Charlie Brooker Black Mirror

Discussion in 'TV & Media' started by Bob The Skutter, Jul 18, 2011.

  1. gblews

    gblews Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Oh, okay, got it. Thanks. :)
     
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  2. Starkers

    Starkers Admiral Admiral

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    So I watched Crocodile last night...

    Maximum Brooker nihilism!

    It's funny 'cos I saw people thought it was dark and I'm sat there for the first 40 minutes thinking, this is ok...shit! :lol: Have to say the ending is ridiculous, and I think Brooker missed a narrative trick to make it even more horrible.
    Unless I missed something we didn't know the child was blind until the cop made a throwaway line at the end. Brooker really should have seeded this earlier, it was horrible knowing Riseborough (who was excellent btw) was about the kill the kid, but would have been so much worse if the audience had known she didn't need to at the time.

    Arkangel was interesting, but again was just bleak for the sake of being bleak, which is the problem I've had with Black Mirror all along. Thankfully the deal with Netflix has softened this somewhat.

    Anyway more like San Junipero and Callister for me and less like this, though it did look gorgeous. I also think Brooker needs to come up with some new ideas that don't riff on what if you recorded/remembered everything?

    I know as well that the technology angle is it's thang, but it does limit the scope. I mean things like the Twilight Zone and even Inside Number 9, can do anything, sci-fi, fantasy, supernatural etc.
     
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  3. MadeIndescribable

    MadeIndescribable Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    That was my problem with Crocodile, it didn't really give us anything that The Entire History Of You hadn't already done better. The only thing it had going for it was it's Nordic Noir cinematography.

    He kind of did with the idea of pet being good the child, but not enough. Perhaps maybe some people would have found watching it knowing everything to be too traumatic, so they had to spread it out?
     
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  4. Starkers

    Starkers Admiral Admiral

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    Seen the whole of the series now. I think USS Callister was my favourite. Hang the DJ was enjoyable but the explanation was a tad tenuous and I didn't like Brooker lampshading it early on
    "What if we're in a simulation"
    I think the episode worked because the two leads were so engaging and had great chemistry.

    I liked Metalhead, though I can imagine it looked shit in colour so the choice to film in B&W was a good one. Could have done with a bit more backstory, and as deadly as the dog was, it's hard to see how they could have rendered society defunct (always assuming they did and they're not like Triffids, taking advantage of a weakened society recovering from an unrelated cataclysm) given one person could outwit/destroy one with limited resources (why didn't she batter it to bits when she had the chance though?) but it was good, Peake was excellent and it didn't outstay its welcome.

    Black Museum was good, though the first story did seem quite reminiscent of Strange Days (though I understand Penn Jillette wrote it in the 80s) I figured it out once they went into the last room but I thought it was very well structured.

    Shame there wasn't anything quite as joyous as San Junipero but it was still a good season.
     
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  5. Gary7

    Gary7 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I just saw this episode as well, jumping directly to it after watching the 1st episode (Prime Minister and piggy dare). I found "USS Callister" to be of a higher quality, with superb production values, excellent direction, and laudable acting. It's definitely an episode worth watching more than once, as I noticed more things about it on the 2nd run. :)
    I hope they have a follow-up sometime later, if they can get the original cast back for it. There's actually a little rumor it could happen. Forbes: Black Mirror Director And Star Want a USS Callister Spin-off

    Here's my "sequel:"
    • Daly didn't die, as we might have expected (locked in his virtual reality space inside his apartment, to be found after he died from dehydration). A couple of people from Callister hunt down to find the missing Daly. With police help, they break down his door just in time. When the VR pip is taken off his temple, he doesn't wake up. They rush him to the hospital and put him on a massive hydration / nutrition program.
    • When Daly wakes up, he knows what happened but "postulates" to Walton that there was some unforeseen glitch in the program. Walton puts a whole gag order on the cause, having his media people be intentionally ambiguous about what happened to Daly and affirmation that "Infinity" was not the cause.
    • Daly fully recovers and nobody in the office knows anything about what happened to him, or that he had his own private branch of Infinity running under his control (which was absorbed into the Infinity realm database). He figures everything was lost and he has nothing to worry about. Meanwhile, Daly sets about to make sure there's an escape safety so nobody could ever get trapped inside VR.
    • But Cole isn't satisfied to remain in the dark about what she did for the mysterious contact (the "Walton copy" never identified himself and his voice was masked). There had been a threat to post her intimate photos publicly and she did what was required, but even though she wiped the photos off her account, she was unnerved that they might have been "copied" for future blackmail purposes.
    • Cole contacts the "Walton copy" who reached out to her with her mission to steal and destroy the "samples" from Daly's refrigerator. And she wants confirmation that they didn't make any copies of the photos. The Walton copy lets the Cole copy know about the contact. Now Cole-C being so grateful for her "real" self's saving them, she contacts her to have a chat.
    • Cole & Cole talk! Well, the real Cole is so amazed at what's going on, and extremely pissed off at Daly for what he did. Her behavior to Daly is irreparably changed. And Daly is VERY suspicious about all this. He needs to know what Cole knows. So he has her bugged. And he finds out that the USS Callister crew is still alive and well, living out HIS fantasy!
    • Daly sets out to create a special feature in Infinity whereby he can not only gain access to join the VR USS Callister realm, but he'd have super powers. His mission? Destroy the USS Callister crew! He can't afford to let anything slip about what he did.
    • The rest... well... the USS Callister has a new nemesis and several episodes unfold in how they deal with him.
    I'm not sure it could be sustainable as an independent full-on sci-fi series. But I could see it as a mini-series. With ST-DISC and Orville out there, this would sort of fit somewhere in the middle... but is there enough room to sustain it?
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2018
  6. Gary7

    Gary7 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I started with Episode One. It seemed very apropos given the political climate of today. Yet... I found it rather "garage indie." There were definitely good moments of tension, but then the pacing dragged. It seems the production values went up considerably as the series has progressed. I am going to "cherry pick" episodes gradually, since there's no recurring cast... and try to whittle down from the most well reviewed episodes downward.
     
