Charlie Brooker's BLACK MIRROR

International Emmy winner Black Mirror, written by Charlie Brooker, returns with three brand new films. Each story is in turn, disarming, suspenseful and darkly satirical, and all explore our modern reality.

Premiered tonight with the heavy; haunting "Be Right Back"...

More fucking Brooker crap.

has this run in the US? why because it sound interesting

first series was incredible

internet lets me down on s01 torr3nts

i take that back

it was on youtube for awhile (officially?)

Yeah, Brooker regularly Tweets YouTube links to his stuff on official YouTube channels.
I thought this first new film was pretty intense. The concept resonated for me - I wonder how much a viewer's investment in this story depends on whether someone close to them has... wait, has no one else seen this?

really crap episode. I do not know where to begin. the premise was brilliant but it was executed stupidly, it was taken wayyyyy too far to be sensible or reasonable (even in the story's own constructed reality), and 20 minutes of story was padded to 48. shithouse.

I didn't watch it, saw the preview, it looked like a 'good' episode of "Tales of the Unexpected".

Those eps were 30 mins.

first ep i've ever seen of this show.

yes it could have been better - it should have been far more difficult for her to reject the clone, for instance, in the flesh he actually wasn't compelling or even realistic - but i have a looooooooot of time for modern twilight zone episodes shot with moody lighting

i loved all the little tech bits as well, c'mon that's how you do it

where did her nosy friend end up? why weren't those things deployed en masse as aids for the elderly/disabled, sex toys, butlers &c.? too many dumb holes.

why weren't those things deployed en masse as aids for the elderly/disabled, sex toys, butlers &c.

they probably were! this was a story about one (presumably loaded) woman living in a big ol' country house.

first 20 minutes definitely the strongest - i loved how basically everything spoke to the sorts of knowledge we have that's surprising, or unpublic, how hard it is to really know someone. and yet... honestly if they'd just stuck to the chat format i bet she would have kept talking to "it" for years

http://liveson.org/

genuinely surprised at how short this thread is! this ep seems like it's right in ilx's wheelhouse

I liked the first series with reservations, but I loved this. Very much a modern-day Monkey's Paw or similar. I think keeping it low-key and emotions-based worked really well.

AA - seriously, do you actually care about those things? They're not even plot-holes: if you tried to answer them then your film would be incredibly dull.

all of those things (and more—I didn't get to all the other wtf moments) completely got in the way for me

I dunno, I guess we just have completely different psychology. I mean, I didn't need them explaining because they seemed fairly self-explanatory. But let's have a go:

"Nosy friend" - if she's turning the phone off to her sister, why would she be chatting on the reg to someone who it is made fairly obvious she isn't that close to? The scene at the funeral was fairly obviously between people who weren't close. And she has her dead husband bot to talk to.

"why weren't they deployed en masse?" - Tracer's OTM that these things obviously are around... she's affluent and tech-savvy enough to be an early adopter, so it's still a bit embarrassing, especially because of the emotional aspect (hence why she doesn't tell her sister or the moving men), but that doesn't mean that she's the only special snowflake who has one. The story doesn't involve other people aside from her immediate social circle, WHY ON EARTH would it suddenly break into a story about everyone else's android husband? And as for the implication that they could be used for good: a) at the very start there is a bit on the news about the technology being used for good, and b) since when do private corporations even care about doing good?

I liked at the end it was basically Pop-pop gets a treat?

Agree with AA to an extent, it was a massive jump to reveal at the end that they live in a world where extreme tech exists that would have altered society completely. You don't invent something that advanced overnight. It made the point it was trying to make though, I guess.

http://www.recordsale.de/cdpix/s/steve_winwood-roll_with_it(3).jpg

seems like brooker's been reading some kurzweil

Hadn't seen any of these before, wasn't expecting it to be quite so low-key and melancholic. Thought it was a good way of talking/thinking about loss, what constitutes a person, the way we love and remember others - reminded me a bit of Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. The ending was pretty close to perfect - very creepy, very sad - and i liked the slow pacing throughout.

it was a massive jump to reveal at the end that they live in a world where extreme tech exists that would have altered society completely. You don't invent something that advanced overnight.

Wut? How are you reading this as a 'big reveal' at the end? What are you talking about?

Is this series better than the last one? I thought S1 had some nice ideas, and I applaud the intent, but it was really clunky and 6th form in its implementation.

It wasn't played as a big reveal or anything, that's not what I meant. It's just setting the scene very late that it was set in a world that would have adapted to having clones to some extent so it's hard to gauge her reaction or concept of him compared to if something like that was parachuted in to our world

dude, they established that there were science-fictional medical type advances in literally the first minute of the episode (on the tv playing in the car)! it didn't set the scene very late at all

Submitted post too early but i'm trying to type on my phone and it's hard to get my point across so I'll stop now

Xp right but a world with actual clones, rules about them, attitudes would be a lot more different than just havingfancy coffee cups and thinner phones

It did remind me of Never let me go too, where the social reaction to such thing was a big part of the world he wrote

attitudes would be a lot more different than just havingfancy coffee cups and thinner phones

This is a massive part of the whole 'Black Mirror' concept, though. That actually things aren't so very different, that human beings carry on being human beings through all sorts of radical change. Hell, it's a large part of a lot of science fiction.

emil.y:

re nosy friend: there's no consequence for her. she's the one who lays the groundwork for the plot, and once that's underway she just vanishes, despite the fact that she fucked up this woman's life to an enormous degree. but in modern day storytelling she needs to be around to react, or to be affected in some way. she's the most obvious kind of loose end.

re world of clones: kinder's point is otm—it's a stretch (although not entirely unlikely) that robot clones suddenly exist because facebook invented them, and that the first round off the line is virtually indistinguishable from humans. the leap from a robotic voice on the phone to a self-healing robotic person requires an enormous suspension of disbelief.

also, when robot man is still just a phone voice and he tells her how to prepare the realdoll, but he disappears into static. what the hell? they couldn't have staged that better? there are people watching who have never experienced phone voices disappearing into static on the phone (it's an analogue cell thing), and because he's being deleted or migrated or whatever, it's even less plausible. also, why did that happen at all? why couldn't robot man have just finished his sentence? also (and this is my biggest problem here), he was warning her that she must do something to prepare the realdoll, but she never heard what it was, and again (just like nosy friend) there was no consequence. so why do it? this episode was littered with bombs that never went off.

Charlie Brooker's FUCK OFF

despite the fact that she fucked up this woman's life to an enormous degree

Well, actually, she didn't. And that too is the point. It's not like (spoilers) this is the technology misbehaving, or rebelling, or taking over the world. It's about grief. The central character's life ISN'T fucked up by the android, it's fucked up by her husband dying. And actually, the nosy friend's advice was helpful for a while, it was the main character's decision to push further that was the wrong decision.

in modern day storytelling she needs to be around to react, or to be affected in some way

Uh, why? This would be completely pointless and irrelevant to the story that's being told.

robot clones suddenly exist because facebook invented them

What?

the first round off the line is virtually indistinguishable from humans

I will give you that it's a relatively quick transition, but it's not meant to be set in the present day and then they suddenly appear magically. It's already the future when it starts. I actually thought the news report at the beginning was fairly heavy-handed foreshadowing, but clearly you and kinder both completely missed the set-ups here.

when robot man is still just a phone voice and he tells her how to prepare the realdoll, but he disappears into static

Okay, I'll give you this: there is no _practical_ reason for this to happen. Even though we're told it's still in beta, you'd think that they'd set up the data migration in a way that instructions could be given at the correct time. However, it fits the arc - the husband disappears suddenly, the first ripple also disappears suddenly, and gives way to a hollower echo. It's the narrative of grief, again.

this episode was littered with bombs that never went off.

It wasn't meant to be about bombs going off. It was a quiet reflection on grief and desire and 'you should be careful what you wish for', it wasn't a dystopian futureworld of killer robots.

Seriously, I have no problem with you guys not liking it or it not resonating with you or whatever, but a lot of your 'holes' simply aren't holes.

the leap from a robotic voice on the phone to a self-healing robotic person requires an enormous suspension of disbelief.

It's science fiction! Stories about spaceships require an enormous suspension of disbelief! And it was almost all borderline semi-plausible not too distant future tech. Main problem I had was that although the point of the story is that it wasn't an actual artificial intelligence, I don't think you could get even that level of interaction without genuine AI, but I was willing to give that a pass. Yeah I found this pretty moving, extremely well done in terms of the human details, and seriously when can I get one of those giant L shaped touch screen desktops?

Also anyone complaining this was over stretched and implausible has clearly never seen spielberg's AI.

Well, actually, she didn't.

debatable imo. rather than allow her friend to go through the normal grieving process, she actively harassed her into avoiding it. nosy friend changed her whole life for the worse.

Uh, why? This would be completely pointless and irrelevant to the story that's being told.

so why is she there at all? the widow could have reached that point all by herself (i.e. discovering the zombie social network), but brooker chose to drop in a character to enforce that plot device; that character, then, needs to factor into a later part of the story, especially when her influence leads directly to the devastating final scene. i can't imagine what 2001 would have been like if the monolith had just stopped being in it from the halfway mark.

What?

that's what we're asked to accept. i had already suspended a fair whack of disbelief by that point, but that leap was so enormous that i was really struggling to stay with the core theme from then on.

I actually thought the news report at the beginning was fairly heavy-handed foreshadowing, but clearly you and kinder both completely missed the set-ups here.

i did miss/forget that, yeah, but to be fair that's the sort of thing a storyteller might throw in at the last minute to check a box. by the time the realdoll stuff kicked in, i doubt many viewers remembered that five-second news grab.

It wasn't meant to be about bombs going off. It was a quiet reflection on grief and desire and 'you should be careful what you wish for', it wasn't a dystopian futureworld of killer robots.

i understand your point completely, so it's with extra emphasis that i make the point that those deviations shouldn't have been there in the first place. the only reason i can come up with is that brooker had 48 minutes to fill. this was a twilight zone-length story at best.

It's science fiction! Stories about spaceships require an enormous suspension of disbelief!

this wasn't on a spaceship, it was set on earth in the near future. i myself have made excuses for plenty of science fiction because it's set in a crazy anything-could-happen speculative universe, but this wasn't.

Why wasn't it? If you don't buy my "this is all semi-plausible tech" line (fair enough tbh) it still works as an alternate universe "what if" story. What if we did have Facebook robot clones?

a lot of 16 year-old boys wd be getting laid on the reg?

Why wasn't it? If you don't buy my "this is all semi-plausible tech" line (fair enough tbh) it still works as an alternate universe "what if" story.

self-healing robots? really? i mean maybe there was a roadside billboard that said 'HAPPY NEW NANOMILLENNIUM CITIZENS OF JUPITER' at some point

last year's story about the bloke earning credits on the bike could well have been set so distantly in space/time that pretty much anything is excusable, but we're talking about people dressing like they do now, being in buildings that look like they do now, driving cars that look like they do now &c. no way was this the great chinese kingdom of wales in 2168 or whatever.

