Black Mirror

[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 [

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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 [

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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 [

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(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.

[

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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]

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 [

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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 )