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 Charlie Brooker is scared of the future, and he wants you to know it. "If technology is a drug – and it does feel like a drug – then what, precisely, are the side-effects? This area – between delight and discomfort – is where Black Mirror, my new drama series, is set. The 'black mirror' of the title is the one you'll find on every wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the cold, shiny screen of a TV, a monitor, a smartphone."  So far there have been two seasons of three episodes each, plus a christmas special. I won't go into too much detail here because you should all watch this and I really don't want to spoil too much, even if they've been out for years. Season One 01 The National Anthem Prime Minister Michael Callow has just been told that Princess Susannah, Duchess of Beaumont has been kidnapped, and the ransom demands are kind of embarassing. He tries to keep it all very low key but twitter and youtube have other ideas.  02 Fifteen Million Merits This is a little bit more future, every wall is your new facebooks, with entertainment, and advertising, on every wall at all times. The more you ride the excercise cycles the more merits you earn. Merits can be used for food, to skip ads, and as an entry fee to talent competitions. They can also be gifted to others, just in case you want to help a friend show off their talent and follow their dreams.  03 The Entire History of You In this episode our memory has the assitance of a small chip to help us remember everything, memories are able to be played back for ourselves, or on a screen for others to watch. The thing is, do we really want to remember every single detail?  Season Two 01 Be Right Back There's a new online service to help those who are grieving, who have lost someone close to them and are not coping very well with the loss. You can get in contact with a virtual copy of the departed based on their online communications while alive. This is, of course, a totally healthy thing to do.  02 White Bear I honestly can't come up with a non spoilery synopsis of this episode, so I'm not even going to try. If someone else can do a decent job of it then it should be edited into this. I will say this is my highlight of the entire series, watch it. Watch it.  03 The Waldo Moment A comedian who does the voice of an offensive cartoon character ends up running for election. Only it's not him they want to elect, it's the character.  Black Mirror - White Christmas A lovely Christmas episode containing three festive stories.  Season 3 - The Netflix Season I haven't looked up too much about this upcoming season yet as I want to remain relatively unspoiled, but for now here are the episode titles. Nosedive Playtest Shut Up and Dance San Junipero Men Against Fire Hated in the Nation Plus there should be another 6 episodes coming next year. All praise to our new god Netflix. Also, don't forget the netflix rules! X-O posted:
BSam fucked around with this message at 23:50 on Oct 21, 2016 |
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Dec 4, 2014 14:07
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Netflix Rules Update! 
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I've watched all of these and I insist that you do the same. There really, really is no way of providing a synopsis for White Bear, but it's still one of the most haunting pieces of television I've ever seen. Plus, the new Christmas special will have Jon Hamm of Mad Men in a cottage with Rafe Spall. What could be more cozy than that? I mean, apart from the inevitable mindfuck that follows.
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Dec 4, 2014 16:19
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Just watched all of these after it came up in another thread. 1-1: Good 1-2: Good 1-3: Crap 2-1: Meh 2-2: Good 2-3: Meh
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Dec 4, 2014 16:43
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Sounds like Robert Downey Jr's production company has successfully optioned "The Entire History of You" for a film.quote:Robert Downey Jr has beaten George Clooney in a bidding war for the film rights to an episode of Channel 4’s Black Mirror.
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Dec 4, 2014 16:49
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My shot at a synopsis for White Bear: Tyres from Spaced is in it and you'll hate it for the first 45 minutes or so. But watch it. Watch it now. How are we feeling about spoilers tags in discussing this show since the newest episode aired almost 2 years ago? I don't want to ruin anything for anyone new, but I also want to have a laugh at the quasi-in-joke about the kidnapper in the National Anthem, Carlton Bloom, underappreciated genius, misanthrope, in a show by Charlie Brooker, moderately well known satirist, misanthrope. And also, to discuss whether or not Bing is looking at a screen or out a window at the end of 15 Million Merits, and if all of humanity lives indoors because anthropogenic climate change has rendered the planet uninhabitable.
