Summary: In 1969, Nida is a sales assistant who is frustrated by the racist, awful people around her. When she is forced to eat lunch in the basement one day, she accidentally releases a demon named Gaap. Gaap tells Nida that she has three days to make three sacrifices or the world will end. Nida is initially terrified and thinks she is insane but Gaap talks sense into her. After trying to run away, she ends up in a back alley with an abusive man walking his dog and she kills him with a brick for the first sacrifice. Nida goes to kill Keith, a known murderer, the next day. She follows him home and murders him, but his brother suddenly returns and notices her. Nida is forced to kill him too, distraught that he was a good man. Gaap is happy that the sacrifices are done, but learns that they don't count if the individual is a murderer, so Keith did not count. Nida decides to kill her xenophobic co-worker Vicky, but changes her mind and targets Michael upon realizing that he will become Prime Minister and instill a totalitarian regime. Nida chases him down and tries to kill him, but she's apprehended by cops before she can. Nida explains the reasoning behind her killings but she is thought to be insane. The time limit is reached and the world enters nuclear war. Gaap is going to be sent to oblivion for failing and invites Nida to go with him, and she agrees.
The Good: Anjana Vasan's portrayal of Nida practically carries this episode. The character is relatable and endearing, and seeing her embrace her darker side fostered by all the xenophobia she endures is compelling stuff. I enjoyed seeing Nida get darker and darker throughout the episode as she becomes obsessed with the idea of killing the worst possible people to save the world. Her dynamic with Gaap is also a lot of fun. I have to commend the idea behind Gaap. I like that despite him being a demon, he's actually kind of charming and likeable in a dark sort of way. He bounces off of Nida pretty well, and his antics are consistently amusing. I thought that the setting was very good in this episode. Considering that racism was a huge aspect of this episode, it made sense to set the episode in the 60s when this infuriating behaviour was much more normal and typically went unpunished. Plus, the episode visually looked great and unique because of the time period, and it helped the episode stand out compared to everything else. The Bad: Again, did this need to be so long? The ideas tackled in this episode are fairly simple and I feel like they could have been addressed in half the time with a much more streamlined narrative. Nida having to deal with her conscience while trying to kill, and her bond with Gaap are decent ideas, but not explored in a particularly emotional or impactful way. I feel like we could have accomplished the same thing in half the time. The story itself somewhat disappointed me. Even more than any other episode this season, "Demon 79" didn't have any connection with technology. It's a strange choice to take away one of the best aspects of "Black Mirror" (its commentary on technology), and it's even stranger because the episode didn't offer anything to replace the commentary on technology. Without that, this felt like a pretty simplistic horror/thriller with no real reason for me to analyze the episode or think about what I had watched. The experience felt shallow and I wish that there had been more substance to the story outside of basic entertainment. The detective storyline was an afterthought and I was bored any time we switched to them. The entertaining aspect of the episode is the dynamic between Nida and Gaap, so any time spent away from them is bland and uninteresting. I wish that this side story had been cut out entirely. The Unknown: What happened to Nida's mother? Did she die of natural causes or is there more to that story? What is oblivion, and how will Gaap and Nida tolerate eternity together? Best Moment: Nida and Gaap bonding over how lonely they feel after the murders of Keith and his brother. Character of the Episode: Nida. Conclusion: A fittingly weird and atypical episode of "Black Mirror" to end season 6. Not all of this worked, in fact a lot didn't, but it was an enjoyable enough experience for what it was. Season 6 was ultimately quite disappointing and it did not succeed in changing my mind that Charlie Brooker has run out of ideas and is not able to hit the same quality that he had in earlier "Black Mirror" seasons. Season 6 took more risks and there are plenty of episodes that don't feel like typical "Black Mirror" episodes, suggesting that the show is taking risks and heading in new directions to address the idea drought. However it hasn't worked yet. Risky episodes like "Mazey Day" and "Demon 79" weren't particularly successful, and it's clear that the writing in this show needs to get much better if we are to get a season that is as good as the first three. I'm not sure how long it will be until we get a season 7, but I will be watching. The one nice thing about this show is that every season is short and every episode unique, making it tremendously easy to watch even if it is sometimes disappointing. Score: 56
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Summary: Bo is a paparazzi and takes a photo of an actor having a gay affair, and he later kills himself. Bo feels guilty and quits her job, but struggles to make a living. After famous actress Mazey Day flees the country following a hit and run unknown to the public, Bo returns to her job to collect an enormous $50,000 reward for photos. She and fellow photographer Hector track down Mazey to a rehab center and they are followed by other photographers. They break in to get their pictures but find that Mazey has become a werewolf that starts killing everyone. Bo and Hector escape to a nearby diner where the werewolf kills everyone, but Bo is able to defeat her with a gun. Reverted to her human form, Mazey takes the gun and kills herself as Bo takes a picture.
The Good: Paparazzi is a good concept to tackle, especially with how willing these people are to invade people's privacy to expose online. This fits perfectly with the themes of "Black Mirror", and I was excited to see what the show's take on paparazzi would be. The Bad: Except the message of this episode is completely confused, and the story is pretty awful. The idea of paparazzi is wasted because I'm left confused if "Black Mirror" is condemning or supporting paparazzi. Sometimes I feel like this episode is about how awful paparazzi are, like with Bo feeling guilty about indirectly causing a suicide, and the other photographers getting killed by Mazey because they stuck around to take pictures. But then at other points it seems like paparazzi are justified, especially since Mazey Day actually is hiding a deadly secret that needs to be exposed to the world. The end of the episode suggests that it's so valuable that werewolves have been exposed to the world, justifying paparazzi. So ultimately, I'm confused what the episode's message is. It's jumbled and confused between the pros and cons, leading to a less satisfying and clear story overall. Furthermore, Bo is one of the weirdest main characters we have had because she doesn't have any clear arc in this episode, and her conclusion offers no emotional closure or any interesting conflict. The writing is all so strangely unclear and messy. The werewolf twist is one of the worst things I've seen from "Black Mirror". Sure, it subverted my expectations, but to what end? What benefits did the werewolf twist provide this episode? Absolutely nothing. The idea is given the most shallow exploration, and it shifted the attention away from the main idea about paparazzi, diluting the episode's main message and making the whole experience more convoluted. I have very little to say about this episode, because it feels like there's hardly anything to talk about. This went from an interesting story to a random horror/thriller for no real reason, and the climactic sequence as Bo is chased by Mazey's werewolf form feels entirely out of place compared to the rest of the episode. I found the episode's setting to be pretty bad. This season played around with time a lot, and this episode is set in the early 2000s. The problem is that this is hardly noticed by the story and it doesn't create as unique of a setting compared to episodes like "Demon 79" and "Beyond the Sea" which are set much more significantly in the past. The early 2000s setting doesn't have much to offer the episode, and is another wasted idea. The Unknown: What happens when the werewolves get exposed? Is there a backlash? Is it explained away somehow? How prevalent are these werewolves? Why is this such a big secret? Best Moment: The opening scene of Bo taking pictures of the celebrity is the most interesting because this is when it still felt like "Black Mirror" was going to explore an interesting idea. Character of the Episode: Bo. Conclusion: What a weird, confused, ridiculous episode. I didn't see much of a point to this episode and didn't get much out of it. A dull, overly ambitious episode that doesn't have much that's worth your time. Score: 43 Summary: Cliff and David are two astronauts working in space while robotic replicas live their lives down on Earth. Cliff stays in the country with his wife Lana while David is more sociable with his family in public. A cult attacks David at night, murdering his family and destroying his replica before turning themselves in. David is deeply depressed and Cliff offers to let him use his replica. David does and finds some peace in doing this, and continues to use the replica occasionally to paint a picture for Cliff to keep in his house. As he does this, David becomes obsessed with Lana and makes a pass at her. Lana tells Cliff and doesn't want David to come back, while Cliff is suspicious that they had an affair. Cliff refuses to let David use his replica again so David fakes an emergency and goes back to murder Cliff's family. Cliff goes back and sees what happened before returning horrified to David.
The Good: This episode does a lot of things right, and it has its heart in the right place emotionally. David's story is genuinely disturbing and upsetting. We establish a great, sociable family, and seeing them get slaughtered ruthlessly by a cult group is absolutely horrifying. David's grief is realistically portrayed and it's tough not to feel for him as he suffers alone in space. Him finding some peace in using Cliff's replica makes sense, and the story told between them is good as David goes from grateful to entitled and dependent on Cliff's life. Aaron Paul is the glue that makes this work. He does a tremendous job playing two different characters, and the quality of his performance sells the story being told magnificently. What we get is a pretty standard domestic conflict for much of the episode (with a technology twist of course), but the strength of the performance makes it much better. The Bad: This episode has no business being 80 minutes long. The story is enough for a 40-50 minute episode, but the pacing is screwed up when the story is extended to be almost twice that length. Scenes go longer than they should, there are scenes that should have been significantly trimmed or cut out entirely, and the episode doesn't have an additional layer of complex storytelling to justify being so long. I'm usually not too bothered by methodical pacing, but this story drags and bores me at times because it is needlessly slow, and it doesn't even capitalize on any of the strengths that come from slow-paced storytelling. One of the biggest strengths of slow storytelling is that you can dive deep into character. Yet as slow as the episode is, somehow it still failed to emotionally sell me on the choices the characters made at various points in the story. We had so many scenes of David using Cliff's replica, and yet I still couldn't buy into his decision to advance on her and try to hook up, which seemingly came out of nowhere. The show failed to effectively convey David's over-dependence and entitlement to the degree where I could buy into him hitting on Lana. This is unforgivable when the episode is so slow-paced. I also was baffled by David's decision to kill Cliff's family. Was he really so far gone that he felt like he had to do this? I couldn't believe that David was so willing to blow up Cliff's life, especially considering that David was technically living a significant part of his life as well. These are key emotional moments in David's character arc, and I felt like they were unearned and difficult to connect with. The premise of this episode is marred by one enormous plot hole. If repairs on the space shuttle are only required once in a while, why wouldn't the replicas be sent to space instead of the humans? Surely it would be much cheaper and more feasible to send robots to space and let the humans remain back with their families. I can't find any answer to explain this plot hole, and it unfortunately destroys the entire premise because this situation is no longer feasible. The Unknown: What's next for David and Cliff? Will they attack each other or will they somehow keep things civil? It's hard to see a world where they get through their job together, but you never know. Best Moment: David crying out in the woods was incredibly well acted by Aaron Paul and devastating. Character of the Episode: David. Conclusion: This episode was the most emotionally heavy and horrific of this season, but unfortunately it is too slow paced, inconsistently written, and it has an enormous plot hole. The result is a disappointing episode that should have been much better. Score: 57 Summary: Davis and Pia are dating and making a film together. They visit Davis' hometown Loch Henry and from Davis' friend Stuart, Pia learns about Davis' troubled past involving a kidnapper and killer Iain Adair who turned Loch Henry from a tourist hub into a ghost town and indirectly killed his father Kenneth. Pia convinces David to make their movie about this story. Davis and Pia explore around and make their film. While driving home at night, Davis gets into an accident and stays at the hospital. Pia stays with Janet, Davis' mom, and finds on one of her VCR tapes that she and Kenneth participated in the kidnappings with Iain. At the same time, Stuart's father tells Davis the truth. Pia is terrified of Janet and runs away, but dies in the wilderness. Janet thinks her secret is out and commits suicide. Much later, Davis' film is a smashing success and tourism returns to Loch Henry, but Davis is still traumatized by the entire ordeal.