Ok there are plenty of details that make this seem like a plausible near future world (slightly sexier phones and desktops) but that doesn't mean it's an actual possible world. It's an SF fairy story. SF can be good without being 100% technologically plausible.

also i don't understand why they have the technology to build near-perfect humanoid robots that self-heal, and yet they post her a dormant android covered in vaseline and she has to tip powder into the bath like it's a sea monkey

Ok there are plenty of details that make this seem like a plausible near future world (slightly sexier phones and desktops) but that doesn't mean it's an actual possible world. It's an SF fairy story. SF can be good without being 100% technologically plausible.

when the plausibility is unprecedented by anything else in the story, it gets in the way. emil.y mentioned that news clip right at the start, which was fairly obviously chucked in during post production, and which i and (presumably) kinder didn't even notice. that's not enough. maybe, i dunno, the protagonists could have had a chat about 'those creepy robots', or a proto-humanoid could have served vol-au-vents at the funeral or something.

I guess my problem is that I don't see why your suggestions make *anything* more plausible. They just clutter up a story with rubbish to hammer home a point. I mean, it is far more plausible to me that the nosy friend is never heard of again, because they weren't close in the first place and that's what happens when you're grieving, but you would relinquish plausibility in this case for plot device to make sure that everything is tied up neatly. Guess what? Life isn't tied up neatly. It's not plausible for all the loose ends to be tied.

And, you know, *why* is it more plausible to have a robot butler be the first instantiation rather than medical uses followed by a weirdo start-up company that preys on grief? I'm not at all sure that it is.

(Also, I assume you were eliding/joking with your interpretation that 'facebook invented it', right? It utilises data from all digital interactions and records in a future where even more interactions are online than they are now, it isn't just 'I have made you out of facebook'.)

It's an SF fairy story. SF can be good without being 100% technologically plausible.

yeah, you basically have to give them this and then judge everything else on its own merits. It's not like it's particularly likely that someone would survive a nuclear apocalypse by being trapped in a a bank vault etc. etc.

(I'm going to stop now... these arguments in a nutshell boil down to 'your plausibility isn't the same as mine', and it's impossible to go anywhere from there.)

They just clutter up a story with rubbish to hammer home a point.

haha, that's the exact point i'm making about this episode, so i'm lost now.

Guess what? Life isn't tied up neatly. It's not plausible for all the loose ends to be tied.

life is also full of really long boring bits. i mean brooker could have made an episode of black mirror with people sitting on a sofa using a transparent ipad for 45 minutes. it's plausible, it could happen, but it wouldn't work as a piece of viewing. that's my point. those loose ends shouldn't have been there, and they arguably wouldn't have been if the episode were half as long.

And, you know, *why* is it more plausible to have a robot butler be the first instantiation rather than medical uses followed by a weirdo start-up company that preys on grief? I'm not at all sure that it is.

as a prelude to a near-perfect humanoid robot? of course it is.

(Also, I assume you were eliding/joking with your interpretation that 'facebook invented it', right? It utilises data from all digital interactions and records in a future where even more interactions are online than they are now, it isn't just 'I have made you out of facebook'.)

i meant the first appearance of these robots was through beta deployment by a social media firm, not as a sex toy for rich blokes or anything (of course i had forgotten about the opening news clip when i wrote that)

(I'm going to stop now... these arguments in a nutshell boil down to 'your plausibility isn't the same as mine', and it's impossible to go anywhere from there.)

it's about more than that. it's about chucking in a load of peripheral elements to pad an hour-long time slot. it's about setting up events, or plot twists, or comeuppances that don't ever happen.

Except that they're not set up to happen to anyone except you!

i think i might resent these films for the crappily portentous series title as much as anything (unless it's a deliberate lol nod to Blue Jam) and the ham-fisted "do you see?"ness of his targets but i've got to agree that arguing plausibility of fantasy/satire plotting always seems like a massive missing of the point to me.

Except that they're not set up to happen to anyone except you!

based on the sample size of this ilx thread? 'er indoors had exactly the same concerns, and we weren't even discussing them as they happened.

I like the title! I mean all these smartphones are literally black mirrors, the double meaning just comes for free so it's not really trying too hard to be clever.

the whole series is called that tho innit? it may've been kinda apposite for that particular ep but y'know

i admit i watch v. sporadically, Brooker's more Partridge than Swift imo

i think all the eps are some variation on technology - specifically the black mirrors/glowing screens consuming 90% of our waking hours - taken TOO FAR.

where does rod serling lie on the partridge/swift axis?

yeah, p sure he said that in an interview last year xp

xp

never really felt that when Shatner was being trolled by that dude in the gorilla suit that Rod Serling was making a telling comment about life in 60s USA

Episodes such as; "The Shelter","He's Alive" or "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" offered specific commentary on current events and social issues

i know, i know, but let's be honest everybody likes the "To Serve Man" stuff better

Burgess Meredith fascist book burning episode = best of both worlds

i think there's something about the aesthetic of the Brooker thing i don't dig, it does remind me of that Adam and Joe pisstake of Blue Jam

CB obviously went to great pains to avoid having people like us go 'but society would be completely different if we had adapted to clones because the whole concepts of mortality and employment and ethics and humanity and law would be unrecognisable compared to today', by way of: Ash no longer had any other family to complicate things, she lived alone in the middle of nowhere so we see nothing of the rest of society (I mean, assuming half the people at the funeral weren't clones? No way of knowing that), also her job is ART which we all know robots can't do.
So I like that he deliberately removed all that stuff so he could focus on what this was about which was grief and how what tech we already have leaves bits of people after they've gone and what would happen if etc etc. I'm not going OH WE DIDN'T SEE ROBOT BUTLERS FAIIILLL.

Robots and clone news stories have been around my entire life, I guess my point is that I couldn't work out whether this was actually supposed to be a very near-future world where surprise! We suddenly have clones, or whether it was actually supposed to reflect a world where, by the time Joe Public could phone-order something that is technologically basically amounts to magic, the concepts of humanity and death etc etc would already have changed. I just couldn't get which it was SUPPOSED to be. And I really don't think it matters much, but both me and my partner were like oh, right, they had magic all along in the world she lives in.

As everyone says, it still works as a what-if story, I just was a bit thrown by which 'what-if'.

he was warning her that she must do something to prepare the realdoll, but she never heard what it was, and again (just like nosy friend) there was no consequence. so why do it? this episode was littered with bombs that never went of

huh yeah, forgot about that, wonder what that was meant to be. Maybe he was trying to say 'there's always money in the banana stand'

swear it was "dont turn on the bathroom light"

Yeah, that's what I thought it was.

Black Mirror works for me as a title because it calls to the mind 'The Haunted Mirror' sequence of Dead of Night, which is obv the ur-text for this kind of thing

"bombs that never go off", like - hot coffee in the car; "don't turn on the light"; etc - these are brilliant ways of making the drama feel sinister and ominous without actually requiring BIG BAD THINGS to happen. love that this Evil Zombie story didn't actually contain an evil zombie.

Thinking about it more, I'm convinced that was what he said when the phone went weird. Why else would have I felt EXTREMELY anxious when she DID the turn the bathroom light on? I thought it was going to lead to some mutation with the eventual clone that emerged.

http://site.mycybertwin.com/

watching it again today, the attic thing is referenced very early on.

tech stuff obviously a pointer that this was near future. and all the AI stuff and real doll stuff was 'in beta'. what gibson said about the future not being well distributed.

and friend only introduced the Eliza-like AI thing, which wasn't even realtime, everything else was suggested by the chatbot itself (as it became available?)

the one thing that did stand out to me as a glaring error was the police car with its lights going when delivering the bad news. why? it wasn't urgent. plus place was isolated, there'd be no traffic.

i find it odd / good that this is about the only non-serial 1hr drama on tv at the moment. are there any others?

48 mins, but who's torrenting

CB obviously went to great pains to avoid having people like us go 'but society would be completely different if we had adapted to clones because the whole concepts of mortality and employment and ethics and humanity and law would be unrecognisable compared to today', by way of: Ash no longer had any other family to complicate things, she lived alone in the middle of nowhere so we see nothing of the rest of society (I mean, assuming half the people at the funeral weren't clones? No way of knowing that), also her job is ART which we all know robots can't do.

i didn't go into this earlier but the pains to which he went jumped out at me like a <thing that jumps out of stuff>. ymmv but to me that feels like a copout, when it would have been more efficient in exposition terms to integrate cues properly. maybe he ran out of time, i dunno.

yes there's no way of knowing half the people at the funeral weren't clones, but again no storytelling device was employed to convey that. it's only the worst and most cynical science fiction writer who suddenly plugs flying cars into book three of lord of the rings and then says 'oh but in book one they all got to rivendell in a flying car, i just didn't tell you about it'

So I like that he deliberately removed all that stuff so he could focus on what this was about which was grief and how what tech we already have leaves bits of people after they've gone and what would happen if etc etc.

the core concept is fantastic, so it's great that he removed some stuff so he could focus on it. what threw both of us off is that he didn't remove more stuff—again, it felt like padding to fill the running time. also i get that the realdoll awakening is supposed to be a stomach-dropping moment for the viewer, but for us it was the moment we gave up suspending our disbelief.

i've focused wholly on the aspects that killed the experience for us, but there were a lot of really lovely and well-executed moment right the way through this.

guys what he said before the phone went weird was don't forget to leave me some clothes, innit.

it was a shit episode by the way.

at least there was shagging in it though. i was worried that there was going to be one episode in which there's no shagging

http://thetweethereafter.com/

aye well. still not fussed about the 'it could never happen' aspect, but that seemed needlessly cruel. are we meant to take home some kind of "retributive justice is bad mmmkay" messsage?

that sucked.

Yeah, that was... muddy.

Not big on this one. We'd seen the reality TV thing done in the first series, and this one felt much clumsier, like it was being made up as it went along.

not her fault, but the lead actress was spectacularly irritating

Ugh. Way too torture-porn-y for me. (The fact that that's what it "about", in part, doesn't really make it any more clever than Human Cenntipede II

Saw two mins of this. It was enough, quite enough.

how do you gauge anything based on two minutes?

probably works for wire songs.

If films were/weren't like Wire songs. I'd like to see a film that choruses out.

i can usually spot shite within two minutes, i dont consider it a rare gift tbh

one instinctively knows when something is shite

I've now watched the S1 episodes. They have a habit they share with S2 that the first 20 mins is thrilling and then you get the sense that they're not sure where to take the concept. The only episode that really worked all the way through was The Entire History of Your Life or whatever. I was genuinely surprised by the way it ended, and it it really showed the messy interstices of people's thoughts and private lives in a way the others have tried but generally failed to do

(Have not seen last night's yet btw)

my problem with last night's was the actors were famous for other things (comedy things) and that got in the way somewhat.

The only episode that really worked all the way through was The Entire History of Your Life or whatever

This one has been sold to Robert Downey, Jr., who's planning to produce a feature out of it. Sam Bain/Jesse Armstrong are writing it (as they did the original).

i can usually spot shite within two minutes, i dont consider it a rare gift tbh

Man, there are SO many shows/movies/albums that I am so glad that I haven't dismissed after two potentially-totally-misleading minutes.

