Black Mirror- Netflix [ Spoilers ]

s7ryf3925pivug · 08-06-2019 7:15pm

I really liked all of them. The second one was a bit predictable but the acting was great and there was loads of tension so it didn't matter.

Snake Plisken · 08-06-2019 7:19pm

Really enjoyed the first two episodes not sure why all the hate for them. Haven't watched the 3rd yet but certainly the first 2 are of the same high standard of any of the other seasons.

Unearthly · 08-06-2019 9:13pm

The Miley Cyrus one I think is the worst ever black mirror episode

Enjoyed Smithereens, Striking Vipers was average

s7ryf3925pivug · 08-06-2019 11:40pm

The songs in the last episode are by Nine Inch Nails, for anyone interested who doesn't know, the main one is called Right Where it Belongs.

nomdeboardie · 09-06-2019 12:55am

Ha ha - I thought the third was quite entertaining, but

the ending a little flat - until the characters went over to the dark side musically in the closing credits with Head Like a Hole - brilliant! All along I was thinking "that's a bit cheeky, wonder if Nine Inch Nails will sue for the 'I'm going to get what I deserve' riff"

:pac:

nomdeboardie · 09-06-2019 1:19am

Evangeline Sharp Housewife wrote: »

The songs in the last episode are by Nine Inch Nails, for anyone interested who doesn't know, from The Downward Spiral, the main one is called Right Where it Belongs.

Ah, I didn't realise the rest of the character's music (in addition to the one I mentioned above) were 'chirpified' versions of NiN songs (though neither of the mentioned songs are from The Downward Spiral as such) https://www.nme.com/news/music/miley-cyrus-full-version-black-mirror-reworking-nine-inch-nails-coming-2505813

DesperateDan · 09-06-2019 1:46am

https://i.imgur.com/Css7PDd.jpg

Green&Red · 09-06-2019 11:45am

Actually thought the idea of a social media company being quicker and more effective than the the police at working things out was very scary and that they could pretty much decide whether he was guilty or not just by reviewing his social media profile

TerrorFirmer · 09-06-2019 1:41pm

Thought Ep3 was actually really enjoyable. Miley Cyrus puts in a pretty good turn, and the parallel between Ashley O and her own Hannah Montana front is pretty interesting.

Sure, it's pretty silly at times and a bit lighter for the most part than Black Mirror usually tends to be, but it's really not that bad at all and we can't always expect Black Mirror to be pessimistic leaning - bit of swing the other way to is no harm every now and again.

Really liked the end scene too - "I wrote this song about my ****ty aunt!" followed by a really solid cover of Head like a Hole.

Ep2 was the weakest I thought, brilliant performance from Andrew Scott admittedly but the compelling 'mystery', in the end, peeters out into unremarkable nothingness.

Perhaps that's the entire point - it mattered for just the briefest second in time and then everyone goes back to the daily grind as the world keeps on turning exactly the way it did before.

Either way, I wasn't overly impressed with the episode as a whole though and didn't buy into how they sold it, though again the acting was quite good....I wish Andrew Scott had a slightly better episode to be associated with.

Overall I enjoyed all 3 episodes. I can see why people were disappointed with all or any of them as Black Mirror episodes, but I think it's pretty unfair to say they were actually poor.

Basq · 09-06-2019 2:31pm

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I can see why people were disappointed with all or any of them as Black Mirror episodes, but I think it's pretty unfair to say they were actually poor.

High expectations maybe?

Often prefer the show most when it's relatively grounded in reality and not-too-distant-future.. Smithereens was set in 2018 after all.

The show is a victim of it's own success.. any standalone anthology series will always have high and lows but Black Mirror has been consistently delivering high quality.. yes, some better than others.. but long may it last.

There's probably one episode per series that I didn't enjoy as much as the others (Fifteen Million Merits, The Waldo Moment etc) but they've been far from dross either.

Snake Plisken · 09-06-2019 3:26pm

Well finished episode 3 and really enjoyed it, shows how cynical the music business is stars treated as a product and the whole stupid idea of bringing back dead stars to tour as holograms.

Overall I really enjoyed all three episodes of Season 5.
Maybe Netflix will give Charlie additional time to recharge his batteries and deliver 6 episodes in 2 years time for Season 6.

