‘Black Mirror’ Finds Terror, and Soul, in the Machine

I can't tell if you're dismissing the logical conclusion as unlikely. The proliferation of ratings systems, from Facebook likes to Tinder swipes to Uber drivers who have to stay above 4.7 just to keep their job, tells me that we're a lot closer to that logical conclusion than you think. And it is far from logical, sane, healthy or kind!

Charlie Brooker man, what a guy.

In addition, I recommend avoiding watching an episode just before you go to sleep.

This is an exceptionally good point.

It'll be just like now, but better. Cars will fly. Housemaids will be robots. Computers will talk, but still take up entire rooms.

But the future isn't just more or better. It's also different. That's much harder to predict and grasp.

S3 is probably not as good as the rest of the series, but it's much better than anything else currently on TV, except for Westworld of course.

Production value is better and stories can sometimes have happy endings. Definitely more mellow for larger audience.

Personally, Shut Up and Dance was my favorite episode, as it was on the level of White Bear as being so insanely messed up. Also one of my favorite albums is OK Computer by Radiohead, so when Exit Music (For a Film) played, just wow.

Actually for me they do. Maybe I'm more sensitive to this than others but I've seen the first two and both left me rather disoriented, alomst detached from reality, the first minutes after watching them. I only reach such a state through brilliant (from my point of view, I guess) film or music, or by using drugs. So: no complaints here :]

E.g. I really like how the first episode makes you not only reflect on a possible-but-too-close future that looks horrible to live in, but at the same time reminds you to realize maybe it's already a reality for some people today - possible including yourself, and that in a broader sense it has been like that all throughout history.

Do you feel like the earlier episodes could be applicable to anyone in future society, but the current episodes are too specific to apply to "anybody" - rather, "This is the dystopian future, but only for these personality types."

Affecting society versus affecting the self?

Additionally, not sure if anybody agrees, but I considered the end of episode 1 season 3 a happy ending.

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.

I did consider "Shut Up and Dance" to have a pretty interesting progression though.

Huh? It's already 6 episodes, compared to the first two seasons that were just 3 episodes each, not including the one-off "White Christmas" special. The runtime of the season 3 episodes are longer too.

It's one if those shows I don't think people get...

Everyone thinks it's great, but is it...

It's has amazing production values. Great actors. Good dialog.

Buuuut it's missing plot. It uses emotion as a replacement. And as each story is separate I think you don't seem to notice.

But for some reason I think I enjoy it. So perhaps we don't need a good story for a TV show. Or perhaps it's a cheap trick that might wear out if everyone jumps on board.

PS try re-watching TZ. It wasn't as good as I thought when I re-watched it. Most episodes were at best OK.

As an example, in the first episode of Season 3 (no spoiler here I think) a character leaves an area where there's a billboard with her and a guy on it, and her image fades from it. Personalized images in ads are something we've seen in other media so I'm not claiming the idea is novel, but a lesser show might still have felt the need to show someone else walking up and their image appearing on the billboard, replacing the one that had been there. Black Mirror is content to show the image fade, then cut without replacing it. This is good taste and confidence, and it's one of the show's greatest attributes. It manifests in many small choices like this in every episode.

Similarly, it sometimes uses what it doesn't show us to carry most of the weight of an entire episode's central theme (Fifteen Million Merits does this, for instance). It may also throw sensation at the viewer as a bait, as it pointedly does in The National Anthem, revealing this when the camera chooses to entirely ignore the sensational event toward which the episode has been building to instead show us something both more mundane and far more disgusting in every way that matters. The subjects of that scene push the viewer to reflect on themselves—showing us the watchers when we are watchers—which is one hell of a smart gut-punch.

There are a couple bad episodes, though (well, there was one, but now season 3's out and by my reckoning there are now three), and if I were walking a n00b through the series I'd probably show them the series' first episode last because it's both structurally different from all the rest and I think easier to appreciate when you've got a better feel for what the show's doing. It's a bad introductory episode, IMO.

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 grows very fast while other techs never get funding and die by whatever market-force fashions.

Edit: have not watched the first one yet, didn't realise Brooker didn't write that one.