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Dec 4, 2014 18:23
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Real synopsis for White bear- Woman wakes up in a zombie apocalypse where the zombies run around filming non zombies with phone cameras at the expense of all elase.
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Dec 4, 2014 18:50
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BSam posted:02 Fifteen Million Merits Anyway, caught the pilot episode on Netflix the other day and I'm agreeing with whatever media outlet said this serves as the successor to the Twilight Zone. It does an amazing job of showing us how we can slave ourselves to technology in a base way.
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Dec 4, 2014 19:05
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I watched the first three last night, I was more impressed with the acting than anything else, it all felt very real. I thought all three were good episodes and it's extremely well-made TV and clever, but the second episode really got to me. Man, I felt like poo poo after watching that, it's so dark and sad and the difficult thing about it is that it's metaphorically basically the way we all act now. It's just thematically exaggerated. One of the best episodes of TV I've seen in a while. And overall, wow this is a depressing and unsettling show.
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Dec 4, 2014 19:29
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I would definitely say episodes 1 and 2 are head and shoulders above all the others.
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Dec 4, 2014 19:52
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Just started a rewatch based on this thread. Despite all the good British dramas of the past couple years this still might be my favourite TV we've made this decade. The first two eps of s1 are two of my favourites but 'White Bear' is absolutely the best so far imo
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Dec 4, 2014 20:08
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White Bear is the most thoroughly unsettling 75 minutes of television I've ever sat through. What was worst about it was watching it live, when it first aired on Channel 4, because the immediate, unthinking reactions of so many other live viewers on Twitter and Facebook was so startlingly, horrifyingly similar to the way the mobile phone zombies and the audience at the end acted. Voyeurism and hunger for the pain and humiliation as others, all dressed up as self-righteous lust for "justice", even when it meant and achieved nothing. It's a great series though, with consistently great performances. Michael Smiley was particularly good in White Bear, but I loved Rupert Everett as the Simon Cowell-esque judge in 15 Million Merits. Good lord, he was demonic. (Should point out for US viewers that the co-writer on that episode was Konnie Huq, who is Charlie Brookers' wife and worked for a while on Cowells' X-Factor programme here in the UK. Make of that what you will...)
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Dec 4, 2014 20:18
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I just finished the first episode, then immediately skipped ahead to White Bear because of all of the hype. Holy poo poo, that was intense and amazing. I figured this was just going to be a rehash of The Signal (2008), but I totally wasn't expecting it to go in the direction that it did .
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Dec 5, 2014 00:54
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The teaser for the Christmas special is up - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDFcTmdQqIc
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Dec 5, 2014 01:20
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I totally love this show. I heard this was on Netflix earlier in the week, so I went and rewatched a couple of them. My preference of favorites is as follows: White Bear (2-2) > Be Right Back (2-1) > the rest >>>> The Waldo Moment (2-3) I tried re-watching The Waldo Moment again, I still think it wasn't that great. Other than that, I'm looking forward to the Christmas Special!
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Dec 5, 2014 01:59
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15 Million Merits is one of my favorite hours of television bar none. White Bear has a good twist, but 15 Million Merits was really special.
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Dec 5, 2014 02:58
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I first gave this a go just because I like Brooker and thought The Entire History of You was fantastic. So was Be Right Back. The human drama-based episodes were more my bag instead of the horror ones but I did like them all. Time for a rewatch, I'd think.
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Dec 5, 2014 03:14
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Just started watching this and the fact that its an anthology show really keeps you on our toes because it can go anywhere. I literally just finished 15 Million Merits and had no clue where it would end.
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Dec 5, 2014 06:50
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Watched all 6 over the past few days, have to agree with everyone else that S1E1 and 2 are by far the best. The only one I actually disliked was S2E3, the others were entertaining but nothing spectacular. This thread seems to love White Bear but the Netflix thread keeps saying it's the worst one.
