Charlie Brooker's BLACK MIRROR

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!”

metalheads should have been called "strong and stable"

extremely happy w my decision to watch only "san junipero" from last season and "uss callister" & "metalheadz" from this season, i feel like i'm 3 for 3

those little tracker flechettes the robot tracker fired made me cringe! ouch

I'm not going to think too much about whether the ending, with the reveal of what they were looking for, is a definite reference to another episode. Probably.. yeah

I didn't enjoy Metalheads much. But it was probably the right aesthetic decision to have no backstory, no frame. Why are there robot dogs here; why are they so frickin determined, what do the robots even want, why are they so scarily good at what they do...

Every smart thing the lady does to confuse or outwit the robodog strikes me as deserving of better payoff.

I'm still on the "why do stories explain too much instead of relying on a simple premise and dumping us in, in media res, like good stories should be able to" so I'm perfectly fine with how it was structured

imo the point of survival horror is undermined if we know where and how the monster comes from, the unknown is the real fear

I've watched about 14 episodes. I have actively enjoyed 2. The rest ended with me saying "that's it???" (even though they all seem overly long).

awwww mia don't help your junkie boyfriend hide that body

huh, in the end she is more ruthless than him.

well

we don't know yet

holy shit

ok.

wayyyyy more.

love this show.

'the baby...was blind!!!!'

Not like a baby is capable or forming coherent memories at that age but whatever, still enjoyed it.

Um, hate to quibble or spoil but it looks like the box can get the visual feed from even the most unlikely of sources, and this becomes a crucial plot point. Presuming a sighted baby would have been no trouble.

not that it matters, but hamsters have notably terrible eyesight

that was not a hamster!

my bad

guinea pigs are pretty blind too

Metalhead would have been greatly diminished by a backstory or explanation. You already know what a guard dog is.

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 [...] there's a lot more they could do outside of that.
[...]
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

― Vinnie, Thursday, January 11, 2018 2:30 AM (three days ago)

the vast TVGH writing staff

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

racist

had to pause and restart

i'm not buying mia's "crocodile tears" following her murders

lol this children's recital with the 1920s mobsters

Crocodile is phenomenal.

All but the first and last are super imho.

The first one was the weakest so far for sure. Going to watch metalhead tonight.

They really go hard on this “virtual selves” idea, and the moral chaos that would emerge from it. I find it interesting, but it’s also really outlandish and might take away from the show’s ability to respond to our actual relationship to technology and media, which it clearly intends to do.

watching Hang the Dj, it's reminding me of The Lobster

and another current tv show

uss callister ended up being my least favourite of the lot, by a long way. black museum was nicely done for what it was. ‘er indoors hated metalheads and she is wrong.

re aldo’s “what if phones but too much”: i mean yes i agree, but nearly the whole world is basically “phones” now, so it’s an ideal speculative launching pad for “but too much”. “what if consciousness but simulated by some code which is being tortured” is where it lost me.

"what if phones but too much" was Mallory Ortberg

and CB liked it so much he snuck it into last season

I only tried USS Callister but I had to bail on it, so bored of the one-dimensionally toxic dude characters

"what if phones but too much" was Mallory Ortberg

― Haribo Hancock (sic), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 07:09 (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well bugger me

one-dimensionally toxic dude characters

Hrm; I thought the show was fiction

but you want more than one dimension in order to care about what happens to them/other people. that’s one of the reasons the whole negan thing got so stupid.

When I was watching the first episode I was impressed at how committed Matt Damon was to the role and going full schlub -- then I saw that he was played by Landry and I was :(.

The craziest thing that happened in this season of Black Mirror is that Britishers considered Bugsy Malone well liked enough to be a school play

https://www.mtishows.com/bugsy-malone

a popular license for use with small children, apparently

Bugsy Malone is only available to license in the United States and Canada.

cannot forgive this inaccuracy in the show

whoops, wrong licenser

http://www.thebritishblacklist.com/tbbs-nora-denis-reviews-bugsy-malone-lyric-theatre-hammersmith/

apparently it was a popular stage attraction in 2015 in Britain?!?

I figured they just put in something with an uplifting end tune that they were able to easily license, but no, this musical actually had a run in recent years

my school did a production of Bugsy Malone in the 90s

I think Bugsy Malone was quite popular here. At least it seemed to be on TV a lot when I was a kid

It seems like it’s on at least three times over every Christmas period.

yah Britishers love Scot Baio.