Black Mirror

[alexvss]

Is this a new season of Black Mirror?

It is. All of Season 6's episodes are available since yesterday.

 

[Rodders]

I'll check the new ones out., I think i saw them all up to Bandersnatch.

 

[alexvss]

Joan is Awful: Joan has her life turned into a ultra-realistic CGI show starred by deepfake Selma Hayek, and she can do nothing about it (at least not legally). This is the most Black Mirror-ish episode of the season. It’s also very metalinguistic and campy. It's my pick of the season. (I always knew that those Terms and Conditions were sketchy).

Beyond the Sea: two astronauts split their times between the space station and Earth, using replicas of their bodies. This one just wasn’t deep; it’s bland. Ok, the ending is a little shocking, I’ll give it that, but even so it’s not worth it.

All in all, every episode has its merits, but they do not feel like parts of a cohesive whole.

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

I watched the first five series of Black Mirror fairly recently, and I loved them. As others have commented, series 5 was just as good as series 1.

I watched Joan is Awful (first episode of series 6) last night and was disappointed. The idea of living in a simulation has been done many times before and lacks originality. And I thought the whole thing was a bit too smug about having a star like Selma Hayek on board. I hope series 6 improves or I may not make it through.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Most episodes of Black Mirror are astonishingly good. It's amazing that for 5 seasons (I haven't started 6 yet) Charlie Brooker has come up with tv shows that have been inventive, and with their 'twist' endings have sometimes left me with my jaw dropped at how our perception of what we have watched for the first 90% of the show have been turned on their heads. I think that in the fullness of time, we will see him as been eerily prescient.

I have to say that whilst Bandersnatch was a fantastic idea, and a neat nod back to the 'choose your own adventure' books and software companies of the 1980s, the actual execution was disappointing. As the viewer (or should that be the interactor?) we were often left choosing between mundane routes that could significantly affect the outcome; we should have been given more meaningful choices.

If I was forced to choose one episode as my favourite, it would probably be USS Callister, which is easily the best parody of Star Trek that there has ever been. Jesse Plemons is brilliant at playing a seemingly nice guy, but in reality someone with no moral scruples whatsoever.

 

[therapist]

I watched the first five series of Black Mirror fairly recently, and I loved them. As others have commented, series 5 was just as good as series 1.

I watched Joan is Awful (first episode of series 6) last night and was disappointed. The idea of living in a simulation has been done many times before and lacks originality. And I thought the whole thing was a bit too smug about having a star like Selma Hayek on board. I hope series 6 improves or I may not make it through.

Joan is awful was my least favourite episode of this season. Am I supposed to know who Selma Hayek is? I've never heard of her. I was confused what they were going for with that. The ending felt far too similar to the episode 'Hang the DJ' (the dating simulation one.) Except Hang the DJ was far better in every single way.

If I was forced to choose one episode as my favourite, it would probably be USS Callister

That episode was so so good.

 

[Guttersnipe]

I think "Beyond the Sea" was the best episode of the sixth season; I didn't think it was bland at all—maybe it's just "typical." I found "Joan is Awful" funny enough, definitely a more light-hearted episode. Loch Henry was pretty surprising and unsettling, which I also liked. It's one of those episodes that's not really sci-fi; it's more like the first episode of the series, "The National Anthem." I am a little confused and bothered by the sudden inclusion of supernatural elements in the last two episodes. "Demon 79" was fine; "Mazey Day" was too short. I liked them, but I don't think these episodes belong in Black Mirror.

 

[Moonbat]

We've just finished series 6. We are big fans of black mirror and have watched all seasons as they were released. I absolutely loved the first few seasons and I don't think it has reached those heights for a while. This season has been a bit of a disappointment, I found Joan is Awful to be the most black mirrory episode for me, but I like Loch Henry as the most thought provoking, especially as we recently enjoyed the series about Jeffrey Dahmer and the families of his victims complained about the portrayal.
Beyond the Sea had a gruesome ending and Mazey Day wasn't really a black mirror episode, except that they very cleverly put us off the scent on the twist. Just finished Demon 79 which was ok but the thing that has most disappointed me with this series is that they were all (except 1) set in the past. Beyond the sea was the 50s, Mazey Day was the 90s, Demon 79 was the 70s, I suppose Loch henry was today but harked back to the early 00s. Only Joan is Awful was set in today and pushed the boundaries of the future tech with its storyline. I suppose they don't all have to be set in the present day but I always found that nearly tomorrow tech and how bad it could go to the best thing about Black Mirror.

Oh well, I guess we will have to wait until Streamberry bring out series 7

 

[AE35Unit]

The 5th (last) one, Demon 79, was brilliant!

