Black Mirror Series 2

[Supergrunch]

So Charlie Brooker's brilliant dark pop culture satire is back for a second series (if you haven't heard of it, see this thread about last year's series, and watch it all now), and it started tonight with Be Right Back, which I've just watched on 4oD. I think with these the best thing to do is to see no spoilers at all and watch it cold, so for now I'll just say that it was awesome, although it'll be interesting to discuss once a few people have seen it. So who else has?

[dwarf]

The lead was amazing, she deserves a great deal of credit because that was not an easy role to pull off. As for the concept, I wasn't sold on it. In my head I had it going down a Truman Show route, whereby the android would start subliminally advertising things to her, control her and so forth - corporations are evil malarkey. But it didn't. I think it was too reliant on the imperfect AI angle which for me wasn't as interesting a hook as past Black Mirror's have offered, in part because it was so implausible for the android to possess anything close to the fidelity of a normal person's behaviour, in the way that it did (I wouldn't normally use that as a criticism for alt-reality, but here it meant the conclusion wasn't so shocking). The message of the technology's use being inexorably addictive and irreversible is kinda neat but I much prefer 50 Million Merits, something societal ya know?

 

 

Look forward to seeing more.

Edited February 12, 2013 by dwarf

[EEVILMURRAY]

Since every episode is something different, Black Mirror is always hit-and-miss. Tonight I just wasn't feeling it.

The whole inevitable dependent on a robot corpse was simply depressing.

 

Edited February 13, 2013 by Supergrunch

[MoogleViper]

I wish there was some sort of TAG, in which people could place SPOILERS, so as not to SPOIL the show for everyone else, unless they wished to look inside the TAGGED SPOILER.

[ReZourceman]

Really loved this. Hayley Atwell is the most beautiful woman in the world?

[Supergrunch]

Well, I liked it all the way through, probably in part due to the way I interpreted things:

It seemed to me that the whole episode skillfully and intentionally used cliched tropes all the way through, to build a sense of crushing inevitability. For instance, as soon as the guy goes missing at the start, we know that something has happened to him, and when the police come, what's going on is just as clear to us as it is to the main character. Which is kind of unsurprising so far, but it continues as the AI storyline starts - when the talk of signing her up begins, thanks to

Chekov's gun, we know that it'll happen, and even early on it pretty obviously hints that the constructed personality lacks all the complexity of the real thing (e.g. "what's a jeb?"). So I don't think the main narrative is supposed to be in any way surprising for the audience, which leads you to question why they presented it like that at all. And I think it's because the real focus isn't on the weirdness/addictiveness of the AI technology involved (although that's obviously a theme too), but on the source of the personality that's created, which is social media - if such personalities are really just hollow imitations of the real person behind them, what does this say about the personality we're putting across online?

 

[EEVILMURRAY]

I wish there was some sort of TAG, in which people could place SPOILERS, so as not to SPOIL the show for everyone else, unless they wished to look inside the TAGGED SPOILER.

Boo fucking hoo.

So I don't think the

main narrative

is supposed to be in any way surprising for the audience

The advert pretty much gave everything away anyway.

[dwarf]

The justice camp idea seemed to have its infancy in one of Brooker's previous articles:

 

It’s a pity robot technology isn’t more advanced than it is, because the ultimate To Catch A Predator show could do away with the actress altogether. Instead, the men would be greeted by a convincing 17-year-old android, who’d instantly start having sex with them. But oh! Just before they reached climax, a hatch would open in the top of her head, and a robotic version of Chris Hansen’s face would emerge on a big bendy metal neck, barking accusations at them, and then the android’s vagina would snap shut, trapping the pervert in position, and the robot body would transform into a steel cage from which they couldn’t escape, and start delivering near-fatal electric shocks every five minutes to the delight of a self-righteous audience, chanting Justice Prevails, Justice Prevails. Justice Prevails. Forever.

 

A lot less going on here but entertaining nevertheless.

 

[jayseven]

 

Half the fun in these episodes is trying (and typically failing) to predict the 'twist', or fully waht is actually going on. I think this episode did a great job of commenting on certain things at first (overexposure to vicarious experiences of ultraviolence either numbs you completely to the subject material, or drives you to seeking out self-gratification i.e. hunters and spectators) before really hitting home about whether it is right to 'play god' and recreate hell on earth for an individual who has done a seriously foul thing in a world where There Is No God.

 

I think the show did a superb job of making us feel sympathy for this supposed killer lady, even when her crime was revealed, then did an even better job of showing the role of perspective during the epilogue where the 'cast' and 'audience' are all just having a jolly old laugh. The role of entertainment and how people under the microscope are not really fully emphasised with by the audience (think: big brother contestants).

 

"I'm a human being!" being one of the more crucial lines.

 

Also, the realisation that her ordeal is like an amusement park, there's a suggestion that it's just one of many in this alter-world, really works well at fleshing out this envisioned world.

 

Aside from the messages and meanings, the show was better put together than the previous, where it was fairly easy to pick and predict what early symbols would re-appear. This episode was far less comical, too. I appreciate the whole "unanswered past" thing, and I think that the amnesia trope was actually one of the best utilisations I've seen in a long time, because it really strengthened teh whole hellish ordeal. I am in different minds about the calendar. On the one hand it's already heavily implied that she's been repeating the day over and over, and the epilogue serves well to strengthen that too, but I think it's an added indicator that the ringmaster/Tyres is actually enjoying the torture, and that enjoyment is kind of what makes the hellish reveal so much worse.

 

 

Probably my new favourite episode out of the 5 so far.

 

Oh, and the lead lady in Be Right Back was ridiculously hot.

[dwarf]

The calendar I think could be to do with how stories like hers, in which someone is defamed, become ongoing stories and generate enduring online witch-hunts and barrages of abuse, where the criminal becomes as much as a victim, whilst the righteous turn almost as barbaric as the original offender. Wrist restraints = attention is impossible to avoid - a trap. A long, horrifying period under the spotlight. Like that Mary Bale woman and all the hatred she got for binning a cat. Ridiculously overblown.

 

I was watching the C4 news recently where they'd invited on some guests to discuss the likely outcome of the Oscar Pistorius incident. Is it really right for the news to host speculation of his suspected involvement by asking people who knew him about his recent emotional dispositions etc when he might well be (however unlikely) completely free of blame? Not directly relevant to this but y'feel where I'm coming from.

 

 

Edit: Thought you might find this interesting y'all

 

Edited February 19, 2013 by dwarf

[EEVILMURRAY]

Just watched White Bear on the 4OD.

 

An interesting episode, possibly alluding to criminals reliving their crimes, although this one won't remember that bit. But although the calendar does imply she's been doing this for the majority of the month, I can't imagine the audience would be that interested after a week or so, since the epilogue seems to show practically the same events happening again.

[Sheikah]

Just watched White Bear on the 4OD.

 

An interesting episode, possibly alluding to criminals reliving their crimes, although this one won't remember that bit. But although the calendar does imply she's been doing this for the majority of the month, I can't imagine the audience would be that interested after a week or so, since the epilogue seems to show practically the same events happening again.

 

It's an attraction for visitors; it wouldn't be the same audience every day.

 

Found this episode pretty disturbing to be honest.

[EEVILMURRAY]

It's an attraction for visitors; it wouldn't be the same audience every day.

 

Found this episode pretty disturbing to be honest.

 

True, but I'm also going on the dynamite assumption it's being broadcast also ¬_¬