Black Mirror Reflect-all

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Black Mirror season 3 was released on Netflix on 21 October. As there will be at least another season consisting of six more episodes, I thought this needed its own topic. Plus, it's not really a "hidden gem"

The episode titles for season 3:
1. Nosedive
2. Playtest
3. Shut Up and Dance
4. San Junipero
5. Men Against Fire
6. Hated in the Nation

Personally, I thought that the idea put forward in the first episode is absolutely frightening. Almost as frightening as the "blocking a person" mechanic in the Christmas special. I'm not a Twitter/Instagram user, because I'm not interested in rating other people's lives. At the same time I don't want other people to give me a "thumbs up" for how awesome my food is or how fantastic my holidays are. I'm happy enough with my choices, so I don't need any one to reaffirm those. Mostly it might just be to make others jealous, I guess... So the topic of Nosedive really hits home. This would be the absolute nightmare.

So, what are your thoughts?

There is an interesting article on Vice (http://www.vice.com/read/black-mirro...) about Black Mirror. It sums up pretty well what the show is about. If you don't want to read the article/review, here is Part of the last paragraph:

It's a warning in the eye of a hurricane, too goofy in its aesthetics to register as art, and too on-the-nose in its storytelling to land as a metaphor. Black Mirror asks us to look at our own reflection, but it doesn't entirely care who is looking back.

As you can see, the show's supposed biggest flaw is mentioned in that paragraph too, namely that it might be a little bit too much on-the-nose with its message. Perhaps a little bit more subtlety would have been better from time to time, but I see it a little bit differently. Sometimes metaphors just aren't enough to make people understand what the key problem is. Black Mirror has never been subtle, so why should it be now?

I have had so many mixed feelings about Black Mirror as it has aired. Overall, I love it, but I find it difficult to enjoy. I wonder if people had the same issues with Twilight Zone when they watched it as it aired. It's so much easier to watch that stuff years later and agree with how it generally critiques humanity. Black Mirror hits a bit close to home and some of the commentary is a little over-the-top.

For example, I really, really hate rating stuff. Most every time I get harassed into rating something I get annoyed. So, episode 1 of season 3 should really appeal to me, right? For whatever reason, everything just felt weird. I did enjoy it, and I just get an "everyone loses" feeling.

I think that Black Mirror typically comments on an aspect of modern human culture that exists, and I just get depressed because it is inevitably going to keep being that way for a long time.

If you think Black Mirror episodes should have a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/2HO2rMol.jpg)

I haven't watched the new series yet because I work weekends, but I'll start on my break this week. I'm excited, but also, weirdly, kind of not looking forward to it.

Overall, I love it, but I find it difficult to enjoy.

This is the series in a nutshell. I doubt I will ever rewatch the ones I've seen, and my wife won't watch it after "Nope"-ing out of Fifteen Million Credits. It's just too unrelentingly bleak.

I also really like the lack of subtlety, it's impossible to ignore the subtext which would go over the head of most viewers if it wasn't so blatant.

I do love that the MeowMeowBeenz Episode is written by Rashida Jones and Michael Schur of all people.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

I do love that the MeowMeowBeenz Episode is written by Rashida Jones and Michael Schur of all people.

Don't you mean the Whuffie Episode?

ruhk wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:

I do love that the MeowMeowBeenz Episode is written by Rashida Jones and Michael Schur of all people.

Don't you mean the Whuffie Episode? :P

Never read that but I'll fix that.

Damn. S3E4 was something else. I really loved it.

I thought every episode was really good with the the exception of the last one. It wasn't bad per se, just that 90 minutes for the story was too long. They could have done it in 45-60 minutes.

I've just managed to finish episode 2. The Missus watched it with me yesterday and her reaction was like: "Perhaps getting VR might not be the best idea..." I know that it would be far fetched to draw the same conclusion for the current generation of VR, but the fact is that no one really knows about the long term effects of VR. As far as I know. (If someone knows a reliable study, I'd be interested in reading that.)

Spoiler:

Edit: Episode 4 is heartbreakingly beautiful. Loved the shoutout to The Smiths, too ("Girlfriend in a coma"?! WTF?!)... it's such a cruel teaser.

saw episodes 2 and 3 last night.
Playtest hast kept me off VR of at least a few years, thankyouverymuch.

A question about Shup Up and Dance;

Spoiler:

was the reveal that all the blackmailed people were bad people? The last two, Kenny and Drone guy were pedophiles and both deserverd to die/get sent to jail, while the rest 'only' suffered social judgement?

It seems I'm a big Jerome Flynn fan, even when he's not in medieval garb.

Regarding Shut Up and Dance - which was one of the scariest episodes actually:

Spoiler:

They don't really reveal whether they are all bad people, but it could be... We never find out the age of the girl Flynn's character is supposed meet... so... could be... And as the woman who leaves the car at the start of the episode is involved in a racism scandal...

By now I've finished the third season. All in all, pretty fantastic, but episode six was an odd thing. It just felt like a direct to DVD movie. Nothing special about that one. Because of the length, I expected something special along the lines of the Christmas special.

