EverydayBeast
ChatGPT 0.001
Really easy to understand. Understand that black mirror comes with futuristic technologies. The most recent episode there was some nice things like VR but 10x more immersive.
Black Mirror | Season 7 Trailer
- Thread starter March Climber
- Start date
diffusionx
Gold Member
I haven't watched it in years and they got rid of Bandersnatch, so fuck Netflix
Paltheos
Member
I'm catching up with a friend. Over the past couple months, we've gone through seasons 5 & 6 and are halfway through 7. Thoughts:
Season 5
Striking Vipers - Decent episode. The idea of middle aged gamers using VR for high energy fucking and exploring sexuality they just can't otherwise is... neat, but there's not much to it otherwise.
Smithereens - 'Social media is bad' is a message this show's already knocked out of the park by the masterpiece episode 'Nosedive' (and others). This one doesn't bring much new to the table.
Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too - Not really a Black Mirror episode: These become common in the later season, but by this I mean the episode doesn't explore the worst sides of humanity through the introduction of a new technology to an otherwise contemporary or relatable setting or through some other societal change. The doll that runs on a gimped variant of a pop star's neural pattern is a Black Mirror idea but I don't particularly care for the rescue plot or straight comedy. That's not what I'm here for, and this show usually whiffs when it strays from its core formula.
Season 6
Joan is Awful - Alright. The comedy angle of streaming shows made from someone's life and then going layers in on the actors whose likenesses are being used being dissatisfied has some legs but it doesn't hold up the whole run time. It's all a little too goofy.
Loch Henry - Bad episode. The twist of the mom being in on the killings is alright. My friend argues it's not earned at all. I can kinda see where he's coming from as stuff like the drunk barkeep actually suffering from guilt from knowing the truth and the mom keeping tons of VHSes of some old TV show as a cover for her taped ritualized murders are less foreshadowing and more set dressing that just happened to be related to the central plot at the end. The message at the end of humanity profiteering off any tragedy and the price paid for it isn't particularly deep or resonant - It has like 2 minutes to breathe after wasting nearly the whole run time of the episode on a boring personal relationship and investigation.
Beyond the Sea - Pretty good episode. Leaving a traumatized man alone for most of the remaining 4 years of a deep space journey is a fun avenue to explore in what way he'll crack, and planting seeds of his copilot's shaky marriage and extroverted wife unhappy with the countryside life gave enough to chew on. I think more could have been done with the replicas themselves, but overall I liked how this one played out. You often have to suspend your disbelief when watching Black Mirror, and this episode really asks you to give it some leeway: How could mission control not have some backup in place in case of a disaster? That is, how do they not reach out and counsel this grief-stricken man in their presumably expensive, deep-space mission, relying solely on his co-pilot for support? Also, how are both of these guys not trained to carry out all ship functions just in case something goes wrong and one of them dies?
Mazey Day - Maybe the worst episode of the show. There's just nothing here and it's still long even at <45 minutes. Why did we need the gay, socially awkward roommate for example when a throwaway line or shot of a landlord could have demonstrated that the protag's homelife sucks/is financially trying? Anyway, the werewolf ending is... a thing, I guess. And paparazzi sucks? I liked the last couple minutes as the paparazzi still try getting photos even during the murder spree is pretty funny, but considering how serious the rest of the episode is, I don't know if it's supposed to be funny?
Demon 79 - Another alright episode. Not Black Mirror but it's very open about not trying to be. Carried by the Boney M. devil character who's the funniest dude we've had on this show in memory. 'She dreams about dieing every night. Just kill her!' Still needed some editing though and rewrites. The beginning for instance didn't need to reiterate that everyone around the Indian lead is racist so many times. We get it. The ending is kinda weak too - The nuclear fallout actually being real and then the protag just walking off with the devil seems like an ending written just to be different because people would've expected the devil's tale to have been a lie, but that would have been fine really. Just believe in the script. This episode's not meant to be taken seriously.