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Dec 5, 2014 06:55
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Watched the first 4 last night. The Entire History of You and Be Right Back loving wrecked me, so I had to take a break. A friend of mine said that they feel like a noticeably different person after every episode and I agree with that 100%. Even if you're nonplussed by the themes or the aesthetic, I think it'd be difficult for anyone to not be affected by how emotionally evocative all of the episodes are. So far Be Right Back is my favorite, but I think that's because Hayley Atwell was goddamn amazing in it. Looking forward to watching the last two this weekend, especially since The White Bear seems to be everyone's favorite.
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Dec 5, 2014 07:03
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I've watched most of this over the past couple days and 15 Million Merits is easily my favorite. White Bear was alright but the twist at the end was pretty Shyamalanian.
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Dec 5, 2014 07:43
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15 Million Merits and White Bear are the best of these by far. The first purely for Daniel Kaluuya's big speech and the second for having the most insane final act of anything ever. But even when they don't land as stories, the statements behind them are always really thought provoking and interesting. So hype to see what we get this year but bummed it's only going to be a one off 
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Dec 5, 2014 12:43
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Hubbardologist posted:The teaser for the Christmas special is up - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDFcTmdQqIc Oh my God that looks amazing.
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Dec 5, 2014 13:42
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Rarity posted:15 Million Merits and White Bear are the best of these by far. The first purely for Daniel Kaluuya's big speech and the second for having the most insane final act of anything ever. But even when they don't land as stories, the statements behind them are always really thought provoking and interesting. So hype to see what we get this year but bummed it's only going to be a one off Brooker is apparently on the hook for another special, but there's no word on when it'll enter production.
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Dec 5, 2014 21:06
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bango skank posted:. White Bear was alright but the twist at the end was pretty Shyamalanian. But WB's real twist is that look at the calendar at the end. When you realize that HOLY gently caress this has been absolute purgatory for so long. Its just so sick and twisted that it becomes a great commentary about a much larger picture.
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Dec 6, 2014 09:57
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White Bear is one I always thought might not work as well for Americans as it does for Brits. Do they really have tabloid justice to the extent we have here?
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Dec 6, 2014 12:21
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America has Nancy Grace, who I imagine uses White Bear for masturbation viewing.
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Dec 6, 2014 17:47
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Love this show, loved all the episodes except, like a few, I struggled a bit with the Waldo one. Brooker regularly tears poo poo TV to shreds so it makes sense that he pretty much wouldn't put pen to paper unless it was going to be fantastic TV. Psyched about the Christmas episode, didn't know about that until now. I was at a party the other night and one girl there said she doesn't have facebook and has never had it and the reactions of people around her reminded me exactly of the dinner scene in Entire History of You.
