Black Mirror

[Hahiha / USSR]

With season 3 of Black Mirror having been released a few days ago, I figured I'd create a thread about it for us fans. I found out about the TV show from a Hello Internet podcast (which I highly recommend along with this show). For those who haven't seen it, it has some rather sexually themed episodes here and there (almost nothing graphic is shown) and I'd best describe it as a modern day Twilight Zone. It's episodes are highly emotional, and a lot play out like a tragedy (I can't remember any 'happy' episodes either). I have to say my personal favorite episode is 1,000,000 credits, as I absolutely enjoy hypocracy and irony.

[Ater Nox]

I'm four episodes through the third season, and I say that there is one happier episode in there

I like episode too Hah, though I think that the White Bear twist, or the White Christmas episodes might be my other favourites from the first two seasons.

Have you had a chance to watch any new episodes yet?

[Hahiha / USSR]

Oct 27, 2016 2:09:20 GMT -5 Ater Nox said:

I'm four episodes through the third season, and I say that there is one happier episode in there

I like episode too Hah, though I think that the White Bear twist, or the White Christmas episodes might be my other favourites from the first two seasons.

Have you had a chance to watch any new episodes yet?

I posted this after I saw the third episode in season three.

[Ater Nox]

Did you see the Twist coming at the end of that episode?

[HumanSanity]

I loved the first two seasons (White Bear was probably the most disturbing thing ever to happen to my mind). Third season was disappointing, didn't really feel like Black Mirror which I think of as criticizing technology and society while a lot of the episodes just felt like detective specials.

[Hahiha / USSR]

Oct 27, 2016 3:05:16 GMT -5 Ater Nox said:

Did you see the Twist coming at the end of that episode?

I did, although I really hoped they weren't going to do it.

Oct 27, 2016 12:07:59 GMT -5 HumanSanity said:

I loved the first two seasons (White Bear was probably the most disturbing thing ever to happen to my mind). Third season was disappointing, didn't really feel like Black Mirror which I think of as criticizing technology and society while a lot of the episodes just felt like detective specials.

I understand what you mean, I wholeheartedly agree on the main aspect of Black Mirror has been criticizing technology and our society (a mix of Thomas Hobbes and technology), and that season 3 doesn't seem to going along with the same mantra (supposedly since Netflix took over).
Spoiler alert, going to talk about episode 2 of season 3.

SPOILER: Click to show

S3:E2 certainly uses technology but isn't really criticizing it; the second episode, Playtest, seems more like a 'this might happen' scenario with possible allusions to an independent AI along with critiques of familial ties. Whereas I feel that a truly Black Mirror episode with this theme would've had them already implemented in the masses, best described as a future version of Ingress where the game is built into your everyday life. It then would've followed the people as they fail to distinguish real life from their game in everyday scenarios, this could likely lead to the main character getting abducted as they fail to distinguish their abductors from say a horror game they're playing until it's too late.

Edit: While watching S3:E4 I really got the urge to talk about it.

SPOILER: Click to show

I want to start off with talking about Junepero, by stating my utter disbelief at what they've done in the episode. The whole premise of Black Mirror has effectively been showing possible future technology in the worst light possible (just look at White Bear). With that in mind, let's look at Junipero, a pair of lesbian lovers in the 1970s. Now I haven't completed the episode so I can't effectively comment on the human nature side of the show but this episode sure as hell can't comment on technology. This episode is so against the grain, I'd like to see the (explitive) who figured it'd be a good idea to make an episode that is completely different from how Black Mirror criticizes. Due to my disdain for this idiotic theme of an episode I must apologize for offensding anybody and for any grammar mistakes.

I highly recommend not watching S3:E4, Junipero. - Redacted

[HumanSanity]

Oct 27, 2016 16:14:55 GMT -5 Hahiha / USSR said:

Oct 27, 2016 3:05:16 GMT -5 Ater Nox said:

Did you see the Twist coming at the end of that episode?