Playtest creeped me out more than most episodes have. It just seems so obvious that Mega Game Corp going for the big bucks in gaming would really try that kind of technology with similar results. :shudder:

But hey, that's the great thing about Black Mirror! No matter what you fear, there's an episode tailor made to make your skin crawl!

San Junipero was sweet. Loved it.
Man against Fire felt very meh.

Brainsmith wrote:

Regarding Shut Up and Dance - which was one of the scariest episodes actually:

Spoiler:

They don't really reveal whether they are all bad people, but it could be... We never find out the age of the girl Flynn's character is supposed meet... so... could be... And as the woman who leaves the car at the start of the episode is involved in a racism scandal...

By now I've finished the third season. All in all, pretty fantastic, but episode six was an odd thing. It just felt like a direct to DVD movie. Nothing special about that one. Because of the length, I expected something special along the lines of the Christmas special.

He says he wanted to

Spoiler:

have sex with a 20 year old

and

Spoiler:

his wife doesn't make any comment about age at the end.

@strangederby:
I wonder if he says the truth though... It wouldn't be anything that you'd shout from the rooftop... but it's pure speculation.

I had a day off work yesterday, and I thought I'd spend a bit of time watching S1E1 of Black Mirror, to see what the show's all about; apparently I had been living under a rock for the last few years. Anyway. I then went on to watch the next 8 episodes back-to-back, wrapping up my day with S3E2, "Playtest". I think my brain broke after all of that.

I've been very excited to see where technology brings the world in the coming years, but many of the concepts portrayed in Black Mirror scare the sh*t out of me.

Also, S1E1 is the worst episode of the series, in terms of scope and vision of the future. It's also the one that's most likely to happen, soonest, and that scares me more.

There is a new Black Mirror/Netflix ad. It's pretty much a mini Black Mirror episode itself...

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Loved San Junipero but that maybe because it was a tv show that had a bisexual character that wasn't either a) insane b) evil c) spreading disease but instead was shock horror normal. Also pointed out you can be bisexual without having had sex with more than one gender, yeah for that.

Man against Fire was the weakest but just because I thought it was very clear what the twist and themes were going to be from the word go.

merphle wrote:

Also, S1E1 is the worst episode of the series, in terms of scope and vision of the future. It's also the one that's most likely to happen, soonest, and that scares me more.

It already has

One could argue that The Waldo Effect episode also already took place during the US presidential election.

Well I finally caught up with S3 and am going to just go and delete all my social media accounts now.

Also, go put tape on all of your Web cams right now.

Random non–spoilery thoughts about Season 4, episode 1:

– it looks more like Star Trek than the newer Star Trek movies
– this episode is basically Ready Player One only better, as it…
a) …is more focussed (only relying on one sci-fi property).
b) …has a much more critical stance on the possible problems of VR.
– Meth Damon is in it!

BUT:
VR? again? After last season's "Playtest" it was not really necessary to do this again.

Is all of season 4 out?! Had no idea, definitely excited about this.

Come to think of it, is there any time that Netflix doesn't put out an entire season at once?

DeThroned wrote:

Come to think of it, is there any time that Netflix doesn't put out an entire season at once?

It depends on the country you're in. Over here in Germany, Designated Survivor, Star Trek and Riverdale are released weekly, whereas others - like Travelers - are released all at once.

But yes, all episodes are out now.

Yes, it's out.

My actual thought on USS Callister was more "DNA doesn't work that way..."

If someone has seen Metalhead, I don't get the...

Spoiler:

...teddy bears?

Was it supposed to be that they send deathbots after people who steal anything, even teddy bears? Is there something there I'm supposed to get? I guess there was the White Bear episode from a few seasons back, but I don't see any other connection.

I'm not watching them in order, so maybe an earlier episode?

Oh well, on to Crocodile

tanstaafl wrote:

Yes, it's out.

My actual thought on USS Callister was more "DNA doesn't work that way..."

Yeah, the "DNA-also-stores-memory" takes QUITE a bit of suspension of disbelief to make it work.

And Happy New Year from Black Mirror...

Brainsmith wrote:

b) …has a much more critical stance on the possible problems of VR.
– Meth Damon is in it!

Also, if you thought the voice of the internet player at the very end was familiar, it was none other than Todd's good buddy Jesse Pinkman.

Brainsmith wrote:
tanstaafl wrote:

Yes, it's out.

My actual thought on USS Callister was more "DNA doesn't work that way..."

Yeah, the "DNA-also-stores-memory" takes QUITE a bit of suspension of disbelief to make it work.

I've played enough Assassin's Creed games to just go "okay, they're doing that. Guess we'll roll with it". I thought it was a fun episode, but man did it go to some dark places.

Brainsmith wrote:
tanstaafl wrote:

Yes, it's out.

My actual thought on USS Callister was more "DNA doesn't work that way..."

Yeah, the "DNA-also-stores-memory" takes QUITE a bit of suspension of disbelief to make it work.

Ugh. I’ve been chanting “the haploid human genome contains 570 MB of data” for years, to deaf ears apparently.

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