Black Mirror recaps start next Sunday, 1/18
Hi all, we will be recapping the UK sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror, available on Netflix streaming, starting next Sunday with ep. S101, “The National Anthem”, recapped by none other than Our Tod.
Black Mirror is a near-future Twilight Zone-esque show that takes aspects of today’s technology and trends, and amps them up just…a…teeny…bit, to see what human nature might do with the tools it’s given itself.
It’s dark, and thought-provoking, and very much worth a look. There are only six episodes total (about 45 minutes apiece), so it won’t take you long to finish. We’ll be doing one per week, so that’s even easier.
Check the show out, hope to see you then!
If you do’t have Netflix, Youtube has them for free.
You can watch episode one here, episode two here, and episode three here.Report
Cool. Now people have no excuse!
Well, unless they don’t like excellent, free, dark sci-fi. But I refuse to believe such people exist.Report
Holy cow! Dark doesn’t even scratch the surface if episode 1 is any indication.Report
One per week. So does that mean I can take my time doing episode 3?
I’d like to see how Tod does one so that I have an inkling of how much to reveal, how much to seal from virgin eyes.Report
Yeah, I figured we’d spread them out. We’re going the Peter Jackson route. Milk it baby! (Plus it gives busy people more time to catch the eps).Report
ha. Reformed reporter that I am, I have a question I’m going to pose to the writers of the show, see if I can get them to answer for my post. Let ’em know we’re doing a watch-a-long, and we’re going to discuss it.
Thanks, @glyphReport
Creator Charlie Booker explains:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2YPxSDIoPEReport
Yeah, I want to see the Xmas Special bad enough that I have considered illegal means to do so, so no thanks on spoilers. I am NOT watching that.
He previously did a series called Dead Set. It’s a zombie series, another satire, this time set inside a Big Brother-type reality series, where the contestants are stuck in the house when the ZA happens (surmised spoilers: I bet the people turn out to be the real monsters). I got all excited because Amazon supposedly had the series streaming for about 8 bucks which seemed reasonable, but when you click on it, it tells you it is not available here in the US. WELL THEN WHY DID YOU SAY IT WAS AND GET ME ALL EXCITED AMAZONReport
That, my friend, is one of the prices we pay for the sorry state of American copyright law. A lot of music and TV aren’t ever available here.
It’s okay to watch, I don’t think there’s any spoilers in it. But a good explanation of how the show worries, and some pondering that sometimes by the time it comes out, it’s already reality; it’s already happened.Report
I watched it, it does have a slight spoiler for ep 1, but otherwise it’s clear of spoilers and interesting. Thanks.Report
This is worth a watch: like a combo of Dave Barry’s “Year In Review” pieces, crossed with The Daily Show (with, obviously, a heavy Brit focus; so more John Oliver, than Jon Stewart):
Report
For what it’s worth, I think Season 1, Episode 1 should come with a trigger warning for all viewers. I’ve only seen two other things in my life that were more disturbing, and they were both movies. Don’t feel like you just have to see episode 1. They are all self-contained, so it wouldn’t interfere with your ability to watch the rest of this great show.Report
Yeah, that’s probably not a bad idea.Report
“No farm animals were actually harmed or violated in the filming of this episode.”Report
One of the few trigger warnings that actually seems respectful and appropriate, and a very good call, @vikram-bath
I was hesitant to talk about this show because of this; but surely the better way is to warn that the conversation is powerfully disturbing.Report
@glyph
Now I see what you loved about the song/performance in Episode 2. Absolutely spell binding.Report
And apparently that’s really the actress singing.Report
In over a decade of real reality shows, I have never seen its equal.Report
The strangest thing is that when I looked for that song on Deezer and Beats, I only found one version other than by Irma herself. A song this good and virtually no covers?Report