Black Mirror-Season 4

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Encuentro, Dec 21, 2017.

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  1. Encuentro

    Encuentro Forum Resident Thread Starter

    The new season drops on 12/29/17!
     
  2. Yea! One of the best written shows on Netflix and that's saying something.
     
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  3. Encuentro

    Encuentro Forum Resident Thread Starter

    First episode and a great one!
    [​IMG]
     
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  4. Solaris

    Solaris a bullet in flight

    Location:
    New Orleans, LA
    Loved Episode 1, saving 2 for tomorrow.
     
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  5. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    Seen the first 3 eps and so far it's been excellent (are you listening Room 104?).

    The first one was a great deal of fun, scifi satire mixed in with the philosophical and the existential, in the best tradition of TV Trek's past.

    The second ep was a devastating take on helicopter parenting taken to the extreme. I was expecting a different ending which would have been even more in the Black Mirror tradition, but it didn't go there. I thought it would go this way:
    the girl would be so psychologically damaged with her mom's constant monitoring, that she would take her own life, while the mom watched in horror!

    The third ep was a bit more conventional in the sense that one thing leads to another, but it did have a novel twist with the engram hopping.

    Look forward to watching the next three!
     
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  6. Solaris

    Solaris a bullet in flight

    Location:
    New Orleans, LA
    That's also how I thought episode 2 would end, and I'm glad it didn't. Also
    a pleasant surprise to see Jodie Foster's directing credit pop up at the end.
     
  7. Encuentro

    Encuentro Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I’ve seen the first 3 episodes as well. Excellent so far! I noticed a number of connections or callbacks to previous episodes. I’m sure many of you noticed them as well. USS Callister uses the same technology we see in San Junipero and White Christmas. Arkangel uses similar technology seen in The Entire History of You and White Christmas and has a callback to Men on Fire. Crocodile uses the song the female lead sings in Fifteen Million Merits. We also see a shot of the porn channel the male lead has to pay to not watch and a reference to a “Hot Shots” judge being sued.
     
  8. Derek Slazenger

    Derek Slazenger Specs, rugs & rock n roll

    Also watched first three last night and absolutely loved them :) So pleased this is back!
     
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  9. gary191265

    gary191265 Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Watched the first episode tonight, absolutely superb and very thought provoking.
     
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  10. binged it. for the most part exceptional season.
    I thought that it went in a more interesting direction because it was really just the same for her.

    There was only one episode that wasn't so great IMHO but the rest were really good especially The Black Museum.
     
  11. Solaris

    Solaris a bullet in flight

    Location:
    New Orleans, LA
    Episode 3 was almost unbearably intense. This is like season 1 again. Just brutal.
     
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  12. Encuentro

    Encuentro Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Brutal in a good way or a bad way?
     
  13. Solaris

    Solaris a bullet in flight

    Location:
    New Orleans, LA
    A good way.
     
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  14. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    But here's the thing. I reckon that the ep would have ended that way, and would have been a lot more Black Mirror-ish, if the series was still being made for UK TV, rather than Netflix. The Brit made series had a lot more bite that way.
     
  15. Solaris

    Solaris a bullet in flight

    Location:
    New Orleans, LA
    Eh, it's a bit too predictable to end that way. Witness that you and I (and probably many others) thought of that resolution. It doesn't go for the jugular, but it's still a pretty grim ending.
     
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  16. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    I didn't mind the ending, but I thought it was a little weak. The ending would have had a much bigger gut-punch if they did what we anticipated (and it wouldn't worry me to have guessed the ending, it would still be devastating).

    If you look back on the first two seasons (or should I say, series), there are some really brutal, hard-hitting narratives and I have no doubt if this episode was produced back then, it would have ended the way I/we expected.

    I still loved the episode, but the sting in the tail could have been more toxic.
     
  17. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    What's it about ?
    Couldn't make head of tail of the trailer.
     
  18. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    Why don't you watch it? It's an anthology series in the style of Tales of the Unexpected.
     
  19. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    Seen them all now. I thought the back half was less successful than the front half.

    Hang The DJ was a nice episode, but only just that. It didn't have a sinister, edgy angle, which is the core of the show (San Junipero not withstanding). It was just about a dating app. I suppose it was going for a San Junipero style happy ending, but it just wasn't as meaty or as emotional as that ep.

    Metalhead - I don't know what the hell that was about! While the story was unfolding it was intriguing enough and I loved the Boston Dynamics styled quadruped bots (very realistically depicted, if you've ever seen the BD youtube bot videos). However, when it ended, it was, well...stupid. We learned nothing of the world in which the story takes place and the reason for the extreme risk taking was silly. Big fail.

    Black Museum was a disjointed mess. Too many scattered subplots with themes that double-dipped into previous eps, like USS Callister and Arkangel. It managed to somewhat tie all the threads together at the end, but it was a slog getting there.

    Overall, I think the season was good but not great, being dragged down by the misfiring eps and the recycling of familiar themes it has dealt both in the same season and in previous seasons. The show needs more fresh ideas going forward.
     
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  20. Solaris

    Solaris a bullet in flight

    Location:
    New Orleans, LA
    I mostly agree with your assessment. I thought the last episode was like the Christmas episode as well as a kind of Night Gallery style compendium; parts I liked, parts I didn't. The call backs to other episodes were cute, but I'm not sure they make sense if you try to put the pieces together.

    Hang the DJ and Metalhead were fun while they were on, but there wasn't much there after the credits rolled. And I really wanted to know more about the world of Metalhead, because it looks so good and because there does seem to be something more outside the edges of the story we're given. I thought the reveal at the end, with its sentimental vibe, trivialized the story. I could absolutely see this as a limited-run spinoff series though.

    The first half of this season was indeed better than the second half.
     
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  21. OobuJoobu

    OobuJoobu Forum Resident

    Location:
    Yorkshire, UK
    I haven't seen USS Callister yet but am I right in thinking that the lady bottom left of the poster is the same actress that played the airport check in lady in "Nosedive".

    Also, in Arkangel (The only episode of season 4 I've seen so far) I noticed a poster for Tusk on Sara's bedroom wall, a nice nod to the Hated In The Nation episode!
     
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  22. Encuentro

    Encuentro Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Yes, the same actress played both roles.
     
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  23. Squealy

    Squealy Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Vancouver
    I don’t agree... the theme of the story is better served by
    the overprotective mother having to live in a perpetual state of uncertainty about her daughter’s whereabouts — in a way, it’s worse than having the certainty of knowing she’s dead.
     
  24. Encuentro

    Encuentro Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I have a question regarding episode 3, Crocodile.
    Does reading the memories of a gerbil contradict what is established in the story? The insurance investigator would ask people hooked up to the monitor to picture the scene that the investigator is trying to get a clear picture of. Kind of difficult to do that with a gerbil. :)
     
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2018
  25. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    I don't agree. Not knowing the whereabouts of an adult age daughter (perhaps just for a few years) is nothing compared with the knowledge that you actually were the cause of her suicide.
     
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