Anyone seen this yet? I thought it was really good and Cifriana liked it too. Favourite episodes in order:- 1. Metalhead - mini robot horror dog chases a lady. Absolutely gripping! 2. Black Museum - really liked the doctor one where he could feel the patients' pain and the electrocutions one too. Looked at Cif contemplatively during the 'nagging wife' bit. Hmmm. Pause button might be useful for her on some occasions..... 3. Archangel - Overprotective mother uses spying implant on her daughter. Made me think about overbearing parenting. 4. The Star Trek one - Would this even be illegal? They're only computer code, right? Why wouldn't this be possible and completely legal? Weird. 5. Crocodile - Scouser lady murders people. Seemed a bit more like a sunday evening BBC thriller. Was OK, but not the best. 6. Hang the DJ - Where you get assigned a partner and know how long the relationship was going to last. Didn't really get it and probably missed some of the intricacies of it through boredom. All in all, very good though. Still not quite as good as the prime ministerial pig porking one or the White Bear prison one from earlier series though I'd say...
Not watched it yet. Great TV, sticks in your head long after. There's a program on CBBC that's a kids equivalent called Creeped Out that's pretty good. Fairly warped but they always have a nice ending to prevent psychological damage. Stuff like rogue smart phones controlling lives, militant mermaids and brownies turning into zombies.
Definitely the weakest series so far, but they were all at least watchable. The Star Trek rip off was the best episode. Crocodile and Arkangel were pretty mediocre. Black Museum was quite nice in that it linked back to the other episodes in the series, which was a nice touch. Still, none of them had the appeal of episodes like San Junipero to me. I was a little disappointed after thoroughly enjoying the opener.
Just started watching Series 5, more of the enjoyable same. The first one we watched 'Rachel, Jack and Ashley too'. Yes that is Miley Cyrus and yes, I spotted it from the off it, that tune definitely is an absolute industrial screamer from 80s alternative disco days, Spoiler: You're gonna get what you deserve
Very much so. The first one was a very interesting take on virtual reality. The second was, I felt, a Brookeresque bog-standard swipe at social media. The odd thing is - I've always found the Black Mirror anthologies a very mixed bag of something dark, something surprising, something with some biting social commentary and something that didn't quite work - all of these were in the last one.
We have watched some of the previous Black Mirror episodes with our 13 yr old. But some we have avoided as being too inappropriate for her. Are the new episodes ok to watch with her? To give you an idea of what we feel is ok/not ok, we have allowed her to watch "Metalhead", "Playtest", "White Bear", "Hated in the Nation", "Nosedive" and "San Junipero" but those we have not allowed her to watch include "The National Anthem", "Shut up and Dance", "White Christmas" and "15 Million Merits" Thanks - love Black Mirror. And no unflagged spoilers please.
No 3 is fine imo and will probably engage your thirteen year old as much as any episode has. No 1 is, however, pretty much all about sex. The two old ladies on Gogglebox would probably summarise it as 'oooh he's a bit of a goer'. No 2 I haven't seen, but is supposed to be the best so far.
No. 2 has a small sex scene but it really is only seconds. Otherwise it's fairly safe apart from the odd 4 letter word.
Great, sounds fine. Not fussed about swearing - would be naive to think a 13 yr old doesn't hear/use plenty of it when with their mates
13 yr old wanted to watch "Rachel, Jack and Ashley too" and was a good one to start the new series with I thought. I read an interview with Brooker about Black Mirror in which he said “Sometimes we like to go a bit Pixar. And other times we like to go a bit Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It really depends on our whim.” I won't say which one this episode is, for those who haven't yet seen it.
Black Mirror is at its best when it causes us to ask questions that cover very grey areas of alignment between technology and morality. Striking Vipers was excellent at that. Really enjoyable episode that posed some excellent questions on the nature of relationships, cheating, and the implications of where VR and reality collide. Rachel, Jack and Ashely Too was awful. It was predictable, formulaic tosh from start to finish where the subject matter has been covered a million times already. Smithereens was very well acted but didn't offer a whole lot on the tech/morality matrix. There wasn't any real moral dilemna being posed, it was pretty preachy about the dangers of social media. While I agree with a lot of the one-the-nose criticisms of how social media has been monetised, it would have been nice if they'd have muddied the waters a bit. As it stood, the episode was very black-and-white, which I don't think makes for a good episode of Black Mirror. I liked it, but it was no better than slightly above average. All told, I rate it at one excellent, one slightly-above-average and one poor episode.
