Black Mirror
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Louis
Trakanon Raider
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San Junipero really threw me off when I watched it. Still feel like I need to go back and re-watch that one.
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first 2 seasons are a modern day twilight zone.
Season 3 was a completely different production studio (Netflix) who basically bought the name but brought none of the writers/talent/etc with it. In fact i'm just going to spoil all of season 3 since it's not worth watching:
Season 3 Episode 1: Nose Dive
Girl chases facebook likes and retweets to her peril. Decent premise I suppose, but it makes it's point in the first 7 minutes and then you're beat over the head with it for the remaining 56 minutes. There's no twist, reveal, shocking revelation, or insight gained by the episodes conclusion, which is the hallmark of series like this (ie Twilight Zone).
Season 3 Episode 2: Playtest
been done before and done better in basically every form of media there is, thus the "shock" ending isn't shocking at all, it's entirely predictable. Guy signs up for experimental technology/VR horror video game. Surprise he is dead instantly, the entire "episode" takes place in the blink of an eye as he's dying. If you really want a mind fuck "wtf did I just watch, oh they were dead the whole time" Just watch Mulholland Drive instead.
Season 3 Episode 3: Shut Up and Dance
Best episode of the season, but it doesn't really fit the series per se.
Season 3 Episode 4: San Junipero
This is the most "Black Mirror" episode of the season (in terms of style, content, and substance), and it's completely opposite of Black Mirror, in that it's a feelgood story with a happy ending. Go Figure.
Season 3 Episode 5: Men Against Fire
Another episode that's been done before and done better, making the ending predictable. Along with Episode 2, they are at least trying to copy Black Mirror style, but they are bereft of original ideas. Soldiers are enhanced with bionics to fight a race of mutants after some calamity or whatever happens. Surprise, the mutants are just regular old humans just like us, just the wrong kind, and the bionics make them look like baddies so the soldiers have an easier time murdering them.
Season 3 Episode 6: Hated in the Nation
This is a police procedural. If it wasn't for the gimmick (autonomous "bee" micro-drones) then this episode would of easily fit in to any of two dozen police procedural shows. In fact I'd bet this script was originally written for some CSI: Cyber shit, got rejected, so they adapted the method of killing and it landed here. It's the future and shit and bee's have died off, so a company created autonomous micro-drone "Bees" to pollinate flowers. A dude hacks said bees to kill people. Dude starts a twitter hashtag, #deathto ____ and people start using it to hate on people on twitter. He activates the killer bees. Everyday whoever has the most tweets on that hashtag, is killed by the bees. This could of been a really good Black Mirror episode, if they hadn't went all law and order on it. The twist is, what the guy is really doing is collecting a list of people who use the hashtag, cyberbullying, and his magnum opus is when the police try and resume control of the bees to end the killing, the bees fulfill their final order and kill everyone who participated and used that hashtag. hundreds of thousands of people die. The episode should of ended right there. But no, they gotta go all CSI and shit and track the guy down, have a trial explaining everything, etc. would of been the best episode had they not followed the formula of a police procedural.
Season 3 was a completely different production studio (Netflix) who basically bought the name but brought none of the writers/talent/etc with it. In fact i'm just going to spoil all of season 3 since it's not worth watching:
Season 3 Episode 1: Nose Dive
Girl chases facebook likes and retweets to her peril. Decent premise I suppose, but it makes it's point in the first 7 minutes and then you're beat over the head with it for the remaining 56 minutes. There's no twist, reveal, shocking revelation, or insight gained by the episodes conclusion, which is the hallmark of series like this (ie Twilight Zone).
Season 3 Episode 2: Playtest
been done before and done better in basically every form of media there is, thus the "shock" ending isn't shocking at all, it's entirely predictable. Guy signs up for experimental technology/VR horror video game. Surprise he is dead instantly, the entire "episode" takes place in the blink of an eye as he's dying. If you really want a mind fuck "wtf did I just watch, oh they were dead the whole time" Just watch Mulholland Drive instead.
Season 3 Episode 3: Shut Up and Dance
Best episode of the season, but it doesn't really fit the series per se.
Guy gets "hacked" Podesta style and has embarrassing video captured of him involving child porn (hey, also like Podesta). He is then blackmailed to do things, meets other people blackmailed in to doing things, eventually resulting in having to fight to the death with another blackmail victim, to keep his secret. And they release the video anyway. This would of been a great Made for TV movie or insert "random drama" episode, but there's no moral or cautionary tale about modern life, modern technology, etc to be found here. Does co-star Sir Bronn of the Blackwater though, so bonus points for that.
