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Author Topic: Black Mirror  (Read 34713 times)
Shannow
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on: December 10, 2014, 05:45:44 PM

Pardon if this is a duplicate thread

Series from the UK. Now available on Netflix, not even sure how to describe it.
Short stories from the near future? Half funny, sad , obscene. Watch it.

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Hawkbit
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Reply #1 on: December 10, 2014, 05:47:45 PM

Yeah, I watched the first few the other night and really liked it, if a bit bleak.

It was described as an updated Twilight Zone.
Rendakor
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Reply #2 on: December 10, 2014, 07:00:05 PM

Reading Netflix reviews:
Quote
They have quality actors and are clearly well budgeted--but the storyline was offensive, obscene and a little ridiculous.
Sign me the fuck up!

Edit: Just watched the first episode; the above review is accurate and I am entertained. For those on the fence, the premise of episode 1 is:
« Last Edit: December 10, 2014, 08:18:54 PM by Rendakor »

"i can't be a star citizen. they won't even give me a star green card"
Azazel
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Reply #3 on: December 11, 2014, 02:55:29 AM

It's a great show. Almost all of them are written by Charlie Brooker, who you might know from Screen/News/Games wipe. Also How TV Ruined Your Life - which is a kind of revisit of themes from the earlier shows. And the annual reviews that Brooker does.

If not, I suggest that you track them down, if you like cynical/sarcastic/smart commentary on things.

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DraconianOne
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Reply #4 on: December 11, 2014, 04:22:11 AM

Black Mirror is all sorts of fucked up - I love it.  For UK viewers, there's a Christmas Special  next week which starring Jon Hamm and Rafe Spall.  Black Mirror: White Christmas

Brooker also wrote and directed a short series called "Dead Set" which is a satire of the Big Brother show. The premise is that the contestants in the Big Brother house are the only survivors of a zombie apocalypse. I thought it was really well done.

Dead Set Trailer


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Signe
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Reply #5 on: December 11, 2014, 08:48:41 AM

I love this show.  I started watching it right after I finished Utopia.  OMG, I think I might turn weird!  The episode "Fifteen Million Merits" was brilliant and made me very uncomfortable.  For some reason many of the stories made me feel like I did when I read Lanark: A Life In Four Books, which is probably my favourite ever.  I love when stories make me feel uncomfortable.  I'm sure I'm not the only person who likes that feeling... right?  Please say yes.

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DraconianOne
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Reply #6 on: December 11, 2014, 09:20:41 AM

I love this show.  I started watching it right after I finished Utopia.  OMG, I think I might turn weird!  The episode "Fifteen Million Merits" was brilliant and made me very uncomfortable.  For some reason many of the stories made me feel like I did when I read Lanark: A Life In Four Books, which is probably my favourite ever.  I love when stories make me feel uncomfortable.  I'm sure I'm not the only person who likes that feeling... right?  Please say yes.

Say yes, you are the only person who likes that feeling or yes, there are others like you out there?  Oh ho ho ho. Reallllly?

A point can be MOOT. MUTE is more along the lines of what you should be. - WayAbvPar
Pennilenko
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Reply #7 on: December 11, 2014, 01:44:16 PM

Well, being a person who also likes that feeling, I would say there are more people like that out there. However, there is nobody quite like Signe.

"See?  All of you are unique.  And special.  Like fucking snowflakes."  -- Signe
Signe
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Reply #8 on: December 11, 2014, 08:33:28 PM

However, there is nobody quite like Signe.

Except for me.  And you, too.  Well, I mean for you.  You know.

My Sig Image: hath rid itself of this mortal coil.
Surlyboi
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Reply #9 on: December 11, 2014, 09:33:31 PM

This is really good. And I'll second the recommendation of Dead Set too.

Tuned in, immediately get to watch cringey Ubisoft talking head offering her deepest sympathies to the families impacted by the Orlando shooting while flanked by a man in a giraffe suit and some sort of "horrifically garish neon costumes through the ages" exhibit or something.  We need to stop this fucking planet right now and sort some shit out. -Kail
Azazel
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Reply #10 on: December 16, 2014, 03:34:42 AM

Yep. Dead Set is all kinds of fucked up awesome.

