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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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Noonling

Watched all three in a go. What a load of tosh. Striking Vipers is just a rehash of previous episodes, Smithereens is an excruciatingly drawn out PSA, and Ashley Too is a weirdly twee cartoony mess.

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on June 08, 2019, 05:42:40 PM
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. 
This is what made Ashley Too my "favorite" of the lot (but still a pretty poor episode) - unlike the others it did have actual ideas behind it. Not wholly originally, not well executed, but it has its root in a good idea. I can only assume the characters were supposed to be Disney-Channel-dimensional, yet the rest of it doesn't hold up well enough to allow for that.

BritishHobo

Aye, I did wonder if it was meant to be a take on that kind of show, but then it didn't really to anything to subvert the idea.

Dr Rock

I've never seen any Disney channel shows. I barely know who Miley Cyrus is. Was she Hannah Montana? I don't even know what that is.

alan nagsworth

she's a fucking smokio mate that's all you need to know

Dr Rock

Got it, cheers. I know she stuck her tongue out  too.

Striking Vipers is a Cum Town bit come to life, fucking hilarious.

St_Eddie

Quote from: BritishHobo on June 08, 2019, 11:13:41 PM
Aye, I did wonder if it was meant to be a take on that kind of show, but then it didn't really to anything to subvert the idea.

Should have got Rian Johnson to direct it.

Cloud

Caught up, I watched the Cyrus one first because whingey Guardian articles about it kept popping up in my Google feed and I wanted to know what's so bad about it.  I quite liked it.  But I know the square root of fuck all about her other than having heard of her (didn't even know what she looked like) so maybe that helps somewhat.

In order then...
Striking Vipers - I liked this one as a general thought experiment: would a straight person become "friends with benefits" with someone if they could effectively just turn into the opposite sex at the touch of a button, and generally takes an interesting look into the concept of sexuality, the blurry lines of friendship and love etc.  Perhaps just feels kind of relevant to me as a bisexual who doesn't need VR for that.  But yes it can also come across a bit soap opera ish.  I thought it was a pretty cool resolution that they just open up the relationship, he fucks his mate, she fucks someone else etc once in a while.... no doubt takes a strong couple to make that work

Smithereens - decent enough variation on "social media bad / phones bad" that rightly challenges things like "dopamine targets" (which are a real thing, I think?   A lot of these Facebook games etc are designed that way) but it did take a bit of a long way around to get there and dragged at times.    I like the idea that the CEO actually gives a shit about what he's created (once he's "talking to him like a human", goood shout there) which is somewhat in contrast to what I've seen of Zuckerbot.  One cringe point from a technical point of view - suuuurely no big Facebook type platform would store passwords unencrypted so that you can just pull a few strings and get told the password to an account.  Password hashes are one-way, you check a password by seeing if the hash matches and someone who's lost the password would need the account reset.  Yes I'm being a nerd here but in a show about technology at least get the basics right?

Ashley Too - a fairly standard story of "are you only a fan of the famous person's fake public persona, or are you a fan of who they really are, warts and all", wrapped up in a bit of a silly story of exaggerated evil where if the aunt had a moustache she'd be twirling it.  I guess I can see why people don't like it as it is a bit sort of "Disneyish".  I thought it was neat to see that kind of story Black Mirror-ified, so quite enjoyed it. I wasn't expecting the twist where she woke up.

As a season overall, I think what's striking is that there aren't any bleak endings.  The married couple find a way to deal with their situation, the hostage is freed, the CEO seems to get the message (okay, the main character is shot so there's that, but it's a happy ending as Black Mirror goes) and the pop star is freed from her chains.  I don't know how to feel about that.  Yes it can feel a bit needlessly nihilistic but one of the attractions of BM to me is (perhaps I like the contrast with the cheerful stuff I watch) it's just properly grim but you get the odd nice ending (like that San Junipero one) as an unexpected treat now and again.  I thought that worked well. 

phantom_power

Quote from: Ja'moke on June 06, 2019, 12:38:47 AM
Interesting to see the positive reaction to Smithereens, that was my least favourite of the three. I thought it petered out massively after the first 20 minutes or so and didn't really have a lot to say for itself, and what it did have to say (its attack on social media addiction) has been done better in previous episodes like Nosedive and Be Right Back.



I am not sure they need to "say" anything. They use tech as a jumping off point to tell a (hopefully) interesting story. Sometimes there is commentary, sometimes there isn't. It is like Brooker says in that interview, it is like Tales of the Unexpected with "supernatural" replaced with "technology"

Cuellar

The whole of Smithereens is on youtube actually, catch it while you can:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgyTBYjc0j8

Sin Agog

I dinne hate Black Mirror, but something about Brooker's scenarios has annoyed me ever since Dead Set.  That had some serious anti-intellectualism going on.  The only one who'd shown signs of ever having read a book, Kevin Eldon's character, was a depraved lech.  Brooker's just a little bit flakier and sloppier than the things he likes.

alan nagsworth

^ I always figured that was more just playful subversion. Brooker has (or had, I dunno) a great knack for writing utterly contemptible characters. That's part of the reason I enjoyed Dead Set and Nathan Barley so much.