Season 3 Episode 4: San Junipero
This is the most "Black Mirror" episode of the season (in terms of style, content, and substance), and it's completely opposite of Black Mirror, in that it's a feelgood story with a happy ending. Go Figure.
People are able to upload their consciousness into a cloud server and live forever in a Matrix Style VR world. The living are able to visit this VR world once a week (access is rationed out, you can pay for full time access but our heroines are poor). Lonely Lesbian girl meets another party girl and they strike up a relationship. Lesbian convinces party girl that they should both become permanent residents and live happily ever after.
Season 3 Episode 5: Men Against Fire
Another episode that's been done before and done better, making the ending predictable. Along with Episode 2, they are at least trying to copy Black Mirror style, but they are bereft of original ideas. Soldiers are enhanced with bionics to fight a race of mutants after some calamity or whatever happens. Surprise, the mutants are just regular old humans just like us, just the wrong kind, and the bionics make them look like baddies so the soldiers have an easier time murdering them.
Season 3 Episode 6: Hated in the Nation
This is a police procedural. If it wasn't for the gimmick (autonomous "bee" micro-drones) then this episode would of easily fit in to any of two dozen police procedural shows. In fact I'd bet this script was originally written for some CSI: Cyber shit, got rejected, so they adapted the method of killing and it landed here. It's the future and shit and bee's have died off, so a company created autonomous micro-drone "Bees" to pollinate flowers. A dude hacks said bees to kill people. Dude starts a twitter hashtag, #deathto ____ and people start using it to hate on people on twitter. He activates the killer bees. Everyday whoever has the most tweets on that hashtag, is killed by the bees. This could of been a really good Black Mirror episode, if they hadn't went all law and order on it. The twist is, what the guy is really doing is collecting a list of people who use the hashtag, cyberbullying, and his magnum opus is when the police try and resume control of the bees to end the killing, the bees fulfill their final order and kill everyone who participated and used that hashtag. hundreds of thousands of people die. The episode should of ended right there. But no, they gotta go all CSI and shit and track the guy down, have a trial explaining everything, etc. would of been the best episode had they not followed the formula of a police procedural.
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Void
Experiencer
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If it weren't for the fact that this show has been out already for a decent amount of time, making spoiler tags more of a common decency thing, I'd suggest that just because you don't happen to like a show doesn't give you the right to potentially ruin it for other people. While I agree that Season 3 was the weakest of the series, I still enjoyed most of the episodes quite a bit. It is fine that you didn't like it, and dissenting opinions often stir up great discussions, but who are you to decide whether or not everyone else gets to make that decision for themselves?
And you still spoilered some of it? What was your criteria for doing so? All you had to do was spoiler the whole fucking thing, or each episode's summary like you did with two of them. But now you look like you're just doing it to be a dick, and anyone that disagrees with you is clearly wrong. Assuming they can get past all the "would of" and "should of" mistakes, of course. (Yes, that's a grammar dig, just to be a dick back.)
Utnayan
the episode with the bikes was what really got me into this show, but also messed me up the most. For some reason what happened to the girl stuck with me for days, and I'd wake up in the middle of the night thinking about her and how fucked up that was. The rest of the episode was ok, but for some reason (maybe her "girl next door" look?) the dead look in her eyes haunted me for quite some time, and really set that episode apart.- 3
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Utnayan
I Love Utnayan he’s awesome
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Good episodes all around
Lots to do with futuristic tech, and I like the fact that some of the tech ends up still being in other episodes. I have watched almost all of them now. Hope they make some more. Oops looks like season 4 is coming up soon. Sweet!- 1
Enzee
Trakanon Raider
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Uhh.. all the episodes (except for one) throughout all 3 seasons, have been written or co-written by Charlie Brooker. He is the mastermind behind the show, and he was just as involved in series 3 as the previous two.
