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    Black Mirror

    So Massfan and I were talking about the new Black Mirror episodes coming out (I can't find/remember the thread for the life of me). They set a release date for December 29th!!! Whoohoo! Excited for new Black Mirror episodes. If you haven't seen any, they are standalone episodes so you can jump in anywhere BUT its an awesome show so you've also got plenty of time for a holiday binge. I'm making this thread for pre- and post- discussion.

    #2
    Yay! Thanks for starting this thread. Looking forward to discussing the new episodes. I know your pal Kylie H is a Black Mirror fan, maybe she'll join us here...

    In the meantime, let's talk favorite episodes. It seems like San Junipero is just about everyone's favorite, with good reason, since it's so clever and amazingly beautiful. It is sort of anomaly among Black Mirror episodes, though, and probably works better if you've seen the others and can appreciate the contrasts (trying to avoid spoliers for now if we're trying to get people to watch the show...). Among the other ones, I'd pick Be Right Back, which is so haunting and eerily plausible, and maybe the clearest illustration of the show's central thesis about how our lives can be warped by technology.

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      #3
      Until recently, I only saw the very first episode from the first season, which I enjoyed. Just saw the very next episode which was such a disappointment. I won't give up, though. They are all up on youtube, , so can watch anytime.

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        #4
        Originally posted by massfan3 View Post
        Yay! Thanks for starting this thread. Looking forward to discussing the new episodes. I know your pal Kylie H is a Black Mirror fan, maybe she'll join us here...

        In the meantime, let's talk favorite episodes. It seems like San Junipero is just about everyone's favorite, with good reason, since it's so clever and amazingly beautiful. It is sort of anomaly among Black Mirror episodes, though, and probably works better if you've seen the others and can appreciate the contrasts (trying to avoid spoliers for now if we're trying to get people to watch the show...). Among the other ones, I'd pick Be Right Back, which is so haunting and eerily plausible, and maybe the clearest illustration of the show's central thesis about how our lives can be warped by technology.
        I agree with you about San Junipero. I enjoyed the episode for sure, but it didn't feel like Black Mirror. Overall I think the newest season wasn't quite as good as the previous ones. I feel like there was a little more optimism in them at times (which doesn't fit with the pessimism I associate with Black Mirror), or they were too far fetched to be taken seriously.

        Be Right Back is definitely among my favorites, and comes to my mind often, for perhaps obvious reasons. If it were available, I would do it. It would probably totally fuck me up, but I'd do it anyway. And we're getting ever closer to the possibility. I was reading about this on my flight to the US:

        https://replika.ai/

        In this case you chat with this bot and it learns you and becomes a reflection of yourself. I immediately thought of that episode.

        Originally posted by laktor View Post
        Until recently, I only saw the very first episode from the first season, which I enjoyed. Just saw the very next episode which was such a disappointment. I won't give up, though. They are all up on youtube, , so can watch anytime.
        The first two episodes definitely aren't my faves. I don't think I watched that season in order the first go around. But you're in luck because the third is exceptional, in my opinion, and is one of my favorites. It just felt so .... true.

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          #5
          After I posted about Be Right Back, it occurred to me that it's probably especially poignant for you, and I was wondering if I should have mentioned another one instead. I'm glad it's one of your favorites, too. That's some very intriguing technology.

          One the whole, I guess the last season wasn't quite as uniformly solid as the others, but the episodes are so self-contained I tend to compare them more to each other than season-to-season. How are you thinking of watching the new season? I don't think it's the kind of show I want to binge-watch all at once, in part because it can be so bleak and in part because I think it's more interesting to spend some time thinking about each one before moving on to the next new world. I'll probably space them out over a few days, then join you here to chat about them!

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            #6
            Okay I've watched the first four, but I'm going to write about each episode individually (and give everyone time to catch up).

            Spoiler Alert for Episode 1 - USS Callister

            Well first off I was amused by the obvious Star Trek reference since its the other show we have discussed!

            This episode had some good and bad things for me. My main issue was that I really don't see any way that you could replicate someone's consciousness digitally from their DNA. Create a clone? Sure. But our memories are not stored in our DNA, so I don't see anyway you could get them. Second, did Nanette really have to blackmail herself? (Also, as an Abby girl, it seems pretty silly to commit breaking and entering just so that someone won't post photos of you in your pretty panties on the internet!) Seems like theres something you could say to yourself to convince yourself that you're the real deal (and why didn't she realize she wouldn't believe her first message! Of course it sounded crazy!)

            All that aside, I did enjoy the episode, and it was nice to have an ending with some suitable karma.

