Black Mirror- Netflix [** Spoilers **]

Da Shins Kelly

Fcuked up, but rather excellent. A very good critique of mob-style justice.

ixoy

Really enjoyed this one. Nicely set up to make us thing that originally it was a commentary on voyeurism (people taking videos of accidents, etc) and then a good twist to what it was actually about. Also - and this takes some doing - the most depressing of the series so far. Apparently Brooker tweeted a link to a cute cartoon afterwards for therapy...

Basq

Yep, really liked that one.

Nicely twisted.. thought it was just gonna be a straight "signal that causes rage" (a là the movie 'The Signal' from a few years ago) but was dark and definitely one of the best so far.

And as I said a few weeks ago in the Utopia thread, TV needs more Michael Smiley!

Only 1 more.. bah! (supposed Brooker can't be blamed with his TV efforts alone in the last few months being very busy - A Touch Of Cloth, Weekly Wipe, 10 O Clock Live etc)

AlmightyCushion

Basq wrote: »

Only 1 more.. bah! (supposed Brooker can't be blamed with his TV efforts alone in the last few months being very busy - A Touch Of Cloth, Weekly Wipe, 10 O Clock Live etc)

Yeah, it's a balls. The UK's 6 episodes a season is bad enough, 3 is just torture though.

Basq

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Yeah, it's a balls. The UK's 6 episodes a season is bad enough, 3 is just torture though.

They're getting shorter and shorter thanks to the likes of Sherlock and Luther too!

Still, quality over quantity!

ixoy

Basq wrote: »

And as I said a few weeks ago in the Utopia thread, TV needs more Michael Smiley!

I was surprised when he got bumped off in the woods as he was a known face. Made more sense then later on!

Barely related: Is Utopia worth watching? I can't read the thread itself as it'd contain spoilers.

johnpatrick81

Both episodes were good ideas but poorly executed IMO.

DeVore

Utopia is superb imho. Watch it with a few hours to spare cos you will want to watch all the episodes in a row
The first epi is a bit slow but its well worth it.


Black Mirror feels like that "difficult second album" where all the good stuff went into the first album and people want more but the artist hasnt got it in the tank. The last two felt more like an updated "Tales of the Unexpected" than the cutting commentary on modern tech and social changes of the first series.
Still good but just not got that edge/bite to it somehow.

mike65

The material before the big twist was good, fast paced and exciting enough with just enough intrigue regarding the "foresight" of the central character, the big reveal itself as brilliantly staged with that endorphin rush "oooooooooh" moment but then it suddenly became Captain Obvious only slightly redeemed by the final tweak which revealed

how she was on a loop of punishment

.

Basq

ixoy wrote: »

Barely related: Is Utopia worth watching? I can't read the thread itself as it'd contain spoilers.

Am three episodes behind (planning to watch all 6 episodes back-to-back this weekend) but it's absolutely excellent..

pixelburp

ixoy wrote: »

...

Barely related: Is Utopia worth watching? I can't read the thread itself as it'd contain spoilers.

Yes; it's very dark, though is laced with an oddball, black-humour & sensibility that offsets the violence and pessimism. It's also great to look at, almost like watching a comic come to life; well worth it for the visuals alone.

dr gonzo

never even heard of Utopia. Good ol Boards, always giving me new stuff to do!

As for BM, pretty good so far, but not stellar. As DeVore says, its lost some its social critique tone, and is now just more of a quirky story. I think they could have made the first episode a little creepier to be honest, more uncanny valley stuff.

As for this weeks episode, I just found the main actress extremely annoying, that might be just me, but when compared to the acting last week not a candle is held.

I suppose the one problem I have with this show is that nearly every episode has little quirks that annoy me and then I cant get over. obviously its a story and a piece of art in the literal sense, and therefore reality is not the bar by which it sets itself. Even still though. For example, with the national anthem episode, the explanation for why the PM had no choice but to concede to the demands was completely silly. From that point on it remained compelling but I was just sitting there thinking how unnecessary it all was, and nobody would have either agreed to it, or being forced to do it.

As for this week it was not so much the premise but the repetition aspect that was completely insane. The amount of work put into torturing one prisoner...


As I said, completely stupid complaints that were meant to be ignored as a matter of course but they niggled

Looking forward to next weeks!

oxygen

dr gonzo wrote: »

As for this week it was not so much the premise but the repetition aspect that was completely insane. The amount of work put into torturing one prisoner...


As I said, completely stupid complaints that were meant to be ignored as a matter of course but they niggled

Looking forward to next weeks!

Yea, I had to put aside the logistics of the amount of overhead for torturing one prisoner but realistically I can see it as a viable scenario. She was a national symbol of hate. Maybe one particularity left wing party gets into power on the back of this torturous sentence for her, then mob mentality takes over.

I really liked this episode, I thought I had a handle on it, similar to the Signal movie above someone mentioned, then I spent the next 15 minutes :eek:

pixelburp

Caught up with episode 2 this afternoon (gotta love 4OD for not region-locking the service over here), and I would agree that it's easily one of the bleaker episodes from Black Mirror.

They really used the bait & switch well; particularly as the 'Signal' storyline was itself twisted enough to be an episode in its own right - one could easily imagine Brooker penning a story about how we've become mindless drones with our cameras & smart-phones. That it was an elaborate con & a jab at our notions of mob justice, and just how brutal we can be really twist the knife.

