Might be a case of Netflix producing it for the US and Channel 4 producing it for here. Much like Catastrophe with Amazon or Humans with AMC?
The articles seem to imply it's just Netflix in concert with Brooker's production company but there isn't a lot of detail there so we might have to wait and see. To be honest in terms of anthology shows I'm more interested in Number 9 getting a third series
Oh yes, doe all the issues I have with Black Mirror I do find it interesting, and it's nice to have shows like these, it's just that given the choice I'd take Number 9, it's more diverse and though it can be quite dark it can be quite hopeful at times. I'm not suggesting Black Mirror should be all flowers and twee endings, but the occasional happy, or even slightly hopeful, ending would be nice--I suppose the closest we've come is the Haley Atwell one.
We have 12 new Black Mirror episodes coming from Netflix. https://pr.netflix.com/WebClient/getNewsSummary.do?newsId=2612
Yeah I heard this, given how variable the quality has been over 3 episodes I do fear this might be stretching things too far, hopefully this won't be Torchwood:Miracle Day all over again! Hopefully there'll be new writers, I can't imagine Brooker is going to pen all 12.
Wasn't he already writing a special that was supposed to air sometime after the Christmas special? He could have some scripts already finished that never got produced.
Think the plan was Christmas special then another 2 for channel 4 so may be part of the deal because Netflix say the episodes won't necessarily release in the UK at the same time as everywhere else.
Even at his workaholic worst RTD only wrote a maximum of 8 episodes of Who in a 13 episode series so I would be amazed if Brooker does pen them all, I imagine he might do 3 or 4, perhaps more if, as you say, he already had scripts written. I imagine there are a whole host of writers who'd love to script for the show as well. I wonder if it will maintain the technological theme? I know its the usp of the show but it does limit them a little (The Twilight Zone didn't just do robots and aliens after all, they had magic and demons showing up as well)
Sorry to dig this thread up but haven't seen any discussion of the new series, Season 3, which was released on Netflix last week. 6 episodes this time. I binged watched them all last week, anyone else seen them yet and wanna share thoughts? I'm never one for writing long reviews so will just put a few bullet points. Overall I enjoyed them and there were some excellent ideas, but I just felt none of them really fired on all cylinders and didn't enjoy as much as s1 & 2 and the Christmas special (which I just rewatched today, and god is that last story depressing, but in a brilliant way ) It felt a lot of the time they were too dragged out to an hour plus. Spoilers.... So ep 1 Nosedive was a really good classic Black Mirror concept, and indeed I know a few people who already do live like that. I felt though the ending with her showing up at the wedding was awful, or I just didn't get it. She hadn't learnt anything from the trucker woman and what was she expecting when she just crashed it looking like garbage? I thought she was gonna slate them all and reveal some secrets about her "friend" but instead she was just kissing ass till she got thrown out. Ep 2 Playtest and ep 5 Men Against Fire were meh, interesting ideas and alright but dragged out and didn't really go anywhere. Same for ep 6, enjoyed it but the ending was very "is that it?" Ep 3 Shut Up and Dance was ok, just the twist reminded me too much of White Bear, same thing basically. Huge points for Jerome Flynn anyway! Ep 4 San Junipero is the one that stands out the most. But just loses points as on first watch I was getting frustrated after a while as it seemed to take too long to know what was going on so didn't enjoy the first half an hour as much as the second. Again, shorter run time would maybe have helped things. But as it was the whole concept was fascianting, an idea I'd never really even thought about before, but one that actually could be a possibility at some point in the distant future. I doubt it would be as early as in the next 30 years or so for when the "present day" parts were set but at some point sure. Imagine, we could actually create a real heaven. And if Mackenzie Davis is there all the better The final shots and all the thousands of blinking lights representing the people in the system was just excellent and so moving. So take it away, Belinda
I enjoyed the whole series much more than previous series. I don't think there as a single episode I disliked. Where previous series tended to have one good, one OK and one fairly iffy episode.
