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Black Mirror Season 5 trailer out now!

Started by qwerty616, May 15, 2019, 12:00:19 PM

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BlodwynPig

Quote from: Blue Jam on June 06, 2019, 07:56:28 PM
...yep, Striking Vipers was a bit bollocks. Strip out all the VR stuff and you're left with a standard soap opera plot.

Are the other new ones better?

Christ - shittest happy ending ever

QuoteThe next day, Theo picks up Danny from the police station. She is frustrated in the car ride home as Danny is silent. In the final scene, it is their wedding anniversary. He and his wife have an arrangement where Danny can play Striking Vipers X and have sex with Karl, whilst Theo can go out to a bar and meet up with a stranger.

BritishHobo

The Miley Cyrus one was odd. Pretty much played out like a family adventure film.

oy vey

Turned off Striking Vipers after 10 mins of admittedly half-watching. Will give it another go. Rachel, Jack, etc quite funny if a little stupid in places but logic holes are always a risk with Black Mirror. Smithereens could well be the best ep yet for me. Yes, it's on the nose but it just works. And no future tech or other overly surreal concepts. On the back of that I will retry vipers. There is life in this series yet.

St_Eddie

Quote from: BlodwynPig on June 06, 2019, 08:58:54 PM
QuoteDanny can play Striking Vipers X and have sex with Karl

That's some serious multitasking!

holyzombiejesus

Smithereens was so good, Andrew Scott was superb although that password being on the side of the boat was a bit daft.

Lord Mandrake

Smithereens was very, very good. The writing and performances really made it feel like the most realistic scenario in any of Black Mirror for me. From the skewed motivation to the messy unravelling of the 'plan' - it all felt so horribly genuine as if I had read about it before. Andrew Scott was mesmerising and I really enjoy Topher Grace these days.

BritishHobo

I've seen a lot of people complaining that Smithereens isn't very good because the guy we're supposed to like is actually awful because of what he's done, and I just think, fuck's sake. Does fiction have to be about designated good guys and bad guys? I think things like this episode - or the sweat lodge drug-rehab thing in Breaking Bad where the bloke in charge talks about trying to drive to buy more booze while already smashed, and hitting his young daughter and killing her - are far more interesting. What a horrible and difficult thing to have to face up to. Much better than if he'd just gotten through on the phone and shouted about how YOU ARE EVIL, MARK ZUCKERBERG

Suki Bapswent

Thought Striking Vipers was OK but slightly lacking. Finished it needing a proper Black Mirror fix. Smithereens was great (mainly due to Andrew Scott's stunning turn), but it didn't feel very Black Mirrory either. Rachel, Jack & Ashley Too was a total fucking disaster of an episode, easily one of the worst. Christ knows what Brooker was thinking.

rasta-spouse

This series should be titled "Black Mirror: The Young-Adult Novels"

BlodwynPig

This is like the time i bought a Brooker book and realised we didnt like the same things and his misanthropy was fake.

Dr Rock

What the fuck was the Miley Cyrus talking robot shit?

Noodle Lizard

Seen the first two.  Gash.  Smithereens in particular was awful - neither an effective hostage drama nor any kind of worthwhile commentary on "social media addiction" or whatever.  It may as well have been an elaborate PSA for "don't check Facebook while driving", all the subtlety of one of those laughable things they showed you in school.

Also a little tedious how they seem insistent on bringing some old kitschy song newfound credibility by just playing it over and over again - at least in San Junipero it has some kind of relevance to the story.

Rizla

Not very good, were they. The Miley Cyrus one was like a Nicholas Fisk story.

Worst ''season'' yet, Smithereen's was decent but a rehash and the other two are up there for the worst Black Mirror episode

The Miley Cyrus cover of NIN was great though and I wont hear otherwise

gib

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on June 07, 2019, 06:42:58 PM
Smithereens in particular was awful - neither an effective hostage drama nor any kind of worthwhile commentary on "social media addiction" or whatever.  It may as well have been an elaborate PSA for "don't check Facebook while driving", all the subtlety of one of those laughable things they showed you in school.

Well put.

imitationleather

Watched the first two so far. Preferred the gay love computer game one to the angry man in a car talking to the zen Silicone Valley 2D business cunt. That was very boring and I kept checking how long was left.

VelourSpirit

None of these or any of series 4 looked appealing to me. Really like Bandersnatch though.

imitationleather

What's becoming a bigger and bigger issue with Black Mirror is that while watching new episodes I'm largely sat there spotting which elements of earlier episodes it's recycling. It really feels like it's running on fumes when it comes to inspiration.

BlodwynPig

You know you are old when Black Mirror seems tired and jaded.

olliebean

I reckon it's time Brooker brought in more outside writers. There's only been a couple not written by him, and a couple of others co-written. I think the one with Doctor Who in the first series is the only one with the story not credited to Brooker.

wooders1978

Quote from: Dr Rock on June 07, 2019, 06:35:42 PM
What the fuck was the Miley Cyrus talking robot shit?

Halfway through - fucking cack

wooders1978

Just switched off miles Cyrus one - what the absolute FUCK was that shit - I gave it 0 out of 10

Dex Sawash

Striking Vipers; RIP that's all I got thread.