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Dec 6, 2014 18:09
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I really like all the Black Mirrors except the Waldo one. The basic story idea was weak and couldn't sustain a whole episode in 2012 or whenever year it came out, and I think people had already made those points years ago. I would have been okay with it as a episode that didn't quite hit the mark if it wasn't for the really embarassing epilogue. I'm surprised to see everyone loving 15 Million Merits. I did like it, but it's probably my least favourite of the non-Waldo ones. I thought the big speech was cringeworthy more than anything, and it fell foul of the bad habit that (particularly British) satire has of having it's supporting characters be way too cartoonish. Definitely the judges, but as they were such a "set piece" within the structure of the story that it didn't bother me too much. I'm more thinking of the scouse contestant or the big fat cleaner guy, the minor worldfiller characters that were turned up too much, and became comedy characteristics instead of real people in a black comedy setting. That sort of thing stops the premise being grounded in (alternative) reality and I think it harms the episode as a whole's ability to have as much weight behind it. The absurdity is so much more effective when everyone plays it dry and the satire stands on its own. Although the ending is genuinely really sad and works brilliantly. All that is why the best and most gripping episode of Black Mirror is the first one. It's the most tightly scripted and I think the message is the most significant. They're all heavy-handed to a certain extent, but it had my favourite mix of darkness, realism and absurdity so it gripped me the most by far. I also like The Entire History of You a lot more than everyone else here seems to even if the smug lothario guy wasn't written or played that well. If we're doing lists: 1. The National Anthem 2. The Entire History of You 3. White Bear 4. Be Right Back 5. 15 Million Merits 6. Waldo (can't remember what the real title was) I watched all the first series and Be Right Back again a few months ago but skipped White Bear, so it's not higher on the list. I was so impressed with the episode when it did the pull back and reveal and you understand why the first 70% is so full of cliches and a bit poo poo, but that does mean that I wasn't that interested in watching the whole thing again. Whilst that christmas special looks great and I'm definitely saying yes to Jon Hamm as a sleazy future pick-up artist, it looks like it might be re-treading old "Dark side of the internet age" ground a little bit. The series was billed as "the Twilight Zone for the 21st Century", and I'd be happy with exactly that. I'd be totally happy with a regular Twilight Zone or Tales of the Unexpected, say 4-6 episodes a year of a standalone skewed drama each week. It's such a blank slate that you could get some really unique and creative stuff coming out. They don't all have to be about Facebook, I think they could loosen the parameters a little bit and still keep the quality as high. Hoops fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Dec 7, 2014 |
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Dec 7, 2014 00:31
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I think my big problem with Waldo is the episode just kind of ends. There's that little bit that I guess is supposed to be a flash forward but that's it.
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Dec 7, 2014 01:10
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Just finished a rewatch and didn't care nearly as much for White Bear as I remember the first time around. It's really dark and sadistic but doesn't have much else going for it. Waldo is still the weakest one for me there, though. It explores an interesting and disturbing idea but I could've done without the ending where Waldo has his own loving fleet of jet fighters. The Entire History of You is still a work of genius though.
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Dec 7, 2014 01:59
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I guess I'm in the minority for not really liking Entire History of You. I shouldn't say I didn't like it, but rather that I was disappointed by it. They set up this great premise that could be taken in any number of interesting directions, especially with the bit at the party about how redos could actually be faked, and then they do nothing with it. A guy figures out his wife cheated on him and the baby isn't his. He is sad. The end. I was just hoping they would do more with it.
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Dec 7, 2014 02:23
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OldSenileGuy posted:I guess I'm in the minority for not really liking Entire History of You. I shouldn't say I didn't like it, but rather that I was disappointed by it. They set up this great premise that could be taken in any number of interesting directions, especially with the bit at the party about how redos could actually be faked, and then they do nothing with it. A guy figures out his wife cheated on him and the baby isn't his. He is sad. The end. I was just hoping they would do more with it. my biggest issue with it was how the prior two episodes, the technology on blast was absolutely central to everything that happened. with The Entire History of You, the grains felt like a detached side plot more than anything to me. People panic and obsess over relationships like that even without brain DVR, that exact scenario has happened millions off times in history except without being able to actually directly rewind and bathe in the memories. I kept expecting it to end with him being proven wrong and Fiona was not cheating on him, and he had let the technology rule his life and ruin it in the process. Instead, he is miserably sad because his partner cheated on him and he's been raising someone else's kid... but that seemed inevitable anyway, seeing how convinced he was of it even before he replayed the dinner party VoD. that said, I thought the episode told the story so perfectly that I was locked in emotionally for every second of it and it hit me much harder than the other two did. now on to season 2!
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Dec 7, 2014 02:57
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Black Mirror is so drat good that I feel bad for pointing out its weaknesses, because at its weakest it still blows away most other tv drama and all current tv science fiction. Can people recommend other shows or films that give some of the same sensations of existential dread and cultural panic that Black Mirror conveys? Doesn't need to be identical, but things that you might watch in the same sitting? It's old and a bit hokey but I found Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man gave some similar spooky vibes.
