WHOCHURCH: The Chris Chibnall era

well, tbf that book was written before she died

Actually I would be very interested in reading what you thought of last week’s, but please please on a different thread.

alright, I have done this

Which one? ilx ranks the royals?

Haha you win ilx

god imagine watching this

But...I just did.

Back to bullocks h8 it black mirror rip off

*bollocks

Lol

everyone sounds like the regrettably blokey head of your HR team.

― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 4 November 2018 23:34 (two weeks ago)

cool, glad someone saw this and made an episode about it

Best one this year so far.

Fun, but thought it could have used a few more drafts, or at least the guiding hand of a stronger showrunner than Chibnall.

Also - again! - a weak ending that leaves our crew coldly upholding the status quo (and possibly worse) because no one's paying any attention to plot structure or story implication.

Top questions: Why is Graham using a mop to clean the grass? How did Charlie go from liquidizing Lee Mack for his experiments to (single-handedly!) amassing an army of bubblewrap robots within a couple of hours? Why make such a big deal about guest stars if you can't be bothered to write actual characters for them?

the robot army had clearly been under construction for years

there's no fuss about guest stars if you don't know who they are (a bloke that's always in "everyone SCREAMS at THAT racy joke" panel show thumbnails on youtube, and a mum off of Cucumber)

Not so much the construction of the army as of the production and dispersal of all that bubblewrap.

I don't know Hesmondhalgh either but given how much dialogue she had, they could've given her a single memorable line?

Whitaker's reading of the "I could add it to my collection" line was the best thing she's done so far - an unsubtle hint of menace behind an innocuous line. More of that, less panto arm-waving.

ha ha, I guess if he can secretly build an army of delivery robots out of spare parts, he can secretly put bombs in some of the bubblewrap that's already filling the warehouse

Chuck Is FURIOUS At Lee's Guest Star FAILURE And Everyone Loses It

http://oi67.tinypic.com/29aqm2f.jpg
http://oi66.tinypic.com/4rytzl.jpg
http://oi64.tinypic.com/30rnr5u.jpg
http://oi63.tinypic.com/2mhixic.jpg

oh wait I guess that is two different guys and one is called Jon

Clone-Drone. Android. You can tell by the hair.

Morally repugnant and ideologically illiterate.

Monopolistic megacorporation that constantly surveils its employees? Not evil at all! And nothing intrinsically wrong with it automating 90% of its positions when unemployment is at 50%. In fact, the System has a conscience!

That's the capitalist equivalent of "guns don't kill people, people kill people."

hey, they gave the organics two weeks pay while they shut down for a month to figure out how to be less evil

Last week was "colonialism doesn't kill people, angry young Muslim men kill people"

maybe I just am not feeling this season but I found that one almost unwatchable
but I fkn hate DO YOU SEE sci-fi which is why I can't stand black mirror either

leee otm, this one left a particularly horrible taste

Clunky obviousness is the selling point of DO YOU SEE sci-fi, not the problem. Which is why this episode (or at least the ending) was so horrible - what were we supposed to actually see?

* Corporations are dehumanising, but dehumanisation is better than terrorism, because those are the only two choices we have
* Corporations who spy on their staff and murder people are really looking after their wellbeing
* As a society, we should be grateful to be exploited so we can feed our children
* People who fight for workers rights are easily swayed by violence
* HR people who let staff die should keep their jobs
* You shouldn't be racist to robots but it's okay to blow thousands of them up or hire 90% white men instead
* Inclusive casting is fine if you're a farmer or a cleaner or a soldier, but only white actors can play office workers and management
* Terrorists are too stupid to run away from an explosion
* Mops can clean grass

Still two weeks behind but rumors abound that chibnall is leaving after the next series (now in preproduction) already because he doesn’t enjoy it. Who knows.

i've been able to look past the badness of a lot of this season because jodie whittaker is such a delight. but hoo boy this was really an episode of black mirror. like actually, wasn't there a fulfillment centre episode of black mirror?!

xp chibnall out seems like the best outcome, as long as someone good takes over? tbh i have no idea who i'd want (aside from like, armando iannucci, but that might be because i am a hell person)

