Ok I'll admit it - "San Junipero" both made me cry and scared the shit out of me at the same time. Didn't know that was even possible. Thank you Netflix. And thank you for last Monday too.
What do you think was so scary about it?
‘Black Mirror’ Finds Terror, and Soul, in the Machine
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Re: ‘Black Mirror’ Finds Terror, and Soul, in the Machine
#102I was a fan before it came to US Netflix, and was thrilled to get home and watch it on Friday. Unfortunately, that first episode was painful to watch, but I realized why when the closing credits didn't have Charlie Brooker as the writer. It seemed to follow Netflix's obsession with quantity of hours of content rather than quality. The idea of a social rating system is interesting, but to drag it out for over an hour…
I think that it wasn't really bad but rather the theme is very uncomfortable. It sort of hits close to home. It is over the top but that's also the point.
Re: ‘Black Mirror’ Finds Terror, and Soul, in the Machine
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
Uber is exactly like that... or HN, where "positivity" is effectively enforced and swearing triggers immediate action from the comments police https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12708612
The parent comment apparently started a nosedive ...
sigh, do I really have to deal with the presence of such lowly rated comments? Can't we get an autoblock feature running here?
Re: ‘Black Mirror’ Finds Terror, and Soul, in the Machine
#104I've only watched 3 of the episodes (Playtest, Shut Up and Dance, and Hated in the Nation)...I've heard the other 3 episodes were better, but the 3 that I have watched seemed subpar compared to the previous 2 seasons. Not terrible as far as overall TV goes, but after the plot thrills were over, they just didn't leave the same queasiness-about-possible-future-dystopia that "White Bear", "White Christmas", "Entire Hist…
4 and 6 were the best and among the top 5 for the series, easily.
1 was my least-favorite episode of the entire series. Flabby editing, could have trimmed a solid 5 minutes, and something about the shot choices and/or the editing made every serious conversation look like watching two people ACTING, which is not a good thing.
5 was a bad episode in an interesting world. If 1 hadn't had technical issues I'd definitely rank this one under it. Story needed more work.
2 and 3 were mid-tier. 2 is pretty much a really great Outer Limits episode and 3 is just... well, Black Mirror. Good, but not amazing like some others in the series.
I'd say that puts its average under either of the other 3-episode seasons, yeah. Still some good stuff in there.
Re: ‘Black Mirror’ Finds Terror, and Soul, in the Machine
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
plausibility isn't the point - the scfi devices used are for reduction-ad-absurdum, to zoom-in on aspects of our current society. Also, in the real world some things develop faster than others. In San Junipero they can perfectly simulate a world and upload people into the cloud (heaven), but they can't cure quadriplegia with stem-cells. That's ok because all science and tech doesn't move at the same pace: some tech g…
I don't disagree with you, but for me you still need to retain some plausibility or it just feels sloppy. The perfect memory recorder in the previous episodes - that was my favourite one, because we are not very far off from it, yet the implications are profound. But indefinitely flying, self-replicating nanobees, just because one of the writers read about drones, 3d printers and bees dying out? Feels forced and lazy…
Self replicating bots are feasible in some form, probably not in the one presented. Also, it isn't plausible that the rest of world would look as similar to ours presented in the episode as such technology would have many far-reaching implications on the rest of society.
Still, at some point you have to limit yourself. Having this one change and not change the rest of society makes it possible to imagine and relate to that one tech.
One bite sized chunk at a time.
Edit: Interesting example: What if we had teleportation technology that you can carry in your pocket? It's extremely hard to figure out all implications of this and if you manage to figure out how the world would look like it would probably be hard to relate to because it would change everything. So we have to keep a balance between relateability and plausibility.
Re: ‘Black Mirror’ Finds Terror, and Soul, in the Machine
#106Re: ‘Black Mirror’ Finds Terror, and Soul, in the Machine
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's scary how relevant some of Black Mirror's themes actually are. This one in particular is so close, I wonder whether the show's creators used it as a template. Edit: Apparently not, as this information is only publicly available since this September. Zeitgeist at work?
I've known about sesame since last year at least - it's getting more attention now but it was definitely public knowledge when this series would have been at the writing stage. It's an idea from sci-fi - I can't remember who wrote what, but there was a society where citizens got more or fewer votes depending on their behaviour (edit: Alastair Reynolds? Banks? Feels like it was one of them.), and knew each other's sco…
Daemon by Daniel Suarez contains the idea that people have reputation. Everyone can rate everyone and know everyone's reputation.
Re: ‘Black Mirror’ Finds Terror, and Soul, in the Machine
#108I guess it's just me.
I simply don't find Black Mirror to be that good. To me it's like a revamped and overhyped Tales of the Unexpected ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_the_Unexpected_(TV_se... )
It tries to be smart by attempting to address social changes we see to today, but it's clumsy and overbearing and the writing is not up to the task. I look at classic Twilight Zone and I feel they did more with less. In some respects even the writing from Tales from the Crypt offered more believable characters.
Anyway one person's (clearly) minority opinion.
Re: ‘Black Mirror’ Finds Terror, and Soul, in the Machine
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was so nervous when I saw they were being done with Netflix and in a massive season of six episodes. I actually don't think there was a truly weak episode in the bunch. Literally my only complaint was the stupid little explanation taglines Netflix shoved in my face meaning I didn't get to go into most of them completely free of expectation. Charlie Brooker man, what a guy.
Whats wrong with Netflix? They are one of the few publishers creating large amounts of content specifically for mature audiences. Their revenue model is not based on advertising so they are free to create quality content rather than content that will simply appeal to the most people.
Netflix bloat is what is sometimes wrong with Netflix. Scenes are sometimes a little bit too long in a lot of series. For example, unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt's second season was weaker than the first because the original was made for TV but the second was made for Netflix. This led to the same number of jokes being placed in a longer block of time, and therefore a decrease in the #ofJokes/minute.
Re: ‘Black Mirror’ Finds Terror, and Soul, in the Machine
#110I've only watched 3 of the episodes (Playtest, Shut Up and Dance, and Hated in the Nation)...I've heard the other 3 episodes were better, but the 3 that I have watched seemed subpar compared to the previous 2 seasons. Not terrible as far as overall TV goes, but after the plot thrills were over, they just didn't leave the same queasiness-about-possible-future-dystopia that "White Bear", "White Christmas", "Entire Hist…
4 and 6 were the best and among the top 5 for the series, easily. 1 was my least-favorite episode of the entire series. Flabby editing, could have trimmed a solid 5 minutes, and something about the shot choices and/or the editing made every serious conversation look like watching two people ACTING, which is not a good thing. 5 was a bad episode in an interesting world. If 1 hadn't had technical issues I'd definitely…
If by "1" you mean Nosedive... then maybe it was /supposed/ to look like you were watching two people acting?