Just finished Black Museum, bravo, that gave me the same pulse racing anxiety much like Shut Up and Dance from season 3. Superb modern horror, I see it was somewhat based on a book so will have to check it out. Now for the inevitable ranking
1.Black Muesum 2.Hang the DJ 3.USS Calister 4.Crocodile 5.Arkangel 6.Metalhead
Metahead was an odd one, loved the concept of Boston Dynamics having caused the apolocapase but the story itself and the direction didn’t sit well with me. Maybe the director had a vision that needs more looking into.
Barely watched any Black Mirror up till now but watched USS Callister last week and San Junipero, Black Museum and Metalhead the other day. Callister was decent, liked the concept but certain things annoyed me like the DNA scan being a bit dumb. San Junipero I really liked, wasn't expecting it to be so hopeful in its ending. Black Museum was excellent, had me guessing like mad how it was all going to tie together and it didn't disappoint; the teddy is also an absolutely terrifying concept when you stop and think about it. Metalhead wasn't quite as good, felt a lot more stripped back and generic apocalytic horror, but stylistically it was great, the black and white really adds to the atmosphere. From the ones I've actually seen, I'd rank them something like: Shut up and Dance > Black Museum = San Junipero > USS Callister > Entire History of You = Metalhead (not that I didn't like these two, just weren't as good as the rest)
What I usually find with Black Mirror is that there is an episode that sticks with me long after I watched it. White Christmas for instance still gives me the creeps.
I think from Season 4 it would be Arkangel, even though it is not the best episode there. The idea of being able to monitor your child whenever you want and block out anything they see that might frighten them is as wonderful as it is terrible. Tech like in USS Calister or that featured in Black Museum might be more frightening, but it feels a very long way into the future (if possible at all) whereas Arkangel feels like it could be just around the corner.
Hang the DJ is my favourite episode, but Arkangel is the one that is niggling away in the back of my brain.
Just started watching the first season yesterday and found the first 'episode' both amusing and disturbing in almost equal measure - it was a fairly absurd concept yet I could almost imagine it happening IRL.
1. Hang the DJ 2. Black Museum 3. Metal Head 4. USS Calister 5. Ark Angel 6. Crocodile
Definitely enjoyed it, although I'm starting to worry that we'll never get a new episode that isn't centred on some future tech. Every episode in this season has a central piece of imaginary tech to it, but that hasn't always been the case with Black Mirror.
I'm up to S2E01 on this, slowly making my way through them. They've been really good so far. The pig one was a bit ridiculous but I still enjoyed it.
Karl's Black MIrror ranking so far: 1. The guy that lives in treadmill world and has to watch lots of adverts 2. What if you could use social media to resurrect your dead loved-ones 3. The thing in your neck that records your memories 4. Prime Minister has to pork a pig
Watching through this now, my favourite ones have been the episode where the wee fella gets filmed watching porn, and the episode with Jurassic World woman in the pastel coloured, social media nightmare.
The first one I mentioned blew me away. It was so strawberry floating dark.
Not basing it on speculative tech makes it work so much better because it's far too easy to imagine something like that actually happening in real life. Plus there's the very grey morality it brings in with the twist in the tail
in that the hacker is doing some depraved gooseberry fool but is doing it as an act of vigilantism targetting even worse individuals (although arguably Jerome hadn't done enough to deserve being made to take part in the bank robbery). When you combine that with the fact that the guy you've been rooting for/feeling sorry for was in the wrong the whole time it's one hell of a mind screw.
Riksilver wrote:Not basing it on speculative tech makes it work so much better because it's far too easy to imagine something like that actually happening in real life. Plus there's the very grey morality it brings in with the twist in the tail
in that the hacker is doing some depraved gooseberry fool but is doing it as an act of vigilantism targetting even worse individuals (although arguably Jerome hadn't done enough to deserve being made to take part in the bank robbery). When you combine that with the fact that the guy you've been rooting for/feeling sorry for was in the wrong the whole time it's one hell of a mind screw.
Some of the best telly I've ever watched.
Yep, I agree totally with that.
It made me think of the peado hunters that we have on YouTube now, it doesn’t take much imagination to think of them taking it that one step further.
Riksilver wrote:Not basing it on speculative tech makes it work so much better because it's far too easy to imagine something like that actually happening in real life. Plus there's the very grey morality it brings in with the twist in the tail
in that the hacker is doing some depraved gooseberry fool but is doing it as an act of vigilantism targetting even worse individuals (although arguably Jerome hadn't done enough to deserve being made to take part in the bank robbery). When you combine that with the fact that the guy you've been rooting for/feeling sorry for was in the wrong the whole time it's one hell of a mind screw.
Some of the best telly I've ever watched.
Yep, I agree totally with that.
It made me think of the peado hunters that we have on YouTube now, it doesn’t take much imagination to think of them taking it that one step further.
Yeah, Newcastle Chronicle are always on about the "Dark Justice" group and happened to post about them on FB the day after I watched it, couldn't help but look at it in a different light after that
Floex wrote:Just finished Black Museum, bravo, that gave me the same pulse racing anxiety much like Shut Up and Dance from season 3. Superb modern horror, I see it was somewhat based on a book so will have to check it out.
The "Pain Addict" story was written by magician Penn Gillette but it's not published anywhere. He wanted to include it in a book of short stories that he wrote years ago but the publisher said it was too dark, and so he'd been sitting on it for years until he met with Brooker.
I saw the pain addict thing working out differently, I'd hoped it'd end with him
putting the headset on himself and self harming to create an infinite feedback loop rather than going the kind of predictable "and then he became a killer" ending.
Floex wrote:Just finished Black Museum, bravo, that gave me the same pulse racing anxiety much like Shut Up and Dance from season 3. Superb modern horror, I see it was somewhat based on a book so will have to check it out.
The "Pain Addict" story was written by magician Penn Gillette but it's not published anywhere. He wanted to include it in a book of short stories that he wrote years ago but the publisher said it was too dark, and so he'd been sitting on it for years until he met with Brooker.
I saw a flash of the name in the credits but didn’t put the name to the person.