The Good: I've seen a lot of people dismiss this episode as "not true Black Mirror" because it does not focus on technology. I don't believe that this is true. This episode does focus on the impacts of technology in our lives, and what's special about it this episode is that it focuses on what is happening right now in the world instead of focusing on what may happen in the future. This episode focuses on real-life stories being somewhat fetishized by the entertainment industry through the creation of documentaries and other media products for entertainment purposes. I think that the episode explores this idea beautifully and perfectly highlights how this fetishization affects the victims of these incidents. Davis was a compelling character because we got to see how his personal life was destroyed by his movie-making endeavour. The episode drew emotional impact in seeing what happened to him, and it led to this being one of the most emotionally impactful episodes in the season. This episode had a far more realistic tone than "Joan is Awful", and that resulted in a more engaging and grounded atmosphere to tell this story. The pacing is fairly slow, but it's helped along with imaginative filmmaking, a beautiful and unique setting in Scotland, realistic characters, and brilliant utilization of suspense to keep uneventful scenes interesting by making us constantly think that something is going to happen. So many little things were done right. Side characters were kept mysterious to get us interested in learning the truth, Iain Adair's story is told beautifully to create an interesting horror piece, and the eerie and empty setting of Loch Henry gives the episode a spooky and unsettling tone. I also connected with the characters because they all had simple and clearly defined drives. Pia represents the entertainment industry perfectly because she seems to stop at nothing in order to get the best possible film. This sets her up perfectly to be the one to die as punishment for her ambitious nature. Davis is compelling because he is clearly traumatized and reluctant to dive into his history, and his actions reflect this at every turn, making it even more brutal when he uncovers the truth. Stuart is a lot of fun and brings in a lot of comedy, but even he is consistently written as someone who yearns for Loch Henry to be a tourist hub once more, with his every move being done in the hopes of achieving this goal. The story being told was really good and had a good twist at the end revealing the truth about what happened. The mystery aspect of discovering the truth of what happened with Iain Adair had me interested the entire episode, and the incorporation of horror/thriller aspects made for a uniquely entertaining experience. The twist caught me off guard and it worked well in terms of explaining some of the weirdness in Davis' past, providing a satisfying climax and conclusion to the story. The Bad: Pia makes so many poor decisions upon leaning the truth about Janet. I do get that she would be terrified and her judgement would be compromised, but the way she consistently makes the worst possible decision at every turn until she literally gets herself killed is almost unbelievable, and it's a level of incompetence that takes me out of the story being told. To be clear, I do like that she died by going into the wilderness alone (this was foreshadowed and set up earlier in the episode), but I found the choices that she made to get into that situation to be baffling. Pia immediately panicking about Janet, not taking any evidence when she left, acting incredibly suspicious, running away alone in the night, and staying on the road knowing that Janet would come after her was incredibly stupid. The Unknown: Was Richard involved in the crime too? He was so perturbed by Davis' investigation, and it makes me wonder if he was also in on the crimes alongside Davis' parents. It would make sense that he scapegoated Davis' parents to mask his own involvement in the case. Best Moment: Davis sitting in silence after everything that happened, emphasizing the episode's message on the damage that these kinds of documentaries can have on the victims directly involved. Though Davis was successful and achieved everything he could have wanted with his film, it doesn't help him handle the grief and pain of what happened. Character of the Episode: Davis. Conclusion: Not everything about this worked, but overall this was a very well told and engaging story with a powerful message and plenty of suspense. Score: 67 Summary: Joan lays off one of her employees with no spine and goes to therapy where she confides in being disappointed in her relationship with her fiance Krish. She is texted by Mac, her ex, and agrees to meet with him where they kiss before she returns home. At home, she watches Streamberry with Krish and watch a new show "Joan is Awful", but the show is actually just showing Joan's daily life acted by Salma Hayek. Joan is horrified and Krish leaves her after seeing what happened with Mac. Joan tries to take legal action but realizes that it's impossible. Joan then defecates in a church in protest. Salma learns that a digital version of her is doing this and is upset, but is also unable to take legal action. She teams up with Joan and they decide to destroy Streamberry's quantum computer or quamputer that gathers data and creates these TV shows. Joan and Salma break into Streamberry and Joan is about to break it, but she learns that she's not even the original Joan she's one of the AIs produced within the quamputer. She realizes original Joan did it anyways and breaks the computer. The original Joan is placed under house arrest but has more control in her life.
The Good: The title of this episode is definitely accurate because Joan is awful and it's amusing to watch her stumble from situation to situation making everything worse and worse. There is some good comedy throughout the episode that elevates this, and while the lighthearted tone fails to create a realistic atmosphere (see: The Bad), it does provide some quality comedy that I enjoyed. Joan and Salma Hayek are fun to watch and their jokes are elevated by some spirited performances. I like the ideas being explored here. This episode is reminiscent of "Inception" with there being layers of AI within other AI, creating a complex and difficult to comprehend realm of existences all within a computer. This episode is essentially taking the idea of us all living in a simulation and running several miles with the concept. I found this to be interesting and compelling. I also liked the exploration of the control a streaming service can have over the world, and this is a clever idea for a "Black Mirror" episode. The Bad: I can't stand the lightheartedness that "Black Mirror" has used in this episode and the previous episode in season 5. This show tackles serious ideas and disturbs viewers because of how realistic its characters and world feels in each episode. When we see characters behaving like comic book characters with no realistic aspects at all. The actors get lots of comedy out of it, but they never feel like real people with real problems, and I spent the entirety of the episode being unable to take the ideas seriously because of the strange tone. By far the most immersion-breaking aspect of this episode is how nobody ever seems concerned by how the "Joan is Awful" TV show is a total disruption of personal privacy and what it could mean about corporations surveilling people's personal lives. The existence of this show should result in total paranoia, distrust, fear, and genuine anger towards people in power for allowing this to happen. Instead, the characters only care about how other people perceive them in the TV show, which is entirely unrealistic and it makes these characters feel fake at every turn. Nothing feels real because nobody acts like a real person would. I deeply dislike the terms and conditions idea. Instead of exploring realistic consequences of terms and conditions allowing for unfair surveillance of everyone living in the world, the idea is treated like a gimmick. It's implied that all legal power would be moot because of a single signature, which is laughably unrealistic, and it's a cop-out from genuinely exploring the impact that terms and conditions has on our daily lives. Most of the time "Black Mirror" handles exaggerations of real life fairly well because the concept feels like a natural extension of what currently exists in our world. The terms and conditions idea fails at this because corporations creating a TV show targeted towards individuals feels like an idea that would never even be considered, never mind implemented. The Unknown: What happened to all of the AI? Did they all just die, or were they recovered somehow? Did Joan actually stop Streamberry, or would they simply build a new quamputer? What allows Streamberry to take such control through terms and conditions? What happened in this world to make this the norm and to make this level of surveillance legal? Best Moment: I'll go with the sheer comic shock of Joan pooping in the church. Character of the Episode: Joan. Conclusion: This was a disappointing episode. It had good ideas, but the writing and execution was terrible and ruined the episode. Score: 47 Summary: Ashley O is a popular pop star and Rachel is a big fan. Rachel buys an Ashley Too doll and enjoys talking with it. Her sister Jack doesn't care much for it and eventually hides it because it's a bad influence. Ashley's manager Catherine is forcing her to continue making music to pander to her fans. They get in a fight and Ashley is put into a coma. Catherine continues producing her music and plans to replace Ashley. Ashley's mind fragments into the Ashley Too doll. The doll requests Rachel and Jack to help her get back at Catherine. Rachel and Jack take the doll to Ashley's comatose body. Ashley wakes up and they drive to where Catherine is introducing a new Ashley Eternal. Ashley makes her presence known and Catherine panics. Some time later, Ashley and Jack are performing together as a new rock band.
The Good: This episode had a pretty interesting concept. The doll thing was interesting and I like the idea of a person's consciousness living inside of a doll while still having control of their body. I thought that the doll coming to life was a pretty cool moment and its interactions with Rachel and Jack were pretty funny at times. I liked the commentary on music stars. Ashley's story is pretty rough to watch and it sends a good message, showing how the creativity of people can be squashed by greedy people who are hungry to pander to a specific audience and make money. It was particularly powerful seeing Catherine taking Ashley's musical dreams and just changing them to suit her views with just a few button presses. It's so easy to assimilate creativity into something fake with no heart. The Bad: Unfortunately this episode was bad. The characters of Jack and Rachel are so boring and uninspired. There is no real story for them, and the emotional beats are completely glossed over. These characters don't change or develop and they are completely boring. I'm given no reason to care about either of them. Their arguments are generic and boring, and they don't even lead anywhere. The lack of a character story for them is a huge flaw of the episode, especially considering how much of the episode is spent with them. The first 3/4 of this episode are bad. The story is stagnant, the characters are boring and after watching the episode, it's all quite pointless. Rachel and Jack's story gets a ridiculous amount of build-up, yet it goes nowhere. The fact that their story is shared along with Ashley's doesn't help either storyline, and it made the episode feel fragmented for a while. Furthermore, there is hardly anything of value for these first 40 minutes. The episode is padded out to a ridiculous degree. The writing was really poor for the climax of the episode. So many of the things that happened were absurdly poorly executed and made little sense. The house infiltration was ridiculous. It was extremely convenient that they arrived at the house just as Catherine was leaving. The rodent exterminator thing was so, so dumb. Neither Jack nor Rachel were convincing in the role, and I couldn't buy into Bear letting them in at all. He really should have just told them to go away, especially since Ashley's comatose body was inside the house. Another stupid detail was how Ashley woke up (which is dumb enough itself), and Rachel/Jack apparently don't even talk to her. They just leave her until Munk arrives at the house, which is when they conveniently knock him out. Another stupid moment was them running the red light for absolutely no reason. Why do something so incredibly dangerous for no reason? Having them try to drive away from the cops was even worse and only added to the many stupidities I had just witnessed. The ending of the episode ended up being atrocious. It isn't even an ending. The episode hits its climax and then it just ends. It's sudden and reeks of the writers being too lazy to come up with a proper resolution. The band scene at the end is pretty stupid and it doesn't feel earned in the slightest. No plot threads or character arcs were fully resolved and I felt like I waste an hour of my life going on this journey with the characters. There is absolutely no pay-off for any of the stories. This doesn't feel like a "Black Mirror" episode. The overly goofy tone is so weird, and the abysmal writing makes this feel even worse. It's so hard to believe that this episode is part of the same series that produced harrowing episodes like "White Christmas" and "Shut Up and Dance". The Unknown: What happened to Catherine? Was she punished? Were there any consequences for the police chase at the end of the episode? What happened to the Ashley Too doll? The episode isn't even interested enough in exploring how to morally deal with this human consciousness inside the doll. Best Moment: Probably Catherine and her men sabotaging the music in Ashley's dream. Nothing else really stood out to me. Character of the Episode: Ashley. Conclusion: This was a poor episode. The story was practically worthless and the writing was really bad. This was a bad way to end off season 5. Season 5 ended up being disappointing. The first two episodes were good but unspectacular, and the last one was atrocious. In the end, this was easily the most forgettable season of "Black Mirror". The show has taken a steep fall in quality since season 2 and this season did nothing to reverse that. Following "Bandersnatch", I feel like this season was rushed out and didn't really end up having any heart as a result. Let's hope the writers can take their time with the story for season 6. Score: 38 Summary: Chris is a taxi driver but he stations himself at the headquarters for Smithereen, a social media app. He also attends group therapy sessions but never really says anything. One day, a man named Jaden gets Chris' service. Chris takes him to a hidden location and pulls a gun on him, and they switch cars. Some passing cops notice Jaden captured in the backseat, so they go after Chris. Chris spins out in a field and cops surround the place. Chris is still alive as he threatens Jaden's life. Chris wants to call Billy Bauer, the head of Smithereen, and after some tense struggling with the cops and the FBI, he eventually gets a hold of Billy. Chris reveals he lost his fiancée in a car accident because he checked his phone while driving, but he was never blamed for the accident since the other driver was drunk. Chris intends to kill himself and attempts to talk him down by Billy and Jaden fail. In the end the cops are forced to shoot him after a scuffle between Chris and Jaden breaks out.