I think all of Black Mirror has been brilliant so I guess this thread isn't for me -- it seems more like a thread to complain about how shitty it is. The first series was better than this one though. I think my favorite was the cycling/pop idol future one.

Me too. It felt like the best conceived even if it did borrow huge chunks from The Machine Stops

This was actually one of my favourites too. It was the horriblest but not knowing what was going on kept it interesting. The 'do you see' is obviously there but a little less hammered home than others? maybe? I dunno.
When Tyres steps out from behind the doors at the end he's totally meant to be Derren Brown, right? I thought it was him.

oh wait it's not your favourite. I dunno, I wouldn't watch it again but I think I enjoyed guessing the setup whereas before it's all laid out for you. Also it feels like it's just based on a TV Go Home idea.

Yeah I was getting a lot of Derren Brown vibes from that character's reveal.

I thought last night's one was kinda stupid for 50 minutes or so and then the ending mitigated it somewhat, but it was pointlessly cruel and manipulative nevertheless. I'm a cynical guy and all, but it was nuance-free cynicism. One of the interesting things about humans is how they can be hateful in general but invariably sympathetic up close. You can despair at the culture but I don't think this kind of exaggeration has anything useful to tell us about society. You could say the same about, I suppose, Nineteen Eighty-Four but the difference is that a story like that puts us, up close, with people who have some good inside them acting within a merciless framework. But there is nobody good in Black Mirror, or at least last night's one, so I don't believe in it. There were good Nazis even. People everywhere are holding doors open for and rescuing from drowning those who they would otherwise mock on Facebook. I'm kinda comfortable with that - though we could improve!

Considering it's been 20 years now, do you think there were parallels with the Bulger murder; how there'll always be a part of society that would like to see those boys tortured for eternity, regardless of if they ever learn their lesson?

I do think Bulger-murderer hatred is mostly kind of abstract and would be shown up as such if it came up against the killers, face to face. Some people would just stab them given the chance, no doubt, but it's not my experience that the hatred projected towards these people - or others in the past e.g. Myra Hindley - represents the soul of humanity. Far from it. I think the disparity is more interesting than portraying others as a clump. I'd give Brooker the benefit of the doubt and assume he's considered this - e.g. his proxy in the 15 Million Merits episode in the first series - but his depersonalisation of fictional depersonalisation seems too easily cynical.

Trailer for pt3 makes it look shit

Good posts EK

I don't know, I thought this was pretty much the best from either series. For all the comparisons you could make to Bulger or Brady/Hindley, it seems to me the nearest rivals are the April Jones case, Charlene Downes (and the attendant exploitation by the far Right) and the media circus of the Shannon Matthews case. As mainstream politics lurches all the time rightward and into populism (Labour's BNP styled People's Policy X-Factor is a prime example) it wouldn't be a step too far to imagine exactly what's portrayed here as a knee-jerk vote grabber. On the basis that there was a guy following Vicky Pryce as she walked to court with a placard slagging her off, it's not too far a jump that the public - or at least enough to make the park viable - would willingly want to participate in the 'justice'. In fact, the only players that I don't get are the actors. I don't see what they get out of it or their motivation.

comparisons with the human centipede are otm, especially in her sobbing nonstop for the whole final act. that went far beyond sympathetic/retributive and was just annoying.

as mentioned upthread this was far too long for its story (surprise surprise), but the concept was certainly fascinating, and encourages reevaluating the possible extent of people's obsession with celebrity/infamy, the popular thirst for visceral justice, videophones &c.

thought this was the best one of this run.

i generally find that the tone of these things is uncomfortably "off" - the blue bear was so so shit, but I guess that was the point. but they stick with me for the most part and i find myself thinking about them for weeks after, like a half-recalled nightmare.

saw first series in its entirety, and first ep of this series - feels like its professed strangeness is not at all strange and quite a dull strate extrapolation of current elements that don't cohere into something other than being direct refs of those elements.

(watched Penda's Fen (play for today) on YouTube the other week - now that IS fucked up and v good.)

feel these tend to do machinery of the future quite well tho.

this was awful! they didn't really explore anything? Just like, yeah, this is what the people want, all of the time, someone's finally realised and that lets him rule the world.

also I hate all his characters.

horrible episode, stupid glib ending

both endings were stupid and glib

btw if you're having to resort to an idea you rejected for nathan barley eight years ago, maybe it's time to stop

feels like its professed strangeness is not at all strange and quite a dull strate extrapolation of current elements that don't cohere into something other than being direct refs of those elements.

for this week's episode this post is otm, especially as the way the main plot ended (before the epilogue thing) is something that happens in democracies all the time without the involvement of a cartoon bear

Aren't these supposed to be exaggerated parables of things that happen all the time though? Brooker's whole thing, from Newswipe to Black Mirror is about pointing out the hypocrisy and foibles of politics and the media, particularly in relation to modern technology. It might not be as deep and clever as you would like it to be but given the remit, it succeeds.

this one just seemed pointless though. the story could have been told without a cartoon bear and it wouldn't have lost anything at all.

every s1 episode was clever in a near-future (or even distant future) context, that required a dramatic heightening of the technology that was at the core of each story. this week's episode could have featured sooty for all the difference it would have made.

i mean i don't expect brooker to read my posts and go 'oh okay, that's what my show is about is it, best get cracking then', i just don't see why he would use such an ingenious premise to tell a very dull contemporary story.

1. social media obsession quickly builds political/media crisis, couldn't have been told without the existence of social media

2. man earns credits to something something, couldn't have been told without constant connectivity, the rising trend of micropayments etc.

3. facebook taken to a logical extreme, couldn't have been told without facebook existing in the first place

4. woman fucks robot, couldn't have been told without the existence of social media

5. perpetual justice as theme park, probably could have been told without the growing obsession with videophones but arguably not

6. comedian dons a bear suit, enters politics

I think the cartoon bear was either an analogue for "personality" politicians like Boris Johnson (who says the most outright shit things all the time but people love him for being edgy and "telling it like it is" even though what it "is" isn't all that much at all. That or it's a semi-autobiographical comment on his own life and career - Brooker started out as an amusing video game and TV columnist but has for better or worse been turned into a current affairs pundit.

errr, close bracket in there somewhere

but i see what you mean - arguably the story could have been told in the 60s with a guy in a bungle outfit, yeah.

DL I thought it might be partly autobiographical too- guy achieves sort-of fame by sneering at everything, realises he doesn't use it for good, I dunno

http://www.ashleyhames.tv/sites/default/files/images/news%20bunny%20flyer.jpg

It's also a comment on how a very fluffy, lovable fascia can be used to manipulate public opinion, from politics to brand packaging. "How can you hate on Ronald McDonald or Mickey Mouse when they bring joy to millions of children?" etc.. when it's really just a marketing team using the character as a mouthpiece. I thought the TV exec guy was perfectly cast too - so many of these big bollock jack-the-lad media types walking around.

dl: i really hope it's the former (boris johnson) because the latter (autobiographical) would be wanky enough to eclipse everything he has ever done

re marketing team with a mouthpiece: it felt to me like that was completely derailed by the whole comedian-can't-control-his-emotions scene. i get why that had to happen, but it still looked quite pathetic; at that point i lost any personal investment i might have had in the character.

what was the deal with the cia agent? i did not understand his agenda at all.

another interesting premise with zero idea of how to end it :(

That's been the problem with all of these. Every single episode sounds good as part of a capsule-form rant but they feel vastly overstretched as TV episodes. It's as though he either didn't have enough ideas to fill a 45 minute show while simultaneously not having enough time to fully explore them.

I haven't actually seen any of these, but from what's been said, they sound like "Demos"..

.. like, "Take them to the "band" to put more flesh on them and fill them out, properly"

A film that somehow incorporated a few of these ideas might not be a bad idea. Think Brooker's definitely got an eye for good ideas but he needs a collaborator to optimise them properly. That Dead Set thing from a few years ago is the prime example.

ideas

DL'ed this; I really liked most of these. Merits and Blue Bear I thought were the obvious low points, so it's interesting to see the different opinions; The Entire HIstory of You was by far the best, not surprising it's been optioned but I don't know what another hour of the story would actually add, it was just about perfect as it was.

that's only series one... there are 3 more.

I thought there were only 2 series and six episodes?

yes, 3 more episodes.

i'm not sure what you mean. I've seen all six.

another interesting premise with zero idea of how to end it

super true. lot of these seem to limp towards a conclusion. was constantly expecting a big flashy twist/pay-off, but it rarely came - or if it did it was rushed and heavy-handed (cf merits). pig fucker one was worst for a dribble of an ending, no real revelation other than CB had a neat idea and failed to run far enough with it. having said that, s2e2 with the justice park had a strong ending but the whole spittle-flecked MAKES YOU THINK aspect tainted it

thought entire history of you was best, beautifully filmed/acted/plotted though i was left wanting a more substantial ending.

hated merits, such a snobby pompous premise (like gervais's toe-curling 'soaring' monologue in that final ep of extras), smugly acted and directed. too much graphic design, not enough heart - and what was the deal with the 'ordinary' looking girl who taught strong silent hero guy to pinch apples? baffled by what purpose she served. interesting to see konnie helped co-write that, wonder what exactly she did. also noteworthy that by far the best one was written by jesse armstrong, not brooker. someone said above that sam bain was involved in that one too, is that correct?

still though, great to see a uk twilight zone style series that is mostly great. if this becomes a regular series and brooker hands over the writing reins to his peers & betters more often, then we could end up with something truly astounding.

^^^ hair-era Brooker's lazy stench is all over this show. He needs to be promoted to exec producer pronto.

really enjoy this program.

watched season one. 'The Entire History Of You' is instant classic science fiction, filled with so many horrifying details. Most films running with the scenario would build the plot around the totalitarian aspects, and I basically assumed this was going to follow the lead of a film like Gattica, opening with scenes of an annual performance review hinging on managers rescreening his last year's worth of life, or going to the airport & getting his last week of life ffwded through on a tiny screen by a stranger at customs, but instead they get all of that out of the way in the first five minutes and move on to relationships. the density of the script, the number of scenarios they play out in the way a couple's arguments will progress given instant access to recordings of every second of each other's lives -- replaying micro-clips, edited to make their points, forcing people to watch things, demanding to see the other's memories. definitely needs to get mentioned in conversations with things like Coming Apart / The Conversation / Brainstorm.

the other two episodes I was far less impressed with, just as brutal but with far less insight or detail. but even though this thread doesn't make it seem like season two picks up the slack, still worth watching.

interesting that was the only one brooker didn't write. it was jesse armstrong from peep show (being made into a robert downy jr film iirc)

but yeah, classic science fiction. like i said above, would be so great if the uk produced a series to rival 50s twilight zone - quite possible off the back of TEHOY, but not so much the rest

Watched the first two last night - the first is good, audacious, etc.; but the second is goddamned draining and exhausting. Can't wait to watch the third tonight.