Rumor is also that she won’t stay without him

the set dressing and design in this episode was particularly shit - other than the attack of the clones-inspired cgi conveyor-belt sequence, at no point did it feel like the gang were working in a colossal shipping and packing facility and not in a dingy b&q storeroom somewhere outside sheffield

'here's a couple of rolls of bubble-wrap and some vents will this do'

also this is a frivolous nitpick but it made me IA:
every human worker they interacted with stood around & talked! if it’s so scary you’d be head down while talking AND working to make yr quota/whatever etc

that twitty girl in the packaging rm especially

ts: male pregnancy vs posh girl who's never had a present.

rumors abound that chibnall is leaving after the next series (now in preproduction) already because he doesn’t enjoy it

Oh he's not the only one.

lol

we’re ALL leaving

Last week was "colonialism doesn't kill people, angry young Muslim men kill people"

Young Hindu men in that case.

Clunky obviousness is the selling point of DO YOU SEE sci-fi, not the problem. Which is why this episode (or at least the ending) was so horrible - what were we supposed to actually see?

* Corporations are dehumanising, but dehumanisation is better than terrorism, because those are the only two choices we have
* Corporations who spy on their staff and murder people are really looking after their wellbeing
* As a society, we should be grateful to be exploited so we can feed our children
* People who fight for workers rights are easily swayed by violence
* HR people who let staff die should keep their jobs
* You shouldn't be racist to robots but it's okay to blow thousands of them up or hire 90% white men instead
* Inclusive casting is fine if you're a farmer or a cleaner or a soldier, but only white actors can play office workers and management
* Terrorists are too stupid to run away from an explosion
* Mops can clean grass

Otm

As I said upthread: the sci fi part has to be taken just seriously enough. This episode feels like it was written by an idiot that had looked at black mirror, and decided the pathological darkness of that show ought to be brought in, then undermined by Lee Mack, Hailey off Coronation Street, and a twist where the system's actually lovely even though it killed a girl but the critic is evil and a terrorist.

I think it's an absolute shame that the first series to have a female doctor should also effect a change in direction toward a younger audience and a half assed, rip off, not bovvered approach to science fiction stories, because this is exactly what misogynist troll critics said would happen.

I didn't like this one. It seemed like the writer wanted to do something on modern factory work and robots doing work humans once did, but didn't have anything clear to say about either.

Not saying making TV is easy, of course, but bloody hell: if you can't take an Amazon warehouse and some people and some robots and competently make a thought provoking story shd u really be writing Dr Who?

Post but sort of works as reply

Xpost

Lee Mack's inherent Lee Mackness ruined any pathos in his character being sent off to the warehouse to die. Also the variable manifestation of Ryan's dyspraxia is really annoying me.

Next week, a potted history of witchfinders. Can we not just have alien space romps, rather than History 101?

Next week: birds erupting from trees as Scotland repeatedly yells "and sixth!" as one.

So I'm seeing people interpret this last episode as conservative or anti-liberal, for instance on http://www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/kerblam-review/ . I thought the episode was too muddled to send a political message.

Regarding the conveyor belt scene, I had blocked out that Attack of the Clones scene; I think Monsters Inc. and Toy Story 2 also had scenes like that. Oh and Minority Report, where it really jumped out as a scene that some hack added in for some McKee-required end-of-act-1 action.

It seems to set up a leftist critique against the Amazon stand-in, but then pivots to a neoliberal conclusion.

my kids (and i) were confused about charlie's plan/actions. he liquifies the human workers.. because..? and how did he do it? he hacked the delivery bots? and why did he kill the girl he loved? v confused

He destroys the co-workers testing that the explosive bubble-wrap he created works - the system killed the girl he loves as a last-minute attempt to dissuade him.

He's testing the bomb and... I guess it was a liquid bomb first? Or he dissolved the corpses to hide the evidence? Either way - kind of gross for a "this one's for the kids" season.

He didn't kill his partner - the "system" killed his partner as a lesson - the same system that the Doctor decides to keep alive at the end of the episode.

what?? i didn't clock that at all. so the system also feels that murder is a legitimate means of "instruction"????

also i don't think the liquification is the same thing as the green mist bomb? is it?