The Good: I enjoyed this a lot more than the last episode. While last episode told a good story, it didn't really invest me into the characters/plot, plus the pacing was painfully slow. This episode fixed these flaws by giving us a mysterious main character who ended up being very compelling, as well as a plot which was dripping with tension that capitalized on the slow burn pace to maximal effect. The episode goes on for 70 minutes, yet it never lost my attention because of how well it built towards a dramatic climax through some slowly escalating drama and an interesting mystery. The episode's tone was quite perfect too. It's clear through the music, camera shots and colour that there is something up with Chris early in the episode. These cleverly edited tricks kept me in suspense during the slow opening scenes of the episode, which is much more interesting that what "Striking Vipers" had to offer in its opening moments. One of the central themes of this episode was grief, and I thought it was executed wonderfully. Hayley as a side character is really good and she works as a strong mirror to Chris with how she deals with the grief of losing her daughter. Hayley doesn't know why Kristin killed herself and that is what is eating at her for all of these years. Yet Chris is the opposite. He knows that he is responsible for his fiancée's death, and he rejects himself because of it. For Chris it isn't a quest for answers, it's all about cleansing himself of the guilt he feels. Speaking of Chris' guilt, the episode it its peak when he confessed everything to Billy. His story is powerful and sad, and Andrew Scott does a marvellous job showing Chris' grief. I thought the final portion of the episode did a great job of conveying Chris' delicate emotional state, showing us why he had been so unstable for most of the episode. I thought that Chris' emotions emerging was very believable, and I really like how it seemed to touch Billy and Jaden too as the two of them did their absolute best to help Chris survive this ordeal. The other main theme is that of social media. While this one isn't executed as well (see: The Bad), it still has some great moments. I really liked Chris' rant about phones when he realized that Jaden wasn't the person he was looking for. It's a fairly funny moment on your first watch because of how little we know about Chris, but on rewatch it's quite tragic and is a great rant about the exact problem Chris has with Smithereen: it's too addictive and it controls your life. I thought the ending was wonderful. After all that happened, Chris' fate just ends up being another notification on Smithereen. Everyone sees what happened, has a sad look on their face, but then they just resume their lives as if nothing has happened. Social media is desensitizing violence in the world as well. The Bad: I thought that the climax of this episode was unfortunately quite disappointing, despite everything it did right. After so much build-up, I expected something new and crazy to happen at the end of the story. Unfortunately, "Black Mirror" opted to go with the easiest and most predictable ending to the episode and that left me feeling a little bit underwhelmed, especially after so much slow paced build-up. For the final message to just be "phones are bad", after all the tense drama I had just witnessed, was just a big disappointment. Furthermore, Chris' reasoning seems a bit extreme. It's hard to buy that he would go through all of this trouble to talk to one specific guy just because he felt guilty. It didn't feel very realistic that Chris would do all of this. I certainly buy Chris blaming Smithereen to offput his guilt, but I could hardly buy him doing this whole stunt just to tell Smithereen that he blamed them. The Unknown: Did Jaden get hurt or killed in the scuffle? Could he have accidentally been shot instead of Chris? I hope not because it would hurt the ending if Chris didn't actually die. Best Moment: Chris letting everything out when talking to Billy. This scene felt so real and I think anyone could relate to this. Chris had gone as far as to rehearse this conversation, yet when he finally got to it, he could hardly bring himself to let everything out. Watching him break out in tears during his big confession was so wonderfully real, and will make even the hardest of people sympathize with Chris even after all of the terrible things he did. Character of the Episode: Chris. Conclusion: Most of this episode was excellent, and there was a lot of emotion presented throughout. But the anticlimactic ending leaves a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth, and I'm left feeling that a better conclusion is all that stands between this episode being good and it being great. Score: 69 Summary: Danny and Karl are best friends that play a video game Striking Vipers together. Seven years later, Danny is married to Theo whiel Karl is still dating. Karl gets Danny a VR version of Strikign Vipers and they play it together but they end up having sex with the characters. Weirded out, they try to stop it but they keep coming back. Theo notices something is off with Danny and wants answers. Danny decides to cut Karl off and he resumes his life with Theo. The next year, Danny and Karl meet again and Karl says he can't replace Danny with anyone else. They eventually do it again and Danny realizes he likes it too. Danny and Theo make a deal to remain married but both of them now indulge in other activities to stay fresh. Danny continues his fantasies with Karl while Theo now gets it on with strangers in the bar.
The Good: This was an interesting episode. The story is quite simple and easy to relate to. The three lead characters had all grown up and were living their lives, yet none of them were truly happy. There was that spark that they were all missing, and they desired to bring it back. By the end of the episode, all three characters were able to work things out and get the happiness they were craving. It's a simple story, much simpler than most "Black Mirror" stories, but it works and is easy enough to enjoy. As usual, the writing and acting is rock solid, which adds on to the experience. This episode also does the little things really well. I appreciated the subtle moments early in the episode that showed the unhappiness that the main characters were all experiencing. Additionally, I liked the amount of red herrings that were included while the story built up. I was never too sure what the episode was going to be about in the first 15 minutes. At first I thought it may involve some kind of love triangle, or maybe an affair, then I thought maybe it would be heavily about the VR concept, but in the end it was a simple, heart-warming story about a very unorthodox gay couple. The episode certainly knew how to be unpredictable with its concept. The technology aspect of the episode was quite strong too. I liked the Mortal Kombat parody, Striking Vipers and I like that the show explored what a fully VR game would be like and how it could be used for purposes other than what was intended. The Bad: This episode is very slow and I don't think it needed to be an hour long. The first 15 minutes were a chore to get through and the subtle build up for the episode wasn't enough to keep me fully invested. It took far too long for the story to go from the introduction to the hook, and by the time we got there, 1/4 of the episode was done. An accelerated pacing early in the episode would have really helped. Furthermore, the extra time really doesn't add any extra value to the episode. The episode barely explores its story. For one, the characters were surprisingly simple. "San Junipero" had detailed characters who had many complex layers. Compared to that, the characters in this episode are quite embarrassing because of how 2-dimensional they are. All three are remarkably forgettable, and I bet that within a week I won't even remember their names, nor will I care. Since the characters are so bland, I didn't really get emotionally invested in this episode. It was well written and I enjoyed it, but it really didn't do anything special for me. I also wish that the VR concept could have been explored more. It ended up being hardly touched upon, and it really didn't impact the story very much. You could easily tell the same story without the VR and it becomes a normal story of an affair. All the VR does is add the "ick" factor to the episode, and that isn't anywhere near enough of a contribution. I was left wanting more from a "Black Mirror" episode that tackles the evolution of video games, particularly a closer look at how people would balance their real life vs their life in a video game. In the end, "Playtest" remains the superior video game episode of "Black Mirror". I was disappointed that the conclusion of the Theo/Danny conflict was glossed over. It would have been nice to see Danny and Theo working out their problems together, and I think that a scene about this would have added some much-needed emotion to an episode I struggled to get fully invested in. The Unknown: Was Danny lying when he said he felt nothing when he kissed Karl? I'm not sure I buy his response. Best Moment: The ending with everyone getting a happy ending was nice, and the most emotional moment of the episode. I also really like that both Danny and Theo seemed pleased with the one day every year deal. It's a nice way too look into morality as you get to decide for yourself whether this one "cheat day" is good for a relationship or not. Character of the Episode: Nobody really stood out at all. But I'l go with Karl since he made me laugh a couple times. Conclusion: This episode told a nice story, but it was overly long and lacked the heart of most "Black Mirror" episodes. There could have, and should have, been more depth to this episode. Score: 61 Summary: Stefan is a video game programmer in the 80s, programming a choose-your-own-adventure game called "Bandersnatch". He works alone on the project and slowly devolves into insanity. The ending of the story depends on the choices that are made throughout the film.
