Black Mirror- Netflix [** Spoilers **]

FloatingVoter

Smurphy wrote: »

I didn't fully understand the second story. The woman in the little egg thing. No one forced her to do it...her involvement was entirely voluntary. So why was she so unhappy and why did she want to do in the first place? If she didn't like it, then didn't they just revert the process......

She was a clone. She had no say in the matter. Even though she thought and felt human emotions, she just existed as a slave for her master (the original). As far as she was concerned she had rights and entitlements, as far as her owners were concerned, she existed to make toast and do crap around the house.

Billy86

Smurphy wrote: »

I thought that the whole point was that the murder weapon did NOT have his finger prints on it. He was wearing his gloves when he hit yer man with the snow globe....so no finger prints. I thought that was why they needed the confession.

I didn't fully understand the second story. The woman in the little egg thing. No one forced her to do it...her involvement was entirely voluntary. So why was she so unhappy and why did she want to do in the first place? If she didn't like it, then didn't they just revert the process......

She didn't have a choice (the 'her' inside the egg) - basically that was a very advanced piece of artificial intelligence, and was a comment on the dangers/cruelty of creating that level of AI then expecting it to live like a robot (when it's closer to slavery since the thing is sentient)... I was expecting it to somehow murder the woman it was based on.

Smurphy

Thanks, I get it now :-)
What confused me was whether it was really her inside the egg....but it was her clone....which raises the whole issue of clones being self aware and enslaving them etc etc.....very interesting!

5uspect

The copy in the egg is not a carbon copy of the person, it is a representation of her with her behaviours and tastes, it might think it is her but it's "just a bit of code" or an AI with her personality traits and simply may just be responding to its internal logic. It might have its memory but probably not of all historical decisions like electing to get a cookie, or these parts can be removed. Like any computer it is 'programmed', in this case by some spectacularly cruel methods, to do a task. Because it has a human personality the programming is akin to torture.

Similarly the guy in the kitchen isn't a real person either. The callousness of the police at the end reflects this, they want to punish him, before trial, in a passive aggressive manner. To them it's no different to shooting a bunch of people in a game to relieve stress, except that they supposedly feel pain - whatever that is, and this gratified the police.

Billy86

5uspect wrote: »

To them it's no different to shooting a bunch of people in a game to relieve stress, except that they supposedly feel pain - whatever that is, and this gratified the police.

I think there was actually a line about this as well that the "broken" ones (through too much torture) get sold to games companies to put into games, or something to that effect.

5uspect

Billy86 wrote: »

I think there was actually a line about this as well that the "broken" ones (through too much torture) get sold to games companies to put into games, or something to that effect.

Ah yes, I'd forgotten that line.

exiledelbows

One question that wasn't really resolved. There was a loud noise at one point that Rafe Spall heard behind him but Jon Hamm apparently didn't. It was never explained what it was, or did I miss something?

heebusjeebus

exiledelbows wrote: »

One question that wasn't really resolved. There was a loud noise at one point that Rafe Spall heard behind him but Jon Hamm apparently didn't. It was never explained what it was, or did I miss something?

I think that was just to get across that the cabin was not 100% real. The same way the clock appeared suddenly and kept on showing a different time.

Gerry Rio

This one is going to take at least one more viewing to get my head around but I feel it'll be worth it.

Apart from the "puppet as a politician" episode it has been astonishingly good TV.

Tin Foil Hat

I afraid to read the last few pages.
I presume this is a stand-alone show - so it's okay to watch this without having seen any of season 2?

Billy86

Tin Foil Hat wrote: »

I afraid to read the last few pages.
I presume this is a stand-alone show - so it's okay to watch this without having seen any of season 2?

Yep - Black Mirror is a bit like the Twilight Zone or one of those types of shows, each episode is completely stand alone. If you like it, definitely check out the first 2 seasons (only 3 episodes each sadly), it's one of the very best things on TV.

jcsoulinger

Tin Foil Hat wrote: »

I afraid to read the last few pages.
I presume this is a stand-alone show - so it's okay to watch this without having seen any of season 2?

Yep all the EPs are stand alone.

Tin Foil Hat

Billy86 wrote: »

Yep - Black Mirror is a bit like the Twilight Zone or one of those types of shows, each episode is completely stand alone. If you like it, definitely check out the first 2 seasons (only 3 episodes each sadly), it's one of the very best things on TV.

Yea. I've watched season 1 on netflix, but not season 2. Just making doubly sure.

DoYouEvenLift

Finally watched the new episode. Unsurprisingly it was as good and even better than most of the other episodes. Surprised they got John Hamm to do a single episode on such a low scale show. Whoever writes these and comes up with some of the concepts is a very unique thinker.

I loved the part about having what was really just AI be so advanced it felt like it was actually a real human. There's actually a movie coming soon which is about the same idea and Domhnall Gleeson, who funnily enough acted as a robot in an episode of this, is in it. It's called 'Ex Machina', really looking forward to seeing it and I know a lot of people who enjoyed this show would be interested as well.

Would love to see some full, high budget movies made out of some of the concepts from episodes of this show.

Billy86

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

Finally watched the new episode. Unsurprisingly it was as good and even better than most of the other episodes. Surprised they got John Hamm to do a single episode on such a low scale show. Whoever writes these and comes up with some of the concepts is a very unique thinker.

I loved the part about having what was really just AI be so advanced it felt like it was actually a real human. There's actually a movie coming soon which is about the same idea and Domhnall Gleeson, who funnily enough acted as a robot in an episode of this, is in it. It's called 'Ex Machina', really looking forward to seeing it and I know a lot of people who enjoyed this show would be interested as well.