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Ironwood
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Reply #11 on: December 16, 2014, 04:38:19 AM

TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT.

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Ruvaldt
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Reply #12 on: December 16, 2014, 09:50:59 PM

Just started watching this.

Fifteen Million Merits was stunningly good.  Really magnificent.

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Pennilenko
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Reply #13 on: December 17, 2014, 02:50:50 PM

Fifteen Million Merits was stunningly good.  Really magnificent.
Yeah, that one was my favorite so far.

"See?  All of you are unique.  And special.  Like fucking snowflakes."  -- Signe
Threash
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Reply #14 on: December 23, 2014, 07:11:16 PM

So depressing though.

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Azazel
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Reply #15 on: December 28, 2014, 02:34:08 AM

They're all pretty bleak. Kind of the point in a way.

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Threash
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Reply #16 on: December 30, 2014, 10:08:00 AM

At the end of "the entire history of you" we are supposed to assume  right?

I am the .00000001428%
Ironwood
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Reply #17 on: December 30, 2014, 11:28:46 AM

Yes.

Because that's more bleak and depressing.

It's like some of you don't get Brooker.   why so serious?

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dd0029
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Reply #18 on: December 30, 2014, 02:11:55 PM

Because that's more bleak and depressing.

I didn't really like the second episode of the second series, but that's a more than apt description for things at the end.
Rendakor
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Reply #19 on: December 31, 2014, 10:39:29 AM

White Bear? I didn't really care for that one either.

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Ironwood
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Reply #20 on: December 31, 2014, 02:23:04 PM

Bear in mind that most of these are making points about UK Culture.

White Bear resonated over here like you wouldn't fucking believe....

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Rishathra
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Reply #21 on: January 02, 2015, 06:46:43 AM

Would you mind elaborating on that?  I'm genuinely curious.  I don't recall anything about that episode that was particularly UK'ey.  At least, not in a way that a Yank would have trouble relating to.

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Xanthippe
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Reply #22 on: January 03, 2015, 12:09:45 PM

Yes, please elaborate.

We just discovered this series on Netflix. Spouse loved Fifteen Million Merits, I loved the Entire History of You.

"Loved" isn't quite the adjective. Found fascinating. Bleak and wow, wtf.
Ironwood
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Reply #23 on: January 03, 2015, 03:27:27 PM

Well, long story short (because I hate paragraphs), Brooker has views about the pedo menace as a matter of public record due to his work with Brass Eye, particularly the media overreaction.  He also has had some things to say about the Bulger stuff, which was thrown into further sharp relief over here when the anniversary of the killers came out and one of them was found to be 'back in the public' and so the media dragged it all out over and over again and, frankly, it was just a shitshow.  Much like the episode tried to portray.

See, over there, the two who did the crime in this Black Mirror episode would probably just get shot and that'd be the end of it.  But not us Brits.  Oh No.  We have to make it a thing.  A big thing.  A big recurring thing that's actually fairly ludicrous because we (lack the spine/are civilised) delete as appropriate to actually do something PERMENANT about it.

Which is pretty much the sum up of the episode here.  After all, it wasn't really HER that was getting punished all the time.  She was only EVER getting punished ONCE because she couldn't remember it.  So, what the 'public' was doing was ENTIRELY for the benefit of the public.  It was just fucking ridicule and shame and a public display, almost like a goddamn bleak Disney theme park because he sees us as unable to do anything else.

It was a witch burning and a media shitshow all caught on the latest fucking smart phones.  It was Camera Justice, which is a particularly hot topic over here, since, er, we don't really have any other type....

Anyway.  Some of that.  More of the other.  I'm a bit pished, so typing's hard, but I'll gladly expound when you're over my house and I'm beating you to death with a camera phone.  Or summat.

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Signe
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Reply #24 on: January 03, 2015, 07:24:55 PM


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Ironwood
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Reply #25 on: January 04, 2015, 03:19:36 AM

Yeah;  "Challenge Myra."

Also, Fred and Rosie West.

Actually, the list is endless.