Ja'moke

Quote from: phantom_power on June 10, 2019, 10:12:53 AM
I am not sure they need to "say" anything. They use tech as a jumping off point to tell a (hopefully) interesting story. Sometimes there is commentary, sometimes there isn't. It is like Brooker says in that interview, it is like Tales of the Unexpected with "supernatural" replaced with "technology"

That's fair. However, that episode felt like it wanted to make a point, but, as I said in my recap, and as someone else here mentioned too, it ended up coming across as a long PSA on texting-and-driving.

chrispmartha

This Black Mirror thing, I've never watched any of it, which is strange as it looks right up my street, do you have to watch from the first series onwards or is each series different in their own right?

Cuellar

Quote from: Ja'moke on June 10, 2019, 12:16:53 PM
That's fair. However, that episode felt like it wanted to make a point, but, as I said in my recap, and as someone else here mentioned too, it ended up coming across as a long PSA on texting-and-driving.

I was wondering if they expected the audience to be more shocked at the level of 'insight' Smithereen could summon up at the touch of a button on pretty much anyone in the world.

I sort of take it for granted that twitter/facebook can do that, if you let them.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: chrispmartha on June 10, 2019, 02:13:38 PM
This Black Mirror thing, I've never watched any of it, which is strange as it looks right up my street, do you have to watch from the first series onwards or is each series different in their own right?

All different, increasingly bad and dumbed down over the seasons.

Noonling

Quote from: Cuellar on June 10, 2019, 02:16:29 PM
I was wondering if they expected the audience to be more shocked at the level of 'insight' Smithereen could summon up at the touch of a button on pretty much anyone in the world.

I sort of take it for granted that twitter/facebook can do that, if you let them.

The one thing I did like about the episode was how they knew more than the police and were effectively feeding the police information. I was hoping it might go along the lines of corporate dystopia instead.

wooders1978

Is the device in uss callister and striking vipers the same thing? Is this the first crossover episode of so?

BlodwynPig

There have been quite a few Easter eggs. The museum one had items from previous episodes I believe.

imitationleather

Weren't the pinball machines in Striking Vipers based on previous episodes?

Those pod things they put on their temples have been featured quite a few times now. Far too many, in fact.

Morrison Lard

The first one was fucking awful,
and the second one was boring.

Is the 3rd one worth watching?
Does Miley Cyrus lez off in it?

Thanks.

wooders1978

Quote from: Morrison Lard on June 10, 2019, 03:00:30 PM
The first one was fucking awful,
and the second one was boring.

Is the 3rd one worth watching?
Does Miley Cyrus lez off in it?

Thanks.

The miley one is the crappest I am afraid - I wouldn't bother with it

I know it was flawed but this is a long way away from the quality of the last season, and I guess we only got three due to bandersnatch which was fun but I'd have preferred 6 capable episodes to three shit ones and bandersnatch

Morrison Lard

Bugger.
Might watch it tonight anyway, just to get shut of it off my media player.

Gonna give S4 another viewing at some point, I remember thinking the star trek one and the Iceland hit-and-run one were really good.

Cloud

Jump in wherever and just watch them and think for yourselves. Everyone has different opinions

Except for S01E01, I think pretty much everyone thinks the pigfucking one was dumb.

olliebean

Just discovered there's four short Polish films - ranging from 8 to 21 minutes - released under the Black Mirror brand. I don't think Brooker has had any hand in them. I haven't watched them yet, but they may be worth a look - available here on YouTube with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmBsoljiEud8kMugvZz6wbQL-qnsbqbRG

St_Eddie

Quote from: Cloud on June 10, 2019, 07:38:21 PM
Except for S01E01, I think pretty much everyone thinks the pigfucking one was dumb.

That's one of my favourite episodes.

phantom_power

Quote from: Ja'moke on June 10, 2019, 12:16:53 PM
That's fair. However, that episode felt like it wanted to make a point, but, as I said in my recap, and as someone else here mentioned too, it ended up coming across as a long PSA on texting-and-driving.

I think we were just supposed to think that the kidnapper had a grudge against the Smithereen man because of his app and that the Smithereen man was going to be evil but it turned out the he was sympathetic and the kidnapper just felt guilty

Cloud


Noodle Lizard

Quote from: phantom_power on June 10, 2019, 09:35:03 PM
I think we were just supposed to think that the kidnapper had a grudge against the Smithereen man because of his app and that the Smithereen man was going to be evil but it turned out the he was sympathetic and the kidnapper just felt guilty

Yeah, which itself was handled ridiculously. "I wanted it to be so wholesome, but ... it just kept growing into this ... this monster!"  It reminded me of the Walmart CEO in South Park - I was half expecting him to hang and subsequently shit himself during the end credits. 

They also couldn't decide whether they wanted to lean into the comedy Silicon Valley technodouche caricature or a genuinely out-of-his-depth inventor troubled by his creation, so instead they had their cake and ate it whilst sticking their middle fingers up in the air at the audience.  Someone based more on the actual real life Mark Zuckerberg would've been more appropriate for what I think they were going for.

That's something Brooker's struggled with before - trying to humanize/sympathize with people he obviously has absolute disdain for.  It never really works because it always feels insincere.

phantom_power

I thought the characterisation was fine. He was a sort of hippy techno guru who became marginalised in his own company to the point of irrelevance and so retreated further into the hippy stuff. He was a mildly comic character who also had a bit of heart.