'The Entire History of You' is the high point of the series. even though it's a living nightmare, anyone who uses a computer should watch it.

I like the second one because I like that song that sounds a bit like the flamingos.

finally broke down and T0RR3nt333333333DDDDdddd
v v curious

i mean as much web love as this got in 2013 it is amazing it has pretty much no US distribution

It is weird that Netflix US couldn't make this deal happen. Mirror, Shadow Line, Utopia ... I mean if they can get Engrenages they should have been able to get this going

I kind wish Brooker would intro each ep on the DVD with cig in hand Rod Serling-style

Maybe it'll show up on Youtube complete. The 2013 Wipe and 25 Games specials are both on there, which is how I got to watch them from over here without torrenting.

yeah not sure why neither this nor utopia have wound up in the US. I t0rr3nt3d too. they were great.

could have something to do with the film option on the one episode that Robert Downey Jr has maybe

iron man shagging a pig

would watch

jesus christ the pig fucking episode

what in the fuck

White Christmas, 16th December, ch4

That was pretty good.

Yeah, nice format, unusual for TV.

Not mind blowing but, you know, a decent hour and a half of television.

can't wait to see this, just rewatched the first 2 series over the weekend.

this was pompous sophomoric trenchant social commentary bullshit just like the one episode of this I endured a few years back (and nearly everything the nearly useless charlie brooker produces) but it's improved slightly in terms of watchability

Not avail legally in the U.S.?

netflix streaming.

can't find the new thing on there tho

it only aired here last night.

From the bits of half-watching I did it seemed to be the usual 1984 type bollocks.

jeez do you guys hate fun? this was like a solid mid-level episode of the Twilight Zone, i.e. fun, except with an extra layer of Brooker's pointless cruelty which i could have easily done without

I like fun but I especially like being accused of hating it because that is the last refuge of someone who knows they're defending something shit & it's nice to get reassurance

"It's like mid-level something old, but much worse!"

ooh fun

the prosecution rests you ornery old git

I just happen to catch bits of it and am allergic to a lot of Orwell. Then again I am not interested in fun.

=]

I don't know if I buy the last few minutes of "The Waldo Moment" - it reads more like the comedian's worst nightmare than "reality," it's just too...cartoonish (heh).

Just watched S1 ep1. Seemed like I missed the payoff at the end? The story comes to an end pretty much like you would expect from the setup. I guess I'm missing the magic. Just a depressing story.

My sense of this show - episodes are good to great - is that the biggest aim is to leave a viewer with a bit of nasty aftertaste and food for thought. Like, tons of conversation should follow. After watching all seven of these I'm just bursting with ideas and fears and wanting to talk to other people about it all.

I didn't really like the American idol concept one, except for the vending machine graphic when he bought an apple of "People who purchased your item, also liked [banana pic]"

I don't think I often see such varied opinion on which episodes were best or worst. For me, the one with the recorded memories dragged the most of all.

banana graphic def a hilight of that one

ok if I'd have known the first episode was "fortyfive minutes of guy being forced to fuck a pig" I wouldn't have watched it

I feel like we need a separate Black Mirror thread for people who want to discuss it instead of hate on it

caught this on a stopover in london. guardian ran two reviews, one disgusted three stars, one disgusted four stars. it sure was uncomfortable. but if you liked Black Mirror!

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/mar/08/game-review-mike-bartlett-voyeurs-audience

was the first episode directed by banksy? does this get better?

1st ep is a series lowpoint IMO but maybe it has extra appeal if you're english c.2012? -- I was told not to bother with it & went straight to S1E2 "Fifteen Million Merits" -- sorry I couldn't warn you in time

series lowpoint IMO

correct

was the first episode directed by banksy?

basically, yeah

e01 reads like an extended dramatisation of one of brooker's one-liners. didn't really merit being made into a whole episode.

dayo the only ones really worth watching are s01e03 s02e01 and the christmas special. and even those have an annoying DO U SEE? quality

Charlie Brooker has an annoying DO U SEE? quality.

i liked S01E02 but it was sentimental in a Christmassy way that might not work in summer.

thank you all, yeah the DO U SEE quality was very bad

i will put all of this into the calculus of whether or not i continue *watches anime forever*

don't bother it's waste

otm

e01 reads like an extended dramatisation of one of brooker's one-liners.

oh yeah - it really feels like a TVGH entry stretched to 45 mins

S01E02 is pretty good but yeah, I find Brooker a bit annoying these days.

I find this show an enjoyable take on a culture that isn't quite my own. Probably would dislike it as overcooked if I was actually in the UK. But who knows?

reminder that Jesse Armstrong wrote S01e03

what if phones, but too much

http://observer.com/2015/09/netflix-to-produce-original-episodes-of-black-mirror/

The pig’s head, he claimed, had been resting on the lap of a Piers Gaveston society

not black mirror but close enough
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXX0TRtg5Vk

Just watched Ex Machina the other night, which reminded me a lot of Black Mirror in tone and content. Made me think this series is going to end up being pretty influential.

Interestingly, the lead actor in Ex Machina plays an AI robot in a Black Mirror episode.

Tim and Eric's Bedtime Stories >>>> Black Mirror

✅

good stuff, forks.

finally got around to watching the holiday special

the ending was kind of next-level bleak and cruel! it was set up throughout the episode but was still a little more than expected

the very end of the waldo episode might be the best humorous extrapolation due to the simplicity of the staging

http://sfplayhouse.org/sfph/2015-2016-season/the-nether/

if you're in the bay area, this is running for another couple of weeks and I'd recommend it pretty strongly. it's darker than the darkest episode of Black Mirror, though; it's as if they'd done an episode version of <i>The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect</i>. I stuck around for the question and answer last night and my favorite comment was about the morality of letting an actual 12 year old female actress handle the part, and they said 'we checked with her parents and gave them a script rundown and where we were coming from with it, and they ended up letting her decide, saying "we'd prefer that you find out these things about the internet through a work of art instead of from the internet itself" '

new Netflix-only series from the 21st october...

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-10-02/when-is-black-mirror-on-netflix

ty for headsup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-vAp9n8rQc

New series is out. Have watched two of the six so far.

Nosedive, the popularity one with Bryce Dallas Howard, is light with touches of darkness. It's not something I'd watch again but it was well done and the ending made me smile.

Shut Up And Dance though...God. I never thought I'd feel physically sick after watching something, and this was after guessing the twist and the outcome. Incredibly well done, but if I could pay for my memory of the episode to be wiped, I would.

"Nosedive"....ooooof. Fifteen minutes in, Stepford Wives af.

I've been meaning to watch this for years, sort of saving up for a special occasion, because I like Charlie Brooker. But more to the point, whenever I see the title "Black Mirror" I sing it to the tune of Kiss's "Black Diamond."

I've little familiarity with Kiss but I like this show

The ending made me so happy

very, very glad I waited until I woke up this morning to watch "Playtest."

there are at least a couple episodes in the new batch that invoke pure terror!

i've only watched the final two episodes of the new one so far but the final ep really could have been a stand-alone horror movie. just really effective in its scares, atmosphere, etc. the second-to-last falls into the trap people complain about which is when the in-character speechifying about the actual theme of the episode starts we're in trouble.

So gyac - would you not recommend watching Shut Up And Dance? I mean the first episode of season 1 left me feeling pretty queasy.

Watched the first one last night...facile but fun

Seems they always err on the side of obviousness

So gyac - would you not recommend watching Shut Up And Dance? I mean the first episode of season 1 left me feeling pretty queasy.

Having watched all 6, I would rank them:

1) Hated In The Nation (despite some weak plot points)
2) Shut Up And Dance
3) Playtest
4) San Junipero
5) Nosedive
6) Men Against Fire (though it's not bad at all, and was pretty painful at times).

Also, the casting is incredible. Especially loved Gugu Mbatha-Raw in San Junipero and Kelly McDonald in Hated In The Nation.

hated Shut Up and Dance, lazy hyper-sadism for its own sake. interesting that the most rote "BM being BM" episode was actually written by other people ("Nosedive").

about to watch the sixth ep, so far "San Junipero" is the clear winner.

Thanks gyac!

I've watched the first 3 episodes. "Nosedive" is definitely the best so far

Just finished "San Junipero," which was probably the most feelgood episode of this show yet. I liked it a great deal. That's enough BM for me for one day, though.

That's a definite high note to pause your viewing on

I scanned summaries of the last two episodes and...yeah, I can't handle that tonight.

"San Junipero" > "Hated by the Nation" >> "Playtest" > "Nosedive" > "Men Against Fire" > "Shut Up and Dance"

"Playtest" is the only time this show has legit scared me, maybe because I have fears similar to what happens in the episode. Pretty wild episode. The main actor was pretty obnoxious in it tho

"Nosedive" my favorite of this season so far. Kind of another version of the points episode from season 1 so I could see people not liking it, but I felt it was really well thought out and BDH was great

I did like "Hated by the Nation" a fair amount, but it did drag a bit at a full 90 minutes, and there was a minor plot detail that bugged me.

They're all just a little bit too long, as if they were originally written to be shown with ads on Channel 4, but were then stretched to fill the slots on Netflix.

Which are the non-brookers?

(Could look it up myself but am spoiler phobic)

So spoilers-wise, should i watch all six episodes before reading this thread? i've only watched ep 1 so far, the typical BM criticism of one-idea-stretched-too-long and taking it in the obvious places, but i did LOL at the end when they [SPOILERS] hit rock bottom and become the comments section

only ep 1 has a teleplay not attributed to Brooker (iirc), and even then he gets a story credit

i watched the first two eps of season 3 of this show. god it was stupid. really really badly written, confused sci fi with needless twists and leaden social commentary. well made, i suppose. but definitely a show that thinks it is far smarter than it is. "Nosedive" is an accurate description of that episode, starting off with an interesting premise before running it into the ground. that ending may be one of the worst, dumbest things i have ever seen.

Adam is totally OTM. These two episodes feel very nihilistic too, there's zero empathy for the main characters. It's like an Eli Roth (Hostel) take on techno paranoia. Yeah I get Brooker is cynical but christ.

"San Junipero" is really good though.

The last one is a lot of fun!

i may give it another shot in the future cos the show does have a Outer Limits-style goofiness to it.

re: Nosedive. there was a point when they were showing her marveling at dust particles in the sunlight, now free of her always-on AR social media stuff, it felt like they were about to make a really cool point. then she just starts insulting that guy and they yell at each other. yeah i guess it's supposed to be years of pent-up aggression she never got to let out and is now half purging half exuberantly reclaiming linguistic freedom. but it felt a bit gratuitous, her character was always kind of a huge jerk in her treatment of others anyways, it didn't seem to me like she was really being held back or censored by her social media AR lifestyle, she embraced it. everything she does is for her own self image, which i guess makes sense, narcissism, the black mirror of the reflective phone screen, etc. past that surface allusion they aren't saying much interesting. it's 1-dimensional fake sci fi coasting on near futurist renditions of trendy tech stuff.

what other point were you looking for them to make, Adam? I thought the dust particles moment said enough, that she was starting to appreciate stuff outside of her AR. I agree with you that this show can be very leaden with its commentary. I tend to like it more when it's entertaining enough for me to overlook the "message", or when the message is not clear. Episode 5 with the soldiers kind of mixed everything I don't like about this show into one package - too serious, too drawn-out, overly reliant on twists, and a super-long exposition about the message at the end

I watched Playtest and was inordinately upset by it. Kudos to Brooker and his team for making something so extreme but I really don't want a TV show to affect me that badly.

sometimes u just want to honk off at things and people without it being performative, just kind of feeling yourself

sad people were so obsessed with positivity that they had no negativity. they kind of did the negative performance biz with the election Waldo dude in another season, though

I had to stop the Playtest episode a couple of times to steady my nerves. Overall I thought it was very good.

