How “Black Mirror” Gets Its Barely Sci-Fi Tech Just Right

Post by knowaveragejoe » Sat, Nov 05, 2016, 4:56 AM UTC

the_af wrote: post #19

soneca wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first episode is the very worst of the whole serious. "Fan-fiction" level of writing. Everything so obvious with tired tropes. A critique to social media that could be done by an imaginative high school kid. The other ones are good, interesting and worth watching. Although only San Junipero is great. Edit: Shut up and dance is great too.

Really? I liked the first episode. What I think is the absolute worst (of all Black Mirror, I'd say!) is the second episode, Playtest. It's embarrassingly bad, completely amateurish, not really scary, too drawn out and with dodgy SFX and a weak premise. I also didn't like Shut Up & Dance much. To me it felt like a weaker "White Rabbit", and much of the episode hinges on a single plot twist at the end (much like White…

Post by knowaveragejoe » Sat, Nov 05, 2016, 5:00 AM UTC

danso wrote: post #13

Analemma_ wrote: post #2

Are people liking the latest season of Black Mirror? I'm only three episodes in and haven't yet gotten to San Junipero, which everyone says is the really good one, but so far I've been a little disappointed. This might be regression to the mean, since I felt that the first six episodes were six home runs in a row and it must be tough to keep a streak like that going, but so far season 3 seems to have lost something.…

I've only watched episodes 2, 3, and 6, and I agree, not particularly compelling compared to even the 3 worst episodes of the previous seasons. It's still good, but not uniquely interesting or provoking in the way that past seasons have been.

Post by watt » Sat, Nov 05, 2016, 6:21 AM UTC

tintor wrote: post #17

unfunco wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, the third episode (Shut up and dance) is the outstanding episode, at the end I was mentally exhausted and incredibly saddened. San Junipero is different, without ruining things, it's the only episode where at the end, I wasn't considering the "where" that we're heading towards as a society (though on further thinking, it's a question of whether something good is also something moral.) – It's just very differen…

> there's one episode which I didn't finish as it just didn't interest me, it was the army-type episode, I got bored incredibly quickly. "Men Against Fire" was the most disturbing episode of the season. Army with AR implants for zero-empathy ethnic cleansing.

Post by rhizome » Sat, Nov 05, 2016, 8:20 AM UTC

bcheung wrote: post #64

I wouldn't consider using people on bicycles to power society good science. It's probably one of the most inefficient methods of energy generation. That episode seemed a bit far fetched to me.

Post by krabpaaltje » Sat, Nov 05, 2016, 8:58 AM UTC

pluma wrote: post #56

tptacek wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a trailer a few years back with a bunch of 20-something white gamer dudes in some kind of dystopian future gamer den playing a CoD style shooter, which was in reality --- well, the same plot twist as "Men Against Fire". I thought (a) the trailer was much more evocative than the Man Against Fire episode, and (b) that it was possible that "Man Against Fire" borrowed its idea from that trailer. Later Found it!…

Both UV and the BM episode strongly reminded me of an Outer Limits (I think?) episode about a perpetual war between humans and aliens in some underground cave. The reveal is pretty similar to that in Men Against Fire, except the justification is different.