 

[Dave]

I've seen three of the five in season six. I don't find that the production quality is any lower than in earlier seasons. I do think that the stories don't seem quite so original, but only because the there is a other similar content being made now that wasn't being made before. I see that as a measure of Black Mirror's success, rather than any kind of problem with it.

 

[AE35Unit]

Its a bit like a mix between Twilight Zone and Tales of the Unexpected, both of which I loved

 

[Dave]

Its a bit like a mix between Twilight Zone and Tales of the Unexpected

You could add Outer Limits to that and some of that Alfred Hitchcock presents series, but when I said there were more things with similar content being made, I thinking of right now...

Have you tried Inside No.9? Some episodes of that are very good, and it's similar in many ways to Black Mirror.

I've only seen a few Inside No.9 myself. I didn't like the first few of season one I that watched and stopped, but the recent "Quiz Show" episode with Lee Mack from the current season struck me as being very similar to Black Mirror.

Maybe while there isn't a comparable anthology TV series being made right now that is similar to Black Mirror, but you do get this kind of quirky and twisted ending, or science fiction/supernatural element, thrown into quite mainstream TV dramas (things that are watched by people who would never watch sci-fi or horror) and then you get all the crime procedural dramas loaded with supernatural elements (although they probably owe more to the X-Files.)

 

[AE35Unit]

Inside Number 9 is brilliant. It is a bit like black mirror except it uses the same cast in each episode

 

[paranoid marvin]

Just watched Joan is awful. I had no idea who any of the actors were, which seems to be pretty much a requirement to get the most from the episode.

I found it very funny when Tom Cruise and Danny DeVito were in the intro for the Austin Powers movie, and I guess that that was the reaction that was expected from me.

It was still very good to a certain extent, but not a memorable episode by any means.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Just watched Loch Henry. Black Mirror episodes tend to fall into one of two categories - the media and technology; sometimes both. This one concentrated on the former. The twist (if it really was one) came part way through the show, but tbh for me it never gained any momentum.

There are several better twists and endings that I thought of immediately it finished; which is unusual for BM as his endings are usually something I could never have thought of or bettered.

Maybe it's the fact that there have been six seasons of stories that finding a novel twist now is more difficult, or maybe his aim here is to produce a more sublime ending. Perhaps he's set a standard so high with his first 5 seasons that our expectations are impossibly high.

Either way, I'm still looking forward to watching episode 3.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Beyond the Sea. A technology episode, and one that raises the very real question of how astronauts will cope on an extended space mission. This was one episode where I questioned the possibility of technology allowing them to transfer into their alternative selves so far away on Earth; seemed a bit far-fetched, which is not an accusation I would normally level at BM.

Which leads to Mazey Day - a media episode - that again has no place in the near-future world of BM. It was interesting in its own way, but too run-of-the-mill for Charlie Brooker.

I would have to agree that this series is most unlike most of BM, which generally focuses on what could happen if we follow the same course we are now on, but with updated technology. So far this season, the only really standout episode was Beyond the Sea, and even that was nowhere near as good as some of the best, earlier episodes.

One thing I do like about BM is that each episode is as long as it needs to be. So no shoe-horning a longer story into 60 minutes, or bloating a short story with unnecessary filling. More shows (especially streamed) should do this instead of saying "here's an hour slot, what do we fill it with?"

 

[paranoid marvin]

Demon79. Easily the best of this season's offerings and a brilliant programme in its own right. One of the best things I've seen on tv in a long time. But it isn't Black Mirror. In any way. In fact this season has been closer to Inside No.9 than it has been to any previous season of BM. But it really was first class television in every way.

 

[AE35Unit]

Demon79. Easily the best of this season's offerings and a brilliant programme in its own right. One of the best things I've seen on tv in a long time. But it isn't Black Mirror. In any way. In fact this season has been closer to Inside No.9 than it has been to any previous season of BM. But it really was first class television in every way.

Yea i enjoyed that one, but I still see it as very black mirror.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Yea i enjoyed that one, but I still see it as very black mirror.

Prior to this season, episodes have usually looked at the near future, and how technology and/or media have influenced them. This episode;(as well as Mazey Day) didn't. They felt more like Twilight Zone/Outer Limits episodes.

Which is great, because Charlie Brooker modern TZ/OL episodes in the guise of BM are very welcome. I would love to hear a commentary track from CB on this episode and his rationale for writing it. I'm sure that he intended there to be parallels between Demon79 and stuff going on in the world today but I'm not entirely certain ehat they are.

Still, if CB wants to start writing AAA quality episodes of The Twilight Zone under the BM logo, I am more than happy to oblige him by watching them.

 

[Moonbat]

Demon79. Easily the best of this season's offerings and a brilliant programme in its own right. One of the best things I've seen on tv in a long time. But it isn't Black Mirror.

I think I heard Charlie Brooker refer to it as Red Mirror, a sort of horror spin off from the Sci-fi of black mirror.