Nosedive started well but was drawn out far too long, and deteriorated from the hire car scene onwards.

> only ep 1 has a teleplay not attributed to Brooker (iirc), and even then he gets a story credit

ha, ok, he said on the telly the other day that "a couple" had had other writers and i guess that's true given that there's that one and another that's a co-write. i'd envisaged something like the recent doctor whos where the main writer would be completely hands-off for a couple.

also, rashida jones?

i wonder if i will ever see these...

And a while ago, when we were doing the show, somebody sent me a link to a funny article that Mallory Ortberg had written that was taking the piss out of Black Mirror in an amusing way, and so we've hidden the phrase, "what if phones, but too much" in there as well, if you look closely.
https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/black-mirror-netflix-season-3-charlie-brooker-interview

:)

watched the blackmail episode last night. scary!

(troll face)

it's horrifying and bad, but they went over the top enough that when the command to
FIGHT
TO THE DEATH

came through I cracked up

haha yeah, saw that one coming but thought they would make the other dude kill him after having bonded w/ him

the ending was really dumb and /SAW/ but the terror and plausibility of it was great

also, are we meant to believe the kid somehow murdered that dude?

that's the whole Charlie Brooker thing that people either dislike or don't get -- the framing is usually very matter-of-fact and sketches out a future or alternative world pretty well, and then his punchline is something bouncing off the fourth wall with a thud

it's not always in there, but it's kind of a trademark

surely the true punchline of that episode was brooker having the balls to actually needle-drop "exit music."

the spoiler for the whole show is kind of in the first episode of the first series: an artist is trying to make a grand statement about society and how it's distracted from real issues because people are too busy watching youtube or w/e so he sets up this ridiculous project with a kidnapping and the pig video demand

at the end, it's a real "death of the artist (author)" situation and the prime minister is still in office and everyone moved on without anything really changing

charlie brooker is the artist, black mirror is the pigfucker plot, and people keep complaining about how he is trying to make big statements with the series that fall flat, even if they were transfixed for a moment

xp the moment with the radiohead song was the musical equivalent of trollface for sure

i only half thought through my point about the first episode but death of the post author, etc, please come up with a better explanation

i only ask you respect my original use of "pigfucker plot" and somehow work it into that guy fawkes rhyme

so "made you think?" the show?

that's what people treat it as! I think Brooker thinks that angle is kind of the surface take and it's meant to be a lot pulpier than that

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lhAr_UeroCk/hqdefault.jpg

i'm not a preacher man!

feels like it's meant to seam to be a lot pulpier than that but the ideas just aren't there.

When people complain about specific episodes of this show - and I mean people who are fans - I feel like it's...kind of a wasted effort. Not begrudging anyone an opinion on concept, acting, sets, etc but half or more than half the fun of this show is thinking about it later and trying to color in the parts of specific worlds that you didn't get to see.

Like, on it's face, "San Junipero" is incredibly optimistic and pop... but then when you really think about it and what it would ultimately mean for the world, how the matrix could be corrupted, etc., it's super dark.

(Meanwhile, something like "Playtest" is basically a horror movie. But maybe I'm just not judgmental enough about things I enjoy.)

an attempt to get people to keep saying "whoa, this is just like that episode of black mirror!" in the same way college freshmen will perpetually write the "2016 is just like Orwell's 1984!" paper

like no it's not like Orwell's 1984, come on, everything is mostly ok

Haven't watched "Men Against Fire" yet. Had skimmed a summary, then got 10 minutes in and realized that I don't have the stomach for that particular plot at the moment.

Too dark.

Raymond otm

"playtest" was great because everything in the episode exists as something we, as viewers, saw

but none of that actually happened! zero video games were played. it was all a nightmare hallucination by a guy who got his brain zapped because he turned his phone back on

an attempt to get people to keep saying "whoa, this is just like that episode of black mirror!" in the same way college freshmen will perpetually write the "2016 is just like Orwell's 1984!" paper

like no it's not like Orwell's 1984, come on, everything is mostly ok

― mh 😏, Monday, October 24, 2016 4:42 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It'd be interesting to see an episode of this show that punks you for 40 minutes in not even teasing any conflict, only to HINT at the conflict in the last 3-5 minutes.

the very end of "playtest" has the most intentionally bad punchline in the ironic Twilight Zone style

playtest was a mess. did the guy also hallucinate those CRT security cam images showing us it was all fake?

He never even played whack-a-mole

watched Nosedive and Playtest last night, really don't think I can continue with this series. Nosedive was horrifying enough, but the ending of Playtest really fucked me up. .004 seconds. Fuck me running

Thoroughly enjoyed all of the new series, to the extent that I'm almost a bit embarrassed about it.

Like I couldn't really argue with anyone saying that a lot of this is just trench-thread fodder spun out via predictable plot beats, but something about the basic format, with each episode its own self-contained little world, just works really well for me.

imo more tv shows should be one-shot or season-long things

Probably agree with the consensus that Hated In the Nation was the highlight. Nosedive was probably the most trench-y, but still funny, and the bit near the start where the main character is photographing & uploading her coffee and biscuit might be the most perfectly observed little moment of the whole series.

Would be great if each episode was bookended with a cackling robot warning us about the dangers of technology via a stream of bad puns.

some kind of...mirror master.

Watched Nosedive, Playtest, and Shut Up And Dance one each evening this week. Nosedive felt like someone attempting to write the most Black Mirror episode of Black Mirror ever, and was entertaining enough. Playtest was kind of scary but didn't get me the way some people on this thread seem to have been affected.

But Shut Up And Dance. Holy fuck. I spent 55 minutes thinking it was the most mundane episode ever (technologically everything in it seemed pretty possible right now) and wondering why a certain character was reacting in a certain way, thought the final fight to-the-death scenario seemed implausible and ill-balanced, and then the last five seconds going "holy shit". I went to bed and woke up thinking about it; best thing Brooker's ever done.

Usually I feel like most episodes would almost be better treated in half the length, as they're basically just a conceptual riff on a certain aspect of technology and society, and not actually about character or plot really. I'm not sure Shut Up... was about either of those things any more or less than other episodes, but it just suckered me.

This is one of those thing where, I don't actually like the show, but the Twitter backlash against it has been so smug, I kinda wish I liked it

Not read the full thread yet. Watched Nosedive which was really slight - well-acted though - and Playtest. That was a bit better but was expecting a bit different than literally all other VR type plots (also it reminded me of this: http://business.panasonic.co.uk/visual-system/le-petit-chef-brings-visual-mapping-to-the-restaurant-table) I guess the 2nd end bit was ok. Again, it was stretched out so long I thought they'd do something more edgy or twisty. I dunno. I guess I got scared imagining what my own mind would come up with in that situation rather than the obvious. My friend made the 'creature' on it btw.

A lot of these are decent ideas stretched past sense.

Playtest was probably the most enjoyable, San Junipero best concept.

Shut Up and Dance made basically no sense (what was the point of the robbery or the fight to the death???!?!?) Hated By The Nation was just too long and not well put sequenced and frankly too obvious even by BM standards. Men Against Fire just too on the nose (too bad I did like the concept initially). Nosedive I just could not get into.

Music was generally excellent throughout though (beginning to think this might be Netflix series greatest contribution to popular culture between this, Stranger Things, and Luke Cage.)

Yeah I thought Hated By The Nation was boring and stupid. Firing off into too many ideas and failing to bring them together. I'm amazed that people rate it highly. Kelly MacDonald is a fucking terrible actress too. She's bad in everything I've seen her in.

what was the point of the robbery or the fight to the death???!?!?

uh...

The robbery is to put the prize money in place which is part of the theatre of the fight, which is vigilante justice for the benefit of the blackmailers. It's psychological torture inflicted because they can. It's also to psychologically push the protagonists beyond the law to the point towards where they are prepared to kill either the other or themselves.

Hated IN the Nation, you GGDummies.

Spoilers I guess:

So, was the kid in Shut up and Dance meant to have been watching child porn or was that just 'social media twists things'?

I guessed what San Junipero was about but still enjoyed that one probably the most.

lol will not stand for the impugning of kelly macdonald

I like her generally, but I thought she was perhaps not well cast here (maybe I'm showing my age but it's hard for me to picture the teenage girl from Trainspotting as a stuffy technophobic DCI).

I didn't get why it serves the blackmailers for one of these two guys specifically to be dead if they're going to release the incriminating info in the end anyway and I felt like there were probably better ways of getting the prize money if that was the point....

What does GGDummies mean and why is someone so outraged about people mixing up prepositions?

I didn't get why it serves the blackmailers for one of these two guys specifically to be dead if they're going to release the incriminating info in the end anyway

presumably, they're meant to be internet vigilante "kill the paedos" types. In this case, they end up with one of their prime targets being dead and the other being arrested for his murder/everything else, without getting their hands dirty themselves. Everything leading up to that is just "trolling".

Right I guess I thought if the whole thing was "pedos pedos pedos" then what the other three presumably non pedos were just being harrassed to set up the pedos? Maybe that's how these things work but I found it thematically muddy.

it's paedos all the way down

I thought one lady was a racist emailing CEO and the other guy was just hiring hookers and scooter dude unnamed perversions.

GGDummies: Those unfamiliar with the work of Kevin Michael Allin, whose 1987 ROIR cassette (later re-released in other formats) gave the episode its name. Jeez.

the "point" of it was torture the people who'd been caught out with the promise of getting off the hook by forcing them to do various things, which ratcheted up in intensity, only to smear them anyway once they'd done what they were told to do, because ultimately the game was only for the nihilistic lulz.

seriously guys it's a kinda dumb twilight zone ep for a world that includes 4chan and smart phones, not a physics exam.

So, was the kid in Shut up and Dance meant to have been watching child porn or was that just 'social media twists things'?

presumably, they're meant to be internet vigilante "kill the paedos" types.

also, if you remember how the vigilantes got access in the first place, it's very non-targeted. they put out their dodgy anti-malware software out there and saw who they could get with it. they didn't target any of these people, it's who they got that was useful.

thinking back on it now, though, there's a pretty big plot hole - why wouldn't he just put a password on his laptop? It seems weird he'd put a lock on his door but not that.

So, was the kid in Shut up and Dance meant to have been watching child porn or was that just 'social media twists things'?