The Good: I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. Going into this, I was very skeptical about the idea of an interactive episode of television. I was worried that the gimmick would overshadow the story in its entirety and it would leave me feeling hollow. Thankfully, I was wrong and this short film ended up being one hell of an experience. Before I delve in any deeper, I will warn that this review will discuss the entire film and may spoil many of the endings. I liked the way that the gimmick was introduced to us. While some of the early choices may appear to be meaningless to most, they all served a purpose in getting us acquainted with how this story works. The cereal introduces us to how we get to make decisions (it also has a nice easter egg later where the selected cereal will show up in a commercial before JFD's documentary) and the music shows us how the story changes based on what we select (Colin asks Stefan what music he listens to, and his answer depends on what you selected). Some people are frustrated with the first main decision of accepting or refusing the job offer as it is restricted to force you into making one specific decision with the other being the "wrong path". But I think this is a really strong way to introduce us into how this story works. All choose-your-won-adventure books have these bad endings that you can get, so they need to be implemented into this story too. This first question is used as a way to introduce you to this because most people will select "accept" (the wrong answer), since the story heavily pushes you to picking that answer. Furthermore, there is some great foreshadowing that comes from selecting "accept" as it hints at Stefan being aware that he is being controlled and also hints at the multiple timelines thing that Colin mentions later. I thought the gimmick actually worked really nicely. I found myself projecting my own conscience onto Stefan and that made my immersion into his story so much greater than it would have otherwise been. Now that I got to make his decisions for him, I began to care about him and I had a drive to get him to succeed at making the best possible version of Bandersnatch. That's the real genius behind this format. The immersion is so much more than it could otherwise be. The only thing that is a worry is the story being told. Seeing that the writers probably had something like half a year to get the story down before they started filming, it shouldn't be a surprise that the story is written really well with lots of connections, foreshadowing, symbolism, colour and thematic exploration. The writing here is stellar and the entire film feels like a treasure trove as you uncover the multiple endings and discover how the story had hinted at these endings beforehand. There were so many details that I heavily enjoyed uncovering with a rewatch. The foreshadowing of Stefan becoming aware that he is being controlled, the foreshadowing of the hound which digs up Stefan's dad's body in one of the endings, the secret backstory of Stefan and his mother and more are all very pleasing to find. As for the emotional impact, it works for the most part. The story isn't anything special, but it gets its point across and is easy to get invested in. The endings are a bit of a mixed bag (see: The Bad), but there are some that I like. I appreciated the use of a 2.5/5 rating for Bandersnatch as a sort of game over to tell you that you've made a wrong choice. It was a clever way to motivate me to attempt to find a better ending instead of simply giving up there. I really liked two of the five endings. The history repeats itself ending is really interesting and even suggests that a sort of curse exists over the Bandersnatch novel and game since everyone involved seems to go insane. My favourite ending was the death ending though as it wrapped up Stefan's story really nicely and it left the most emotional impact with me. The idea of the story ending after we correct the one wrong decision that Stefan made in the past is really clever and is a thematically wonderful way to conclude this story. I really liked seeing Stefan's descent into madness. There were two really great sequences to illustrate this. The first was Colin and Stefan's drug trip which was conveyed beautifully with all of the lightheadedness that drugs would cause. The second was Stefan listening to the documentary and slowly beginning to accept the possibility that he may be being controlled. The words were timed wonderfully with Stefan's thoughts and Fionn Whitehead's acting conveyed everything really well. I also really like that most endings put Stefan up against his dad, who is his primary source of conflict, and it's common to see Stefan killing his dad with his cigarette tray (another thing that was actually foreshadowed very nicely). I thought there were some really interesting things about the themes in this story. It's almost as if the creators were trying to tell us about their struggles while trying to make this impossible storyline. I don't think it's a coincidence that the ending that resulted in the best game was the one where Stefan realizes that giving the illusion of free will is the proper way to go about a story like this. One of the biggest complaints I've seen is how so many decisions in this story are meaningless as the story still leads to a specific point no matter what. And while I have my problems with this (see: The Bad), I think that this is the best version of "Bandersnatch" that was out there. Stefan's epiphany that giving the illusion of free will may very well be Charlie Brooker speaking out to us through his character and letting us know how difficult it is to create a story with so many sprawling endings. It would be too messy and would only get a 2.5/5. But when the ending is pre-determined and the story is more organized, only then can "Bandersnatch" obtain a 5/5. I really liked the idea of Stefan becoming aware that he is being controlled. The breaking of the fourth wall is really clever and makes it so that this story isn't an interactive one without reason. Instead, being interactive is an actual plot point that cannot be removed from the story being told here. Furthermore, it works as a really good twist that caught me completely off guard and delighted me. I was impressed to see the story acknowledge my presence, and I was further impressed when I was given the option to reveal myself as a Netflix watcher from the future. The continued ending with the over-the-top action scene was pretty funny and I got a good kick out of it. The Bad: The biggest issue I had with this was that there is no way to find the best version of this story. All of the endings exist, but aside from the death ending, none of them really impacted me fully. Yet the death ending doesn't feel quite right since it all seems too quick and it misses out on some of the best moments in the story, such as the fourth wall-breaking plot twist and Stefan's meltdown. The history repeats itself ending is the opposite as it has Stefan's breakdown, but doesn't resolve the story with his mother at all. None of these endings leave me feeling wholly satisfied and that leaves me disappointed in the end. I understand that it's the purpose of a story like this, but it still feels unsatisfying. While the game over endings are consistent with choose-your-own-adventure books, I don't really like them that much. The only ones I actually appreciated from a story-perspective were when Stefan breaks his computer and his dad runs in to console him. Aside from those, the other game overs are pretty lame. Also, if you have an affinity for constantly getting the game over endings (like me), the story gets bogged down by the fact that you're replaying moments over and over again. It breaks the engagement of the story and leaves me feeling disappointed that so many storylines I want to trigger apparently don't exist. This must be how Mr. Thakur felt when he selected to worship the demon king only to discover that it wasn't fully programmed. Disappointed and confused. It also led to me being bored a lot of the time as I waited for the story to go through parts that I have seen several times already because I keep being sent back. It made for a rather disjointed experience that countered everything the film did well with immersion. The Unknown: I'm unsure about where the concept of interactive films goes from here. This film alone already did some major innovations to the genre by breaking the fourth wall and using interactive stories as a theme. The question is, how can anything else top what was already done here? This story used the concept to its fullest and already showed us its bag of tricks. It will be difficult to imagine a story that can meet the expectations of this new genre after this film. This genre has already shown me what it can do and I'm uncertain that there is more to it than what I've already seen. Best Moment: I thought the breaking of the fourth wall was a really stellar piece of creativity. Clever innovations like that are what made this story work as well as it did. Conclusion: This was better than I could have ever expected, but it still felt flawed. While the story did more than I expected with its theme, immersion and excitement, it was hurt by issues that have plagued choose-your-own-adventure books as a whole. While I did enjoy this a lot and had a ton of fun, I get the sense that the role of interactive films in my life will be the same as those choose-your-own-adventure books. I'll have fun with a few, but I'll always turn back to novels for a richer emotional experience, and I'll hardly ever look back. Score: Due to how different this is from most television, I'm not sure that I can accurately score this as an episode of television. Furthermore, this is technically a movie so I'll restrain on scoring it. I will say that my overall response to it is positive, but I don't think I'll be remembering much about this in a few years. If I would give it a score, it would likely be around 65-70, but take that with a grain of salt. As of now, there is nothing else to compare that score with. Summary: Nish arrives at Black Museum and meets Rollo Haynes who owns it. He tells her the story of several criminal artifacts in the museum. Each of the stories involve Rollo offering technology to some people's lives which ultimately ruins their lives. Rollo takes Nish to his main attraction: a hologram of a criminal who died which is basically alive. He shocks it over and over so it suffers, and it has gotten to the point that the man is emotionally wrecked. Nish reveals herself to be his daughter and she kills Rollo and burns down Black Museum.
The Good: Like "White Christmas", this episode had 3 different stories which came together at the end. Episodes like this work very well and are always very enjoyable. The format just works very well and hits very hard with each story. The first story had some really great moments. I love the idea of the headset which was accidentally discovered while attempts were made to find something else. It added some realism and made the headset feel like a plausible idea. The way the headset slowly took over Dawson and transformed him until he flew completely off the rails was genuinely scary and intense to watch. It was a horrific way to show that by advancing through technology, we may unlock different things we really don't want, like a desire to feel pain. This storyline was filled with brutal and uncomfortable moments, so it definitely got its point across and affected us in the way it wanted to. The second story was another scary idea. It was a good examination of how too much familiarity ends up working against us in relationships, which is an original idea to explore. It was sad seeing Jack and Carrie slowly fall apart and lose their love for each other due to the awkward situation the shared consciousness put them in. The sequence with Carrie being trapped inside the monkey with no form of communication was terrifying and very sad, once more accomplishing the goal of demonstrating how these technologies aren't helping humanity in the slightest and instead are just torturing humans. The "cookie rights" system was a fascinating idea too and it was a very logical reason to not allow Rollo to remove or kill Carrie. These 2 stories accomplished something bigger though. They were intense horror shows, but they needed to be in order to establish resentment to the character of Rollo. He is a despicable and sadistic man with no regards to humanity as he genuinely doesn't care about what negative effects his creations have had on those who tested them. It slowly builds up unease and resentment towards Rollo which is what makes the climactic final story so impressively cathartic. The final story was another brutally sad experience as we learn that Rollo sentenced somebody who was possibly innocent to a life of eternal torture, cementing our hate for him even further. It's by far his most despicable act and makes us really understand why Black Museum is a successful location as it hones in onto those with similarly sadistic minds. This story makes us lose any possible sympathy we may have for Rollo and makes us detest him completely, creating a desire for comeuppance. And comeuppance is what we get. There is a decent twist that Nish is actually Clayton's daughter which is somewhat predictable, but that doesn't really matter because it is satisfying. It allows us to see this awful man get his comeuppance and gives us a sense of satisfaction and justice for all of the awful deeds he has done. In a way this is also a bit of an ironic look at the show as a whole, as the writer Charlie Brooker always creates stories where he tortures his main characters. Perhaps this episode was meant to be a look at how he views himself or thinks that other people view him which makes it an even more fascinating idea. While on the topic of the show being self-aware, I loved the little parody which made fun of how the show always seems to have a "but" which turns everything around on the main characters and tortures them. It was a nice bit of levity in an otherwise dark and bitter episode. The Bad: This episode does feel way more miserable than it should be. There should always be a greater purpose to show so much pain and I feel that this episode's reason wasn't good enough to justify it. Even after the episode I still felt far too uncomfortable and unhappy with what I watched. The show went a bit too far with how miserable the fates of the characters were and that made the episode so uncomfortable that I no longer enjoyed it at times. The stories also felt like greater ideas for the plot of an episode that were just simplified and shoved into this episode. Each of the stories didn't really have emotional resonance since they were shallow and had weak characters. On their own the would feel like episodes which only had torture porn to offer us and that is a really immature take on dark content like this. The first story in particular is hurt by this. When you think about it, the entire first story had no purpose. We only really did need the second story to start hating Rollo, but instead we spent way too much time showing the disgustingness of that first story. Because it feels pointless, the problems with far too much misery stands out a lot more on that storyline. I thought the final twist was unnecessary and stupid. It made no sense that Nish would let her mom share consciousness with her. It was just established that the shared consciousness tech was stupid and had little benefit, so it makes Nish seem like an idiot for deciding to do it with her mom. Furthermore, how did she get her mom's consciousness if she had killed herself? It doesn't make sense and creates a plot hole. This becomes an egregious error when you realize that it adds nothing to the story. It would have been the same without that final twist, making me wish that it just wasn't there. The Unknown: What happened to Carrie afterwards? What does Nish plan to do with her? Will he be saved or will she finally get deleted and be at peace? Also, how did Jack let Carrie become a part of Black Museum? There were tons of easter eggs to other episodes in the museum. Does this officially link all the storylines together or were they only easter eggs? Will Nish let her mom go now that she has avenged Rollo? Was she only there so she could witness his violent death or is there a further purpose to it? Best Moment: The violent suffering of Rollo was great and served as a powerful catharsis to end the episode. Character of the Episode: Rollo. He was a great villain. Conclusion: This episode had an excellent overarching storyline, but the individual storylines were flawed and resulted in far too much misery to be much good on their own. In the end that leaves us with a good but not great episode. Season 4 as a whole was a big step down from previous seasons. I did still enjoy it, but the writing in all episodes (except Hang the DJ) was notably poor and I had a lot of issues with almost every episode. I still enjoyed the season as a whole and there were plenty of powerful moments, but I feel like the show didn't ever really threaten to reach the quality of previous seasons. Score: 68 Summary: Bella, Clarke and Tony go to a warehouse looking for something. They find a "dog" which kills Tony and Clarke and then chases Bella who tries to get away. Using her wits, Bella is able to kill the dog but she has trackers thrown into her which will send more dogs her way. She kills herself.