As for the premise itself: did anyone else think of Derren Browns recent 'Apocolypse' series when watching? I thought there were a lot of similarities between this BM story & Browns voyeuristic show, itself delighting in putting its victim through the ringer, whilst masquerading itself as having a moral message behind the elaborate con.

Miguel_Sanchez

I'm pretty sure there was an old Future Shock in 2000AD years ago with a very similar theme i.e. murderers who are perpetually punished while families of victims watch.

Anyone remember it?

Basq

Not really enjoying this one..

.. was bugging me as to what I knew the main actor from. I then realised it was the BT ads.



Turns out he won a bloody BAFTA for Best Actor at the BAFTA's (beating Benedict Cumberbatch and Matt Smith) a few years ago.... what's he doing on a bloody nauseating BT ad?

pixelburp

Uhm, yeah - waldo and its actor is unbearably annoying & obnoxious. I'm sure that's the point but I don't think it works.

pixelburp

Very disappointing finale, a half baked idea poorly executed, with a positively lol'some ending. Today an English borough, tomorrow the world eh? It felt like a clumsy, tacked on end, grasping for some futureshock & made it all ten times as preachy and adolescent than it was already

wil

Basq wrote: »

Not really enjoying this one..

.. was bugging me as to what I knew the main actor from. I then realised it was the BT ads.



Turns out he won a bloody BAFTA for Best Actor at the BAFTA's (beating Benedict Cumberbatch and Matt Smith) a few years ago.... what's he doing on a bloody nauseating BT ad?

Have to agree, shame that wrapping a wireless router around him would prove the regress of science.
Find myself getting a bit bored of Brooker (I wasnt the first). Cant help feeling life is rarely ever going to be defined by single premise plots unless of course you live(d) in Spanish inquisition times, Natzi Germany, or post Celtic Tiger blues:rolleyes:

I might revisit The Prisoner/Brazil etc to re-recall how close they could be to the dystopian future possible than much of what is being gurgitated.
Cant recall anyone predicting where we are now to any great extent, our spectacular failure in the area of space and time travel being a particular disappointment and I suggest the internet as both cause and effect in this and societies continued regression towards navel gazing.
Ah the phuture is a verry forren country indeed.

"It's funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you viddy them on the screen."

pixelburp

Huh; just in case anyone thought 'Be Right Back' was simply too outlandish to be real, we're closer than you may have thought:

"Launching in March is a new Twitter app called LivesOn. The service uses Twitter bots powered by algorithms that analyse your online behaviour and learn how you speak, so it can keep on scouring the internet, favouriting tweets and posting the sort of links you like, creating a personal digital afterlife. As its tagline explains: "When your heart stops beating, you'll keep tweeting." "

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/shortcuts/2013/feb/18/death-social-media-liveson-deadsocial

Basq

^ Creepy...

.. although un-suprising with the recent surge in memorial pages on social networks for the deceased.

kowloon

So far, of the six Black Mirror episodes I think the one from last week was the best and some of them have been pretty underwhelming, but I want to see more tv like it. Any suggestions for other programmes are welcome.

Da Shins Kelly

Poor enough finale.

dmcg90

To me? It absolutely flew but it felt like barely ANYTHING happened, and then we zoom forward into this frankly far more interesting future which would have been a far more interesting world to see for an hour versus what we got.

Missyelliot2

Wasn't the best as a finale. But definitely food for thought regarding the social network. Plus I do think that with the balls up the government are doing....won't be long before some(one) (thing) akin to the teletubbies will be voted in.
Remember Dustin the turkey??? Scary, but true...

dmcg90

Out of every single episode this felt the most unbelievable (i'm including Season 1 Episode 1 in this), I think thats Black Mirror's hook. That notion that yes, this could happen very easily, it un-nerves you while watching.

This? Just kinda laughable really.

Volvagia

I've enjoyed the 2nd season but I didn't live up to the highs of the first season.

I agree with the other comments here about Be Right Back being an interesting idea but not executed well.

My favourite of the three was White Bear, where the twist had my mouth wide open for the entire rest of the episode. (Also the last time I was that actor was when he played Tyres in Spaced )

I thought the 3rd episode didn't quite hit the target. I don't find the Waldo taking over the world and turning it into a police state very believable.

Not as good as I'd hoped but still pretty good quality TV.

Das Kitty

I called the White Bear twist in the first few minutes. Now, hands up, I did also change my mind about it before changing it back to my original thought!

After last week's events in Italy, maybe Waldo-world isn't so far-fetched!

I still sort of wish they didn't make the second series.

pixelburp

If I'm honest, whilst I wasn't impressed with the Waldo episode, I was willing to give it a pass-must-try-harder sort of rating. Nice idea, just poorly executed.

The coda though was hilariously awful & abrupt. It wasn't as if it couldn't have been slowly drip-fed or grown throughout the story; instead the sudden, ludicrous twist felt like a bad Twilight Zone episode. Waldo took over the world! Dun dun dunnnn!

Colm!

Ranking episodes from favourite to least:

1. The National Anthem
2. White Bear
3. Ten Million Merits
4. Be Right Back
5. The Entire History of You
6. The Waldo Moment

...seriously. What an awful ending to a really good run. Hopefully there's good ideas for a Season 3 if he plans to continue.