Current Events > Is new Black Mirror good?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Just finished ep 1 of season 4, and it was ok but it seemed kinda like a rehash of previous ideas, and it was kinda lame how the guy was apparently omnipotent but couldn't catch the ship at the end? Couldn't he just materialize there? and that random chick just figures out everyone's problems after a couple days in the simulation when the team of hacker nerds before were convinced there was no way out. Kinda took me out of it.
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lilORANG posted...

Just finished ep 1 of season 4, and it was ok but it seemed kinda like a rehash of previous ideas, and it was kinda lame how the guy was apparently omnipotent but couldn't catch the ship at the end? Couldn't he just materialize there? and that random chick just figures out everyone's problems after a couple days in the simulation when the team of hacker nerds before were convinced there was no way out. Kinda took me out of it.

I'll admit that his omnipotence is odd but I'd liken it to a godmode or debug cheat doesn't always give you complete powers in a game. As far as the "random chick" goes, she was a coder who was actively inspired by Robert's code and was actively impassioned about it. Up until then the the most tech savvy person in the group just wasn't as good as her. Which isn't that unrealistic as not all coders are equal.
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lilORANG posted...

it seemed kinda like a rehash of previous ideas

If that was what you didn't like about it, then you might not enjoy the rest of the season. For the most part, the next few episodes use tech that are pretty similar to, or took inspiration from tech seen in prior seasons (you'll see a lot of similarities to White Christmas and the episode with the dude jealous of his wife). They are fun, but they seem to be taking similar concepts and telling different stories with them.

As for your thoughts on the first episode, I read an article that addressed this. It said that the other characters have wronged the dude in some way, so they felt, at least in some way, that they deserved their fate, so they learned to accept their new placement. The new girl, though, was the only one to not do anything bad to him, so she didn't feel like she didn't deserve to be in there. That, in combination with her superior coding skills, gave her a bigger motivation to get out than the others which helped her come up with ideas.
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Ep 2 was pretty bad. Exact same tech as The Entire History of You, except the story was a lot less compelling and they clearly had no idea how to end it so it just....does. Moral of the story is don't be a helicopter parent I guess. That mom was obnoxious af.

Owen Teague was a highlight tho. Liked him in Bloodline.
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It's like the rest of the show - pretty hit or miss. There are some good episodes in it. The last episode is my personal favorite.
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honestly I only really like season 1 >_>

but I liked season 1 a lot, so I keep hoping it recaptures that feeling but season 2 was terrible and 3 was ok but kinda lazy in a lot of the execution.
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3 and 4 are Netflix-backed (and it really does show).

It's just weird to me that it's all the same writers and yet they took it in this direction.

Season 4 has more "black mirror" episodes than 3 did though imo. They just aren't necessarily all that great.

Hopefully you like Hang the DJ and Black Museum at least (those were my faves).
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lilORANG posted...

Just finished ep 1 of season 4, and it was ok but it seemed kinda like a rehash of previous ideas, and it was kinda lame how the guy was apparently omnipotent but couldn't catch the ship at the end? Couldn't he just materialize there? and that random chick just figures out everyone's problems after a couple days in the simulation when the team of hacker nerds before were convinced there was no way out. Kinda took me out of it.

Thinking about it, you never really see his character teleport around or anything like that. Presumably he's bound by the same rules everyone else is in-game, he just has the ability to modify other "characters."
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Episode 4 was the high point for me, but yeah overall it's definitely the weakest season. Pretty much every other episode was in the B/B- range.
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Ok, episode 3 was pretty good. It started and I thought it was going to be super predictable (and it was for the first 2/3 or so) but I figured she'd just be arrested after the insurance agent caught her. It was interesting to see how much more thorough a killer's gotta be when mind reading tech exists. Certainly an implication I had not thought of before. That's what I watch Black Mirror for, and it's what's been lacking in previous seasons. Don't spare the damn guinea pig!
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lilORANG posted...

Ok, episode 3 was pretty good. It started and I thought it was going to be super predictable (and it was for the first 2/3 or so) but I figured she'd just be arrested after the insurance agent caught her. It was interesting to see how much more thorough a killer's gotta be when mind reading tech exists. Certainly an implication I had not thought of before. That's what I watch Black Mirror for, and it's what's been lacking in previous seasons. Don't spare the damn guinea pig!