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              #7
              Hey there, I just got around to starting the new season after being sick for a while, but I thoroughly enjoyed episode one! I thought it was a really intriguing nightmare scenario to be trapped in a simulation controlled by the creepiest jerk you know. Jesse Plemons was really convincing as the real-life guy and a monstrous riff on Captain Kirk, and Cristin Milioti made a very cool and capable hero. (TV nerd alert: the two of them both starred in Fargo season 2, although I don't think their characters ever met, and their co-star Kirsten Dunst makes a cameo in this episode as well!). I also thought the episode worked as a Star Trek space adventure-type show as well: I was really invested in whether they'd make it to the wormhole in time.

              I bought it all so much that I didn't think about the nonsensical DNA science until after it was over I read reviews online, but yeah, that wouldn't work. I wasn't sure the blackmailing yourself thing quite landed either; there may have been a better way to approach that, but it didn't take me out of the episode (and I think the implication was that there were other more explicit photos than just her underwear, but your point stands.). As for the her first message, I thought maybe (in-game) Nanette didn't realize it would come from Robert and didn't plan for what would happen when (real-life) Nanette approached him? But yeah, it would sound crazy either way.

              Anyway, looking forward to the next episodes! In particular, episode three, which features a cameo from our very own AW model Lulu! A character in the show is apparently seen watching one of her XConfessions shoots: a porn blog interviewed her and her male co-star about it. Lulu sounds thrilled, he is...the opposite, ha. After Game of Thrones and Black Mirror, where will AW models show up next?

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                #8
                I was wondering when I'd hear from you! I'm gonna hold off and let you post when you've watched the next one (I've seen them all already )

                Yeah I definitely noticed that little cameo! Pretty cool! Tbh I noticed Lulu, but couldn't pick the guy she was with out of a line-up to save my life!

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                  #9
                  Just watched episodes 2 and 3 back-to-back, and found them kind of underwhelming. Arkangel suffered from a scenario I've found about a few episodes: the negative repercussions of imaginary technology are so overwhelmingly obvious that I find it impossible to believe the characters wouldn't see them immediately. As soon they showed the parental monitor being directly implanted in the kid's head, I could pretty much see where it was going: overprotective mom drives kid mad with obsessive monitoring. Also, the idea of blurring out things that upset the kid is just crazy, even though it was kind of forgotten plot-wise: it made me think of those people who are born without pain receptors and end up burning their arm off or something because they can't feel pain. I'm actually pretty sure this would be a popular technology if it was real, given some of the crazy helicopter parenting stories I've heard, but a lot of those parents would probably meet a similar end to the mom in this one. That said, the acting was pretty good and the show's trademark queasy feeling of growing dread was effective as usual.

                  I liked Crocodile a bit more, but it wasn't one of the better ones. Mainly because I didn't really buy that she would kill that many people to keep her secret. Before long, I figure she'd realize she was screwed and give up, with the all-knowing technology is hot on her heels. But writing about the law for a living made me intrigued by the legal implications of the memory collaborator, especially how they talk about how it's required by law. I can see law enforcement types seeing that as a good idea, but like the last episode, situations like this where someone doesn't want to share their memories at any cost seem obviously bound to crop up. The creepiest part for me was when the insurance adjuster tells the dentist: "don't worry, your memories will be sealed and private, as long as you're not hurting anyone else." Yikes, I thought, at least in reality my memories belong only to me. For now.

                  P.S. The driverless pizza truck is real, and the show's Twitter has a snarky comment. Lastly, shout-out to the soundtrack of Lulu's moans!

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                    #10
                    I liked Arkangel. I know the repercussions are obvious, but I don't think that stops people. Like if you look at facebook, for a while every update seemed to lead us closer and closer to what people were calling 'stalkerbook'. People complained about the changes, then they just became normal, and we all kept using facebook. The blurring feature was f-ed up, but the mom came to her senses and stopped using it. She wasn't a perfect mom, but I really empathized with her. I think it would be a normal reaction to check where your kid was (and if they were safe) if you thought they were missing. Then she starts getting alerts that her daughter is pregnant and doing narcotics. That's a lot to deal with in a short span of time. I felt really sorry for her. She seemed like she was trying to do her best and protect her child. But you can of course understand the daughters feeling of being violated too. I thought it was a good balance.

                    Yeah with crocodile you really start thinking, surely this woman wouldn't just keep killing people. It's way too much. It was an interesting premise though.

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                      #11
                      Hi Renae! (And any other Black Mirror fans who have joined the boards over the last 12 months: last season, it was just the two of us...) We have a new episode of the show to discuss! Bandersnatch makes for an interesting challenge to talk about, since the choose-your-own-adventure format seems to mean that almost no two people will have seen exactly the same thing. So at the outset, I'll say that I thought the gimmick worked really well for this sort of show. I liked that it was directly tied to what was happening in the episode and the themes of fate and free will. I'll never think of Pac-Man the same way now, ha. Let me know when you've watched it and we can talk about it more!

                      I just realized I never posted my thoughts about the last three episodes of the previous season. I'll get on that soon. It looks like there will be a few months before the rest of the new season is released, and I'll try to stay on top of those episodes when they come out.

