Wait, he's still fundamentally boning a woman, so.... what about the other guy?" And the fact that they always keep the same characters is just dumb - it means we can never get a read on whether they are lusting after that representation or each other, and the show has zero interest in examining it. (Also, the episode has a couple of scenes where Mackie's character is checking out other women, which also muddies things, and not in an interesting way.)

Definitely in my bottom 5 BM episodes (from worst to least worst):

1. The Waldo Moment
2. Crocodile
3. Arkangel
4. Striking Vipers
5. Nosedive

Best 5:

1. White Christmas
2. White Bear
3. USS Callister
4. The National Anthem
5. Fifteen Million Merits

[Grouchy]

My wife and I watched and were both "Wait, he's still fundamentally boning a woman, so.... what about the other guy?" And the fact that they always keep the same characters is just dumb
This episode just completely fell apart for me because of this. The second one is definitively the best although it doesn't explore a lot of new ground and the last one is entertaining but still pretty linear thinking for Black Mirror.