Black Mirror - Season 7

[Cavadour 2,194]

Guys you should go for it !

I know, last seasons were not up to par with the first ones but this is kind of a rebirth.

Two episodes in, I was intrigued and pleased. Then I just watched episode three 'Hotel Reverie' and I just LOVED it ! So eerie and charming.

High tech scifi AI meets The Twilight Zone with a touch of...

If you liked early BM seasons, don't hesitate !

[dynamite 53,403]

I've just started watching it too, only ever seen 1 or 2 BM episodes before. I just watched the one with Veritie Green, Hotel Reverie and the throngs 

[hELXIG 42,546]

Is is still super dark these days? The last episode I watched was Crocodile, season 4 episode 3 where

Spoiler

the investigator can read people's memories and the lady doesn't want to be put away for murder so she just keeps killing witnesses and in the end she kills the investigator's husband AND BABY for NO REASON because the hamster saw her anyway and she got convicted

that was when I realised it was just too dark, not enjoyable, taking a toll on my mental health. I felt sick. That and the one with the 'cockroaches' that the army were trained to kill. Also add to that it's just starting to feel way too real with all the newest science, AI, robots etc. coming out. I just had to stop

[hELXIG 42,546]

I decided it was rude to hijack your thread and created my own about this topic so you can see it here if you want..

 

Edited yesterday at 03:18 AM by hELXIG

[Cavadour 2,194]

Yes, many examples when reality goes beyond fiction exist.

Alas, imho, reality is many times scarier than fiction in the end.

 

43 minutes ago, dynamite said:

the throngs

Just finished watching that one too 

Well, I've always been a fan of these from far ago : The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits... (the original bw ones, oc) Such visionary works. Black Mirror just follows the same track. There's a signpost up ahead. Your next stop...

 

 

Edited yesterday at 03:29 AM by Cavadour

[Cavadour 2,194]

32 minutes ago, hELXIG said:

it was just too dark, not enjoyable

What is too dark ? Sometimes or for some, darker is more enjoyable...

The idea is here. To look in the mirror and see a darker reflexion or oneself. Kinda heads up.

 

The last previous seasons, It was leaning more toward horror. Humor was missing. I'm glad it's back.

 

Edited yesterday at 03:26 AM by Cavadour

[hELXIG 42,546]

1 minute ago, Cavadour said:

What is too dark ? Sometimes or for some, darker is more enjoyable...

The idea is here. To look in the mirror and see a darker reflexion or oneself. Kinda heads up.

 

the last previous seasons, It was leaning more toward horror. Humor was missing. I'm glad it's back.

I think maybe I can enjoy dark sci-fi which doesn't feel too real. Like a far off warning rather than 'oh they're working on that right now and it fills me with real-life dread'. Or maybe it's when it's solely just very dark start to end, like you said, missing the humor. Or lighter episodes to break it up. Nosedive is a really good example! I loved that episode. It was a lighter kind of breather from all the darkness. Or maybe it's just killing innocent immigrants and babies that puts me off    **** a pig on TV, get stuck in a simulation, fall in love with an AI version of your dead partner.. but don't kill babies

[weed 72,571]

55 minutes ago, dynamite said:

I've just started watching it too, only ever seen 1 or 2 BM episodes before. I just watched the one with Veritie Green, Hotel Reverie and the throngs 

Season 3 and Season 4 are MWAHHH!!!! impeccable. I started listing episodes but it was majority 3 & 4 lol. If I had to pick 5 highlights from the whole show:

- Shut Up and Dance
- Hang the DJ
- Arkangel
- USS Callister
- White Bear

you NEEEED to watch them.

also standouts: Men Against Fire, Hated in the Nation, Metalhead, Crocodile, Black Museum, oooh god they were so good for a few seasons

Edited yesterday at 03:41 AM by weed

[Cavadour 2,194]

@hELXIG I get it. When darkness, means horror, like killing babies as you say, I also reach the limits of what I can bear (A Serbian Film, for instance...) More perverse than dark. Not really my cup of tea I'd say.

But there's another type of darkness that has more impact on the mind than the guts. Good example, on the foresight side is a Twilight Zone episode called 'The Obsolete Man'...

 

Edited yesterday at 03:42 AM by Cavadour

[hELXIG 42,546]

4 minutes ago, Cavadour said:

@hELXIG I get it. When darkness, means horror, like killing babies as you say, I also reach the limits of what I can bear (A Serbian Film, for instance...) More perverse than dark. Not really my cup of tea I'd say.

But there's another type of darkness that has more impact on the mind than the guts. Good example, on the foresight side is a Twilight Zone episode called 'The Obsolete Man'...

 

I guess that's it! Psychological horror vs.. moral horror?

[Cavadour 2,194]

9 minutes ago, hELXIG said:

Psychological horror vs.. moral horror?

Yeah kinda. Although 'moral' is debatable... Intellectual vs visceral, maybe ?

 

PS- I didn't think you 'hijacked the thread btw. This was a nice angle added to the discussion !

 

Edited yesterday at 03:55 AM by Cavadour

[hELXIG 42,546]

19 minutes ago, Cavadour said:

Yeah kinda. Although 'moral' is debatable... Intellectual vs visceral, maybe ?