I did, although I really hoped they weren't going to do it.

Oct 27, 2016 12:07:59 GMT -5 HumanSanity said:

I loved the first two seasons (White Bear was probably the most disturbing thing ever to happen to my mind). Third season was disappointing, didn't really feel like Black Mirror which I think of as criticizing technology and society while a lot of the episodes just felt like detective specials.

I understand what you mean, I wholeheartedly agree on the main aspect of Black Mirror has been criticizing technology and our society (a mix of Thomas Hobbes and technology), and that season 3 doesn't seem to going along with the same mantra (supposedly since Netflix took over).
Spoiler alert, going to talk about episode 2 of season 3.

SPOILER: Click to show

S3:E2 certainly uses technology but isn't really criticizing it; the second episode, Playtest, seems more like a 'this might happen' scenario with possible allusions to an independent AI along with critiques of familial ties. Whereas I feel that a truly Black Mirror episode with this theme would've had them already implemented in the masses, best described as a future version of Ingress where the game is built into your everyday life. It then would've followed the people as they fail to distinguish real life from their game in everyday scenarios, this could likely lead to the main character getting abducted as they fail to distinguish their abductors from say a horror game they're playing until it's too late.

Edit: While watching S3:E4 I really got the urge to talk about it.

SPOILER: Click to show

I want to start off with talking about Junepero, by stating my utter disbelief at what they've done in the episode. The whole premise of Black Mirror has effectively been showing possible future technology in the worst light possible (just look at White Bear). With that in mind, let's look at Junipero, a pair of lesbian lovers in the 1970s. Now I haven't completed the episode so I can't effectively comment on the human nature side of the show but this episode sure as hell can't comment on technology. This episode is so against the grain, I'd like to see the (explitive) who figured it'd be a good idea to make an episode that is completely different from how Black Mirror criticizes. Due to my disdain for this idiotic theme of an episode I must apologize for offensding anybody and for any grammar mistakes.

I highly recommend not watching S3:E4, Junipero.

Finish Junipero, I was highly confused until the last 5 minutes of the episode. Still not a favorite but it's not bad.

I agree with you about Playtest, it seemed mostly like common horror not really about society writ large. It was mostly just confusing.

"Men Against Fire" was good, but a little too transparent. I still think White Bear is the best this show has ever had to offer.

[Hahiha / USSR]

Another problem I have is with the predictability of the episodes, the first two seasons do a very good job at having an integral part of the story hidden. In the third season so far for me they've all been quite easy to predict where the episode is going (except for Playtest's layers on top of layers). The first episode of season 3 was extremely easy to predict and the ending to episode 3 should've have been fairly obvious to anybody who understands the show's alignment with Hobbe's views of human nature. I have some ideas on how they could make episode 4 align with the themes but if my hypothesises are correct I doubt they'll be shown correctly.

[HumanSanity]

I've noticed when I talk to people that I'm not someone who is always trying to predict how shows work, I'm more of a go with the flow kind of person. But I can see how this season is more transparent. Episode 3 wasn't unpredictable in the sense of theme, but it was unpredictable in terms of being almost totally random at each twist and turn, which isn't necessarily a good episode but rather a weird one.

If I had to pick my favorite episode of this season it'd probably be San Junipero, but that's still not great. Am I glad I watched? Yes. Was it great? not really

[Ater Nox]

Yeah, I think you have to stick with San Junipero, at least until the classic Black Mirror reveal.

SPOILER: Click to show

I think it was a solid episode, maybe because I was expecting a darker story. While there is a bit of a happy ending, I thought there was something a little disconcerting about the upbeat song at the end played over Kelly's death and funeral and the more I think about the ending the more I wonder how happy it actually was. Are all the dead people in San Junipero really 'living' on, or are they just AI's running out their code? There's a bit of an overlap there with White Christmas.

