Black Mirror

I get constant blowback on that first episode when I recommend the show on Twitter, so this is a minority opinion. Personally, I’d say it is about average for the series, I’d rate 5-7 episodes significantly higher. A handful are worse than this one, too.

It’s just the literal pigfucking that gets to people, and right out of the gate if you start in chronological order – but you shouldn’t!

It was a huge issue for my wife. She literally won’t watch any more Black Mirror because of that episode. I tried to get her to watch San Junipero, since it’s a lot more positive, but she won’t do it. To be fair to her, most of the episodes do end pretty badly for the main characters.

More on China’s efforts to make Nosedive a reality

Unlike some of the folks that complained to Wumpus, we thought S01E01 was great. It was so over the top and yet so believable that you can’t help but be nauseated and still continue to watch the train wreck. It was such a hook we watched 3 more episodes that very night (binging on it.)

I can’t wait for the next season.

I have watched 5-7 episodes of this, completely out of order, and deemed it excellent. Its the new Twilight Zone for sure.

But the series premiere was horrible. What a contrived set up. The only outcome that would result in the setup is an intensive police search and a one time speech by the PM telling the nation the government does not negotiate with terrorists and the actions of the kidnappers are entirely on their conscious.

Its that part I had a problem with, the setup was so dumb when the act was performed I could only hit “back” to check out other episodes because my suspension of disbelief was crushed and I was bored.

But I think that was the point of the episode. We don’t negotiate with terrorists, publicly anyway. But if we did, you can imagine the rabbit hole that might result, especially for the family member of a top politician. Seriously, imagine Ivanka Trump kidnapped and held for ransom by terrorists. I could totally see Don doing something over the top to save his daughter.

It was also a nod to a rumor.

That wasn’t out at the time it aired. Brooker claims to have been as surprised as anyone at the coincidence.

Interesting take. Well, perhaps I didn’t like the pig fucking after all…

I thought it was. Wow, that is a bit uncanny in coincidence then.

Since we’re talking about the pig episode, some interesting trivia for those who like both Black Mirror and The West Wing:

The idea behind “The National Anthem” started its life as a draft script for West Wing Season 5 Episode 1 that Charlie Booker pitched during his remarkably short stint as a member of the writing team. The network decided not to go ahead.

The thing I love about The National Anthem is that the princess is released on the streets of London before the pig gets fucked but everyone’s so busy at home getting ready for the show that nobody notices until afterwards. That’s the sting in the episode’s tail.

Yeah it’s still not a great episode. Way too British, class system, royalty up yours Johnny Rotten pub lad fairy tale.

Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, know wut I mean? Say no more.

I watched the episode with the virtual blue bear that represents nothing that gets into politics. Great episode. It feels like this is politics is headed towards sometimes.

I really didn’t like it at the time, but it may have aged well post Brexit and Trump.

Wow, Season 3 Ep 1, Nosedive was just amazing. One of the better science fiction stories I’ve ever seen. You sort of got the whole premise of the world in the first 15 minutes. But then the rest of the show was just a really good story in that world. Brilliant.

LOL where it’s headed? It practically documented the Trump run and election.

I loved how the episode was not only about how crazy social media is, but the extrapolated version of what it could be, if the premise were carried to the extreme. But even more, I enjoyed that it was a reflection of perceptions and social peer pressure as well, though. It mimics social media in a way that points out the ridiculousness of it. We tend to like or dislike things when others do in this sort of strange social dog-pile mechanic.

Also, Bryce Dallas Howard as Lacie and Alice Eve as Naomi were both so good. I can’t remember where I’ve seen Alice Eve before, but I already liked her from something else. But I had a very negative view of Bryce Dallas Howard, who I’ve only seen in Jurassic World. But it turns out, maybe that was all on that movie, not on her.

Also, I hate the fact that Netflix doesn’t let the credits play at the end of an episode of this show on Xbox One Netflix. What kind of Black Mirror viewer wants to watch an episode of this show and then doesn’t want to contemplate it or think about what they just watched for more than 6 seconds, but instead wants to jump to the next episode immediately? Answer me that, Netflix. Jeez. The worst part is on Xbox, when the credits suddenly come, there isn’t even enough time to lunge for the controller and switch it on by the time it already has skipped the end-credits and gone to the next episode.

You can turn that off, you know.