He definitely was - look how queasy he looks when the other guy says "how young?" and the call from his mother. And there's no way anyone would do those things if it was something legal.

I (and Mr Kinder) thought these were all kind of ambiguous -
1 - he looks queasy all the way through and I thought this was a disgusted reaction to the other guy's suggestion
2 - "They're saying it's kids", well yeah, of course 'they' are, it's the work of trolls on a show about how social media distorts things.
3 - I can see this - although thought Robson Jerome's bit in the car about how the impressionable young boy's life would be ruined covered that

Think you're right though particularly as it's not like Black Mirror to do anything subtly and the boy was shown interacting with a kid so I guess definitely = paedo

But the whole feel of the episode changes depending on whether "twist! paedo" or not, which is annoying. Either way it seems really clumsy.

no way. you'd deny it if it was untrue. even a timid kid like that isn't going to rob a bank for the chance of avoiding humiliation. the things the others had to do were relatively innocuous; everything he did towards the end escalated to the point that if caught, his life would be ruined. so why do it?

he also says "I only looked at some pictures" which to me came across as him trying to minimise it.

finally, his mother says that there's a video and his sister has seen it. put together with the fact they scanned his hard drive (this is how they had Robson's chat logs and other evidence) and he knows there's no way out of it.

the episode is very white bear in the sense that it's about trying to get you to empathise with someone who's done something wrong/argue that even people who have committed the most reprehensible crimes don't deserve torture.

I don't think it makes any sense at all if he's not a paedo. If it's just normal porn - everyone does that. He wouldn't have tried to kill himself for something legal.

"the "point" of it was torture the people who'd been caught out with the promise of getting off the hook by forcing them to do various things, which ratcheted up in intensity, only to smear them anyway once they'd done what they were told to do, because ultimately the game was only for the nihilistic lulz."

I guess the torturing makes more sense to me if it was more making them run around and do random shit, not commit armed robbery and/or murder.

Even without the twist/morals, "Shut Up and Dance" is still terrifying, or should be.

gyac, yeah I think you (and literally everyone else) are right. I think also I thought White Bear had done something so similar I was surprised to see it again.
Whole thing was depressing though.

hated in the nation was really bad, haven't watched the other new eps yet

so 'Playtest' is basically a twist on the old 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' idea? all this shit goes down in his mind in the time it takes for the rope to snap his neck?

Part of the reason people are questioning Shut Up and Dance is because of the casting of a young weedy guy as a paedophile. He doesn't look like any paedophile we've seen on TV which is clearly very deliberate to postpone the realisation and make you question your preconceptions of what a paedophile would look and act like.

obviously a callback to PAEDOGEDDON that everyone's so scared of being even accused of being such a thing

that wasn't why I was questioning it

Kept waiting for the social media episode to get better, never happened.

Men Against Fire (terrible title) was done quicker and better in this thing forks posted upthread: Charlie Brooker's BLACK MIRROR

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71Zs7X3NjAL.jpg

Pedophile stereotype = pasty weedy white guy so I don't think that was the disconnect at all (possible people didn't like to be made to feel sorry for him for first 50 minutes and then have that yanked away at end--I guess maybe the point though).

Nah, it was definitely misdirection with the main character

The stereotype is generally pasty white middle-aged dude. Not a hapless teenager

Seen the first four of s3 now. Shut Up and Dance and San Junipero both great, great episodes, even tho complete opposites. Nosedive felt like a warm-up episode, nice enough. But Playtime: good god man, the lead character completely ruined it with his overacting 'omg' 'wtf' stuff. Interesting to hear how teh Americans on here saw that: for me it was insufferable, bordering on the unwatchable.

Shut Up and Dance though, that one'll stick with me for quite some time. Damn. The kid acted great imho, not over the top, but frozen with terror and fear beyond belief throughout.

Yeah I hated him. Still dug the episode, and it helped that he died in such a brutal way. Did the same schtick in Richard Linklater's latest movie. Irritating as fuck

Acting like that is his schtick? Oof. What a stinker.

Lol did not put together that the obnoxious actor in Playtest was the same obnoxious actor in Everybody Wants Some

he's Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn's son!

and yeah, he's extremely annoying

Interesting to hear how the Americans on here saw that: for me it was insufferable, bordering on the unwatchable.

It just degenerated into shouting. It wasn't scary or suspenseful, just annoying.

just watched ep 5, the 'point' could not have been stretched any thinner over what seemed like about 3 hours

Bit late to the party but I'm enjoying the series so far; probably a lot more than the previous series'. Agree that some of the social commentary is a bit heavy-handed (that zombie one) but the overall execution is enough to keep me interested.

I actually really liked 'Playtime'. Schlocky sci-horror fun in spoonfuls. Wasn't anything THAT new, concept-wise (Red Dwarf did the same storyline decades ago) but still pretty exciting and if the lead was a bit obnoxious, I figured that was sort of the point.

In "San Junipero," I annoyed my wife by continually asking about how they got the music cleared.

I mean, I've watched a fair amount of television. Recognizable songs are comparatively rare, both for rights reasons and because if you go to the trouble of getting one song in there, you tend to use it as much as you can, because once you've paid for it you can use it as much as you like, so why not? There was a CSI ep that had that modal cover "Mad World" in there and used it to death.

Anyway this one Black Mirror episode had like 20 songs I know by heart from my youth, and some of them were only in there for a few seconds. Not obscure b-sides and album cuts. Wishing Well? Girlfriend in a Coma? Walk Like an Egyptian? Lean on Me? I Need You Tonight? Heart and Soul? Addicted to Love?

My question is, WTF? Did they secure rights to ALL this 80s and 90s material (at ludicrous expense) only to use it just for scene-setting and to establish time period?

Or is there some other kind of deal where they were able to negotiate for exactly three seconds of "I Need You Tonight"? In the way that an actress can negotiate for sideboob and butt crack but no pubes (or whatever)?

Sorry I do not know a thing about this side of things. But I do see the effect of like a hundred other shows/movies not even being able to hum a few bars of a Beatles track, and pretty much every show/movie for 35 years studiously avoiding "Happy Birthday," even when it made complete sense for the story.

And yet here's an episode of reasonably well-known show gratuitously dripping with famous songs. What's up with that?

Netflix has a fucking gigantic war chest and has been negotiating even more gigantic sums of debt to fund their new shows.

Someone should tell the people who made Vinyl and The Get-Down that they could have used a LOT more authentic period-appropriate music, then.

Ya Mad Puffin, iirc music rights are sold in blocks of 30 seconds or sold as "any 30 seconds" then over that you'll pay rights for the full track. Also I think it's either easier to clear or you don't need to clear if you're only using 30 seconds or less. It's why if you watch a programme like masterchef there's loads of recognisable tracks but only for short bursts then it will quickly change to another track after a bit of narration.

Thanks jed_, that is helpful.

Did the rules change recently? Because I definitely think TV shows have generally been more cautious. Maybe it's just that my watching pattern has skewed my perceptions, but I'm talking about 40+ years of watching television. I'm old. The number of songs I recognized could have been counted on two partially maimed hands up to this point, and now here's one episode with like 20.

Now I wish I were in television so I could make a time-travel show where they just used 29 seconds of each year's #1 hit.

That episode reminded me of how great "Need You Tonight" is!

it made me remember how nice love can be

I'm dumb so I didn't get the end of Men Against Fire. Was he decomissioned? What was the point of that?

That episode reminded me of how great "Need You Tonight" is!

― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Thursday, 10 November 2016 18:57 (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

Xp I think he chose to continue with the military, but was home on leave. It showed that even his leave was augmented by the device in him, and his life back home was kind of nothing

I think Shut Up and Dance would've been funnier/darker if he had got into all that shit just for wanking over normal porn.

BROOKER KLAXON

he's hosting Have I Got News For You this evening, get in.

How will the Coren-Mitchell''s pay the rent this week?

San Junipero was a good episode but I didn't find it as emotionally resonant as some people who described it to me

Charlie Brooker just hosted the first post US election edition of Have I Got News For You. Just thought I'd let you know if you want to check it out.

Finally finished these, was sort of dreading an extra-long one (Hated in the Nation) but it was one of the better ones (while actually watching it) with an actual story and everything. lol @ 'what if phones but too much'

@ Ye Mad Puffin, I know the music supervisor on this show and I'll ask him!

Hated In The Nation was great but I didn't really understand the ending. did I miss some bigger point or was it just supposed to cut off like that?

yeah I didn't get it either, does she just nab/kill him? wanted a lot more out of Hated in the Nation considering how many people here and elsewhere said it was their favorite. Didn't come close to Nosedive, Playtest, or San Junipero for me.

I think the implication is she kills him. it seems unlikely for a rogue agent in another country to be able to legally apprehend him, but maybe it's a secret operation. I liked that episode but it felt like there weren't enough ideas to sustain an hour and a half

it just felt like an empty procedural without any of the really fucking disturbing shit in the other episodes. the whole bit about the bee burrowing into the pain center of the brain was the only thing that made my skin crawl, while playtest continues to give me nightmares nearly a month later

I really wish they had pursued the columnist soaking up everyone insulting and threatening her online with a glass of wine and a smile on her face. like i said, it was clogged with plot and it's not sticking with me like the others. praise for it here is baffling

xp overall i enjoyed the whole series but felt that some ideas didn't quite get explored enough; or they felt like genre-exercises that didn't really bring much new to the table ('Play Test' was like a Red Dwarf plotline meets a fairly run-of-the-mill jump-horror).
So, what if phones but not enough?

What was it about PlayTest that disturbed some of you so much? Surely not the bog-awful Quake-style giant spiderface thing?

(going mad, thats a whole nother kettle of creep).

the concept of the layered nightmare and the fact that the whole thing took place in .004 seconds. the idea that the stimulus was so potent that it blew his brain out. the last scene when we finally reach reality and the VR people very calmly and casually assess the situation and throw him in a bodybag.

Well yeah ok that was quite unnerving.

We watched that one last night and, yeah, cool dream-within-a-dream horror flick. Had me jumping like TV shows never do.

What I was most taken by, is the aesthetic theyve always had in the series of stuff being just far enough in the future that it is all still familiar, but has a glossy sheen of "lots more futuristic". My particular fave on that front was the self driving car in Hated in the Nation.

As in: shit, it never occurred to me that if cars drove themselves we wouldnt even need to all sit forward-facing!

Playtest scared the hell out of me, mostly the idea you can't trust your senses. other TV/movies have done this idea, but I thought BM executed it well. I like that it starts with obvious stuff like the spider, then transitions to stuff where you wonder if it's possible with just sight and sound, and ends with all the rules gone. and yeah, that it all happened so quickly is scary too. a lot of my greatest fears are similar to stuff that happened in this episode, fittingly

Somebody - I think Mercedes - has a concept car where the seats face each other like that.

I seriously covet the drafting table in "Be Right Back."

the fact that the whole thing took place in .004 seconds

I thought this really undermined it. Too much of a leap to imagine a consciousness being able to experience/process all of that in so little time. Such a compressed duration has no meaning.

