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Regy Rusty posted:Honestly I'm glad I just took my brother's recommendation and watched the first episode without looking up anything about it. A synopsis of The National Anthem. would probably have convinced me not to give it a chance. What makes it for me is that it's played completely straight, there's no winking at the camera. The fact that it's also the closest setting to the real world, and doesn't rely on fictional technology, makes it a little more engaging to me too, and the acting is just absolutely spot on throughout. It's easily my favourite episode even if it doesn't really fit thematically. The Waldo Moment is the other setting that is basically our world, but for me it's also the weakest by a long way. The conclusion doesn't feel like a logical consequence of the events, and there are bizarre inconsistencies. When the producer dude takes over Waldo and no-one notices, it falls flat because it's obvious to the audience that the humour has just changed. The crowd clapping and cheering the sudden violence feels false. The abrupt introduction of the sinister American to mark the point that it all starts going wrong is quite weak plotting to be honest, and concluding with outright fascism emerging because people love a cartoon character so much is just, what? With every other episode I could imagine the population of our world could be dropped into that setting and react the same way, but in Waldo ordinary people are turned into loving idiots for the sake of the plot. White Bear and 15 Million Merits are fantastic, just because they are so well written. You feel so much sympathy for the lead characters, and the conclusions are incredibly affecting without feeling mawkish. White Bear especially is just chilling because of how true-to-life it feels, and it also feels like the only episode that is making a coherent political point that this poo poo we do is wrong and we need to stop. The History of You never really clicked for me, just because the technology was too outlandish and the characters felt too posh, for want of a better word, and they were all so unlikable. It doesn't help that I've never done that 'obsess over past interactions' behaviour, maybe the episode is more relatable for people that do. All the ancillary uses of the technology, the security guard checking past experiences and 'get it up on screen then!', felt very naturalistic though. Be Right Back is the only episode I've only watched once, partly because I found it kind of dull and possibly because I was going through a bad break up and it hit a little close to home. Every episode is basically required viewing though.
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Dec 14, 2014 23:47
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This fan made trailer for the first 3 episodes is pretty ace as well, presenting it all as one setting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jROLrhQkK78
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Dec 14, 2014 23:59
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Big Anime Fan Here posted:It was really corny, for him to suffer 1000 years for every minute on earth, for sure The episode drifted far too close to torture porn for me, especially 'disciplining' the house AI and how long the suicide scene was. And the twist doesn't even compare to White Bear, I'm a pretty dumb person but I twigged quite early that the guru was working the guy and after the 'AIs exist' point was shown the general direction of the plot was obvious. The PUA narrative could sustain an episode, with a bit more incidental depth to it, and so could Blocking potentially, but this felt like two B-list ideas being smashed together alongside how annoying ubiquitous christmas songs are and grim-for-the-sake-of-it torture. And it's nit-picky, but a sign of how clearly it was two unrelated stories, temporary Blocking being available would hugely change the pick-up game and it wasn't even referenced. Especially weak because Black Mirror is usually so good at incidental effects of technology on society. Overall it's more Black Mirror and was better than 99% of what's televised but still, not great.
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Dec 18, 2014 01:04
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FilthyImp posted:15MM is just... Bing realizes there's nothing genuine to be found in his situation, so he settles for the closest thing. I mean. He makes the best of his situation, but he's ultimately become a cog in the machine of pablum that ruined his life. 15MM reads pretty coherently as a critique on capitalism, where acting alone the most Bing can achieve is to slightly improve his own situation and exist in a better gilded cage. His personal rebellion being perfectly integrated into the framework of social control is just so grim. You can imagine frustrated people on the bikes spending loads of credits on the iconic glass shard for their Dopple.
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Dec 19, 2014 18:21
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Doltos posted:he's forced to do it by a political cabal, Small quibble but I don't think it was the political cabal that forced him to do it really. Of course there was the palace phonecall bit, and his party were insinuating that they would throw him to the wolves, but the episode constantly showed the public move from 'don't do it mate' to 'well he's got to do it', and the word 'insurrection' was even used. I thought the real turning point was when the angry hospital worker said "Yes he loving has (to do it)". The episode definitely doesn't gel with the rest of them though, you're right.
