The Pitters' Place

Everything below here is spoilers.

I thought the first episode was okay. On the surface it seems like a Star Trek parody, but I think it's more of a mockery or maybe a deconstruction of the entire culture in general. Daley's main desire in creating the game was of course to power trip, but he also used it to play out standard and traditional sci-fi narratives with himself as the hero/authority figure, triumphing over the bad guy, getting the girl, getting the respect of his crew, and so on. It's all standard, but artificial and forced. But then the episode does a bait-and-switch with Nanette who comes along, is openly contemptuous at those forced trappings, and ends up actually playing the traditional hero for real, flying through space pursued by some terrifying villain with the authentic loyalty of her crew, overcoming incredible odds, and so on (with the fanboy as the villain). I liked it because it was a huge fuck you to douchebag gamer bros. Beyond that, though, the technology didn't make any sense (DNA doesn't preserve memories), there were a few plot contrivances, and the humor was annoying and unfunny, all of which bothered me.

I also think Hang the DJ, the fourth episode, might be personally my favorite episode of the series, even though "objectively" the first one is probably better. It's what everyone kept saying San Junipero was and what it actually should have been. San Junipero was weighed down by it being confusing and convoluted and boring in parts, whereas Hang the DJ was pure, simple, and beautiful all the way through. The way everything just clicked in the last thirty seconds or so was great. I thought it was interesting that it's the only BM episode I can think where the technology ended up being fully embraced at the end.

Arkangel spoke to me personally a bit, as I have a reflexive hatred of helicopter parenting and some gadget that would let my parents see and hear everything I do and know where I am at all times and filter out anything they don't like would have been my teenage self's perfect nightmare. I liked how the mother's censoring of everything she thought her daughter wouldn't like is what led to her nearly killing her, as well as the obvious poetic irony of her leaving her at the end. Beyond that, the technology itself was so stupid I had a hard time suspending disbelief. Yeah, make everything that stresses your kid out some grey blur so they wouldn't be able to know what the hell is going on or describe it to anyone else if they're mauled by a dog or attacked by some sexual predator. Brilliant. She wouldn't even be able to dodge stray ball with that thing on. The episode did try to make the mother sympathetic, which I appreciate because there was a lack of moral ambiguity this season, but my own biases prevented it from working on me. Fuck her, she got what was coming.

Crocodile and Metalhead were both stupid and pointless and a waste of time. I don't have anything to say about them beyond that. Black Museum was so dumb that I thought it had to be self-parody, at which point I thought to myself... oh yeah, it probably is. An entire episode of Black Mirror devoted to making fun of itself. I liked the idea, but the execution was still not great.

All in all I thought this season was pretty weak. A lot of rehashed concepts and ideas, a lack of the moral ambiguity which made the previous seasons so interesting, not a lot of things which make you think when the episode is over. It's become pretty stale and repetitive. It also wasn't even particularly "dark", which means the show has lost a lot of things which gave it its soul and identity. I'm not really excited at all about the next season.

Hang The DJ is the only thing that saved this season. Arkangel had potential with Jodie Foster as director but it just never seemed to work well with the material it had to work with. The other episodes all sucked. They've gone from "let's imagine ways that technology could turn out to be a bad thing" to "let's see how bad technology can look if we come up with the most ludicrous ideas for technology. Somebody needs to go to prison for this shit.

CashRules wrote:They've gone from "let's imagine ways that technology could turn out to be a bad thing" to "let's see how bad technology can look if we come up with the most ludicrous ideas for technology.

well put

Never murder a blind baby in front of a guinea pig.

I'm on the second season, just finished watching White Bear. But I promise to read all of that when I finish watching the fourth.

Arkangel should have spoken to me, because my mom was the very definition of a helicopter mom, and that's pretty much why I cut off all contact with my family for most of my twenties, but I dunno. I felt myself sympathizing with the mom at times, even though she was clearly out of line with her shit, and the girl was sort of a typical teenage girl and I didn't really care about her.

I actually kinda liked Metal Head, even though that reveal at the end was pretty stupid and it didn't break any new ground. It was like a condensed version of The Terminator. The Star Trek parody felt like the most light hearted of the season, and I actually laughed quite a few times, which is not something I'm used to doing when watching this show. I liked it, but it felt too silly for Black Mirror. Hang the DJ was solid, I guess, but it was also not the usual doom and gloom type stuff I expect from this show, so it left me feeling a little underwhelmed. Black Museum was some jumping the shark nonsense.

Anyway, yeah, Black Mirror had a pretty dramatic drop in quality from season 2 to season 3 and it didn't rebound this year. I remember the first couple seasons I had to watch it in doses, because every episode left me feeling shook. That is no longer the case unfortunately, but I'll still watch season 5 and hope that it finds some of its former glory.

Here would be a scary and disturbing Black Mirror episode...

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Jfc.

I mean, this is literally as predictable as anything could possibly be... but still. It's legitimately frightening. I mean, in only about five years or so I guess we won't be able to trust anything we see on video at all. No one is going to be able to tell the difference between what's real and what's not... there's not going to be any foundation anymore.

I think I liked Black Museum better when it was called White Christmas. I don't think it was particularly terrible though. Not as memorable as the former, sure, but I didn't think it necessarily veered into self parody. (Ok, maybe a bit with that dude feeling both a male and female orgasm, wtf lucky son of a bitch.)

