Black Mirror- Netflix [ Spoilers ]

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.

gucci · 14-06-2019 8:49am

Misael Numerous Syrup wrote: »

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.

I will go with the concensus here of ep.1 being poor/too long, ep.3 being absolute garbage and ep.2 being the best of the bunch. It had the right blend of good performance, comedy and suspense to keep me watching, even if I did kind of see where it was going.

What I thought was interesting on ep.3 was

i expected Billy Bonds or whatever his name was to be an obnoxious pr1ck, but to paint him as a regular guy who got lucky, in his own words "it was never suppose to be like this" was interesting.
Its similar to anyone with an idea that the corporate machine gets hold of, before you know it there is an army of people making tonnes of cash off it and the wheel gotta keep turning. Obviously Zuckerberg may be a complete cock, but i thought it was a suprising direction to bring the character for a show that usually peddling the scarier side of tech

I will look forward to the next season, and hopefully 2 of the 3 next time are of at least the quality of smithereens.

Eoin · 14-06-2019 11:23am

Misael Numerous Syrup wrote: »

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.

I think this character was actually more based on Jack Dorsey of twitter than on Zuckerberg. But the website was obviously more like Facebook.

Greyfox · 14-06-2019 3:39pm

For S5 Smitherenes was really good and the other 2 were good, nothing dark or disturbing which was a little disappointing. this season there was no unforgettable episodes like USS Calissar or White bear and no rubbish episodes like metalhead or crookadile.

Say Your Number · 14-06-2019 10:06pm

After seeing a lot of people giving out about the third one I watched it with low expectations and thought it was good fun, when you see what the aunt is doing and why she is doing it, thought that was pretty dark in itself.

Credit Checker Moose · 14-06-2019 10:11pm

Everything in BM seems to revolve around memory/brain thieving and devices that attach to the head.

JustJoe7240 · 15-06-2019 8:49am

Always Tired wrote: »

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

That's season 2, Season one ep 1 is the one with the pig.

Franz Von Peppercorn II · 15-06-2019 10:37pm

Always Tired wrote: »

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

National Anthem.

Franz Von Peppercorn II · 15-06-2019 10:41pm

Say Your Number wrote: »

After seeing a lot of people giving out about the third one I watched it with low expectations and thought it was good fun, when you see what the aunt is doing and why she is doing it, thought that was pretty dark in itself.

Yeh it was fine. Nothing special but not bad. I think the show isn’t as dark as it used to be and maybe the fans of the older episodes should realise that.

Cordell · 17-06-2019 12:21pm

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

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.

Actually it makes perfect sense to be allowed to do that in that kind of game: First of all, that kind of game will be 18+ because of the real fight and real pain and real injures involved (real as in simulated reality but still, feeling quite real).
Second, the technology, and here I make some assumptions, it's not developed by the game developers, but it's licensed from a 3rd party, as it's too expensive to develop it just for a single game, since it's a full immersion next gen VR. So the tech itself will harvest the brain power to generate all imagery and sensations, including sex, and all this features will be inherently enabled. If a game developer want to not have sex featured in their game then they will need to do the extra work to disable it, but what will be the incentive to do that? The game it's already for mature audiences, and if they want to do it let them do it, or they will buy the one that does.

nozzferrahhtoo · 17-06-2019 1:30pm

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

The gay/not gay storyline could have played out in 30 minutes instead of an hour which is my main gripe with that.

Yea my main feeling from the episode was that the writer woke up from a dream with the line in his head

"I mean come on I fkd a polar bear and I still can not get you out of my head."

and the entire episode was then created just to exist as a place holder for that one line.

In fairness though, it was a funny line.

Akrasia · 17-06-2019 8:46pm

nomdeboardie wrote: »

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

One of my favourite ever songs is Right where it belongs, i think the best version is this one

nomdeboardie · 17-06-2019 11:25pm

Akrasia wrote: »

One of my favourite ever songs is Right where it belongs, i think the best version is this one

I've probably been familiar with only a couple of their songs (+ nice OTT thrashing for Bowie's Hallo Spaceboy on stage), despite buying the Downward Spiral way back when there were CDs on the basis of, eh, Closer

(nothing else on it stuck). Interesting indeed to hear a 'subtler' number from them, with the tension from the 'fuzz' effect welling up towards the end.

*sheepishly replaces Black Mirror thread on rails*

iLikeWaffles · 19-06-2019 8:05am

Utter shite that 3rd episode made even worse by Miley Cyrus, very annoying. IF it had of been anyone else I probably would have enjoyed it!

First 2 were not too bad. All 3 episodes kind of repeating themes from previous season.

johnnyskeleton · 23-06-2019 10:51pm

For me the dissappointing thing is that Charlie Brooker has been fairly low profile for the last few years, cancelling yearly wipe etc and the reason is that hes been working on black mirror. The episodes arent that bad, but theres only three of them and they dont seem particularly inspired.