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Enzee
Trakanon Raider
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I don't disagree that the season was worse overall. But, I think there's a couple things factoring into this. For one, it's 6 episodes being compared to 3. If you took the best 3, it'd be as good as any other season, imo. Secondly, since one of the best episodes had a happy ending, which we aren't used to, it doesn't feel the same as the first two seasons. Third, it might be that he stretched himself a little thin making 6 episodes (netflix originally wanted a full 12 in one season, they then split it up into two 6 episode seasons.. might have been Brooker requesting that) instead of his normal 3. i.e. 'meh' ideas that he'd normally scrap were made into scripts.
Lastly, if the Grand Tour is any indication, he might have gotten a very large budget increase and that isn't necessarily a good thing. BBC doesn't spend a lot of money on their shows, compared to us in America, though I have no idea how Netflix's budgets compare to them.
Still, though, I enjoyed the season. The first episode was pretty boring, which could be polarizing people's opinions when they binge watch the season. But, the rest ranged from 'interesting but only ok' to 'that was great!'. Even 'ok' Black Mirror episodes are still more interesting then most any other show out there, though.
Lastly, if the Grand Tour is any indication, he might have gotten a very large budget increase and that isn't necessarily a good thing. BBC doesn't spend a lot of money on their shows, compared to us in America, though I have no idea how Netflix's budgets compare to them.
Still, though, I enjoyed the season. The first episode was pretty boring, which could be polarizing people's opinions when they binge watch the season. But, the rest ranged from 'interesting but only ok' to 'that was great!'. Even 'ok' Black Mirror episodes are still more interesting then most any other show out there, though.
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iannis
Musty Nester
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Sorry to necro. I just finished S3 last week, and I have to say that's exactly right.
There was a HUGE shift in the show. It went from being tech based subtle scifi (minus the very first episode) to being on the nose social commentary. Men against Fire was obvious within the first five minutes. As soon as they went into the farmhouse I went, "Oh. They're human, and the soldiers have been brainwashed." But that may be because I watched Oblivion a few weeks ago, and that theme was still fresh. That was redeemed by the Eugenics War speech the shrink gave. Not a bad episode.
I don't know that it's worse, I wouldn't say it was offhand. I did like episode 3-1 a lot, actually -- and yeah, it did make it's point within the first ten minutes, but I found the wholly vaccuous fluff of the entire episode to be a pretty meta expression of exactly that point. Structurally I found it quite clever, if I found the narrative to be tedious. Tedious and vacant -- but pretty. I kinda think Episode 1 was perfect. But S3 is not the same show as S1 and S2. There is that shift from extrapolative sci-fi which leads to social commentary (S 1/2) to fairly straightforward social commentary supported by technological elements.
It felt like the writing was different. 1/2, they came up with a tech premise and found the commentary in the story (except for 1-1, which has always seemed like an outlier to me... what a FUCKED UP first episode. lol). S3, they decided what they wanted to comment on and found an artifice to do it.
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Just binged all seasons of this. Although S3 is the weakest I think this thread is a bit harsh on it. At the very least I was entertained by each episode except maybe the future soldiers one which I felt was a bit over-the-top preachy.
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McCheese
SW: Sean, CW: Crone, GW: Wizardhawk
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Wingz
Being Poor Sucks.
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I've been telling a lot of people I work with to watch this lately who've never seen it. It was kinda hard to come by before but now that it's on netflix people have been asking me about it since they remembered me talking about it a year plus ago.
I tend to suggest watch episode 2 first before episode 1. Simply because of the shock factor. I think a lot of people who love social media wouldn't and couldn't imagine it ever being used against them in such a manner and they might turn it off if that's the first ep they see. Besides, ep 2 and then 3 of the first season are my favorites out of the whole series honestly.
I tend to suggest watch episode 2 first before episode 1. Simply because of the shock factor. I think a lot of people who love social media wouldn't and couldn't imagine it ever being used against them in such a manner and they might turn it off if that's the first ep they see. Besides, ep 2 and then 3 of the first season are my favorites out of the whole series honestly.
Qhue
Trump's Staff
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We came late to the party in my household but have been skipping around and watching whichever episode struck our fancy because anthology. I do think there is a persistent need for such an anthology in the social consciousness in order to explore ideas like these. San Junipero is very close to something that I've thought about for years as I keep waiting to see if technology gets where it needs to be in time for me to take advantage of it.
Zindan
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Finished all the seasons. Overall it is a great series, imo. I agree that Season 3 is the weakest, aside from Shut Up and Dance / Hated in the Nation. Season 2 seemed the strongest, White Bear / White Christmas were fantastic. Glad there is more coming.
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