If there's a company in England that's regularly killing shaggy selfish hippie Boho-American tourists, all I can say is good luck to them, and I wish them success. They should get a grant or something.

I thought this really undermined it. Too much of a leap to imagine a consciousness being able to experience/process all of that in so little time. Such a compressed duration has no meaning.

― nashwan, Tuesday, November 15, 2016 1:28 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Stuff similar to that happens to me in dreams all the time. Like when I look at the clock, doze off, have what feels like an epic dream, wake up and it's only 5 minutes later.

One of my favourite things about 'Playtest' was that it was an incredibly elongated setup for a groanworthy punchline. (And that's not sarcasm, btw, I genuinely loved that about it.)

Does anyone know if netflix pushed for it to be more American-centred this time, btw? I can see why, I guess, if they're trying to expand the audience, but I found the number of US episodes a little grating.

glad to hear you loved that groaner of a punchline too, emil.y

the next best part was that none of it was part of the video game simulation -- they never had a chance to start it, all of what he experienced was his brain severely fucking up when the cell phone interfered with the startup

So the lesson is phones are bad? But if you call your mom often enough, phones are good.

It was a little hard to pull a coherent lesson/message/commentary, I agree. The relationship between the protagonist and his Mum was interesting: it was remarkably blank, given how central it was to the plot. Any time I've avoided my Mum, it has been because I've actually been angry with her about something she did or felt I needed to distance myself. The only reason this guy gave was that he had trouble connecting with her or getting along with her. Even in his subconscious, she only ever really appeared as a source of guilt, with no real independent personality or specific memories attached to her.

The main reason the guy gave was that he and his mom never really connected after his dad died! That's pretty huge.

As in his father's death was recent and he didn't know how to relate to her anymore so he left on this extended, directionless trip.

It just seems a little vague, which is fair enough, given that he was talking to a Tinder hookup, but I might have thought that more would at least come out in his subconscious exploration. Not saying it was a failing per se, just that it was striking.
xp It didn't seem like he had related to her much before, either, though.

So the lesson is phones are bad? But if you call your mom often enough, phones are good.

― marzipandemonium (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, November 15, 2016 3:11 PM (one hour ago)

This is one of the things I hate about Black Mirror commentary - why do you think there is a lesson at all? Not all works of fiction need to be parables.

I mean, if I was going to take away any lesson from that episode, it would be "you can make a really enjoyable TV show out of a terrible terrible joke".

tbh I agree and I'm just not seeing the morality angle in a lot of episodes

the main takeaway is generally "whoa that's fucked up" and while I can't have all of my entertainment stand by that template, I appreciate it

oh whoa, i didn't catch that joke at the end! he 'called Mom' as he died. that's fucking sick

Ha, I rewatched for it too.

https://open.spotify.com/user/charliebrooker/playlist/1enamd7IoA2KtAoMxeiINW

I'm just not seeing the morality angle in a lot of episodes

Really? many of them seem really "see? This is where social media/staring at phones all day/bioengineering/[insert here] will lead us in the end!".

But I dont find it too overweening, that said.

lol, I mostly get "wow what if.. phones bad"

not "omg PHONES BAD warning warning!"

it's speculative, but not telling you things will be this way, repent now

never repent, just find new ways to fuck up before the current fuckery goes that bad

"see? This is where social media/staring at phones all day/bioengineering/[insert here] will lead us in the end!"

Yeah, this is not what it's about at all. It's not instructive, it's speculative.

Or basically, what mh said.

I was about to say you said it better!

so many OTMs in these last posts

Playtest is great. lol at 'yawn, so derivative' comments.. it's a well-executed, sick joke. main character was perfect Seth Rogen-like, stereotypical American/cocksure 'dude'. good job Black Mirror

seth rogen is canadian

for better or worse he's ours now

If a gaming company wants to kill Seth Rogen too I'm fine with that.

Watched them all now - Nosedive and San Junipero were the best ones

agreed

https://twitter.com/blackmirror/status/799702690796216321

^scared the crap out of me

They turned up the music-creepifier filter to the max!

Put off starting this (from the beginning) forever, but just dove in last night with the first episode, the prime minister/pig one. I'm really not sure what to think of it, but it felt pretty ... mean? And with no real object of satire. But look forward to more, I guess, since the anthology format can make things pretty hit or miss.

Loved the first 2/3 of 'San Junipero' unreservedly, felt like the last bit was unnecessarily Black Mirror-y, could have left it with an explanation of what was technically happening then a cut to the real world and fade to black.

first of the season, awful, next two meh - the show so often fails to make an interesting comment on the nihilistic dystopia it's providing.

the only good eps of the new batch were nosedive & playtest

Nosedive was the absolute worst. GUYS DO U SEE SOCIAL MEDIA IS PERVASIVE AND UNDERMINING OUR HUMANITY

it was cute, but its also something i see zero need to argue abt; all these are p subjective in a way, mores than other tv i think

I thought Men Against Fire was great. Same for Hated In the Nation.

So wait, the show remains frustrating and sort of nihilistically pointless throughout all three seasons? I really liked "Dead Set," I thought it was clever and well-done.

still haven't watched Men Against Fire, should get around to that

Watched "Shut Up and Dance" a couple of nights ago. That one was pretty brutal.

See now I didnt like men Against Fire. I thought it was using too blunt a moral hammer. Also it just wasnt very engaging, for me.

I think I may have already said so up thread lol.

I kinds figured out Men Against Fire halfway through, but it was still chilling.

kinda

imo nosedive was great and not undermining because the person doing the most common job, driving a truck, was outside the system. so society still is based on people doing things and the social media garbage is just icing on the moneyed fantasy, with the only jail representation just being two people breaking out of structured society

also there was cake I think

so much terrible acting throughout this. i didn't mind american guy in playtest so much, he was annoying sure, but ultimately believable. his tinder date was terrible, so wooden and 'acty'. same with most people in hated in the nation, not to mention broad dumb characters (she's a hardnosed DI who has no truck with modern technology! she's a lovable northern IT boffin who can't help spouting impenetrable jargon!). trainspotting lady sometimes ok but her sidekick was painful to watch, as was b wong's scenery-chewing.

i'm torn, i enjoyed it mostly and i'm glad it exists but the smug bluntness and heavy-handed 'we r making serious point' really grated. trying but failing to be the 2k twilight zone, often because of the weak endings. shut up & dance felt boringly inevitable and unsatisfying - no depth, just an exercise in dumb darkness. playtest probably my favourite but it lost me with the try-hard ending-within-ending-within-ending rubbish.

it's frustrating because it all has potential to be great but CB's desire to be a hitchcockalike auteur leaves massive gaping holes. get more talented writers in! telling that the best one of the entire show had nothing to do with him (entire history of you). feels like it'd really benefit from a US-style writing team to fight off the more hokey dialogue and sixth formy writing.

also that song at the end of hated nation was fucking godawful.

I find it really weird that BM is so self-serious, but maybe that's just cause I've watched A Touch of Cloth more than once.

i watched the pigfucking one a few years ago, then everything else over the past few month or so. it's sometimes a good show but i wish they'd take it farther you know? i mean what if at the end of the episode it's not just that they're trapped in an endless cycle of hardware copies but also the creator and only person with they key is YOURSELF but yourself can only make changes based on a near-future social media system of likes and in order to gather up enough Likepoints to free your digital copy in hell you have to become the pig that gets fucked in the first episode via a chip that allows you to inhabit the mind of the pig in that particular simulation BUT it turns out that each of those simulations are controlled by a shadow government that controls the minds of its citizens using a

on and on and on, this show is a verb, it means to take anything and just exhaust the living fuck out of it until you no longer recognize it

with that said i did watch all of them so it must have done something right

damn dude i can't handle more than one episode of this a night. still haven't gone back to watch Men Against Fire.

i don't recognize any of the titles, but i believe that's the one that where it turned out that everything that had just happened was just an "experience" to be integrated into the next model version of himself, untold billions of which would be used to populate a new universe/simulation trying to take over another universe controlled by a rival human/bot/creator but THEN

you're supposed to read all that in garth voice

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan

Iain M Banks did a great flip side take (obviously before BM) on San Junipero called Surface Detail.

I cracked the seal on this last weekend by watching San Junipero first, fully aware that it's atypical of the rest of the series. Since then, I've watched the pig fucking one, the xmas episode with Jon Hamm, and the one where the girl buys an AI version of her dead boyfriend/husband only to get completely freaked out.

Not sure what to hit next. Guess I'll just keep jumping around.

Nosedive and Playtest are my favorites from S3.

watched the 1st three seasons over the past week. like 10 episodes total. occasionally clever, but i basically hate this show. like, half the episodes are tired (and inevitably male) sexual anxiety nightmares in paper thin sci-fi drag. oh no, she cheated on me. oh no, she done a porn. oh no, i fucked a pig on the telly.

Sounds about right. I couldn't take it, because it seemed so shallow and lazy, even when it had a good idea/cast.

did you just name all of the male sexual anxiety nightmares in those 3 examples?

feel like that's a super reductive take and i'm not even one of this show's true believers. it's all "x anxiety nightmares" of some sort.

xp

I'm sorry you had this experience. it must have been very difficult for you.

I'm not surprised Charlie Brooker has sexual anxiety nightmares, no-one can work out how he ended up married to Konnie Huq.

Is the she did porn episode the one where they bicycle for credits all day?

The setups are less of a problem to me than the show having almost nothing interesting to say about the situations it's portraying. Social media is taking over our lives!!! Yes, and...

It's more like OK, here's this extremely specific dead-end dystopian situation, OMG, they can't get out of this extremely specific dead-end dystopian situation!

Here's one: we're in the future, where a giant public pool is filled with robot piranhas, and once a year, a child is chosen to throw in to be eaten by the robot piranhas, and when the child is chosen her parents step up and volunteer to be eaten by piranhas instead, and they are, and then we see the child film it on her cellphone and post it to the internet to share with her friends, and it turns out the children are the ones that devised the robot piranhas because they are psychopaths who like their screens more than mom and dad who want their parents eaten by robot fish. What sort of sick society have we become!?!

cant wait for the fidget spinner ep in seies 4

did you just name all of the male sexual anxiety nightmares in those 3 examples?

yeah, i figure infidelity, porn sadness and the telly pig pretty much cover it

"what if phones, but too much?" is a lot of these episodes... great fb group, i recommend it

feel like the dystopia we're living in is tonally more nathan barley than black mirror

Watching over 12 hours of a show you "basically hate" in one week is pretty good fodder for a Black Mirror episode, it has to be said.

lol otm

https://irishkirsche.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/tumblr_neqzq9kmrk1u3o8rto2_500.jpg

cant wait for the fidget spinner ep in seies 4

― kurt schwitterz, Thursday, June 1, 2017 10:58 AM (twelve hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I read this while holding my fidget spinner so you best believe i'm excited too

Bring on the war with the fidget cubes

In a dystopian future, all citizens must spin their fidget spinners at all time. If they stop, they lose a finger. Episode ends with the entire nation fingerless and helpless. And then you see someone spin one ... on their TONGUE! DO YOU SEE WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT!?!?!

the severed fingers are used to make more fidget spinners

fidget spinners are PEOPLE

In a dystopian future, everyone is glued to an outlandish, ott reality TV show featuring totally insane, depraved acts. They just can't stop watching because it is so crazy. But then it turns out ... that crazy reality TV show *is* reality, and the people on the "shows" have all been watching everyone else, amazed at how boring and "fake" their lives are!

