Charlie Brooker's BLACK MIRROR

If this is the Andrew Scott one, that’s the one I haven’t seen yet!

Striking Vipers - incredible cast, quite strange. I personally liked it because it tapped into several of my likes (fighting games! fucked up friendships! the role of fantasy!) but I’m not sure that it’s going to be that popular. Has a line that made me shriek irl though.

Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too - also quite weird but Miley is actually great in it even if it’s drawing very heavily from irl experience (possibly just me projecting though). Story isn’t hugely original or anything but I loved the song choices (NIN covers reworked with input from TRez) and also the constant mouse references are a bit on the nose? Really liked this one even if it was a bit insubstantial.

I'd assume the order's the same across regions with Fighting Vipers being the first

Yeah sorry I meant Stiking Vipers
What line did you mean?

The polar bear one.

Much like every other Black Mirror, I quite enjoyed these but they were all insubstantial and far too DO YOU SEE.

I didn't guess the route the Striking Vipers one was going to go in, but so far so predictable.

The Andrew Scott one was basically all about delivering that monologue but the plot was obvious as soon as you knew why he was at the help group.

Halfway through the Miley one and the highlight so far has been a framed Sugar Ape cover on her agent's wall.

Striking Vipers is easily the best of the new batch but that's not really saying much. As usual they start off quite interesting and don't really go anywhere. Miley Cyrus is really good in the Miley Cyrus one but it ultimately boils down to a middle aged white dude's idea of musical authenticity

oh man
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jun/07/black-mirror-miley-cyrus-rachel-jack-ashley-too

so uh, this reviewer has some decent comments on the plot but completely missed the central running joke that all of the music is Nine Inch Nails songs, with the pop star versions having cheery lyrics. cringing and giggling over here

The Cyrus we meet at the start of the episode makes manufactured pop that’s slick, well-made, personal (her lyrics come directly from her dream diary) and popular. She is very, very good at this. But by the end she has become, for want of a better word, Nickelback. She starts shouting very bad, very witless, completely anonymous grunge-lite songs back to back with her bassist (who has a nose ring, because attitude). She’s happy, but only because she’s adopted a hard shell of “authenticity” that’s arguably even more constrictive than her former persona.

I actually thought they were going to start having video game sex in all the different characters to really prove the TRUE LOVE, so I was disappointed by the polar bear throwaway.

we were denied the polar bear fucking we deserve

her bassist (who has a nose ring, because attitude) also seems to have missed that "her bassist" was Jack

grafting an entire review on to a templates premise of rockism and misplaced adherence to authenticity, completely failing to notice it’s just all nin covers

kind of beautiful

Moral of Striking Vipers: Video games make you gay

otm

not a furry though, apparently

except for maybe whoever was fucking people as a polar bear

polar bears have had a rough decade.

The Miley Cyrus one was fine. It should've been a lot shorter. The drag was apparent when it hit the Alexa comes to life bit.

I didn't read that Guardian article because of the choice of shirt he chose for his writer pic.

I thought the robot was one of the best parts and, although a total rehash of prior episodes trapping a consciousness in a machine, was actually fleshed out

It was, it just highlighted how meandering the first part was. When the robot came to life all of a sudden it was a different episode with a different vibe with odd adults are stupid hijinks.

too many undercooked plot segments

was most disappointed by Smithereens, all we got was some good Andrew Scott emoting and a too-generous portrayal of a Jack Dorsey type by Topher Grace

I dunno, just because the guardian guy may not be a big NIN fan and didn't get the in-joke doesn't mean he hasn't got a valid point that the episode denouement felt a bit rockist

Not that I can be particularly arsed to defend a guardian culture journo

he praised the other lyrics in the episode which were: a cover of another NIN song, and a nonsense version of “head like a hole” with funny lyrics written by Booker

you could make the argument for it being rockist or w/e but it really feels like a template being applied by a guy who has read a lot about music criticism but hasn’t a lot of interest in listening to music

I wouldn't dispute your latter point

i should buy the t-shirt though

wish it didn’t say “black mirror” on there, though. kind of gives the game away
https://store.nin.com/products/head-like-a-hole-x-black-mirror-tee

Brooker doesn't come across as someone who's that into music either tbh xp

tbf he’s had a lot of good people working on the soundtrack for this series with mixed results

it’s kind of turned into a soundtrack/actor/location showcase with the plots being a real mixed bag

Idk I didn’t think the episode applied a rockist judgement to the music? Ashley O was still writing all those songs but she wasn’t being coerced by medication into producing stuff that wasn’t how she felt anymore? I didn’t feel that it judged pop more negatively.

trent reznor is a rockism victim. made dark but poppy synthesizer album and was bullied into incorporating more guitars throughout the entire 90s!!

also there’s that elephant in the room which is miley cyrus’s entire musical career where she was a disney pop kid? idk, lots of unexplored angles in journalism, anyone wanting to write a little can have these tips for free

xpost I almost brought up how a lot of episodes remind of Until the End of the World because of the "soundtrack/actor/location showcase." The videogame episode in Brazil was disconcerting.

Topher Grace just sitting on top of a big old hill in the desert

I file NiN under “things I just don’t care about”

Idk if Reznor was really “bullied” into adding guitars in the 90s.

I’ve only seen the Vipers ep of the first season and if that’s the high point I’m worried about the rest.

Reznor getting his first No. 1 with "Old Town Road" is the best Black Mirror episode.

lol

xxp lol i’ve got to start using the sarcasm tag again i guess

had enough of this show. all these episodes are too fucking long

what if ye phone was ye mum

what if ya bruv was a hot and horny chun li type

I find myself very anti-Topher Grace so I will probably not watch that episode.

he's fine in it! no aggravated vocal mannerisms or anything

That ep was bad and hated but I liked it and felt the denouement was great

I thought it was fine, it was just a half gallon of plot in a five gallon bucket

Really dug the Miley episode, with so much packed into an hour and such a satisfying final 15 minutes.

#BlackMirror Creator Says the World Is Too Bleak Right Now for Season 6 https://t.co/ix0l7uFUkX pic.twitter.com/qAswxYknU5

— IndieWire (@IndieWire) May 6, 2020

TBH, I'd rather see a Philomena Cunk Moments of Wonder segment devoted to epidemiology.

my friend messaged me asking if that means Brooker can bring back Nathan Barley instead

not bleak anymore, then?

https://variety.com/2022/tv/global/black-mirror-season-6-netflix-1235266891/

Season 6 trailer is out!

15 June will be a fever dream. pic.twitter.com/XcGN12FP1z

— Black Mirror (@blackmirror) May 31, 2023

Can't believe it's been a decade

Always liked this show but man are they slow to release episodes

*steels self for trailer*

*has to admit that this new season looks pretty dope after the show kinda fell off before the hiatus*