How “Black Mirror” Gets Its Barely Sci-Fi Tech Just Right
magenta.as
magenta.as
I loved the first two seasons because they felt like intelligent, worrying criticisms of futurism, social media and technology, whereas usually when television tries to do that it's eye-rolling and cringe-worthy. But so far season 3 feels like the Sorkin-esque Boomer slop that I loved the first two seasons for not being. What do other people think?
The first episode I found really difficult to watch because it felt too much like real-life (Uber, especially.) – there's one episode which I didn't finish as it just didn't interest me, it was the army-type episode, I got bored incredibly quickly. The last episode (which is set on Twitter, I suppose) is incredible.
I think there were maybe too many episodes, the VR episode, whilst good, just felt like filler to me, though it made me phone my mother. I'll watch the fourth season, it's still one of the better shows on television.
"Men Against Fire" was the most disturbing episode of the season. Army with AR implants for zero-empathy ethnic cleansing.
Later
Found it! Uncanny Valley:
I think this is both more plausible and more disturbing than "Men Against Fire". Also: the twist is less apparent --- for most of "Uncanny Valley" (if I'm remembering it clearly), you're not entirely sure whether it's a comment about how games generate dissipation the same way drugs do. "Men Against Fire" is predictable from about minute 10 (after the farm house scene).
Another "Black Mirror" problem I have: the episodes are way too long. "San Junipero" is the only one --- of all the seasons, I think! --- that earned its running length.
The morality lessons that the Twilight Zone oftentimes preached are manifested more as debates in Black Mirror with season 3, which I think is a lot tougher to write successfully. What is a bit of a letdown is that the debates are mostly contemporary (PTSD wasn't even a term when the Twilight Zone was airing) and will date this specific episode heavily. Meanwhile, most of what I watched in the Twilight Zone is still very relevant from even a thought experiment perspective.
I think I developed a lot more critical thinking watching Twilight Zone episodes as a child than anything I had to read in school.
"Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians."
Edit: I thought I'd add that that episode did take me two tries (I fell asleep during the boring part the first time, but watched it again 'cause I had faith inspired by every other black mirror episode).
Edit Note: It is a very front-heavy(not sure what word to use there) episode.
"Shut up and dance" was definitely my favorite episode of the seasons for the emotions you listed.
It reminded me of Die Jugend Marschiert though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLHFN6ynLgg
That said, if the content of season 3 manages to push some of the concerns outlined into the general public's perception and highlights them, then it's a good thing and well achieved.
The thing that stuck and was funniest for me was from the worst episode (ep 1) about the adapter and planned obsolescence.
Since San Junipero is mentioned here positively, I should add that it didn't work for me and seemed like ep 1 just too long for the content, but that's a subjective thing I guess. I kinda found it uninteresting and boring and honestly the ideas brought forward not crazy or exciting. Maybe it's because having lived in the tech world, the concepts are just as old as the availability electricity or even anyone who watched the matrix or read the mangas it's based on would find it "old".
Playtest reminded of the No End House creepypasta.
My favorite episode, despite the plot flaws, was Hated in the Nation, and that one almost saved the season. In light of InternetOf*, it was the episode I enjoyed the most.
The other ones are good, interesting and worth watching. Although only San Junipero is great.
Edit: Shut up and dance is great too.
I also didn't like Shut Up & Dance much. To me it felt like a weaker "White Rabbit", and much of the episode hinges on a single plot twist at the end (much like White Rabbit, but that one was better executed).
I liked San Junipero. I liked that it has a different, unexpected tone from the rest. I liked that it was kind-hearted, for a change. Haven't watched the rest of the season yet.
Just my opinions, of course.
E2 on the other hand was quite good. I did not find the SFX to be bad at all - and that itself far removed from what made the episode great.
There's nothing in Playtest that's similar to 10 Cloverfield Lane. It really has no redeeming qualities.
I watched the trailer on a flight. Looked great. Started the film.
Turns out the only action in the entire movie is what they showed in the trailer. I thought it was deathly boring.
I really think Black Mirror is suffering from the Internet hype machine. If you never saw the show and only read the buzz online you'd think the first 2 seasons were masterclass and this one was a disaster..I thoroughly enjoyed all 3 seasons and thought some episodes were stronger than others but there was no large change in quality between seasons.
It was as much as 10 minutes too long and something was wrong with the editing, like they didn't have enough good meaty shots to fill out some kind of required run time so the editor had to hold shots too long. Then there was the climactic scene where they kept repeating similar shots and beats over and over for what felt like forever, like the story's needle was dislodged and skipping. That was a mess and killed the remaining investment I had in the story. There were also several important but very flatly filmed scenes of dialog that made the acting come off as weak (I think it was the editing/shot choice and not the actors, though). My least favorite episode by far, replacing The Waldo Moment, which was then bumped one notch higher again by the soldiers/VR episode later, which had several (maybe too many) decent ideas and an interesting world but needed a couple more passes on the script.