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                        #12
                        I've been waiting to reply until I saw the episode. I waited to watch with my bf and we were apart for 2 months!

                        I do think the way they tied the format to the concept was interesting. I sometimes wish the choices were more meaningful (though I loved picking the music!). Overall I think it was a good episode. My boyfriend actually fell asleep about 15 minutes in, so I'll probably watch it again with him and let him make all the choices this time, and see if we get a different ending.

                        Choose your own adventure is very near and dear to me as it was actually what got me into reading (and probably what got me into scifi). I was in 3rd grade, didn't particularly like to read, and there was a little spinning metal stand in the library that held the collection of 'choose your own adventure' books. I ended up reading every one they had, and just didn't stop reading from then on.

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by renae_d View Post
                          Choose your own adventure is very near and dear to me as it was actually what got me into reading (and probably what got me into scifi). I was in 3rd grade, didn't particularly like to read, and there was a little spinning metal stand in the library that held the collection of 'choose your own adventure' books. I ended up reading every one they had, and just didn't stop reading from then on.
                          No way! I used to read these too. I remember the first one I read was "The Mystery at Chimney Rock", which was a horror themed one. I remember also there was one book in the series that was billed as being next to unsolvable (and I never solved it), do you happen to remember which book this was? Being before the age of the internet there was no way to cheat and look up the solution.

                          I also remember reading a number of the Endless Quest books, which were a Dungeons and Dragons themed choose your own adventure series. I can remember reading many of the early books in the series written by Rose Estes, the first one I read was the Mountain of Mirrors.

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                            #14
                            That's great that Choose Your Own Adventure books were your gateway to a lifetime of reading! I also have fond memories of reading them (and the spinning metal library stands). I don't remember much about what actually happened in the books, apart from the frustration of making a choice that led to your immediate death, ha, then flipping back and trying to engineer a better ending.

                            You may have seen that the CYOA people were not happy about the Black Mirror episode (or rather, they wanted to cash in on it) and filed a trademark lawsuit against Netflix. We covered it at the intellectual property law journal I write for, which is the closest thing to fun that we get to write about. I wasn't assigned the story, since I primarily cover drug patents and other snoozy tech things, but it was interesting to read about.

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                              #15
                              Trebor, Irene A's bedtime story thread is a sexy choose your own adventure, if you haven't checked it out yet, you should!

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                                #16
                                Been meaning to post about the latest batch of episodes.

                                So I really loved Striking Vipers. I thought the episode was super sexy, and it was interesting to think about the possibility of experiencing sex as another gender, and how that plays into your sexual orientation. I have to say though, I can't imagine people would really want to play a fighting game where you realistically feel yourself get beat up. That's pretty far fetched. And if you don't feel the full effects of the fighting, why would you feel the full effects of the sex? Unless the game developers anticipated their game would really just be used for hooking up!

                                I thought the episode with Miley Cyrus was probably the most disappointing. The way they removed the firewall on the the Ashley doll was ridiculous. But I really thought the cliche of the pop artist who really wants to make grungey rock is actually quite misogynistic. Like no one could possibly like or want to make pop music, and we can only take them seriously if they secretly hate it. I'm just tired of seeing things popularly liked by girls looked down upon by society and culture, when the same disdain isn't really given to things popularly liked by young men.

                                Anyway, what did y'all think?

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                                  #17
                                  Hey there, cuties!
                                  I've never watched Black Mirror, but an episode: San Junipero. Without spoilers, I'll say it's my favourite girl-romance "film" of all time. A couple of women written so beautifully, so authentic, without stupid cliches. Also, I loved finding a sci-fi story which is not depressing with that "we're screwed" vibe.

                                  Love,
                                  Irene A

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                                    #18
                                    Hi Irene_a. I am a huge fan of Black Mirror and that one is one of my favorites. The ending with the dancing machines is one of my all time favorite moments of the whole show.

                                    @Renae_D. Striking Vipers was for me, one of my least favorite episode of the show. Since the show is one of my favorites it isn't that I even disliked the episode it just ranks lower in my opinion of the high bar with Black Mirror. In regards to your comment on the fighting full effects, I find that Black Mirror has always had shaky World Building. I just don't concern myself to much. Like my favorite episode. The one with Dallas Howard. The social Media one. I don't really see how society develops like that yet if you go with it, the story wins you over. For Striking Vipers the aspect I wasn't a fan of was the ending felt out of nowhere. Not in a wow that surprised me. It felt natively out of whack with the episode.

                                    As for the Miley episode I think there was one aspect that makes your compliant invalid. It is that Charlie didn't write it like that. He wrote it to her persona. Heck watch that episode as if it is a Disney channel movie but seen through some black mirror prism. The episode was built from the ground up with Miley in mind and the perceptions about her.

                                    My favorite of the three. I thought by far the most profound of them was the Smithereens episode. Besides the fact that they act like a sniper cannot move five feet to the left.

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