Nosedive felt like a good Black Mirror setup, but if you'd told me the setup alone the episode would have been relatively easy to guess. There's nothing wrong with that, and watching how things played out was still interesting, but I was kinda meh about it in comparison to some of the previous episodes.

Playtest was more a classic horror story, and while it wasn't bad, I don't know if it was as Black Mirror-y as the other episodes.

Shut Up and Dance felt a little more like Black Mirror in terms of darkness. I think it was a little similar to S1E1, especially with respect to the technology level of the story and the blackmailing.

SPOILER: Click to show

The whole way along the story, I was kinda expecting the hackers to screw the kid over by releasing what they had regardless of what he did, but the paedophile twist was completely unexpected for me. I think that was a very good writing decision, because it completely turned the episode on it's head in the last minute. The whole way through you feel sorry for the main character, but at the end you have to think about that.

[Hahiha / USSR]

Alright, I finished watching San Junipero.

SPOILER: Click to show

Having just read your post after finishing the episode, I agree that the upbeat song was completely out of place. In fact I feel like they tried to make it a happier episode because it definitely could have taken a darker turn. Sure they're happy for the moment but I doubt it'll last long, how much time will pass until they no longer find it any fun and grow apart or if they have have a fight?

[HumanSanity]

San Junipero

SPOILER: Click to show

I agree with Ater regarding the nature of technology in the episode. I kind of disagree with this commentary about the song, to me the upbeat nature of the song is the point of the entire episode. It's not shoving the message down your throat, it's just leaving you the tools to consider it for yourself. The possibility of extended life, whether in reality or a hypothetical reality, etc. is important to consider and I don't think the show is trying to make you feel one way or the other about it.

One part of the episode I found relevant was the idea of medical consent. Why can you not consent to ending your own life while plugged into San Junipero? Why do you need to marry someone? How do you marry someone while plugged in? I felt like all of this bolstered the side of the episode that was telling us how disturbing a San Junipero-esque system would be because it's almost as if you're existing in the system independently of whether you consent or not.

It also begs the question of physician assisted suicide in general, and I have a lot of mixed feelings on the subject. Not sure the episode encouraged me to any position in that regard.

Shut Up and Dance

SPOILER: Click to show

I mean the first episode was it's own kind of beast. I was pretty sure the whole time all of the stuff would be released anyways. I didn't think this was a commentary so much as a future dis-topia (and I agree with Hah's point about how this is all a Hobbesian commentary on human nature).

[Ater Nox]

I finished episode five and I'm not really sure I got the ending.

SPOILER: Click to show

Was the lady he kept seeing just another method of controlling the soldiers do you think? Was the house he went back to ever really where he lived?

[Hahiha / USSR]

Oct 28, 2016 19:12:31 GMT -5 Ater Nox said:

I finished episode five and I'm not really sure I got the ending.

SPOILER: Click to show

Was the lady he kept seeing just another method of controlling the soldiers do you think? Was the house he went back to ever really where he lived?

I finished season 3 but have been relatively busy until now.

SPOILER: Click to show

I wasn't thinking too much about lady he kept seeing, but in retrospect that makes a lot of sense. Although I would argue that she wasn't meant to "control" them so much as to keep their morale high.
Before I talk about the house, I was confused about that scene as I didn't remember it being an option his psychiatrist gave him; I thought his options were to either be imprisoned remembering every unfiltered thing that happened to him that was unpleasant or to have his MAS(S?) reset and his memory of the last few days being erased. Onto the house, I highly believe they dumped him in a ghost town where he is to likely die from not being able to perceive the real world and thus starving or being killed (sorta like how I believe Playtest should've ended).

[Dialogos]

Ooh, I've heard great things about this show. Been planning on watching it myself when I have more time. I've heard it's somewhat similar to Mr. Robot, which I already watch and adore.

[Hahiha / USSR]

Wisecrack made a video about the philosophy of Black Mirror. Obviously I do not recommend watching this video if you haven't seen Black Mirror yet, because there are spoilers.