The Good: This is the most unique episode so far and it's not only because of the black and white filter. The episode is very simplistic, short and mostly dialogue-free making it an experience which feels extremely different from what we are used to. Since the show has reused some ideas in a few episodes, it's good to see them continuing to be creative. While season 3 felt pretty familiar at times, season 4 has so far done a great job providing new and different content even if the quality isn't quite as good as before (see: The Bad). The black and white filter was really good. This episode was gruesome and dreary and that filter added a lot of that feel. The brutal deaths of Clarke and Tony were less gory in this state, but they felt more powerful and brutal. The colouring certainly gave the deaths a more eerie feeling. The rest of the episode was also certainly benefitted by the colour palette. With the world feeling so empty and abandoned, the episode needed to give off a dull and creepy atmosphere which the filter appropriately added. There were very few characters in this episode, with only 1 surviving more than 10 minutes. That gave the episode a tough task of making us care about a shallow character and a robot enough to outlast an entire episode. Thankfully the episode did a great job of giving us basic characterization. We were able to attach ourselves to Bella on some level mostly due to some stellar acting and well-timed emotional outbursts. The other half was creating a viable antagonist and I think they did an outstanding job. The robot "dogs" were horrifyingly real, creepy and downright vicious. The idea of their existence felt plausible, especially seeing how much humanity has wished for autonomous beings and the episode used the dog as a villain to explore the fear of having our own creations cause our own destruction. I really liked that the show gave us an idea of how the "dogs" worked. There were a ton of nice camera shots which showed us the vision of a dog, allowing us to understand how they worked. The episode also did a stellar job of introducing the many abilities the dogs had including the guns, ability to work electronics and the trackers. I really liked that they had a lot of depth to them and seeing Bella attempt to combat these many abilities was very enjoyable and tense. This could have been a great idea for a horror thriller considering how scary and complex the dogs were. I liked the ending until the final few seconds (see: The Bad). Bella overcoming the dog was awesome and exciting to behold. But the moment of triumph was too brief as the dog had injected her with numerous trackers which ended up making escape impossible. Her decision to kill herself was bleak but also fascinating. There are so many theories I can make for why she did it. Perhaps she realized there was no point in living in a world with dogs since it's only a matter of time before they take over. The Bad: There did feel like a notable lack of substance though. The world was woefully underdeveloped and I wish I could have known more about the current state of humanity so I could understand the stakes a little better. I spent a lot of the episode coming up with questions and it was disappointing to get answers for none of them. Instead all we got was a compact horror story. The emotional investment was low on this episode too. There weren't any shockingly powerful moments and there wasn't anything to properly care about. This episode was essentially just non-stop fear for 38 minutes with no other purpose. While I think it worked to some degree to make us fear our own technology, I wish it had decided to be more than it ended up being. The final reveal of the teddy bears was bad. It's impossible to buy that these 3 people risked and lost their lives to get a dying child a teddy bear. Bad storytelling. The Unknown: What were the dogs created for initially? Did they watch over the warehouses as guards? Or perhaps they were meant to be actual household dogs which did odd jobs before they went rogue. How did the dogs go rogue? What flaw in the design caused them all to destroy humanity? Were they hacked, similarly to the bees from "Hated in the Nation"? Where are the humans now? How many are still alive? How do they survive from the dogs? Are they able to fight back at all? Where do the dogs stay? There are clearly a lot of them, so the question is where do they go? And what are their motives now that they are rogue? Best Moment: Bella killing the dog was a great moment of satisfaction, even if it was brief. It also called back nicely tot he other 2 deaths which were also caused by a close range gunshot. Character of the Episode: Bella. Conclusion: This was a solid and easy to enjoy episode but it felt shallow which hurts its score. It's still a good episode though and certainly one of the most unique episodes in the show. Score: 63 Summary: Amy and Frank meet up on a dating system but they can only date for 12 hours and the system will find their perfect match after several relationships. They click immediately and can't stop thinking about each other, even during other relationships. They are matched together again and are happy but they have a break-up. After several other empty relationships, they meet up and choose to leave the world together. They succeed and they are revealed to be a simulation. In real life, the real Frank and Amy meet and are the apparent best pairing.
The Good: This was a much better episode of the show. This episode told a lovely story which I instantly got involved in, I got invested in the characters and had emotional investment with the story which was being told. This episode's concept was absolutely brilliant. While the others this season have been pretty good, they do seem somewhat familiar when compared to previous episodes. However this episode felt entirely original, only having similarities with "San Junipero" which is certainly not a bad episode to be similar to. The concept is wonderful and seems like an examination of a futuristic Tinder of sorts which is another genius idea. I really enjoyed the one line about how difficult it must be to work out relationships on your own without the system as it demonstrated how a technology like this could become so appealing. Relationships are tough, and wouldn't it be nice to have a system which does everything for you? Well now that I've established that the concept is great, how are the characters? Well they are easily the most compelling this season (with the exception of Daly), and are very easy to like and root for. My investment in these characters was what made this episode so powerful and memorable for sure. Most of that is because of the outstanding chemistry between these 2 which was on show from the moment they met. If I didn't care about these 2 getting together in the end, this episode wouldn't have worked well at all. A lot of this episode actually doesn't feature the 2 main characters together at all. Instead it shows them in other, less successful relationships for a lengthy portion while they longed to get together. It was really good to see and I loved how both of them were put in equally terrible situations where they just longed to be with each other instead. Frank ended up with a girl who he actually loathed and was forced to put up with for a while. Amy was put with a physically attractive guy and had great sex, but the relationship had no depth to it and lacked any form of intimacy. It's easy to see why both were unhappy and the writing, colouring and cinematography was phenomenal and did well to portray the depth of their unhappiness in a very human way. On top of that, there was a ton of humour here with the various ticks of the other guy and girl which added a nice lightheartedness to the episode. The rest of the episode was really well done too. Eventually they both reconnected and continued to develop their relationship in a lovely way until Frank chooses to check the expiry date and ruins the relationship. The break-up was very sad and it's really easy to understand both sides when they got upset. The follow-up was much better though. I loved that they didn't hold a grudge against each other for what happened and instead tried to move on with their life. But what came next was incredibly lonely and depressing for the both of them as they both found more empty and meaningless relationships while they craved each other. There were some really powerful scenes here, such as the montage of Amy sitting in her room as time passes and she goes from one relationship after the other, and also the scene of Frank having sex with a girl as they both just reminisced about past relationships instead of feeling anything for each other at all. This led up to the climax where Amy and Frank immediately decide to meet with each other again and instantly kiss and embrace. They decide to rebel and leave the world they are stuck in together. This scene worked incredibly well. After everything we saw them go through, it was so satisfying to see them together again. It's such a simple and easy story, but it goes to show that with outstanding writing and a meaningful purpose, anything can become great. The decision to rebel and the realization that the world is all a simulation is so cathartic and beautifully brings the story together, making it a very successful climax which leaves no loose ends or feelings of disappointment. Let's discuss the twist though, which is MUCH better than last episode's. The realization that everything was a simulation was really satisfying and led to one of the best endings of the show so far. I love these happy endings which we seem to be getting now, and the meeting between the real Amy and Frank was a great way to end the episode. But the twist also worked as an effective way to solve the many inconsistencies with the world-building and how inefficient it seemed to be. I was ready to complain about the world-building and how weak it was, but in the end that ended up becoming a positive. With the world taking a backseat to the central relationship, I didn't think about it often and that meant that the final twist genuinely surprised me because I didn't even see it coming. And on top of that, they even subtly included some foreshadowing when Amy and Frank teased being in a simulation which I had chalked up as an easter egg to "San Junipero", but that clearly wasn't the case. I love the actual concept of the simulation too. This entire existence was a simulated version of both characters and put them in situations to test if they were perfect for each other. It essentially means that all of the bad relationships were just a test to see if Frank and Amy would keep thinking about each other while they were apart, and since they ended up rebelling and escaping together despite the system, they passed the test and the simulation suggests that they would certainly work out as a couple. The Bad: The initial boyfriend and girlfriend were a little over the top, but it's not a big problem since they were revealed to be AIs anyways. The Unknown: How does the simulation actually work? Are there just a bunch of AIs or are these actually other simulations going on at the same time? Is it a different world for each couple that is being simulated or is it the same one? What happens if the match is a failure? Best Moment: There were a lot of really good scenes, but the stand-out was definitely the reunion of Amy and Frank at the end of the episode. Character of the Episode: Tough to choose so I'll go with both Amy and Frank since they are better together than they are apart. Yeah I'm cheating, but it's my review so deal with it. Conclusion: This was easily the best episode of the season which was lighthearted, well-written and very easy to enjoy. This episode worked on pretty much every level and left me with no complaints even with its simplistic storyline. Score: 73 Summary: Mia and her boyfriend Rob accidentally kill a man and cover it up together. 15 years later, Rob tries to reveal what they did so he can have a clear conscience but Mia doesn't agree and kill him. A woman named Shazia is investigating a car accident with a device which allows her to see memories. The investigation takes her to Mia and she learns of what Mia did. Mia kills her and proceeds to kill her family to avoid leaving witnesses. However she leaves the guinea pig alive and its memories expose Mia's crimes.