"Mr Soft Owl has Seen Some Shit." - Sun Tzu
dd0029
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Reply #26 on: January 04, 2015, 08:41:24 AM

Well, long story short (because I hate paragraphs), Brooker has views about the pedo menace as a matter of public record due to his work with Brass Eye, particularly the media overreaction.  He also has had some things to say about the Bulger stuff, which was thrown into further sharp relief over here when the anniversary of the killers came out and one of them was found to be 'back in the public' and so the media dragged it all out over and over again and, frankly, it was just a shitshow.  Much like the episode tried to portray.

See, over there, the two who did the crime in this Black Mirror episode would probably just get shot and that'd be the end of it.  But not us Brits.  Oh No.  We have to make it a thing.  A big thing.  A big recurring thing that's actually fairly ludicrous because we (lack the spine/are civilised) delete as appropriate to actually do something PERMENANT about it.

Which is pretty much the sum up of the episode here.  After all, it wasn't really HER that was getting punished all the time.  She was only EVER getting punished ONCE because she couldn't remember it.  So, what the 'public' was doing was ENTIRELY for the benefit of the public.  It was just fucking ridicule and shame and a public display, almost like a goddamn bleak Disney theme park because he sees us as unable to do anything else.

It was a witch burning and a media shitshow all caught on the latest fucking smart phones.  It was Camera Justice, which is a particularly hot topic over here, since, er, we don't really have any other type....

Anyway.  Some of that.  More of the other.  I'm a bit pished, so typing's hard, but I'll gladly expound when you're over my house and I'm beating you to death with a camera phone.  Or summat.


That gives the episode a whole lot more context. Thanks. At the end, I could see something weird like that happening here, but it would be for an entirely different more prosaic and less interesting reason.
Xanthippe
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Reply #27 on: January 04, 2015, 11:56:56 AM

Well, that was a harrowing trip down Google lane. I was unaware of these things - and how differently they are handled in the UK. Yikes.
Azazel
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Reply #28 on: January 04, 2015, 06:17:46 PM

Hadn't heard of Brass Eye. I'll track it down.

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Ironwood
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Reply #29 on: January 05, 2015, 02:12:14 AM

 ACK!

Brass Eye is fantastic.

Edit :  Actually, I should say 'Was'.  You really ought to take a gander.  Or possibly a goose.


"Mr Soft Owl has Seen Some Shit." - Sun Tzu
DraconianOne
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Reply #30 on: January 05, 2015, 02:30:57 AM

Brass Eye is fantastic.

Edit :  Actually, I should say 'Was'.  You really ought to take a gander.  Or possibly a goose.

Seconded. Brass Eye is well worth your time. Prior to that, "The Day Today" which wasn't quite as controversial in content but as a satire on contemporary global news shows, was fantastic (which Brooker wasn't involved in iirc but was the brain child of Chris Morris who works with Brooker a lot).

A point can be MOOT. MUTE is more along the lines of what you should be. - WayAbvPar
Azazel
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Reply #31 on: January 05, 2015, 03:25:33 AM

I've, erm, "found" it. Will watch it in the next few days. I'll probably watch some Big Fat Quizzes first to wash the taste of Mel B out of my eyes.

Speaking of Brooker, for the non-UK people, check out A Touch of Cloth as well. My boss gavce me a copy of it, and while I haven't watched that either yet, it's Brooker and as such near the top of my list.

Anyone else find 2014 Wipe a little disappointing? The song was awful, but aside from that it just seemed a little less than usual.

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Ironwood
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Reply #32 on: January 05, 2015, 03:35:15 AM

ATOC is hilarious.  British Police Squad.

Again, some things may get lost in translation, especially the Todd Carty stuff.

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01101010
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Reply #33 on: January 25, 2015, 03:09:09 PM

Decided to take a leap and watch a few episodes. First one really turned me off with some of the overreaching... but the underlying currents stuck with me. 2nd episode was pretty poignant as well as the third. I like the show well enough to keep going though.

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jgsugden
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Reply #34 on: January 25, 2015, 03:59:05 PM

I've seen everything available on Netflix and found them to be entertaining.  The one that stuck with me most was '"Be Right Back," but "The Entire History of You" is the one that seems to be the most practical warning tale.  People do enough idiotic shit that gets recorded on technology they could avoid - when it becomes harder to turn off...

2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
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