I think Crocodile and Metalhead had some intense moments but I agree they weren't very memorable compared to, say, Shut Up & Dance or White Bear, which actually tread through morally ambiguous territory (sort of) in a terrifying way. USS Callister was fun, and as an FNL fan, it's always great to see Jesse Plemmons on screen. I'll remember it for its more comic, bizarre moments (and Cristin Milioti's wide eyes) and less for the social commentary. Arkangel I'm less fond of - I agree it was stupid technology, and I also didn't find the plot particularly interesting or devastating. Always felt like a disaster waiting to happen.

Hang the DJ is indeed one of the best episodes of the show. And I think I may be biased because I saw the glowing praise on this thread before watching it. Can someone help me understand how the simulation worked though... it puts two digital clones in a virtual world along with robotic personalities and sees if they can identify with each other enough to realize it's all some kind of hoax? So, unless someone REALLY despises the person they are being tested with, the simulation would generally give a healthy match percentage as the two are surrounded by uninteresting people. If I'm correct, I'm okay with this because it's not too romantic - there is no such thing as an "ultimate" partner.

You didn't think the woman's consciousness transferred into a teddy bear was stupid? Or those little souvenirs that people pick up with a simulation of the guy being tortured for eternity? They seemed to me to be things someone making fun of the show (specifically White Christmas) would write. I got that impression when the lady shoved the teddy bear against the wall and pointed her finger at it and was all like "Listen to me, you fucking bitch!" or something. I sort of disconnected at that point. I mean, it was hilarious, but not in a good way. Unless it was parody.

I'm not sure all the virtual people they meet are supposed to be uninteresting, although maybe they are. I just got the impression that they seemed that way because the two protagonists were always comparing them negatively to each other. But it's easy to read it as them being horrible on purpose, which if true would kind of undercut the episode's happy ending. Thinking about it, there's no reason to think their real-life relationship is "ultimate" in any sense or that they're super compatible with each other. In the simulation, they really only knew each other for a short while, and while they liked each other enough to rebel 99.8% of the time, that could still basically just be infatuation, which doesn't automatically translate to stable long-term compatibility. So the whole system which the ending seemed to reinforce still seems stupid.

Oh well.

I thought those ideas (teddy bear consciousness, souvenier) were absurd in the way the ideas in White Christmas were. I agree that they didn't quite land as well as they did in the former episode (the whole sharing consciousness thing was a bit over the top for my taste and I'm bummed the episode ended with that 'twist'; the 'souvenier' bit made sense though as a reflection of just how horrible people can be, reminding me of that sickening amusement park in White Bear where people gleefully recorded a woman being mentally tortured), but somehow... I still enjoyed the episode. The bit where the lady swears against the teddy bear was meant to be morbidly hilarious, yes. A parody of human beings rather than the show itself.

Lol, I didn't mean to make you dislike the only other episode of this season that you liked.

Yeah, there were no signs of aging during the entire time the digital copies spent in that world so I think the simulation was done on an "who these people are as of today" basis, as it would probably have limited insight on how they would grow/change in the future... which is fine, too. The simulation can't and shouldn't be able to predict the future, so I'm okay with the show not becoming over the top there (for a change). The conclusion's still romantic, I think... just not "there's only one ultimate partner for each person" romantic. I think the ending might have been more meaningful if one of them went like 'naaah' and swiped the image away leading the simulation to start over again with another person, lol.

I also now read your OP in which you talked about San Junipero. I quite liked that episode too, although I agree the quality dips in the second half. I feel like the content was all there, but it just got a bit too melodramatic and heavy-handed in execution. Still, an episode I keep thinking of for the era hopping music and overall mysteriousness.

Since I like making lists, here's how I'd rank the 19 BM episodes thus far:

1. The Entire History of You
2. Fifteen Million Merits

3. Nosedive
4. Hang the DJ

5. White Bear
6. Be Right Back
7. San Junipero

8. Hated in the Nation
9. White Christmas
10. Men Against Fire
11. USS Callister

12. Shut Up & Dance

13. The National Anthem
14. The Waldo Moment
15. Playtest
16. Metalhead

17. Black Museum
18. Crocodile
19. Arkangel

What'd I get wrong?

That seems good. I would put Nosedive near the bottom but otherwise it's all good. What do you like about The Entire History of You so much?

The absurd memory rewind tech that fed into the (completely realistic) obsessive-compulsiveness of the protagonist and that ultimately led to some kind of truth. It's a pretty gripping thriller with an interesting premise.

I also liked Nosedive a lot for how it takes our fixation with appearance/image/societal acceptance and turns it into a rating out of 5 that is determined by the 'meaningfulness' of the interactions you have with strangers, and that literally determines your place in life. It sounds ridiculous but it's also a reflection of human society. There are those who don't give a shit about ratings, and others - like our self-entitled protagonist - who are obsessed with the facade of perfection the 5 starred folks portray and will fake 'meaningful interactions' simply to be admired by people she doesn't give a shit about and ascend on an imaginary, man-made scale meant to serve the rich and elite. The way she totally spirals out of control is predictable but still quite hilarious... and sobering.

I like the episodes where people become obsessed with something until it ruins their lives.