Noodle Lizard

The Miley Cyrus one started to feel like one of those weird Disney Channel movies after a while.  The comedy dad and the evil aunt and her goons were so daft I half-expected her to get covered in slime or something at the end.  Not to mention plot holes you could drive the USS Calister through.  There were the tiniest seeds of a decent concept in that one (cult of positive-thinking, disparity between pop idols and their fans, their stage persona vs their real one etc.) but they were all abandoned as soon as they started. 

It's not a good show.  The overall response in my feeds seems a bit subdued as well.

Dr Rock

I suppose the Miley Cyrus one was partly inspired by all these hologram tours they have these days. And what if they were sentient, but their consciousness ended up in a little robot. It reminded me of the news that there was going to be a Amy Winehouse hologram tour, approved by her dad. Now postponed and weird news accompanying

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/feb/22/amy-winehouse-hologram-tour-postponed

QuoteThe company developing an Amy Winehouse hologram tour has postponed the project. Base Hologram said in a statement that it had encountered "some unique challenges and sensitivities" on the path to "remembering Amy Winehouse and her legacy in the most celebratory and respectful way possible".

In a further statement issued to Billboard magazine, Base chairman and CEO Brian Becker described the production as a "cross between a Broadway show and a concert spectacle which requires creative engineering", and added: "that type of creativity does not necessarily follow a schedule."

Announced in October 2018, the tour had been set to feature a hologram likeness of Winehouse backed by a live band. Despite Winehouse's family supporting the tour, some people have questioned the ethics of the endeavour.

"Consent for holograms is going to be a hot topic," Catherine Allen, founder of the arts venue virtual reality platform Limina Immersive and an expert on VR and its ethics, told the Guardian last year. "As long as the person has consented it's fine. And this is where it gets tricky with Amy."

An unnamed actor in Los Angeles recently told GQ that she believed she had unwittingly auditioned to play Winehouse's body double for the hologram tour, believing that she was trying out for a new biopic to be produced by Alison Owens and Debra Hayward. She told GQ that she was sent links to videos of Winehouse singing Valerie and Rehab live, and told to "replicate this performance and really home in on Amy's nuances".

She says that she later realised that Gary Shoefield, head of content development at Base Hologram, was present at the audition. When she attended a third meeting and asked if the role had anything to do with the hologram tour, "he just shut down and didn't want to talk about it". She told GQ it was the last she heard from them.

As someone who knew Amy, I don't want this to happen. I don't reckon she would have wanted it, although you'd have to ask her and nobody did. Creepy, too soon, maybe in 20 years. May as well post my thoughts here as Black Mirror is bringing up these questions, even if the execution was shit. I thought a lot about whether it was relevant to mention that I knew her, if anything maybe it just means I wouldn't buy a ticket and other people would, but I think it would be controversial.

I did like the version of Head Like A Hole though.

alan nagsworth

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on June 08, 2019, 05:42:40 PM
It's not a good show. 

No sir it isn't. It frustrates me how dull it so often is, and I don't like talking to my friends about it, because a lot of them really like it and I feel like a snob when I struggle to contain my criticisms - that it tries hard to be edgy but it fails, and it isn't dark or compelling or scary or anything. I remember watching the one where everyone has a score and they get rated for all their interactions and it was fucking laughably bad. The bit at the end where the two people are swearing their tits off in the prison cells, it was presented in such a smug "ooh look at the people expressing their true emotions like real humans should" way, I'm sure it elicited an audible "for fucks sake" out of me.

I just watched the Miley Cyrus one (partly because I fancy her and her voice does things to me) and it was just one big "meh". The comedy aspects of it were shite as well.

imitationleather

It definitely feels like a show that should be better than it is, and has a reputation which is overblown. I keep finding myself thinking "Cuh, this is nowhere near as good as the early episodes!" but when I actually go over it they all had huge flaws as well. It too frequently hangs entire episodes on one single idea, and doesn't pay enough attention to ensuring the writing makes sense or produces good drama.

Noodle Lizard

For me, it really comes down to the fact that Charlie Brooker's not a great writer — at least not with regards to narrative or genre drama.  Dead Set has many of the same flaws, but post-notoriety Black Mirror is far worse, possibly because he's trying to live up to the "new Rod Serling" hype whilst also trying to pander to a large (and often rather tasteless) fanbase.  Ironically, given its often "look how bad the internet and social media is" premise, it's a show very clearly designed for chatter and praise among that very culture.

Meanwhile Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith are doing a far better anthology genre show (Inside No 9) which gets very little attention comparatively.  Brooker seems like a lovely fellow and I'm happy for his success (despite not liking the product), but I'm sure even he realizes it's all a bit crap.  The kind of thing he'd have mocked on Screenwipe, I reckon.

BlodwynPig

Spot on Noodle Lizard.

Perhaps the highlight of Black Mirror in general is the quiet zones. The remote hum (The end of Vangelis' Memories of Green is the best example) of future nothing. Like any good sci-fi, that alien silence is enticing.

Avril Lavigne

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on June 08, 2019, 08:41:45 PM
The kind of thing he'd have mocked on Screenwipe, I reckon.

The episode with Miley certainly made me think this a few times. He mocked the writing/acting in Hannah Montana yet the Black Mirror episode based around Miley Cyrus practically felt like a Nickelodeon production, like a slightly-grittier sci-fi-skewed episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? that managed to avoid exploring any of the implications of its story to any real depth and had sharp realistic dialogue like "Kiss my feet! Kiss my ASS!!"
Maybe the actual Black Mirror Twist is that the low quality of the writing was a meta-commentary on how rubbish TV aimed at younger teenagers can be?