Season 7
Common People - Maybe the best episode of the show since season 4, at least. Classic Black Mirror ep. of new tech being used in the most humanly evil ways. As soon as I heard 'free surgery' and 'cloud storage', I called some of the twists: Service interruptions, raised subscription fees. I even jokingly suggested ads but was still surprised when they actually started playing. I didn't call the Lux tier of service at all. which is even more evil than is spelled out as it feeds off the lower-tier users. Suffering from a low after experiencing the highs of the Lux service isn't explored much, but I like that it's there. The episode escalates well, for the most part, and drives home the family's desperation. My nitpick is that the husband works too much OT too quickly to not net $300 per month. I think some combination of a higher base subscription fee or him progressively taking more OT as his wife and he get bullied into adopting the Plus tier would have been better. Obviously this creates a problem with the streamer challenge rabbit hole the writer wanted him falling down - Maybe that could have been cut entirely in exchange for the husband just getting tired, screwing up bad one day at work, and losing his job or extra hours that way? Not sure of the perfect fix but I think there's room for improvement as is.
Bete Noire - Eh. Nerd revenge via some superscience against a HS bully was super obvious like 15 minutes in and the show doesn't do anything beyond that. The tone's kind of all over the place and the ending suffers from another 'We made this different to subvert expectations' Rian Johnson BS - The bully winning is... why? The day banners showing various stages of chocolate production as ominous organ music plays in the background is hilarious though. I don't care how mediocre this one is otherwise; that gag's great.
Hotel Reverie - Another dud. Not sure what the worst part of this one is. I'm gonna say how rampantly unprofessional almost everyone in the movie production is, although their lines being laden with buzzwords targeted at a stupid audience is a close second. The lead actress might be the worst though - She feels so out of place and unprepared in the film. My friend pointed out that it's a little neat that the black actress kinda got her wish for a female character to take the lead in a romantic story when the AI Dorothy actually takes control of the story at points. Anyway, tone for this one is a clusterfuck. After spending a month bonding with an AI partner in a program, once the crew resets to an old save state she's back to hijinx in the police station like 5 minutes later and not just in total disarray from the shock of losing a woman she loved. I've read some people have praised the actress playing Dorothy and, yeah, I can get behind that. Probably the only thing in this episode that worked.
Season 5
Striking Vipers - Decent episode. The idea of middle aged gamers using VR for high energy fucking and exploring sexuality they just can't otherwise is... neat, but there's not much to it otherwise.
Smithereens - 'Social media is bad' is a message this show's already knocked out of the park by the masterpiece episode 'Nosedive' (and others). This one doesn't bring much new to the table.
Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too - Not really a Black Mirror episode: These become common in the later season, but by this I mean the episode doesn't explore the worst sides of humanity through the introduction of a new technology to an otherwise contemporary or relatable setting or through some other societal change. The doll that runs on a gimped variant of a pop star's neural pattern is a Black Mirror idea but I don't particularly care for the rescue plot or straight comedy. That's not what I'm here for, and this show usually whiffs when it strays from its core formula.
Season 6
Joan is Awful - Alright. The comedy angle of streaming shows made from someone's life and then going layers in on the actors whose likenesses are being used being dissatisfied has some legs but it doesn't hold up the whole run time. It's all a little too goofy.
Loch Henry - Bad episode. The twist of the mom being in on the killings is alright. My friend argues it's not earned at all. I can kinda see where he's coming from as stuff like the drunk barkeep actually suffering from guilt from knowing the truth and the mom keeping tons of VHSes of some old TV show as a cover for her taped ritualized murders are less foreshadowing and more set dressing that just happened to be related to the central plot at the end. The message at the end of humanity profiteering off any tragedy and the price paid for it isn't particularly deep or resonant - It has like 2 minutes to breathe after wasting nearly the whole run time of the episode on a boring personal relationship and investigation.