In a dystopian future, we replace our teachers with perfect robots, and the schools improve significantly. Grades and tests are up, our kids are smarter and more competent. And then we discover ... the robot teachers have replaced all our kids with robots!

In a dystopian future, a new strain of addictive pornography proliferates. Almost everyone becomes entranced, despite the fact that it eventually literally makes you go blind. It turns out this strain of pornography was devised ... by blind people! They have a big victory party and assume control until - twist! - they are beset by a newer strain of addictive audio pornography ... devised by deaf people!

"what if phones, but too much?" is a lot of these episodes... great fb group, i recommend it

credit where due to CB, apparently that phrase can actually be seen in a newspaper headline or something somewhere in s3

what if robot sex, but too much?

In a dystopian future, an insecure man spends his life's savings to get a cybernetic robot penis installed and becomes a literal sex machine. But then it turns out his lover has been a secret robot sub all along, and his partner long ago left him for another man ... who turns out to be a robot! With a REAL penis! Irony!

Brilliant work by Josh in Chicago in this thread.

Basically, sure, but my love for this series isn't lessened.

I thought we went over all that way back when

Ok I hadn't seen this before. Lol.

Ahead of its time.

now I feel old because all of Black Mirror seems to have aired recently, or at least in the "now," but I guess it did start in 2011

I just watched season 1 episode 1.

"Jane...... please"

Episode 2 sucks

Season 4 coming soon. Episode titles & credits:

“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

Teaser is out..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH85obU350E

Premieres December 29th
https://pitchfork.com/news/netflix-announces-black-mirror-season-4-premiere-date/

still excited for the possibility of a fidget spinner episode

I know it was deeply flawed but Nathan Barley was a deeply accurate glimpse of the future pre-Black Mirror, but the future is now

josh az otm, massive own-goal if they do not feature

let's do this then. Enjoying the first one so far.

[as a parent] fuck you brooker for putting that image in my head

I know EXACTLY what image

I'm watching "Arkangel". Parents, please have a full glass of wine before you spin this one up.

Seriously, this is devastating stuff.

I’m watching that one right now and alternating between cringe and outrage and hoping this doesn’t go the way I’m worried about but ohhh nooo

is USS Callister any good? I'm not interested in Star Trek or any of that stuff so I'd be inclined to avoid it.

yes, it’s about a simulated world, just happens to be trek themed

I think I'd rather watch an hourlong interview with Brooker than an episode of his show, but I'll give the Star Trek one a go.

"Crocodile" is bleak af

holy heck

I don't really need any more from tv shows

chekov’s pig

ah crud, forgot it was only six episodes and accidentally the whole thing

there were a couple uplifting bits in there and I liked the anthology horror format of the last one

Don’t think many people liked Metalhead, minimal as it is, but I did! Maxine Peake was great.

Arkangel hurt a bit to watch. It’s good, though. I had a lot of questions about the core technology that the episode didn’t go into, but that’s beside the point.

Hang the DJ is great, though not quite as good as San Junipero. Gets incredibly bleak at points which makes the ending even more satisfying.

Seen Arkangel and Crocodile so far. Enjoyed both just hoping the next one doesn't involve a chip in a head.

Any idea why Crocodile was filmed in Iceland (by the looks of it) but everyone had an English accent?

I'm guessing some sort of massive tax break.

I thought some of USS Callister might have been filmed there as well. That lake had a cold look about it.

USS Callister was great. Never expected anyone to pull off (or even attempt) a fun and enjoyable version of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

I did enjoy seeing my hometown used in Arkangel.

And as a dad of a three year old girl, the rest was a serious bummer.

I really enjoyed Metalhead. Short form escape story of the type Blomkamp’s being trying for but with more of a human touch

only seen uss callister so far and (without spoiling anything) i don't understand why anyone would care about most of the principal characters

Ugh, this Black Museum episode is awful and boring. It better have a point.

uss mcallister giving me the cat person vibes

Black museum was rubbish "would you like your comatose wife to live inside your head?" "Yeah why not"

what if phones, but too much

We wondered if the AV Club reviewer might have had a point, and that episode was supposed to be a grotesque "wrong" version of a Black Mirror story, which then tipped over into just being bad. It's the only one that doesn't have a female protagonist, and the others are mostly set in cold places, whereas this episode makes a big deal out of telling you how hot it is (which I know is germane to the plot, but still...). Anyway, it was weirdly out of place and terrible.

https://78.media.tumblr.com/2846dda95be5efaa86f0a0826cec4cea/tumblr_p1te4jNIBK1vtwqhpo1_1280.jpg

Black Museum episode reminded me of Tales from the Crypt, complete with the ending where someone's trying to kill the cryptkeeper for being a purveyor of misery

Black Mirror S4 episode list :

1. Cor Blimey, What If Facebook Likes Were The Only Way To Earn a Quid
2. There Is An App That Can Download You, Well Scary Innit Bruv
3. Me New Misses Is a Android And I Aint Bovvered
4. The Cheeky Gov'na Got A Pic Of Me Bollocks Through Me Webcam

— Callum (@rasta_dad) December 29, 2017

I've only watched the first episode of this season so far. It made little sense within the "constraints" of the Black Mirror universe but Jesse Plemmons does one HELL of a good Shatner.

i fucking loved that episode. way more playful than they usually are (but still p dark at the same time).

I really like Black Mirror and I'm unafraid to say it

Also, jokes about the premise are fun

Metalhead was probably the best thing about this season, even if it doesn't feel like it belongs to the Black Mirror Universe (not just in theme, but more on this later). USS Callister was fun but then completely fell apart once they got to the wormhole and/or trying to work out what the last 10 minutes *means* destroys the logic of the rest of it. Hang The DJ had quite an engaging story but the tech bolt-on to provide DO YOU SEE was clunky as hell.

Didn't care for either Arkangel or Crocodile, they were both completely in service of the one DO YOU SEE idea and the circumstances portrayed were pretty ridiculous.

Black Museum was kind of hacky and predictable but, as noted above, adhered pretty strongly to portmanteau tropes (spooky owner linking the plot strands, which all subtly contribute to each other and culminate in pet toad hoisting). The real reason for it, however, is I think it's there to act as an anchor to prove the Black Mirror universe exists and all the stories take place in the same setting. In the Black Museum I spotted:

Photos of the 'victim' from White Bear and Michael Smiley's character.
The bath from Crocodile.
The DNA converter from USS Callister
The Arkangel tablet
A bee from Hated In The Nation
A mention of "old people uploading to the cloud" i.e. San Junipero
The embalmed(?) body of the artist from The National Anthem
and finally one of the death masks appears to be Charlie Brooker.

In a different episode, the porn film she watches in Crocodile is the one that gets made in Fifteen Million Merits.

I really like Black Mirror and I'm unafraid to say it

Also, jokes about the premise are fun

― mh, Tuesday, January 2, 2018 5:04 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

me too

The first section of Black Museum (written by Penn Gillette!) was just fucking gross. And then the idea that people would enjoy owning a screaming keychain of a permanently-tortured human soul was misanthropic, even for Black Mirror.

I thought Metalheads was well-made, but I could have used a little more backstory/explanation. Is this a Skynet world?

Hang the DJ was pretty cool.

Surprised Black Mirror hasn't done the VR world hell idea, a la Iain Banks' Surface Detail...

It's not the best episode but I'm surprised how negative the reception to black museum is. there's way too much going on in it and none of the individual stories in it would be strong on their own, but idk it was fun in how over-the-top it all was

I've only watched 3 so far - Crocodile was stunning (landscape etc) and not too bad as a straightforward drama (end bit was laughably eye-rolly). It winds me up no end how the 'technology' plots don't stand up to the slightest scrutiny, not even where ideas overlap. For example even in Arkangel, people avoid the single child with the implant because of 'spying' fears; yet in Crocodile every living being is potentially subject to being on the giving/receiving end of similar 'spying' with a device common enough to be used by insurance companies yet it's not really known about.
Picking 'holes' obviously pointless to even start, but it's kind of frustrating how little effort's been put in to extend any idea beyond 'what if phones but too much'.

OK lol I take it back cos as I was typing this my laptop switched itself off

I had more of a problem with the idea (in the first episode) that you could generate a simulated copy of someone's personality and memories from their DNA.

I never thought of the different episodes of Black Mirror as all taking place in one universe, so your criticism doesn't bother me as much. Depending on how a technology evolved, it could make for very different use-cases. However, Black Museum seems to suggest that all (or at least some) of the episodes are from the same reality.

(in which case your criticism is totally valid)

As much as I enjoyed that episode - the memories being included in people’s DNA was pretty dumb.

i watched Marjorie Prime last week, and my final take was: it was like BM would be if Brooker wasn't an absolute pile of fucking overrated doggie plop.

20 minutes into season 4 episode 1. my prediction is something is going to go badly.

i do not think this guy will stand up to his business partner, gain confidence, and win the affection of that girl.

i hope i'm proven wrong.

oh fuck

Livetweeting Black Mirror could be pretty funny.

nerds are the worst

Haven't seen Black Museum yet, but I wasn't particularly assuming any take place in the same universe other than some sort of future western society that's like ours but with one thing changed/changing that somehow hasn't affected the rest of society (this doesn't apply to every ep obv).
Consider how many thinkpieces, jobs, opportunities etc smartphones (or even any one particular use of a smartphone, app, whatever) have spawned yet being effectively forced to show your memories on demand is like oh nbd

tbh every time I think of the cryptkeeper framing I mumble "gree hee hee"

Black Museum is very bad because of the tone. It's very SyFy Channel cheesy bullshit.

i like black museum--the tone doesn't strike me as that different from the Hamm Christmas Special--but it def feels like a different show than Metalhead, which felt refreshingly beamed in from a different channel

Season was good overall. Feel like they're running out of ideas a little bit though - it's like every episode is about consciousness or being inside someone's head, a slightly different Cookie. Hang the DJ was maybe the most interesting take on that this season, but there's a lot more they could do outside of that. Yeah Metalhead was refreshing in that respect

I dunno about Black Museum... some of the ideas were cool, but the conclusion of each story is just way bleaker than it needs to be, with the shit like the keychain. There's a point at which I feel like the writer is just not a good person

The real reason for it, however, is I think it's there to act as an anchor to prove the Black Mirror universe exists and all the stories take place in the same setting.

I just figured the real reason for this episode (and the White Christmas one) is that they had a bunch of ideas they couldn't stretch out to episode length

Any trend (real or hypothetical), taken to its extreme, is the template. So in a way, Black Mirror is a Portlandia spinoff.

He's on Desert Island Discs this week: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09kx840

“I lived in a field, and now I live in a tin!”