 

PS- I didn't think you 'hijacked the thread btw. This was a nice angle added to the discussion !

 

It was a big post about a totally different subject   I'm learning now that I'm recently diagnosed with ADHD not to steamroll over other people's conversations with my own ranting  

[Cavadour 2,194]

2 minutes ago, hELXIG said:

not to steamroll over other people's conversations with my own ranting  

I can be a steamroller too. I usually go better with that trait in people than those who hesitate or even don't speak up their mind at all. So you know !

[PartySick 152,618]

1 hour ago, hELXIG said:

That and the one with the 'cockroaches' that the army were trained to kill.

I saw a YouTube short about this one

Interesting stuff tbh

[chromatic puzea 10,022]

i literally just finished binging episodes two through four

i didn't have a problem with the last two netflix seasons, only the joan is awful episode i wasn't obsessed with 

spoilers for this season and some other episodes down below
*i'm writing this just after writing my thoughts on the episodes down below. i just want to forewarn that these are super unarticulated thoughts. i literally just binged three episodes and am typing all my feelings on my laptop in my bed with the lights off at one in the morning, but i would love to talk and hear everyone else's thoughts. black mirror has been my favourite show since i discovered it in 2019 but i only know two other people who watch this show.

Spoiler

episode one felt very fresh. its widely talked about how nothing is owned nowadays but rented or leased or subscribed too and that alread includes health care with the profits margins on some treatments and medications. same with the online sites where people pay to do things. this has obviously existed since the dawn of the internet but i really saw these blow up with tiktok live streams. i was only on tiktok from 2019-2022 maybe, but i recall so many livestreams of people putting dead fish and mayonnaise over their hair with "menus" written on a whiteboard behind them showing viewers how many tokens or "gifts" each gross task would cost. i also found it super interesting that the first epsiode heavily criticised subscription services when netflix has been a leader in subscription services and upgrading their tiers now that netflix produces the show.

bete noire was a fun one. i enjoy the first person bias it gives so it feels like its us and maria vs verity and everyone else, just like demon 79 from last season. i thought the ending was a little weak and there maybe could've been a more impactful end to the story, whether verity or maria "won" in the end. even if maria still won, i think her immeadiately wanting to become empress of the world and the episode ending was very rushed. I appreciate the take that people will exploit and abuse any power they're given but i think a slower burn would've been nicer, but this also was the end of the episode so it makes sense. and again, this was a lighter episode, so i overall enjoyed it.

hotel reverie was really beautiful. i thought it was like striking vipers and san junipero meet, but it was so interesting that brandy was the conciousness of her living self, vs clara who was a preserved conciousness of the actor during the time of the film but who was fully sentient and even learned of her existence and the real dorothy's existence. i wish we got a san junipero, run-away lesbians ride off into the computer server ending, but them doing the reset complicates brandy's feelings so much more. it felt like a check as the viewer like "wait, did you also fall in love with a simulation too?" and i think the ending they gave was very beautiful. that simulation of clara was never a real person no matter how sentient she was, but their experiences together were very real and non-simulated as seen by clara going off script. and i think brandy getting to talk to the simulation of dorothy's screen test was a super beautiful ending. no notes, 10/10, this was the sister of striking vipers who was raised by the same mother as san junipero and hang the DJ

episode four with the thronglets was another fun one. this one felt to me like it could've been a love, death, & robots episode. the ending could be seen as sinister but i believed the guy and i think at the end he did eliminate conflict. i've never been a fan for an open ending (i HATED the end of smithereens, even though who died (if anyone) is even that relevant), but i think when done like this or like in demon 79, its still enjoyable for me. its a sort of life of pi which story do you believe ending rather than an open ending, and both this episode and demon 79 played off of our understanding of mental disorders like scizophrenia and challenge whether the viewer perceives the protagonist as right or mad.

**edit. i'm trying to fall asleep and just realized this is not a "good" episode at all. the thronglets were their own creatures who were quick learners and wanted to survive and grow. they kept demanding more computing hardware & power and their goal of eliminating conflict in the world was just so they could get more power and control. its now 4 am and i cannot fall asleep so maybe i'll think differently again in a few hours but how i see it now, the thronglets were just another species trying to dominate. again, the show that's literally about the nuances of technology was able to trick me into believing "no they're just little pixel bunnies! they must hack the government computers to spread goodness and eliminate conflict!"

I would also love any recommendations for similar shows, I saw some recs for some twilight zone episodes, which i know the show was also based on, so i'll be sure to check that out once im done with this season. also i love "love, death, and robots" but i feel like their episodes are all fully produced concepts. like the artwork is always fantastic, but the entire plot feels like it would be the exposition of a black mirror episode. like right when they set in their cool premise, i'm like aha let's see where this goes and then the episode just ends. the only eception that immeadiately comes to mind is zima blue which in my opinion is their best storyline.

sorry for writing so much
again, i just love this show and have many feelings about it even if i can't express them all as cleverly as feelings for this show deserve to be

Edited yesterday at 08:23 AM by chromatic puzea