The Good: First and foremost, I have to stress how beautiful this episode was. The cinematography was wonderful in this episode and it's easily the prettiest Black Mirror episode so far with a lot of creative shots which improve on the scenes a lot. I really liked the first scene. Mia and Rob' kill was pretty brutal and genuinely chilling, and I think it set the tone nicely for the episode which only got darker from there. Better yet though was Mia and Rob's conversation 15 years later. Mia looks completely different and is obviously changed, but Rob looks exactly the same and the only accomplishment he seems to have made is quitting alcohol. It's an excellent way to emphasize why Mia wouldn't be bothered by their past killing because she has moved on with her life and done bigger things. Rob hasn't and as such he is haunted by his past which is quite similar to his present. Their conversation is very good and is probably my favourite part of the episode honestly. Mia killing Rob was sudden, but I understood why she did it and that's the most important part for sure and is key in making me buy into Mia's mindset for the rest of the episode. That brings me to the next point. Mia is the antagonist in this episode and I think it's really enjoyable to watch her do whatever she can to cover her tracks. Though not all of her kills have a massive impact, they are still brutal and difficult to watch, and it makes Mia's ultimate conviction at the end feel very deserved as she wipes out an entire family. Shazia's short story was effective too and I thought the concept of the memory device is pretty neat, as the concepts on this show always are. It was nice to get introduced to it before she confronts Mia because it allowed us to really understand the situation as Mia and Shazia talked. We want Shazia to survive but we also don't want Mia's secret to come out, so it ends up becoming really tense television as they start talking and Shazia eventually discovers the truth. The Bad: This episode had a cool concept and some good moments but it's also the most flawed episode this season. The biggest flaw for me is the fact that this episode really had no purpose. Ask yourself this: what was the point of this episode? I asked myself this for all other Black Mirror episodes and I could come up with an answer immediately, but with this episode I just couldn't come up with anything. The episode didn't have any kind of point it wanted to explore. It was just a dark episode with people getting murdered just for the sake of it. This show has been depressing before and it has worked, but that is only because those depressing episodes had a larger purpose. Since this episode has no purpose, it feels like pointless misery and that's never something you want in television. If you are making your audience feel like crap, you have to have a reason in doing so. The main reason why the episode seems to have no point is because of the weak exploration of technology. The technology wasn't really explored at all and very little about this episode actually focused on the affects that technology has on our humanity. That's okay though if the episode had a powerful story to tell with memorable characters. But it didn't. The characters were basic, not that likeable and their character arcs weren't that memorable. "USS Callister" did a much better job with its characters. The plot had a lot of issues as well. For one, the middle of the episode really drags and doesn't amount to much. We are given tons of time to learn about how the technology works, but it has literally no payoff and there are even plot holes created by it (more on that in a second). Furthermore, it's very obvious that Mia and Shazia are on course to run into each other, so it feels like a huge waste of time until they finally do meet. But now about the technology. This becomes a problem because the ending of this episode features what I think is the show's worst twist. First we are treated to the unpleasant killing of a baby but we learn that the baby is actually blind as the shock reveal that she didn't need to kill the baby. But there are so many flaws here. For one, we have established that to see somebody's memories they have to think about them. But babies have bad memories and how would you possibly communicate with a baby to think about what they have seen beforehand? There shouldn't be any conceivable way to access the baby's memories anyways, so that makes the murder feel even more unnecessary. But worse than that is the second twist that the guinea pig witnessed the whole thing. If you thought the communicating with a baby thing was bad, this is even worse! For one, guinea pigs have terrible memories which is a biological fact, and of course how on Earth could we communicate to a guinea pig? It's terrible writing and feels tacked on just for a shocking ending. I was disappointed in the use of the "car won't start" cliché. I mean, how often is it that cars just happen to not start when you need it to? It's a stupid coincidence which is just there for more drama. The Unknown: Sadly there isn't much to discuss here because the episode is pretty shallow. I only have one question, and that is why is the episode called "Crocodile"? Is it because the main character is similar to a crocodile or am I missing something here? Best Moment: Probably Mia and Rob talking after 15 years and showing how far they have come as characters. It was very well written. Character of the Episode: Mia. Conclusion: This episode had potential but there was shallow exploration and a weak ending leaving this as one of the weaker episodes. Season 4 has been rather disappointing so far, so here's to hoping that the next few episodes can be of a higher quality. Score: 60 Summary: Marie gives birth to baby Sara and is overprotective. She loses Sara by accident once and installs a device called Arkangel which allows her to watch everything that Sara sees and also filters things which stress out Sara. As Sara grows up, the filters start doing more harm than good so Marie stops using the Arkangel. When Sara becomes a teenager she starts doing rebellious teenager things with her boyfriend Trick. Marie isn't sure where Sara is at one point and returns to the Arkangel to find her. She discovers all of Sara's activities and starts interfering with her life. Sara eventually discovers this and turns on her mother, beating her unconscious and breaking the Arkangel. Sara leaves home.
The Good: This felt much more like a Black Mirror episode as it examined themes and explored the effects of humans improperly using technology and how it does more harm than good. This was more focused on being its own creative storyline and didn't try to imitate anything else and I welcome the return to unconventional storytelling. The concept of the Arkangel is fantastic and allows a lot of opportunities for exploration of how this technology could affect the upbringing of these kids and how such intense helicopter parenting could do more harm than good. There are some really good scenes here and the concept adds a lot of stuff to this. The early half of the episode was particularly affecting for me because the idea initially felt ingenious, before I quickly realized how much harm the Arkangel could do. Watching the Arkangel used with the young Sara was really fascinating and created some exciting possibilities for the story to go towards. For one, I loved the exploration of how the filter drove Sara to want to see more violent things and ultimately be pretty unaffected by the horrors because she just wanted to know what they were like. I love the detail that the Arkangel ended up shaping Sara to become a more violent and careless person because she spent so much of her early life being curious to discover what the world is all about without all those filters. I especially love the little touch that Sara became friends with the dog which scared her as a child. Marie's character was really good. From the first scene it established her overprotectiveness of her daughter and how much she wants to shelter her. There were numerous nice touches of this overprotectiveness like the protein shakes, Marie taking Sara to the park in a stroller and more. This makes it more believable for her to go back to the Arkangel to find out where Sara was, and also makes it more believable that Marie would interfere with all of Sara's life to "take care of her". It was easy to understand why Marie made these stupid decisions and that's very important for this episode to work. The tragic ending to the episode was fairly powerful and logical too. It had to go in the direction that Marie ultimately ruins her relationship with her daughter and I think it was decently powerful after getting to see their relationship. I also love the final touch of Sara deciding to get into a car with a stranger to end the episode, which is the exact thing that Marie wouldn't want her to do as an overprotective mother. The Bad: The episode is way too predictable in its second half though. It goes in the exact direction you would expect and hammers the "helicopter parenting is bad" point in way too hard. While there was nothing offensive from this, it was very disappointing and failed to hit as hard as all of the best Black Mirror episodes. The examination of how the Arkangel would affect the upbringing of kids wasn't explored enough. The best scenes in the episode focused on that in the first half, but unfortunately it abruptly stopped examining that and had very little payoff later in the episode. I found that aspect of the episode to be the most fascinating and I would have much rather preferred to get insight on that instead of on helicopter parenting. Sara nearly killing her mother with the Arkangel certainly didn't feel earned. I can buy that Sara is very mad at her mom, but I really can't buy that she nearly killed her and left with no second thought. If that was trying to make a point on how Sara became violent because of her sheltered upbringing (and I think it was), there wasn't nearly enough focus put on that to make it feel like the reason for her behaviour. This hole makes the climax far less powerful than it should have been. The Unknown: Where does Sara go now? Would she have fixed her relationship with her mother if she had stayed? What will the stranger in the truck do to her? Could this have been averted if Marie had talked to Sara instead of making her decisions for her? Was the Arkangel a good concept at all? It seems to have positives but does a lot of harm. Is there potential in the idea with a few tweaks to it, or is it just a really bad idea in general? Did the Arkangel actually end up getting banned? Best Moment: I'll pick the moment where Sara started to draw violent pictures and even stab herself with a pencil to try to see some blood. It was truly horrifying and examined what could happen if you try to protect your kids too much from reality. Character of the Episode: Marie. Conclusion: This was a good episode and was better than the previous 2, but it felt like a missed opportunity. There was emotion here but not enough, there was thematic exploration here but not enough. This was a great concept but the execution as off and so we only have a good episode instead of another great episode. Score: 66 Summary: Daly is a co-founder of Callister Inc., which created a video game system called Infinity. Daly is a geeky co-boss who is overshadowed by everyone around him. When he gets home, he plays on a Space Fleet mod on his Infinity where he has clones of his co-workers in the world where he gets to abuse them. He gets the copy of new girl Nanette, but she refuses to submit to Daly. Together, the crew form a plan to escape from Daly's grasp and when an update happens to the game, they are able to escape. Daly is trapped in the system after the new update.
The Good: The style of this episode was unique and fun. I'm not a Star Trek fan, but I'm sure there were tons of nods from the whole "Space Fleet" concept which was used here. I really loved the style of the space fleet world and the opening scene with the VHS effect was really neat. The special effects and cinematography certainly stood out in this episode. Daly was a really good character. He was a very good concept for a central character. He initially comes off as just an awkward geek character who has a big heart but isn't really accepted by the people around him. This is a pretty dull stereotype, but what makes him stand out is his Space Fleet character Captain Daly, who is a sadistic monster who extracts revenge from his co-workers by creating copies of them and controlling them inside of his game world. It's a horrifying twist which completely changes our perspective on Daly after about 20 minutes. It's a great change and immediately makes the episode much more interesting. I liked that we got to experience Daly's cruelty through the eyes of Nanette who becomes our new protagonist after 20 minutes. It's a cool twist and it's the change of focus which changes our opinions on Daly. Without a different protagonist to root for, Daly may have ended up being similar to somebody like Kenny who we could still possibly root for. By showing us Daly in a very negative light from the people around him, it makes him all the more creepy and unsettling, ensuring that we root for Nanette instead which makes the climax much better. I loved Nanette's initial failed escape. At first I was uncertain because it had seemed like she immediately found a way to escape despite everyone else saying there was no escape. But it didn't work and instead served as a way to demonstrate Daly's commanding power and how hopeless the crew's situation really was. This was essential to make the eventual escape so much more satisfying. Walton's story and character arc was very interesting too. I liked the brief examination of his relationship with Daly and his character came full circle by the end when he gave his life to help out the crew. His horror story about Daly where he tortured his son was quite terrifying and helped give Walton's character more motives and was another scene which continued to portray Daly in a negative light. I like that this episode expanded on the tech from "White Christmas" with these clones which reminded me off the cookies. The reveal that the clones were actual people in a way with memories and feelings was a genuine surprise and it was just as effective in garnering my sympathy as Greta from "White Christmas". The Aaron Paul cameo at the end was funny and awesome. I also thought that the sci-fi parody aspect was pretty funny too at times and I'm sure that huge sci-fi fans really enjoyed this aspect of the episode. The Bad: I was disappointed by the parody aspect though. Much like the weaker episodes of "Friends", it felt like the parody took away from what made this show so great to begin with. I enjoy its realistic take on technology, the powerful symbolism and unpredictable storytelling which always ensures to hit with genuine emotion. This episode completely missed out on that by becoming a conventional sci-fi flick with tension and basic straightforward storytelling which is much harder to get emotionally attached with due to its simplistic nature. The episode is also overly long, and with such a simple story it really feels its length. In a lot of ways this is pretty much the same issue I had with "Hated in the Nation", and I sincerely hope that the show isn't going to be heading in this direction more frequently. The technology concept was odd as well. I wasn't happy with the idea that DNA could lead to the clones remembering their past lives. It makes no sense that the DNA could retain memories and with the realism removed from this episode's technology, the episode fails to unsettle me with the thought that this could potentially happen in the real world. The writing in the episode was pretty unsatisfying towards the end as well and it really took away from the ending of the episode. First of all, why would the update make a vortex in Daly's offline mod? How did the characters even know what it was? It was pretty convenient and dumb and only served to make a cool climactic storyline. Also, why didn't Daly just exit game when they were charging the vortex? That would make the ship stop moving and Daly would regain control over everything. Furthermore, can't he just use his god powers to stop them from escaping? We needed a better explanation for why he couldn't deal with these flaws. The ending with Daly dying was dumb. Why did he die? How did he get stuck? I have no idea and that's a problem. It felt like he just died because there needed to be a happy ending. The Unknown: What world is open to the clones now? What will they find there? Is it possible for anyone to save Daly? Did he deserve this fate for what he did, or were his actions totally justified? What will happen to present Nanette? Will she get apprehended for a potential role in Daly's death due to her connections with the pizza guy? Best Moment: Nanette being introduced to Daly's world was really good and when he actually arrived it became rather unsettling. It was pretty enjoyable. There weren't many stand out moments from this episode. Character of the Episode: Daly. Conclusion: This was a fun and enjoyable episode, but it was deeply flawed and failed to capture most of what makes Black Mirror great. I had a good time watching this and there were some great aspects here, but I still feel rather disappointed because this could have been so much more. Score: 65 Summary: Karin and Blue work together on a murder case when somebody who was getting a lot of social media hate was murdered. They discover it happening multiple times and learn that somebody is killing them because they are unpopular on social media with a hashtag. The most popular person to receive the hashtag in a day dies. There are ADIs, which are artificial bees which are being hijacked and controlled to do the killings. The mastermind is discovered to be Garrett Scholes who leaves a trail for the detectives to find. When the detectives think they have won, it unleashes a mass murder of everyone who used the hashtag.