I get that he has a young family and creative people can lose steam etc, but the big dissappointment is having less Brooker rather than the episodes being objectively bad.

Ash.J.Williams · 23-06-2019 10:54pm

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

For me the dissappointing thing is that Charlie Brooker has been fairly low profile for the last few years, cancelling yearly wipe etc and the reason is that hes been working on black mirror. The episodes arent that bad, but theres only three of them and they dont seem particularly inspired.

I get that he has a young family and creative people can lose steam etc, but the big dissappointment is having less Brooker rather than the episodes being objectively bad.

I agree

Tony EH · 24-06-2019 2:35pm

I'd much rather he ditched 'Black Mirror' and got back to his "wipe" shows. They were far more entertaining.

There's about three 'Black Mirror' episodes that I'd call good.

Sleepy · 24-06-2019 3:46pm

I think Russel T Davie's totally out-did him this year with Years and Years.

connemara man · 11-07-2019 12:20am

The move to Netflix has been bad for Black mirror, without the structure of a TV hour the episodes meander too much taking 20+ minutes to get the core concept going.

Striking Vipers good concept when they get there, but the ending happens too quickly then and a lot of meh in the middle.

Smithereens was good but it needed people constantly on their phones throughout the stand off to then walk away at the end the viral sensation of that event wasn't built up enough. and with thoughts and prayers being posted as people quickly forget would have been a better mirroring of today's society.

Mileys was grand decent concept but just takes too long. The technology of her in the coma should have been the central story, girl gets doll Mikey gets drugged should brake 10-15 minutes then the next 15 the pain and torture mining a brain would be like, then the save. And where's the comeuppance fall out

They are just so bloated and for no good reason

Loafing Oaf · 23-07-2019 1:43pm

I think I'm gonna get stuck into this show cos I'm currently paying a tenner a month for Netflix and barely watching it. Any recommendations on episodes/series to start with?

Basq · 23-07-2019 1:47pm

Loafing Oaf wrote: »

I think I'm gonna get stuck into this show cos I'm currently paying a tenner a month for Netflix and barely watching it. Any recommendations on episodes/series to start with?

Umm. S01E01 (The National Anthem) would be the logical start!

To be honest, episodes are self-contained so you could start anywhere.

You could also use something like this and pick the best one and work back: https://www.vulture.com/2016/10/every-black-mirror-episode-from-worst-to-best.html

Although San Junipero at #6? G'way and sh*te!

Loafing Oaf · 23-07-2019 1:52pm

Basq wrote: »

Umm. S01E01 (The National Anthem) would be the logical start!

To be honest, episodes are self-contained so you could start anywhere.

You could also use something like this and pick the best one and work back: https://www.vulture.com/2016/10/every-black-mirror-episode-from-worst-to-best.html

Although San Junipero at #6? G'way and sh*te!

Cheers. I was looking at a few of those lists. The episode 1s seem to feature prominently so I might start there.

Ash.J.Williams · 23-07-2019 1:58pm

Loafing Oaf wrote: »

Cheers. I was looking at a few of those lists. The episode 1s seem to feature prominently so I might start there.

Shut up and dance

That's an episode not an order

Sad Professor · 23-07-2019 2:08pm

That Vulture list contains some very divisive episodes in its top 10. One of many reasons why I'd be wary of best of lists. They'll also encourage you to watch episodes like San Junipero first that you won't fully appreciate without experiencing some of the earlier episodes.

I'd start from the beginning but maybe skip 1x01 and go back to it later.

Still Ill · 24-07-2019 9:55am

That list is terrible and contains a lot of spoilers. I'd just watch from the start. Maybe, as the above poster said, skip the first episode, us it's pretty unrepresentative of what Black Mirror really is.

The best way to watch Black Mirror imo is to know nothing about the episodes, so you go into each episode with an open mind and have to figure it out as you go along. I avoid even reading the synopsis of the episodes.

peteeeed · 04-12-2020 11:33am

https://twitter.com/charltonbrooker/status/1334616614470377472?s=21

peteeeed · 21-12-2020 3:09pm

https://twitter.com/charltonbrooker/status/1341021456252235777?s=20

fritzelly · 21-12-2020 3:14pm

Will this be on Quibi lol

corkie · 21-12-2020 5:11pm

Because the links don't open in browser firefox.

I had to open new tabs and encountered an account verification with twitter.

Instead of sending a text message, they want to verify by a phone call.

First attempt, I didn't accept the call. Subsequent attempts failed.

Now logged out of my account and have to try again later.

It plays in to the thread tittle very well?

Edit: - 22/12 19:41 ~~ Got my twitter account sorted.

peteeeed · 21-12-2020 5:20pm

here's the youtube link

Basq · 23-12-2020 12:34am

The weirdest thing about 'Death To 2020'..

^ This lad directed it..

Black Mirror- Netflix [** Spoilers **]

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Black Mirror- Netflix [ Spoilers ]