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Dec 7, 2014 03:33
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Black Mirror is insane. Every episode, with the exception of The Waldo Moment, is nigh pitch-perfect. While White Bear and Fifteen Million Merits are the most ambitious stories the small ones deserve just as much credit. The only worry I have about the Christmas special is that three interconnected stories might demand a more relatable base than Bing Manson's story.
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Dec 7, 2014 04:36
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Scut posted:Black Mirror is so drat good that I feel bad for pointing out its weaknesses, because at its weakest it still blows away most other tv drama and all current tv science fiction. Watch Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky. Thank me later.
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Dec 7, 2014 04:39
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Scut posted:Can people recommend other shows or films that give some of the same sensations of existential dread and cultural panic that Black Mirror conveys? Doesn't need to be identical, but things that you might watch in the same sitting? It's old and a bit hokey but I found Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man gave some similar spooky vibes. I don't know if they're similar in the way you're describing but Inside Number 9 has a similar feel to it. Made by the guys behind Psychoville, who of course are half of The League of Gentlemen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urrhPYLP-eI Also going to take this chance to say if you like this show that the Charlie Brooker man made, then check out one of his other show Dead Set, essentially a zombie apocalypse show but it focuses on the set of Big Brother when the Big brother house becomes one of the last safe places left. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQjq639WPiU Also A Touch of Cloth which is basically a British crime procedural, played perfectly straight, except they pack it with as many puns as they possibly could, and then some. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15IRXKn9LSU Finally, most of you should know this, and someone mentioned it earlier, but he reviews other tv shows too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHun58mz3vI
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Dec 7, 2014 04:53
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No lie. I just finished watching s1e2 (my first time viewing any episode in the series) about 30 minutes ago and it depressed me so much that I got into bed at 9:30 on a Saturday night.
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Dec 7, 2014 04:57
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Brodeurs Nanny posted:Watch Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky. Thank me later. Already a favourite, though now I wanna see if my local video rental has a Criterion copy or something similar in quality. BSam posted:I don't know if they're similar in the way you're describing but Inside Number 9 has a similar feel to it. Made by the guys behind Psychoville, who of course are half of The League of Gentlemen. I've not heard of Inside No.9. Thanks for the tip! Scut fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Dec 7, 2014 |
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Dec 7, 2014 05:04
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Hoops posted:I really like all the Black Mirrors except the Waldo one. The Waldo Moment was not originally written for Black Mirror. The story originated in 2005 for a half-hour sitcom Brooker co-wrote with Chris Morris called Nathan Barley. Nathan Barley was super prescient and really funny, but The Waldo Moment never really worked for a variety of reasons to do with the expense of animation and the fear that it came off as an old man yelling at clouds situation. Basically it's a really old story that's meant to make fun of Sacha Baron Cohen, particularly his Ali G character, before Borat was a thing and it was originally intended for a much smaller format that was more about broad jokes than social satire. I think Brooker only really kept at it because he got drawn into the utterly poo poo-miserable world of Ten O'Clock Live and most of what he's written for the show has this weird autobiographical through-line.
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Dec 7, 2014 05:52
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Republican Vampire posted:The Waldo Moment was not originally written for Black Mirror. The story originated in 2005 for a half-hour sitcom Brooker co-wrote with Chris Morris called Nathan Barley. Nathan Barley was super prescient and really funny, but The Waldo Moment never really worked for a variety of reasons to do with the expense of animation and the fear that it came off as an old man yelling at clouds situation. Basically it's a really old story that's meant to make fun of Sacha Baron Cohen, particularly his Ali G character, before Borat was a thing and it was originally intended for a much smaller format that was more about broad jokes than social satire. That makes so much sense. When I consider the tone Nathan Barley had compared to Black Mirror, That Waldo Moment fits in so much better with the former. Also, I just found out about the upcoming episode. Best Christmas ever. 
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Dec 7, 2014 07:22
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