Charlie Brooker's BLACK MIRROR

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?