Black Mirror

[JayzusB.Christ]

I just got through White Christmas, which is a very special kind of dystopian hell. Easter eggs linking the episode to others, to drive wonks mad over the years, and quite the line in various levels of torture. But also: this isn't the first time even by this point we've had a woman be unfaithful and it send a toxic man off the deep end. Hmm.

Well, I've learned a new word today.

[IndigoPrime]

Halfway through season 3 now, all of which appears to be '30 seconds into the future' so far. And this is also one episode before I stopped watching. So after San Junipero (which I recall adoring first-time around), all of these will be new.

I thought all of these first three were solid episodes. Nosedive neatly takes obsession with social media to its extreme, and frankly seems more relevant now than it did in 2016. It's also chilling to think that some countries have been more widely experimenting with personal rankings. The ending, with the palpable thrill of being 'free from all this shit' resonated with me.

Playtest was an oddball – Black Mirror as out-and-out horror. Structurally, I found it interesting, because the internal logic didn't hold together until the thing ended, whereupon it actually made some sense. And the casual disdain for people working within gaming seemed on point, as ever.

Shut Up and Dance was interesting on multiple levels. I vaguely remembered bits of this, and found it interesting to watch given the huge number of scams circulating right now. I can see why people would fall into those traps, if they get something suitably believable. The difference here is the series (as usual) taking that theme to its logical extreme conclusion.

What did surprise me is the twist at the very end. I'd totally forgotten about that, and it's a rug pull that made the episode hang together far better, even if 1) the outcome of the battle didn't really make sense, and 2) it likely made the audience feel a bit icky, on the basis of where their loyalties (to some degree) may have lied until that moment.

Taken in three-episode chunks, though, that feels like the strongest run since the beginning.