Charlie Brooker's BLACK MIRROR

I’m only partway through Beyond The Sea so no comment on that one yet.

It’s not the twist itself, it’s the absolute calm that one character with full knowledge of the events relates them back, and on the other hand the other person with a partial understanding of it is a complete shell. The way Pia moves from being a real person to a face on the screen, distant and unreal. It’s so great but it was a lot.

it reminded me of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer in the sense that I didn't enjoy anything about it and feel like I'd have felt better if I hadn't watched it.

Weirdly, this is one of those shows where many of the best episodes are episodes I could never watch again or recommend in good conscience to people who would never watch Black Mirror or emotionally/psychologically harsh films or shows.

Example: White Deer.

xp otm

The fictive stuff in Joan Is Awful reminded me very much of The Invisibles towards the end but the execution was terrible. Like I got what they were going for, but no.

Beyond the Sea was slow but good, I wouldn’t call it boring! You can see what’s going to happen a mile away when David’s a little too interested in Lana being bored in the country, and obviously I love some good 2001 references. The pace of it reflects the whole horror of it, being helpless to do anything in a tragedy because of distance, either physical or emotional. Incredibly bleak ending, even for this series.

demon 79 was bad

I enjoyed the unshamed puerility of "Joan is Awful", it felt like the closest Black Mirror has gotten to a TV Go Home listing. But, yeah, it was maybe slightly too silly.

Also enjoyed "Loch Henry" but you could see the twist coming from a mile away esp. because of the meta casting (unless that was the point). The pub owner's son was very funny. But I don't think it ratcheted up the tension quite as tightly as it could've.

“Joan is Awful” was good. “Demon 79” was really good. Haven’t seen the others yet.

what is you were turned into a computer and tortured forever

makes u think

E3 is somehow heavier than E2, though I prefer E2. E4 is shaping up to be very strong.

I kind of wish this season were 100% parasitic/morally fried Hollywood bullshit, but that would wear out its welcome.

Come baby come baby baby come come

I’ll never hear that song the same way again

Seriously. I can't get that moment out of my head now

Calz is right, demon 79 is the best one. As a millennial who grew up in the tmz era, I should have loved e4, but it was the most forgettable.

I liked the idea of e4 a lot but it was lacking … something.

I found Demon 79 the most emotive episode and appreciated the lols with the graphic violence and Anjana Vasan's performance as a "corruptible" downtrodden good person was just perfect.

It was totally great, I was so sold on the ending after the last one was prevented from happening. I suspect you felt the same, calz!

you only had to smash a fucking fascist tory cnut in the heed with a claw hammer!

"no, you're not a knife person ... way too grabby... that's it! your a basher!"

xp lol the minute I saw where the plot was going I started laughing. I liked the period settings for some of these as well, reminded me a bit of the various settings of San Junipero (still a top five episode for me). Wish she’d nabbed the racist colleague but I guess the ending took care of all that. And Brooker not even remotely subtle about “Smart,” lol.

San Junipero is all time for me

In ep 3 I thought the guy with the dead wife would kill the other guy and steal his avatar body permanently so I didnt quite predict it. Still enjoyed it, if a little long-paced. I get there were nods to 2001, but I also felt a little nod to PK Dick's "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch", but with a robot body rather than the "Can-D" hallucinatory reality?

Holy shit this Loch Henry episode. Still watching. Terrified.

Ok I agree with gyac. I feel very unhappy right now.

The infamous videocassette footage has been in my head all day. Will not leave

Unbelievably disturbing

I actually found it too comic to be disturbing (and NB this is my failing, not a judgement on anyone who found the creepy thing creepy). Like Loch Henry was kind of the B-side to Joan is Awful - one was puerile but funny, the other was puerile disgusting. Like a kid in GCSE English class deliberately coming out with something disgusting to shock teacher. It’s hard to watch these without thinking of Brooker, off-panel, with a speech balloon that says “tee hee!” (That is not a complaint, though.)

All the people at the pub wearing that red mask

I don’t watch a lot of horror so I might not be desensitized enough.

boy does this show love its Chekhov's guns, lol....

Joan is Awful wasn't terrible (though some have said it was 'shitty', yuk yuk), but the big reveal was pretty lame because it's just been done sooooo many times before and as a result, completely eliminated the stakes that previously existed in the episode. I call it the Identity problem, as much like that movie, a lot of the tension dissolves when you realize the main character isn't real

The twist was, you'd never expect that twist because they've done that twist so many times before, but -- twist! -- they did it again

thought I had Beyond the Sea predicted until the green light appeared on the hatch door, then I realized what David had actually done.

found it an effective episode dealing with loss, PTSD, and the unhealthy ways pain can manifest itself when society deprives citizens of outlets for processing trauma

what about Cate Blanchett?

FUCK HER!

What I thought odd about E3 was that after watching his family get brutally murdered - they just expected him to stew up there by himself without much (any?) support and keep working like it never happened.

And maybe I’m just juvenile but I thought Joan is Awful was great.

Joan was good and fun imo

I’m partway through episode 3 and I’m teetering on the edge hoping and hating that this is going to take the obvious turn but Brooker is good at subverting expectations in a way parallel to the first guess at the plot

Yeah re ep3 I was like "where is NASA or whoever's support here?!"

Isn't it set in an alternative 1969 though - back in the dark ages in terms of psychological support etc...

Joan is Awful wasn't terrible (though some have said it was 'shitty', yuk yuk), but the big reveal was pretty lame because it's just been done sooooo many times before and as a result, completely eliminated the stakes that previously existed in the episode

i really enjoyed it - i was just thinking '"oh it's gone a bit conventional, where is the multiverse shenanigans we glimpsed with cate blanchett" when the big reveal came. I know that kind of twist is his stock-in-trade but a) i didn't watch series 4 or 5 at all and ii) that shit is catnip to me and I will never tire of it.

I’ve never watched a Black Mirror should I watch this ‘Loch Henry’? Is there any reason to start from the beginning or whatever?

I think there's a throwaway reference to Loch Henry appearing in the Streamberry lineup of Episode 1, but all the episodes are standalone.
First and last episodes are the most fun, I'd say.

The setting in the astronaut episode is weird. Is it supposed to be alternate 60s/70s where we have replicants and space brain beaming but no cellphones or ebook readers? There were hippies, too?

yeah, though the hippies were the least hippie-like people I'd ever seen, they were pretty much an allegory for an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group. not chill at all.

xp were they not a straight up allusion to the Manson family

Yeah they were

lol I knew cult leader guy was a Culkin but couldn't tell which one.

Rory Culkin!

between this role and Euronymous of Mayhem he's got to play a wide range of sons of bitches

definitely didn't peg there being a werewolf episode

lots of my friends are into pegging werewolves