The Good: The mystery thriller is always entertaining to watch and I think it's smart that the show used an exciting plot line to make the longest episode so far feel a little bit shorter and tense. It was a fun case to watch unfold and I got a decent amount of enjoyment out of it, as with all mysteries. The idea of the artificial bees and the death hashtag is brilliant and is another innovative, impressive and surprising concept from Black Mirror. I'm impressed that the show continues to spout out genius concepts for episodes so consistently, with the last 3 episodes being creative highlights in concept. The bees were logical on one hand, but quickly became terrifying when taken over, not only as spy tools but also as murdering weapons. Even scarier though was the DeathTo hashtag which allowed the people to vote on whoever they wanted to die. The episode had a very tense and horrific nature to it as well. The bees were certainly a cool concept, but they were turned absolutely terrifying by the episode's end when they became killing devices. The sequence when Karina and Blue were attempting to protect Clara in the house as bees swarmed the place was horrific and traumatizing and it was absolutely brutal seeing the bees all desperately try to get into the bathroom where one viciously kills Clara. What's even more unsettling is the way the bees just stop and act completely normal after Clara dies, almost as if nothing had happened. It's creepy and terrifying, and once more became unsettling in the episode's climax. This episode had a great look at social media and how cruel people can be. The idea that social media shouldn't be used as a way for us to say what we want without consequences is good and I liked the moments in the episode which focused on that topic, like learning about Garret's book and seeing the effects that all the social media hate was having on Clara. The Bad: This episode had a good concept but in execution it was really dull and uninspired. This was essentially just a generic and boring cop drama with minimal originality and twists which make us question the story. We have victim characters who are introduced to die and provide the leads a big clue, and we even have the cliché of good guys thinking they won before everything goes bad. Add in the evil government spying on people and this episode really feels like it lacks in originality. Seeing that all other Black Mirror episodes were more interesting (yes even Waldo), this ends up being really disappointing. This episode lacked the ambition I had expected it to have. The characters were very weak too. The 2 leads were as dull as they could be and I had no reason whatsoever to care about them or their storyline. I can't even tell you who they are or what their motives are. That's much worse than the impressively written characters in the previous episodes. Furthermore, the side characters are also very lame. Shaun serves no purpose in the story except for being the one who gets everyone killed, and even that moment lacks impact because it's hard to buy into him being thick-headed enough to press the button anyways. The villain isn't good either. He's 2-dimensional and we have no idea why he decided to do this and lacks motivation completely. The villain from "The National Anthem" who had 30 seconds of screen time was more developed than this guy. The ending didn't do anything for me either. The main climax lacked the emotional resonance it needed because we weren't shown the actual onslaught of bees. Usually I would be happy to be spared of the misery and death, but in this case I feel like we needed to see more than we did for there to be an appropriately powerful climax, especially considering that I didn't care about the fates of all main characters. The actual ending scene was dumb too. I didn't at all care about Blue getting revenge on Garrett and to make things worse we don't even know what she did to him. I usually do like vague endings, but in an episode where I don't know the motivations of any character, this kind of vague ending is horribly unsatisfying and just feels like a total waste of time. That's where the episode's length really works against it too. At an hour and a half in length, there needed to be a satisfying conclusion for the episode to feel like it was worth a watch but there unfortunately wasn't. I had plenty of nitpicks too. The whole time they were protecting Clara, I was practically screaming at them to cover her face with a mask and give her earplugs or something like that. These are cops, surely they would be smart enough to realize that if they block the entry points into the head, Clara can't die. Another nitpick is Nick sending the hashtag out o Garret. Why wouldn't he ask somebody about doing that before he did it? And why on Earth did he do that on a personal account of his? It's idiotic. Furthermore, Garret's entire plan revolved around this idiot sending that hashtag so he could make his mistake which is really dumb. Who would leave a critical aspect of their plan to the chance of somebody doing something stupid? I also think this episode did a weak job of raising intriguing moral questions. I certainly don't think we should be killed for our roles in social media, and it feels like a stupid question to ask because the answer is far too obvious. The Unknown: What happens to Garret and everybody else at the end? Will Shaun be blamed for what happened? Will the people ever find out the truth? What happens to the ADIs and Granular now? Will they be shut down? Did everybody deserve to die for what happened? I certainly don't think so. Best Moment: The bees attacking the safe house when Karin, Blue and Clara were in it was terrifying and tense television. Character of the Episode: Karin. Conclusion: This was a solid and enjoyable episode but nothing more than that. This episode was unoriginal in everything except concept, meaning that it totally lacked the ambition and brave approach which has so often made Black Mirror compelling. A disappointing end to the season. As a whole, I thought this was another really good season. While I don't think it hit the highs of previous episodes as frequently, it was certainly very enjoyable and I don't think any episode was actually bad. With the exception of "Hated in the Nation", every episode delivered on my expectations and continued this show's streak of powerful and creative ideas to focus on. Score: 58 Summary: Stripe works for the army, who protect villagers by killing roaches, which are basically like zombies. He has an implant called a mass. After Stripe kills 2 roaches and is hit by a strange device which disables his mass. Stripe realizes that the roaches are people too and that the mass makes him think that they are something else. The leader of the army, Arquette, imprisons Stripe and explains that the mass wipes memories and replaces them and that Stripe agreed to have it implanted in him. Arquette gives Stripe no choice and forces him to reset his mass and forget everything he learned.
The Good: This was another remarkably powerful episode which delivered more compelling television. The early parts of the episode came off as a basic military action episode and were easy to get engaged with and fairly fun. The technology was very cool and smartly conveyed to introduce us to the concept of the mass, which was another creative and realistic innovation of technology. The early parts of the episode also did a wonderful job of introducing the roaches as zombie-like enemies that needed to be purged. There was a really great sequence of the soldiers exploring the house while we got some subtle exposition from Medina which I really enjoyed. The big twist about the roaches being real humans was executed brilliantly. While I unfortunately did see it coming (see: The Bad), I thought that the foreshadowing was superb and the execution of the twist was wonderfully shocking and powerful. The fact that the reveal was aided by a sequence of Rai gleefully mowing down humans while anticipating her reward made for genuinely unsettling television and it was easy to understand why Stripe would knock her out to stop the mindless bloodshed. The video game-esque shots of Rai killing were really clever too and nicely symbolized how killing the roaches is almost like a game for those under the influence of the mass. The best parts of the episode were unquestionably in Stripe's confinement cell though. Here we get to see Arquette again, who had initially seemed to be a sort of therapist for those who felt something from killing roaches. But now we learn that he is essentially a higher power in the military who controls the masses and sees nothing wrong with what the military is attempting to do. The episode succeeds here by adding a ton of layers on top of the predictable twist that roaches are humans. While that thought is terrifying enough on its own, the terror is ratcheted up with a ton of other additional information and thoughts. We learn that not only is Arquette and the military fine with the extermination of the roaches, but so are all of the other villagers who apparently just really don't want some genetic disorders. It's horrifying to think that all of these people are just innocents being killed off because of disorders which somebody decreed shouldn't exist in this world. The most horrific part of the episode comes from the mind of Stripe though. Malachi Kirby did a superb job in this episode and by that final scene I was really sympathizing with his awful situation. It traumatizes him to know that innocents are being killed, but then it just keeps getting worse. We learn in a more surprising twist that Stripe himself agreed to the terms of the mass to exterminate the people with disorders, essentially proving that there are no people who actually seem to think this is wrong. Then we are taken on a trip to experience Stripe's nightmare as we realize that he's practically sold his life at this point. Arquette has total control over him and makes him lose sight and then experience the torturous pain of killing an innocent civilian with threats to ensure that he suffers from this until the end of time. It's horrific, immoral and painful to watch and really emphasizes the unsettling life which we may find ourselves in if military technology is used immaturely. The ending scene was powerful too and showed that Stripe has also lost the life he had before. We see the girl in his dreams appear inside of a beautiful bungalow which is what Stripe sees, but in reality all he is coming home to at the end is a rotten old house with nobody real to comfort him. It's a sad and disturbing final image to conclude the episode. I appreciate that this episode got creative. Some episodes in the past 2 seasons have treaded familiar territory, but this one felt entirely original with its take on military technology and the future it may pave for us. The original feel to this makes it one of my favourite episodes this season for sure. The Bad: The roaches twist was very easy to predict. The zombie reveal was given very quickly, and as this show has become known for its painful twists, it took no real effort to think of the idea that the roaches may have been real people, especially with the amount of hints we were given. I could understand somebody else not being able to see through this twist, but as I predicted it with ease, that took away from the episode a little bit. All the villagers wanting the roaches dead feels a little too insane. There needed to be more people like Heidekker who would think of this execution as inhumane. Surely somebody would have drawn comparisons to the Holocaust or any other big genocide which negatively impacted humanity. The Unknown: Did Stripe even have a wife or is this woman just conjured from thin air? Or perhaps has she left after Stripe signed with the military? What convinced Stripe to sign up anyways? He seemed like a bit of a careless fool in the video and it seems like he only joined because he had nothing better to do. It would certainly have been interesting to learn more about him. Is it right to protect the roaches or did they deserve to be killed off like that? Would it be for the better to prevent genetic disorders in the future? Could there be another more humane way way to prevent these disorders? Best Moment: Every moment between Stripe and Arquette at the end was superb. The scene had me gripped and provided one hell of a catharsis. Character of the Episode: Stripe. Conclusion: This was another excellent episode which continued the show's brilliant explorations into technology and how deadly of a weapon it can be. Score: 73 Summary: Yorkie is making visits to San Junipero, a sort of heaven for those who want to stay there after death. She meets Kelly and they fall in love. Yorkie reveals that she became a quadriplegic and is going to be dying soon. She is getting married to a random guy so she can choose to be in San Junipero forever. Kelly chooses to marry her instead. Yorkie wants Kelly to choose to stay in San Junipero after she dies, but Kelly doesn't want to because her husband and daughter both didn't get to experience the world. After an argument, Kelly ultimately decides to stay in San Junipero and the 2 remain together forever.
