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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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Vitamin P posted: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 was definitely a deliberate choice to make it a middle class setting because his wife is played by Jodie Whittaker who has a pretty strong Yorkshire accent in real life, but the character is much more well-spoken. So it wasn't a coincidence of casting that his wife came from a different background to him. Someone earlier said that they didn't like the episode because it had this world-changing sci-fi idea and didn't really explore it. I disagree with that too, the episode is supposed to be a teleplay about a very small group of people in the backdrop of a world where you can go back and obsess over everything you've ever said or done. It's a framing device for the story but not the story itself, it's the only episode that was really done that way and it think it has to be appraised slightly differently from the others.
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Dec 15, 2014 00:17
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