  7. Starkers

    Starkers Admiral Admiral

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    For me it's less about the production values but the quality of the writing and how much nihilism I can stand. That said something like 15 Million Merits is incredibly bleak, but it was well written/acted enough that I could get past it and it's the best early episode of the show. On the whole I tend to prefer the slightly more nuanced episodes, and the ones that contain at least a smidgen of hope.
     
  8. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

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    Gradually watching through show on Netflix, currently through first two seasons.

    I love the way they tell these Twilight Zone-esque kind of stories only with realistic near-future technology. Particularly hits deep in the episodes where the technology results in an apathy toward moral concerns, like White Bear where desire for revenge trumps concerns about cruel and unusual punishment.

    The central connecting theme between episodes is the moral numbness that comes from the logical extension of modern trends in technology and tech culture. Or John Hamm's
    terrifying punishment of never being able to interact with another person again, and everyone seeing him as a vague blob colored red meaning he's a sexual predator.

    Speaking of White Christmas and that thing where you block a person, that's actually the least plausible technological thing I think we've seen in the show. Because it would frequently result in violence that would be difficult to defend yourself against.
     
    Last edited: Jan 22, 2018
  9. Verteron

    Verteron Lux in tenebris lucet Premium Member

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    Just finished watching Season 4, though it was awesome.

    Not as mind-blowing as Season 3 but still very solid. I don't think he'll get any Emmys this time (and San Junipero was throughly deserving of its Emmys, I maintain that episode is one of the finest pieces of science fiction I've ever seen in televised form).

    Wondered if anyone saw this doing the rounds on reddit. It's an attempt by someone to graph all the stories along the time and technology axis:

    [​IMG]

    Also, quite a bit of stuff on the net about whether all the episodes might take place in the same universe. Given the references between them (Anyone... who watches Season 4... Will Understand...) I think it's possible, although it's just as possible CB's just messing with us. However here's an article on whether it could be the case.
     
  10. MadeIndescribable

    MadeIndescribable Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    An interesting article, but you could make yourself mad with all the backward and forwards. Personally I think of it in terms of a shared multiverse, similar to the diagram you showed (although with some modifications).
     
  11. Ethros

    Ethros Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The fact that Karl Pilkington didn't get a credit for the last episode for using his 2007 film idea is disgraceful :p


    (You could say the last moments of the final episode of Dollhouse also used this concept. Not so ridiculous eh Ricky? :D )
     
    Last edited: Jan 25, 2018
  12. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

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    Watching Nosedive now.

    I think I like the comedic takes on the premise from Community and Orville better than the totally straight take.

    At the start it looked like Black Mirror was going to be a totally different universe every episode like Twilight Zone, but they keep coming back to this theme of everybody having eye augmentations that do what everybody thought Google Glass was going to do.
     
    Last edited: Jan 25, 2018
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  13. MadeIndescribable

    MadeIndescribable Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    You mean Joe 90 2.0 :p
     
  14. Verteron

    Verteron Lux in tenebris lucet Premium Member

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    I really liked the tone of Nosedive. In many ways I thought it was the most 'entertaining' of S3.
     
  15. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

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    I think it's a good episode. Just, with this concept of a world obsessed with personal ratings works better for me when there's a sheen of ridiculousness to it. It takes the edge off the preachiness.
     
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  16. Ethros

    Ethros Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Nosedive starts out great, but then goes absolutely nowhere. I thought by the time she got to the wedding she would have realised it was too late anyway, grown some balls and told them all what for. But instead it just went on and on and on, and became embarrassing to watch.
    I think the channel 4 made episodes are far superior to the Netflix ones. The odd episodes in s3 & 4 feel like absolute filler.
     
  17. MadeIndescribable

    MadeIndescribable Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    The thing with Nosedive is it's bitter sweet ending, the fact that she's lost everything in terms of society, but gained her freedom from its control, which she wouldn't have had if she hadn't spiralled so much.

    To me the thing about Nosedive is how its essentially just a remake of Community's meow meow beans episode....
     
  18. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    It reminded me of this 80's TZ episode about a man being sentenced to a year of "public invisibility". But at least that ended.

    Having read the Wiki entry on White Christmas, this thing with being "blocked" seems like the very definition of cruel and unusual punishment - since blocks apparently never end.
     
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2018
  19. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, a 3 WOULD think that. ;)

    I don’t think Black Mirror or Orville copied Community. It’s kind of like how that movie about cheating in the Special Olympics came out right after the South Park ep. Nobody copied anyone, it’s an obvious idea.
     
  20. WarpFactorZ

    WarpFactorZ Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Just finished S4. Quality episodes. I also noticed there's a lot more "in-universe" continuity. In Crocodile, for example, one of the porn channels she browses is "Wraith Girls" (S1 callback). Also, the hospital in Black Museum is "St. Juniper's", a play on San Junipero. The ep. includes a mention of said tech, as well -- I suppose it could be understood that it was developed in the hospital's research wing.

    So, what's everyone's take on the Dogs in Metalhead? A security system gone horribly wrong? A canine take on Terminator?