Sad Professor · 09-06-2019 3:31pm

I think all the Netflix seasons have suffered in the minds of viewers from being binge-watched. I've always tried to spread them out and watch something else in-between. I do the same with all anthology shows. It took me ages to finish Love, Sex and Robots.

Snake Plisken · 09-06-2019 3:42pm

Sad Professor wrote: »

I think all the Netflix seasons have suffered in the minds of viewers from being binge-watched. I've always tried to spread them out and watch something else in-between. I do the same with all anthology shows. It took me ages to finish Love, Sex and Robots.

I agree that's why with the last 2 seasons of Black Mirror I watched one episode an night to kind of process what I had just watched and I think I enjoyed them more that way.

09-06-2019 3:45pm

Ah tbh there's only so many ways you can reframe the whole "we're living in/walking into a technological dystopian nightmare" idea without it getting kind of old..

Yeah, Miley Cyrus was rather good in it too..

PinaKolada · 09-06-2019 4:01pm

I enjoyed the first two episodes. Interesting stories and the usual Black Mirror comment on the dangerous of technology. Probably weak enough in comparison to other episodes though.

The only one I didn't like at all was the last one. It was a bit like a standalone dark kids movie. Shy teen, moody sister, genius struggling single dad, lonely rich kid, evil aunt, talking toy and they all set off to save the day by tricking the dumb henchmen and foiling the evil aunts master plan just in the nick of time. It seemed so far removed from any other episode they've done.

cml387 · 09-06-2019 4:52pm

There shouldn't be surprise that Miley Cyrus was quite good, after all she was an actor before the superstar singer.

I thought she was a good sport to be shot in a relatively unflattering light,at least

during her coma and wake up scenes

Basq · 09-06-2019 9:00pm

The Miley Cyrus episode was so bizarre.. don't know what Charlie really was thinking with this.

It felt like a slightly darker episode of a kids series.. slapsticky with oddly out-of-place coarse language (just to show Miley Cyrus is a different light). It started off well showing a frustrated and disillusioned pop star but just got silly as it went on.

PS - kudos to the mention of the excellent band Idles. I know Brooker is a big fan though!

Dr_serious2 · 10-06-2019 8:49pm

Black Mirror has been Americanised and it was not a good move.

Striking Vipers was OK - bit weird and all over the place.
Smithereens was also OK, I liked the way the Social Media company knew more than the police. Ending a bit off.
Miley Cyrus episode was by far the worst episode in the history of Black Mirror. Very, very silly.

JeffKenna · 10-06-2019 10:50pm

Just watched the Miley Cyrus eposide and boy was I disappointed. Doesn't resemble or come close to resembling black mirror.

fritzelly · 10-06-2019 10:51pm

Dr_serious2 wrote: »

Black Mirror has been Americanised and it was not a good move.

AKA dumbed down

Always Tired · 11-06-2019 4:35am

The dip in quality if there is one has nothing to do with it being 'Americanized'.

They are just trying different things in an effort to keep it fresh which is hard. Try coming up with an idea for a BM episode which hasn't already been done, either by them or by the myriad of sci fi authors who have been doing the genre for decades

It's the same writers on the show. Some of the best reviewed episodes like Nosedive, the most complex episodes like San Junipero and Hang the DJ, and the bleakest ones (Crocodile/Shut up and Dance) are all from the first season that Netflix was involved in. So how is it being dumbed down or made lighter for the US?

Green&Red · 11-06-2019 9:49am

Ya I wouldn’t agree with the dip in quality being down to it being Americanised, Black Museum was one of the best episodes and very dark

Rothko · 11-06-2019 11:52pm

I thought episode was entertaining, although mostly in a comedic way. Smithereens was a lot better, great performance by Andrew Scott. However, I think the third episode is easily the worst episode of the whole series. Just awful.

SureYWouldntYa · 12-06-2019 12:26am

Rothko wrote: »

However, I think the third episode is easily the worst episode of the whole series. Just awful.

Have you seen The Waldo Moment? There's no way it's not the worst

At least s5e3 have a few decent acting performances, story mightn't have been great but it's still above Crocodile and Waldo for me

Franz Von Peppercorn II · 12-06-2019 12:37am

The worst black mirror episode was the first one. Episode 1 season 1. I almost never bothered watching it after that.

I’m glad I went back but it definitely has changed. The bleak early English stuff, which often wasn’t futuristic, was great but I watched it with a knot in my stomach. Now it’s more lighthearted. I enjoyed episode 3 here and haven’t seen the rest.