Would love to see some full, high budget movies made out of some of the concepts from episodes of this show.

Hamm is also in 'A Young Doctors Notebook' with Daniel Radcliffe - not sure of the budget but it is British so wouldn't be near an American budget. I'm guessing he picks work he likes doing, Dom Draper has pretty much set his career for a long time anyway.

They're all done by Charlie Brooker - you should check his other stuff out, the guy is a genius and does some comedy too.

expectationlost

I was watching one of those hollywood reporter roundtables from about a 6 months ago http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/drama-actor-roundtable-jon-hamm-709412 and Jon Hamm had just seen Black Mirror and was raving about how good it was and would love to be on it

phasers

Yep, Jon Hamm sought out Charlie Brooker and asked if he could be in an episode, he's just a huge fan and probably didn't even care about getting paid.

DoYouEvenLift

phasers wrote: »

Yep, Jon Hamm sought out Charlie Brooker and asked if he could be in an episode, he's just a huge fan and probably didn't even care about getting paid.

Great to see actors doing passion projects and not cleaning up as many pay cheques as possible. Apparently Matthew McConnaughy and Woody Harrelson did true detective for free too, at least that's what I read on Forbes. To be fair, with a show like true detective they kind of stood to benefit a lot more than money and have helped contribute to the TV revolution where well known actors are prepared to appear in series whereas before, when shows were all low budget and low quality, TV was considered a step back for movie stars.

Aidric

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

TV was considered a step back for movie stars.

Not anymore. TV is trumping a lot of movies these days. The major Hollywood studios are only banking on the dead certs like the superhero franchises.

Hamm himself is a prime example of this with his involvement in the excellent Mad Men. Actors appreciate the time afforded to them for character development over the course of a TV series.

Moving to Black Mirror and the acerbic wit and cynicism that Brooker had in his writing and other TV projects was fully realised in this series. I have a lot of time for someone presenting an uncomfortable vision through the medium of an intelligent narrative. It wasn't perfect but it was highly watchable.

DoYouEvenLift

Aidric wrote: »

Not anymore. TV is trumping a lot of movies these days. The major Hollywood studios are only banking on the dead certs like the superhero franchises.

Hamm himself is a prime example of this with his involvement in the excellent Mad Men. Actors appreciate the time afforded to them for character development over the course of a TV series.

Moving to Black Mirror and the acerbic wit and cynicism that Brooker had in his writing and other TV projects was fully realised in this series. I have a lot of time for someone presenting an uncomfortable vision through the medium of an intelligent narrative. It wasn't perfect but it was highly watchable.

Probably why I said 'was'.

I made a thread about how much I love HBO, since they seem to always do the best produced shows, a while back and talked about how TV has definitely headed towards overtaking movies, if it hasn't already. All we need is CGI being as cheap as possible to do and we could see consistent episodes of TV shows that rival Hollywood blockbusters like some of the Game of Thrones episodes. The room for detail and story progression allowed on TV is why it's better than movies. Even trilogy's can struggle to include everything. Hopefully more writers turn towards TV. You're definitely right about the comic book movies too, I hardly go to the cinema anymore and when I do its usually for some type of superhero movie.

Basq

Only got a chance to watch 'White Christmas' yesterday but did honestly think this episode was better than most of the second season to be honest.

It was very well-written and all tied together wonderfully with the

"cookies" / time-lapse

etc.

But what pushed it above most was the 2 top-notch performances by Jon Hamm and Rafe Spall - while not a fan of 'Mad Men', I've always thought Rafe Spall was very good and he excelled in this.

Can't wait for more, although could be quite a wait judging from a recent interview by Brooker.

AnonoBoy

Only got around to watching this recently.

Performances were great but found it all a bit predictable really.

As soon as they revealed the cookie time lapse thing it was obvious that's what was going on with Spall's character too.

shinny

I haven't watched any of the rest of these, just the Christmas one. I've heard the rest aren't as good so I should lower my expectations a bit. Loved the Christmas one though.

The block idea was just brilliant and especially if you are an offender, you are blocked to everyone. Mad!

jcsoulinger

shinny wrote: »

I haven't watched any of the rest of these, just the Christmas one. I've heard the rest aren't as good so I should lower my expectations a bit. Loved the Christmas one though.

The block idea was just brilliant and especially if you are an offender, you are blocked to everyone. Mad!

As a whole the Xmas episode is some where In the middle for me, National Anthem and Entire History of You are still top for me. Entire History of you has similar themes to white Christmas only its a lot more straight forward plot wise, that could be a good start.

Billy86

A Million Different Tokens (or whatever it was called) was my personal favourite.

DoYouEvenLift

shinny wrote: »

I haven't watched any of the rest of these, just the Christmas one. I've heard the rest aren't as good so I should lower my expectations a bit. Loved the Christmas one though.

The block idea was just brilliant and especially if you are an offender, you are blocked to everyone. Mad!

S01E01 is still the best in my opinion, followed by S01E03 and S02E02.

Harry Palmr

Black Mirror bought by Netflix.

Channel 4 apparently with an option to be first broadcast buyer.

Welcome to the future.

DoYouEvenLift

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Black Mirror bought by Netflix.

Channel 4 apparently with an option to be first broadcast buyer.

Welcome to the future.

Gerry Rio

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Black Mirror bought by Netflix.

Channel 4 apparently with an option to be first broadcast buyer.

Welcome to the future.

As in new episodes?

Harry Palmr

Yes.