Black Mirror

[JayzusB.Christ]

The new series is out, and telly doesn't get much better than this.  I've watched episodes 2 and 3 back to back tonight and I won't be sleeping easy tonight. 

And lots of respect to Salma Hayek for successfully doing her own Being John Malkovitch.  Some proper belly laughs there to break up the mind-twisting madness.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Turns out I've watched them in the wrong order - the last one I unwisely watched before going to bed last night was Episode 2, Loch Henry.  I don't think I've been as disturbed by a TV show since Chris Morris' Jam.

[Link Prime]

Seen 3 of the new ones so far, and Loch Henry is my favourite by a country mile.

I had the entire plot guessed after 20 minutes, but the reveal was something else.

The music, the power-drill, the glee on her face - powerfully disturbing.
 
Knowing that some poor fucks have met their maker in similar fashion in real life is what makes this one hit the gut.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Being a bit TAPS* when it comes to plot twists, I really didn't see it coming.  Well, maybe part of it - I won't go into too many spoilers.  But yeah, it was the music that got me too.  I'll never hear that song again without shuddering.

[moly]

Enjoyed all of them but for me demon79 was just class maybe being 9 in 1979 it just hit a bit more

[The Legendary Shark]

Oh yes, me liked 'em all, more or less.

 

[JayzusB.Christ]

Well, I thought it wouldn't get much more disturbing than Loch Henry, but I watched Beyond the Sea last night and was genuinely afraid to fall asleep in case I dreamed about that ending.

[Richard]

That one was as bleak as fuck.

[IndigoPrime]

Perhaps against my better judgement, since this is hardly the cheeriest of series, I decided to go back to the almost start and go from there. Fifteen Million Merits still feels remarkably relevant, given that it was released back in 2011. That notion of everything being about buying shit that isn't real combined with the distribution of anger feels very NFT/Twitter. Then The Entire History of You is extraordinarily bleak. Looking online, it's also interesting to see how many people despise Whittaker's character, Ffion, despite the fact her husband is clearly an abusive and controlling arsehole. (Yes, she lied and cheated – possibly twice. But he is awful to an off-the-scale level. So, er, probably ESH in Reddit AITA parlance.)

[Art]

Konnie Huq co-wrote Fifteen Million Merits, which by the end is about the lucrative  uselessness of being a witty commentator on a system you are part of, i.e. Charlie Brooker, her husband. So that's interesting.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

I was disappointed with this latest series. It felt like there was no real social commentary. It was more a set of short plays than a twisted taking of a modern idea to its ultimate and absurd conclusion. They were good, but not Black Mirror.

With the exception of Beyond the Sea, which had a mind-boggling plot hole: why were their human bodies in space and replicas on Earth? Surely you'd do this the other way round?.

(I can't find spoiler tags, so have put the plot hole in white after the above colon - highlight to see it)

[JayzusB.Christ]

My grud, you're right. Never even occurred to me.

[Richard]

Me neither. It might mean that I'm stupid. Or it might mean that the story was so gripping that I was too engrossed in it to notice or look for a plot hole. I enjoyed it anyway.

[Art]

There was some cut off throwaway line about the human factor being important...

TBH the mission and premise of the story is so abstract it doesn't really matter.

[Link Prime]

I really didn't see it coming. 

Ah c'mon, they'd have Monica Dolan playing the villain in a documentary about Monica Dolan curing cancer.

Me neither. It might mean that I'm stupid. Or it might mean that the story was so gripping that I was too engrossed in it to notice or look for a plot hole. I enjoyed it anyway.

A record scratch of a plot hole, but I enjoyed the hell out of that one too.