It’s obviously going to get harder as they go on, the low hanging fruit is gone but it’s holding up.

NIMAN · 12-06-2019 11:09pm

I would have watched the odd BM in the past, but generally found it very average.

Decided to give the new series a go tonight, and picked the Andrew Scott one to try, as I would think he's a decent actor.

Well, have to say, that's me done with it for good. Awful. Long drawn out and generally rubbish. You kept hanging on for some sort of great twist, and I found that with a lot of BM shows, and it never comes.

Always Tired · 12-06-2019 11:47pm

Franz Von Peppercorn II wrote: »

The worst black mirror episode was the first one. Episode 1 season 1. I almost never bothered watching it after that.

I’m glad I went back but it definitely has changed. The bleak early English stuff, which often wasn’t futuristic, was great but I watched it with a knot in my stomach. Now it’s more lighthearted. I enjoyed episode 3 here and haven’t seen the rest.

It’s obviously going to get harder as they go on, the low hanging fruit is gone but it’s holding up.

Be Right Back???
That's easily top 5 possibly the best one!

Zaph · 13-06-2019 1:04am

Just watched the three new episodes, overall I'm pretty underwhelmed. Striking Vipers was pretty meh, a potentially interesting concept but really the story went nowhere and I honestly didn't give a sh*t what happened to the characters. Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too was hands down the worst BM episode by far. If someone wrote that as a kids movie it wouldn't have been made because the plot was so weak. Even the ending with

the sister up on stage with Miley Cyrus

was pure Disney.

The only saving grace was Smithereens, and even then it's only a middling episode, nowhere near the level of the best episodes. Andrew Scott was the best thing by far about the episode, but while technology played a part in the storyline, I didn't get that sense of paranoia about how technology dominates the world we live in. At the end of the day it was simply about a

car crash caused by a guy looking at his phone

. Even at that, the "twist" was apparent to me long before the ending, whereas for the most part I never guessed which way the previous episodes were going to turn. It really felt more like an episode of a run of the mill cop drama than Black Mirror tbh.

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo · 13-06-2019 6:55pm

I thought the ideas behind all 3 episodes were very solid.
The gay/not gay storyline could have played out in 30 minutes instead of an hour which is my main gripe with that. Also it's a fighting game they go into, you should only be able to do the moves that those characters can perform. It's like they can fight, or have completely transcendent sexual intercourse? Wtf! These are children's games. Feels weird that it would be allowed and legal to make that game. That might be too nitpicky a point though.
The Miley Cyrus Disney movie would have been the PERFECT set up for a dark ending. The two kids get charged with the Ashley O murder, but it was actually the doll who pulled the plug, and the doll has the personality of Ashley O. So either the kids get sent down for murder, or there is a debate around can your mind in a doll kill your body. Is that a half suicide and not a murder. I just wanted a dark angsty twist for the end rather than it becoming more and more almost slapstick.
The Irish London taxi driver was fairly decent throughout. But the guy wanting to talk to the owner of Person Book was a somewhat weak motivation for me. For example, if you are that addicted to social media that you cause car crashes and deaths, the chances are you are addicted to more than 1 of them. To have all his grief directed at one man didn't add up for me enough sorry. The founders of Snapchat, Instagram, Reddit, WhatsApp, Tinder, the Smartphones themselves get a free pass for causing his distraction and his girlfriends death, but it's completely the one founder of Facebook's responsibility? And nobody else? Why?

Overall I enjoyed them for what they are, and am still a big fan of the show. But none of these 3 episodes have any rewatch value to me. And that's where the let down is ultimately. There are still episodes in the show that I could sit down for a 5th time to watch.

s3rtvdbwfj81ch · 14-06-2019 8:31am

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

The founders of Snapchat, Instagram, Reddit, WhatsApp, Tinder, the Smartphones themselves get a free pass for causing his distraction and his girlfriends death, but it's completely the one founder of Facebook's responsibility? And nobody else? Why?

Because the founder/owner of all those other platforms are not personalities in the same way the founder of Facebook is - I know and am aware of near daily news stories about Marc Zuckerberg, but I couldn't tell you the name of the current owner or creator of twitter, that person is not as famous.

Black Mirror- Netflix [** Spoilers **]

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Black Mirror- Netflix [ Spoilers ]