San Junipero was my favorite of the new season. That was actually a beautiful episode. I was only disappointed when I was checking out the Black Mirror subreddit and some posters were expecting a dark twist and were trying to force one on the episode despite the way it was presented in the episode.
As someone pointed out in a piece on it it was the perfect way to cleanse the palate in the middle of all that Black Mirror darkness.
The dark side is 80 years later when the company goes bankrupt and the "personalities" are sold to the highest bidder, or 900 years later after mankind is extinct and an AI starts beaming these personalities back in time to fill up flesh in the past, and avert the apocalypse.
Spoiler: season 3 episodes Nosedive Interesting concept but predictable execution. The brother laying out the message of the week halfway into the episode was one of the low points of the season. That being said, the production quality was excellent and really sold the world. I completely bought into the idea that this could be the quasi-dystopian future we'll be living in 20 years from now. I mean, Home Improvement reruns being popular? *shudder* So while the story isn't anything to write home about, the episode still worked as a showcase of an interesting idea. Playtest I'm not sure what the point of this one was other than to show off the possibilities of augmented reality gaming. It's not helped by the fact that it was pretty obvious that the whole scenario was going to end up being some sort of dream. I didn't predict that the guy had died, but I'm not sure that twist really added anything. If your cool new gadget can kill someone due to signal interference from a phone, maybe it's time to go back to the drawing board. Shut Up and Dance One of the things I like about Black Mirror is that it very occasionally reveals something I didn't realise about myself. When Kenny was revealed as a paedo, I lost around 80% of the sympathy I had for him. I still had some sympathy, but that nasty reptilian side of my brain was content to see him suffer. I'm not proud of that fact, but at least I'm aware of it now. Maybe the episode was a bit of a rehash of White Bear, but I found this episode to be much more effective than that one, which I personally felt was too over the top. San Junipero What a horrifically lovely story. I hadn't been that emotionally invested in an episode of television since Breaking Bad ended (but for entirely different reasons, obviously). There was a lot of dust in the room that day, that's all I'll say, and I genuinely felt a sense of euphoria as the credits rolled. Arguably the least Black Mirrory episode of the show ever, but it's somehow my new favourite. Men Against Fire This one felt a bit undercooked. The idea has great potential, but it was too obvious from very early on that the roaches were ordinary humans who were masked by the soldier's visual gadget thing. Sadly, the world-building in this one was also very lacking and left me feeling a bit confused about what was happening. Americans (except not actually Americans as they have a different flag) are occupying somewhere in Russia and have implemented some sort of eugenics program that civilians in America aren't aware of? I get that they didn't want to waste too much time on exposition, but I feel the episode really needed more explanation of what exactly was going on. Hated in the Nation "Killer robot bees" doesn't sound like a solid basis for a story, but godsdammit I loved this one. It retreads commentary about social media that was present in The National Anthem, but the detective and horror angles were enough to keep it fresh. It's a quintessential Black Mirror episode, grounded in some ways, silly in others, and utterly horrifying at the end. A solid enough season overall. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the first season, but a bit more than the second, and since this season has a similar running time as the entire Channel 4 run combined, I think season three was a success. Sure, not all the episodes worked out, but that's generally the nature of anthology shows, and I'd rank three of them among the show's best.
Why would it be connected to the internet? It could be a closed system with the only access being people using the tourist version. The ending is meant to be optimist, Brooker even addressed it in an interview since Reddit is obsessed with finding a downside. There isn't, you exist for as long as you want and it's still you. When you get tired of it, you delete yourself without any trouble. Trying to find a downside is defeating the entire point of the episode which a love story with a happy ending. It's like saying a romantic comedy is flawed because one of them might get hit by a bus, it's not the story that was being told.
What I really like about Shut Up and Dance is rewatching it and seeing how much of the ending is actually hinted at. Especially his interaction with a customer leaving at the beginning and his reaction to learning that the hackers knew what was on the computers.