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Mar 21, 2015 13:52
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PantsBandit posted:I made it halfway through episode 2 before turning this off. I dunno, I mostly don't mind engaging with incredibly depressing media. This show just makes me feel awful though. Does this change at all or is it just not the show for me? It's always horrible. The stories are good and there are lovely moments in some episodes, but they all end either on a horrible twist or just the gut wrenchingly unpleasant logical conclusion of the narrative. They are absolutely morality plays though, there's almost always scope to reflect on what human behaviours are responsible for the tragedy. There's only one episode that feels "the world is irredeemably poo poo and we are powerless to change it" to me but even that's a result of the setting, the allegories for the real world are obvious and those conditions could be changed.
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Oct 12, 2016 12:26
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buckets of buckets posted:White Bear is probably the goon favourite but the message fell flat for me. I would never go and spectate at a Justice Park myself but ultimately the main character very much deserves whatever harsh treatment they get. Out of curiosity are you from the UK? White Bear evokes a really specific hysterical public outrage over here, usually towards high profile criminals accused of harming children in some way. Particularly mid-way through New Labour the government was getting crazy authoritarian and the right-wing press were constantly stoking this almost animalistic rage in the public, it was all very sinister and White Bear always felt like a statement on that to me. People going to a Justice Park to help torture the hate figures feels completely believable to me. buckets of buckets posted:Fifteen Million Merits on the other hand, makes me want to cry each time I've watched it. Fifteen Million Merits is definitely the most pure sci-fi and the most emotive episode I think. It's also the most utterly hopeless feeling one for me at least.
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Oct 18, 2016 17:56
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Ardennes posted:As for White Christmas, I kind many of its elements but it did feel disjointed if only because most of the episode was spent on two elaborate backstories. It was really weak worldbuilding in that episode and yeah was obviously two different plots smooshed together. The most obvious bit was that the whole PUA game would be completely changed if people could temporarily block others from engaging with them. Also I've just realised that two of the episodes have men being cuckolded in them. That's a weirdly specific recurring idea.
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Oct 19, 2016 09:42
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Poppyseed Poundcake posted:After watching all the new episodes I must say that cell phones were a mistake, technology is scary, and the future is bleak It's never really about the technology, the tech is usually just a plot device. It's people that were a mistake, people are scary and the future is bleak.
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Oct 20, 2016 13:30
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It's odd that I feel absolutely no compulsion to binge watch this. Just an episode every free evening, give them time to digest.
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Oct 21, 2016 08:53
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Well my Netflix cut out two minutes after I finished Nosedive, which is good timing I guess. It was alright? The lead did a fantastic job and the setting was well realised, the 'influencer package' for the house and the temporary point drop from airport security were great little touches, but the plot didn't really hold up well for me. Details like the magic quad-bike are one thing but her whole motivation to get to the wedding after being uninvited didn't make any sense.
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Oct 21, 2016 19:53
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Doltos posted:Watched Nosedive and got really bored. Then I watched Playtest and got bored and mad. How long until we stop doing spoilers? I hate the redacted CIA document look. Playtest was all about fear as jump scares and monsters, and then adds 'oh yeah and also relationships and adult things can be really scary too', the "lesson" was face your fears. It was just pretty cackhanded in a lot of ways. In Coopers vision it escalates until the company are evil and volunteers die all the time, but then volunteers also die all the time in the real world too, guess they shouldn't have turned their phones on eh, it's just silly. Honestly I think "we're wiping your mind to turn you into a disposable corporate asset" would have been better. Or even what I was expecting, that Cooper would go to hug his mom and she would plasticate and warp and he'd be stuck never knowing how much he was seeing was real. Neither would be very coherent as an ending but the episode wasn't either honestly.
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Oct 22, 2016 11:25
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Shut Up and Dance, holy moly, that's some Black Mirror. It's the best kind of twist in that you can rewatch it and it actually makes more sense. Also I'm an idiot, it took until the last scene before I understood. Edit: Christ, that's why he was so secretive about his laptop too. Vitamin P fucked around with this message at 15:57 on Oct 22, 2016 |
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Oct 22, 2016 15:45
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I didn't even know there was a new Black Mirror and watched the last one thinking it was the bees episode from last season I hadn't watched yet. It almost felt playful to me in that the contrast between the old UK miniseries and the new Netflix era was being played up, the weak-episodes-stuck-together, framing multiverse device and then the leads accent change especially. I really liked the addicts hurt the people closest to them thing being a 25 minute gag but think I'm not as afraid of AI as I should be? as the rest didn't land. Am looking forward to seeing the other 5 episodes and also the bees episode from last season that's my story peace.
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Dec 31, 2017 21:49
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