That episode was directed by John Hillcoat who directed my favorite western movie The Proposition. Its a fucking sick story. R* ripped it off for RDR

blackmirror s4e3 but yeah anyways this was my fav ep of season4. The shot of her walking in the dudes bathroom with her pale skin and crazy fucking eyes and hammer. Like a old Halloween movie.
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Ep 4 was good too. they were so cute together, i was heartbroken when Frank fucked it up, so I'm glad that one got a happy ending. Amy is gorgeous.
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Metalhead was good! Just not very Black Mirrory lol. It benefitted from the shorter run time too, very tense the whole way.
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Was it tense though? :\ That thing wasn't too scary imo.
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I thought episode 4 was brilliant up until the ending, which I think kind of undermined the whole witty, dry satirical slant of the rest of the episode. Why was the app part of the simulation? I thought they were testing for the couple's compatibility, or was it some sort of meta-compatibility of how they eventually come to the conclusion that they don't need a computer assistant to tell them what love is?

Annihilated posted...

I thought episode 4 was brilliant up until the ending, which I think kind of undermined the whole witty, dry satirical slant of the rest of the episode. Why was the app part of the simulation? I thought they were testing for the couple's compatibility, or was it some sort of meta-compatibility of how they eventually come to the conclusion that they don't need a computer assistant to tell them what love is?

What we saw was only 1 simulation within a dating app. If the couple rebels together, they are compatible. The simulation runs 1000 times, and that couple rebelled 998 times, so they were super compatible. What we saw at the very end was the real world of them getting matched up for the first time.
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Annihilated posted...

I thought episode 4 was brilliant up until the ending, which I think kind of undermined the whole witty, dry satirical slant of the rest of the episode. Why was the app part of the simulation? I thought they were testing for the couple's compatibility, or was it some sort of meta-compatibility of how they eventually come to the conclusion that they don't need a computer assistant to tell them what love is?

They were inside a simulation, INSIDE a simulation, INSIDE another simulation... My MAN! Looking Good! Slow down!

I kind of liked it, it was the sugar taste in Black Mirror between all the angst and depression the other episodes tend to cause.
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lilORANG posted...

Annihilated posted...

I thought episode 4 was brilliant up until the ending, which I think kind of undermined the whole witty, dry satirical slant of the rest of the episode. Why was the app part of the simulation? I thought they were testing for the couple's compatibility, or was it some sort of meta-compatibility of how they eventually come to the conclusion that they don't need a computer assistant to tell them what love is?

What we saw was only 1 simulation within a dating app. If the couple rebels together, they are compatible. The simulation runs 1000 times, and that couple rebelled 998 times, so they were super compatible. What we saw at the very end was the real world of them getting matched up for the first time.

My question is really more of design principle than understanding what actually happened in the episode. I know what it was, it just doesn't seem like a logical or effective type of program.

Annihilated posted...

lilORANG posted...

Annihilated posted...

I thought episode 4 was brilliant up until the ending, which I think kind of undermined the whole witty, dry satirical slant of the rest of the episode. Why was the app part of the simulation? I thought they were testing for the couple's compatibility, or was it some sort of meta-compatibility of how they eventually come to the conclusion that they don't need a computer assistant to tell them what love is?

What we saw was only 1 simulation within a dating app. If the couple rebels together, they are compatible. The simulation runs 1000 times, and that couple rebelled 998 times, so they were super compatible. What we saw at the very end was the real world of them getting matched up for the first time.

My question is really more of design principle than understanding what actually happened in the episode. I know what it was, it just doesn't seem like a logical or effective type of program.

Why not?

I liked it, it reminded me of the Twilight Zone episode "Perchance to Dream", where the whole episode takes place over the span of a few seconds. We don't know how long the simulation takes to run completely in the BM episode, could be a few minutes or a few days or a few weeks, but one simulation in the app can take up to years to run, and that's crazy.
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Black Museum was ok, but too long. I felt like the first two backstories were completely pointless, other than to tell us "this technology exists" even though I would have simply accepted it as existing in the first place, because I'm watching a sci-fi show. Could have just been the last backstory and shortened the whole thing by 40 minutes >_>
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I've never watched an episode of Black Mirror and hoped it was shorter tbh
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Smashingpmkns posted...

I've never watched an episode of Black Mirror and hoped it was shorter tbh

Yeah, there's really no reason for most of the episodes to go over 45 minutes tbh. That's one of my gripes with Netflix shows in general, is that they aim to make them a full hour for some reason. Just a bit too long for me when I tend to watch an episode during a meal or something.
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