Beyond the Sea - Pretty good episode. Leaving a traumatized man alone for most of the remaining 4 years of a deep space journey is a fun avenue to explore in what way he'll crack, and planting seeds of his copilot's shaky marriage and extroverted wife unhappy with the countryside life gave enough to chew on. I think more could have been done with the replicas themselves, but overall I liked how this one played out. You often have to suspend your disbelief when watching Black Mirror, and this episode really asks you to give it some leeway: How could mission control not have some backup in place in case of a disaster? That is, how do they not reach out and counsel this grief-stricken man in their presumably expensive, deep-space mission, relying solely on his co-pilot for support? Also, how are both of these guys not trained to carry out all ship functions just in case something goes wrong and one of them dies?
Mazey Day - Maybe the worst episode of the show. There's just nothing here and it's still long even at <45 minutes. Why did we need the gay, socially awkward roommate for example when a throwaway line or shot of a landlord could have demonstrated that the protag's homelife sucks/is financially trying? Anyway, the werewolf ending is... a thing, I guess. And paparazzi sucks? I liked the last couple minutes as the paparazzi still try getting photos even during the murder spree is pretty funny, but considering how serious the rest of the episode is, I don't know if it's supposed to be funny?
Demon 79 - Another alright episode. Not Black Mirror but it's very open about not trying to be. Carried by the Boney M. devil character who's the funniest dude we've had on this show in memory. 'She dreams about dieing every night. Just kill her!' Still needed some editing though and rewrites. The beginning for instance didn't need to reiterate that everyone around the Indian lead is racist so many times. We get it. The ending is kinda weak too - The nuclear fallout actually being real and then the protag just walking off with the devil seems like an ending written just to be different because people would've expected the devil's tale to have been a lie, but that would have been fine really. Just believe in the script. This episode's not meant to be taken seriously.
Season 7
Common People - Maybe the best episode of the show since season 4, at least. Classic Black Mirror ep. of new tech being used in the most humanly evil ways. As soon as I heard 'free surgery' and 'cloud storage', I called some of the twists: Service interruptions, raised subscription fees. I even jokingly suggested ads but was still surprised when they actually started playing. I didn't call the Lux tier of service at all. which is even more evil than is spelled out as it feeds off the lower-tier users. Suffering from a low after experiencing the highs of the Lux service isn't explored much, but I like that it's there. The episode escalates well, for the most part, and drives home the family's desperation. My nitpick is that the husband works too much OT too quickly to not net $300 per month. I think some combination of a higher base subscription fee or him progressively taking more OT as his wife and he get bullied into adopting the Plus tier would have been better. Obviously this creates a problem with the streamer challenge rabbit hole the writer wanted him falling down - Maybe that could have been cut entirely in exchange for the husband just getting tired, screwing up bad one day at work, and losing his job or extra hours that way? Not sure of the perfect fix but I think there's room for improvement as is.
Bete Noire - Eh. Nerd revenge via some superscience against a HS bully was super obvious like 15 minutes in and the show doesn't do anything beyond that. The tone's kind of all over the place and the ending suffers from another 'We made this different to subvert expectations' Rian Johnson BS - The bully winning is... why? The day banners showing various stages of chocolate production as ominous organ music plays in the background is hilarious though. I don't care how mediocre this one is otherwise; that gag's great.
Hotel Reverie - Another dud. Not sure what the worst part of this one is. I'm gonna say how rampantly unprofessional almost everyone in the movie production is, although their lines being laden with buzzwords targeted at a stupid audience is a close second. The lead actress might be the worst though - She feels so out of place and unprepared in the film. My friend pointed out that it's a little neat that the black actress kinda got her wish for a female character to take the lead in a romantic story when the AI Dorothy actually takes control of the story at points. Anyway, tone for this one is a clusterfuck. After spending a month bonding with an AI partner in a program, once the crew resets to an old save state she's back to hijinx in the police station like 5 minutes later and not just in total disarray from the shock of losing a woman she loved. I've read some people have praised the actress playing Dorothy and, yeah, I can get behind that. Probably the only thing in this episode that worked.