[]Quoting Irish (view post)
Yeah, I think I got the head-fucking concept down.
[]
Yeah, I think I got the head-fucking concept down.
"We eventually managed to find them near Biskupin, where demonstrations of prehistoric farming are organized. These oxen couldn't be transported to anywhere else, so we had to built the entire studio around them. A scene that lasted twenty-something seconds took us a year and a half to prepare."
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.
Last edited by Irish; 12-31-2017 at 05:24 AM.
No prob, I think we just got different things out of it. I hate that it didn't really work for you.
"We eventually managed to find them near Biskupin, where demonstrations of prehistoric farming are organized. These oxen couldn't be transported to anywhere else, so we had to built the entire studio around them. A scene that lasted twenty-something seconds took us a year and a half to prepare."
But we (and they) know that's not the case, right? I mean, wasn't that the purpose of []
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)
"We eventually managed to find them near Biskupin, where demonstrations of prehistoric farming are organized. These oxen couldn't be transported to anywhere else, so we had to built the entire studio around them. A scene that lasted twenty-something seconds took us a year and a half to prepare."
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.
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.
Third one was good. Not excellent, but good. The main actress knocked it out of the park.
John Hillcoat directs!
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.
Movie Theater Diary
Man thats good to hear. Previous seasons have been so heavy and depressing its hard for me to watch more than one a day.
Damn, Hang the DJ is a classic episode
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I'm beginning to see what 8 is talking about. The black and white episode is a classic Horror movie.
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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 [] 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. []
2. Arkangel C+/B-
Weakest of the season for me. See almost every beat coming a mile away, with ones that doesn't ([]) 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.
Midnight Run (1988) - 9
The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
Sisters (1973) - 6.5
Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5
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
Last edited by Grouchy; 01-02-2018 at 11:43 AM.
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.
Movie Theater Diary
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 - []
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.)
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.
Movie Theater Diary
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.
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.
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.
Movie Theater Diary
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.
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. []
I think this is interesting: []. 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?) []. 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.
Spoiler for Arkangel.
Movie Theater Diary
I also noticed that while I was watching it!
[]
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.
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