Other four were really good. San Junipero might be my favorite episode of the series.
[EDIT] I've just checked Wikipedia and S3E1 is the only episode that Brooker didn't write or co-write, just a "story by" with the teleplay by two other people (from Parks & Rec). Maybe that's where the trouble started.
Funny: that's exactly what I think about the whole series. I have (guiltily) watched all three seasons with anticipation, and I still don't really see what the big deal is.
But then de gustibus non est disputandum, so that's just me.
The way he ties the different plots and technologies together was fantastic.
Maybe Netflix will release it for the holidays this year?
Again: if you haven't seen the MeowMeowBeenz episode of Community: it's a pretty good chaser to either of those episodes.
I think the moral of that story was the inherent futility of ever rebelling against the System. Most people don't try, most who try fail, and even for the one-in-a-million who succeed, the System just instantly reconfigures itself to absorb your rebellion as part of it. Other works have done the "revolutionaries always become the new dictators" shtick, but Fifteen Million Merits did it better because it shows that this process doesn't even require a villain (like in, say, Animal Farm). Everyone in that episode, even the Simon Cowell stand-in, was just punching a clock and doing their job; the suppression of revolt was purely an emergent property of the system... as it usually is in real life.
It was the bleakest, most nihilist bit of television I think I've ever seen, made better by the fact that it wasn't empty "dark for dark's sake" like Twilight Zone-esque twist endings tend to be. I had to go for a walk afterward. I don't see how you can't like it... but like I said, the fact that people can disagree so profoundly is one of the show's best qualities, so I'll upvote you anyway and not hold it against you :)
The real hook wasn't the lame virtual-points Zynga oppression, it was how the main character reacted to their situation and then how the system reacted to them.
It's all ground that was covered before (and arguably better) in Network 40 years ago, but it does it well.
I wonder if they were literally inspired by MeowMeowBeenz.
In general, I find Black Mirror way too heavy-handed.
I don't think that the quality has slipped. Maybe you are being too critical because it has lost its initial shock factor?
I'd love a discussion on why you (or others) think otherwise.
I think San Junipero is widely overrated, the pacing is awful and it isn't terribly thought provoking.
They've peaked, the high point was the Jon Hamm special episode and now it's over.
The first two seasons are about a hypothetical future any person could experience (society).
The last season is from the perspective of an individual's very specific circumstances (except for San Junipero).
Society versus the individual?
I liked the ending of the first episode of Season 3 (freedom achieved), episode 2 was more horror than scifi (a la "Brainscan"), episode 3 could have been a subplot in a single episode of Mr. Robot, episode 4 was more like the first two seasons, episode 5 was some nazi-esque Verhoeven-wannabe hegemony meh, and episode 6, to me, was like episode 2, more horror scifi.
For some reason I also liked the episode's title itself; to me it sounds like a name Neil Gaiman would come up with.
Yes, it's a good one.
> San Junipero, which everyone says is the really good one
Average, by my standards. They had a great premise and all they did with it was tell a love story.
The really good episodes are S03E01 for taking the quantification of social status to an extreme, S03E05 for an interesting take on the banality of evil and S03E06 for managing to be annoyingly moralizing and very well done at the same time.
> I loved the first two seasons because they felt like intelligent, worrying criticisms of futurism, social media and technology
Same here, except S01E01 that had none of those qualities and nothing in common with the rest of the series. If that bland and silly social critique was the basis on which the network ordered an entire season, it was a small miracle.
"everyone must cycle on exercise bikes in order to power their surroundings"
It's shallow intellectually, but it doesn't even have any depth emotionally. At least with most other popular TV shows there's depth in terms of personal relationships. There's drama that's more emotionally interesting. Black Mirror seems to be optimized for people who are blunted both in terms of intellect and social emotion. It's one of the most boring TV series on Netflix, which is a shame because there's not much else that even attempts to be interesting in a more sci-fi way.
I think the only reason why people find value in Black Mirror must be because of references. Like how they love jokes on Reddit when they refer to something they all know. People must be like, "Ahaha, they're referencing how people are always on their phones. So true. LOL look, it's trollface!! Dude, look, trollface is on TV. I know trollface. Haha this show is great." What else would people be getting out of it?
It does this well because the science fiction elements of the show are not the focus. They are merely instruments for driving very human narratives.
When you say It's shallow intellectually, but it doesn't even have any depth emotionally. At least with most other popular TV shows there's depth in terms of personal relationships. There's drama that's more emotionally interesting. I wish you would use an example so I can understand where you're coming from since I find myself completely on the other side of your comment.
Even if we could construct something like those robot bees, what effect would that have on the surrounding eco-systems? What happens when a bird or a frog eats some little carbon-fiber robot? I feel like they squandered a more interesting premise in order to tell a sillier one.
But the real world has multiple technologies intermingled with each other. The point I am trying to make here:
While we think Black Mirror is bad enough (I cannot watch watch more than one episode at a time),what will happen in reality could be much worse.
Sitting around "spinning your wheels"