The Good: This was a very different episode for Black Mirror and the new approach with new themes and different storytelling served to create one of the very best hours of the show so far. The setting of the episode was a small thing which was done completely right. The colouring of all the scenes was excellent and the setting did a great job of establishing the tones of all of the scenes, from the creepy aura of the Quagmire to the loving beauty of the beaches. This ended up becoming a really atmospheric episode and it only added to the experience. The world itself is really interesting and I was always trying to figure out what time period it was from. I love how the reveal that San Junipero is a sort of heaven was given to us slowly so that it could be pieced together. It was really great and it also allowed me more time to process the characters' stories and what they were doing in San Junipero. The concept of this sort of heaven which is accessible by humanity is really interesting and I liked this unique exploration of technology. The characters were outstanding though. Both Kelly and Yorkie felt relatively fleshed out, had motivations and had background to provide insight on why they were that way. I love seeing such detailed characters in an episode like this and it definitely made me care a ton about their fates in this episode. The relationship they had was great as well, and while I don't think it's as good as it could have been, it was enough to get me to buy into their bond, especially when you take into account that these 2 are essentially just 2 really lonely old woman who are looking for their place in the world before they die. Kelly's character story is excellent. Her backstory is suitably tragic when we learn that her husband left her in the world after 49 years and it's easy to sympathize with her and understand the void that he has left behind, as well as the feeling that she doesn't want to be left behind again so she is scared to love. But somehow, the show digs deeper to really pull at our heart-strings as we learn that she had a daughter who died before her time. This adds even more layers to Kelly and makes her unease in choosing to stay in San Junipero so much more understanding. After all, her daughter didn't get to enjoy the luxury so why should she? It's painful, it's real and it's understandable, giving Kelly's character a truckload of depth which really impressed me and made me feel, as the show does all to well with episodes like this. Yorkie's story was another tearjerker though. Her tragic life was very sad and it was awful to learn about her quadriplegia, but that also made it understandable why she would want to keep going back to San Junipero and stay there. Her life was robbed from her in the real world, but here she gets to enjoy moving around and doing what she pleases. The reveal that she was dying and seemed to be on borrowed time was also heartbreaking, but it led to a much happier moment as Kelly and Yorkie got officially married, providing a rare glimmer of hope in this show. That hope would thankfully stay though. After their fight, it seemed destined for both ladies to live separately forever in a pained existence, just as miserable as other episodes of the show. But thankfully that wasn't the case and instead we actually got a happy ending where both women got to live out their lives together forever. In an episode with no real twists and turns, this happy ending actually ended up becoming one of the show's biggest twists. It was powerful, genuinely unexpected and satisfying as we finally got to see some characters living happily without any kind of misery or pain thrown at them. It's a wonderful change of tone and makes this episode really stand out and feel special. Not to mention, it's wonderful to feel happiness after an episode of Black Mirror for a change. The Bad: I wish that Yorkie's joy at being able to move again was played out a little bit better. We really got no reaction from her, but I feel that it would have been much more powerful and affecting to have some scenes showing Yorkie's joy in San Junipero. The Unknown: What would you choose? San Junipero or passing over peacefully? Which is the better option? Can you ever leave San Junipero if you die there? What is passing over? What happens to those who do? Is there another world out there? Will Kelly and Yorkie remain happy forever in San Junipero? Will Kelly be satisfied with her life or will she still feel the guilt she felt earlier about staying in San Junipero while her family passed over? Did Kelly make the right choice or should she have honoured her old family by passing over? Best Moment: The happy ending was powerful and for once this show managed to make me feel complete happiness. That's really impressive and I hope this show continues to demonstrate an ability to provide a wide variety of emotions. Character of the Episode: Kelly was better than Yorkie in my opinion. Conclusion: A stellar episode, and one which isn't afraid to do something different. Black Mirror has always been a bold and powerful show, and this episode exemplifies both of those aspects in wonderful fashion. Easily one of the show's finest hours. Score: 80 Summary: Kenny is a kind teenager working at a fast food restaurant. He is hacked and a video I recorded of him masturbating to porn. The hackers give him orders which lead to him meeting Hector, another man in a similar situation and they don't want the videos leaked. The 2 are forced to rob a bank against their will. Kenny is forced to fight another man to the death. However, the hackers release the videos anyways. Kenny is revealed to be a pedophile.
The Good: Unlike most other episodes on the show, this episode is actually taking place in the present without any kind of fancy new technology. While other episodes have been devastating because of their human implications, this episode becomes devastating in a different way because it is conceivably something which could actually happen in our current world. It's a scary thought and it really aids the depressing nature of this episode and makes it one of the most painful episodes yet to get through, and that is saying something, especially since this episode followed the horrific "Playtest". The episode works very well because we immediately sympathize with Kenny in the beginning of the episode and it makes his journey gripping to watch since we really hope that he can find a way to avoid having his reputation ruined, no matter what the cost. It's also easier to sympathize because what he did doesn't seem at all like a big deal and it would be awful if he met a terrible fate because of something as simple as masturbating on camera. Alex Lawther also adds a really great performance, one of my favourites in the show so far, and it's his heart which really makes Kenny's character work. Of course there was the twist at the end which threw a wrench into things, but more on that in a bit. The tension in the episode was really good. While it was obvious that Kenny would make it on time, what was far more tense was later in the episode, when Kenny and Hector were working together. Their relationship made sense as both were good people who made mistakes and were thrown into an awful situation and had to work together. Of course Karen's arrival had to complicate things though and the entire time when Karen was in the car had me on the edge of the seat. This could have been the ideal time for a plot twist, so it had real stakes to it and I was very interested to see what came next. The Karen scene wasn't the only fantastic bit of tension though. The bank robbery scene was dripping with tension too. I thought that the horror that both characters felt was conveyed well and I sympathized with both as they forced themselves through the ordeal. It was tough to watch, but at least it was better than the videos being leaked for them. Then came the big ending which was stunning and so devastating. Of course we learn that the hackers just released the videos anyways. So not only do everyone have all these awful deeds torturing them for the rest of their lives, but they know that it was all pointless and accomplished absolutely nothing. It's a rough ending to the episode which essentially makes all the characters pay the ultimate price for their mistakes. The Kenny twist was by far the most stunning reveal though. I had felt so bad for this poor kid, and yet with the reveal that he was a pedophile, most of that suddenly changed. I didn't know how to feel anymore and the conclusion of the episode left me in total confusion, almost wanting it to not be true. I felt uncomfortable having sympathized with a pedophile character and I just couldn't believe it. But that's the genius of this episode. As humans, we often associate pedophiles as monsters in the public, but are they really? Here we see that Kenny is just a normal kid but he can't help himself and it's not like he actually did anything bad to children. Are we right to just judge people for being pedophiles or should we maybe try to get them some help instead and treat pedophilia like more of a mental illness? It's a fascinating concept and I'm glad that the episode explored it. The Bad: This episode treaded some familiar points though. The questions raised were very similar to the ones raised in "White Bear" and the whole justice system and final twist was also reminiscent of that episode. I'm fine with the ideas that the episode explored but they were hardly original and I want the show to keep reinventing its message and not settle for the same messages over and over again. This show is currently at risk for becoming exactly what I don't want it to become: a basic storyline with a surprise twist which exists purely for shock value. While this episode thankfully avoided that by raising some interesting questions, I'm definitely worried that the show may go down the road of empty shocks if they run out of creative ways to provide a powerful message. I hope that doesn't happen, but the episode quality isn't quite at the same level it was at for the first 2 seasons and that's not a great sign. The show is still awesome right now, but I'm getting a little nervous as this is the third episode in a row which was only great. The Unknown: Who were the hackers? What did they want? Just justice? How do they organize themselves to get control over so many people? Was that kid in the hotel one of the hackers by chance? What were the pictures for? Why did Kenny have to take a picture of Hector? Was the drone recording just for the entertainment of the hacker, or has Kenny's murder of the other man been released to the public too? I feel like I should be adding the thought-provoking questions the show raises in this section as well, so going forward I will be sure to do that. Were we right to sympathize with Kenny? Should we judge him for what he has done, or should we still sympathize with him? Surely he didn't deserve what he got. His life is basically over now. Is this justice system moral? Is this something we should enforce or shut down? Were the hackers the actual good guys of this story? All the other characters seemed to make pretty awful mistakes. Best Moment: The twist that Kenny was a pedophile made me feel so uncomfortable so it really has to be the best moment. Character of the Episode: Kenny. Conclusion: This was a really nicely written episode and was one of the most disturbing episodes thus far. Another powerful episode of Black Mirror, though season 3 is yet to come anywhere near the highs of the first 2 seasons. Score: 72 Summary: Cooper is travelling the world to avoid problems at home. His dad passed of Alzheimer's and he is afraid of talking to his mom. He meets Sonja and they hook up. Sonja recommends Cooper to go test a new game. He goes and experiences a horror game simulation in real life and goes through a nightmarish game. His phone wasn't turned off however and his mom calls him during the experience. This causes Cooper to die.
The Good: This was a very different episode of Black Mirror. Like "White Bear", I think this was more valuable as an experience than an episode of television, and it left me feeling really unsettled and horrified by its ending. Before the horror though, we are allowed to learn who our main character is. We learn a lot about Cooper, and we come to care about him as one of the better characters in the show. He has depth to his character, we like who he is and we can understand his problems and fears all too well. His relationship with Sonja is effective at letting us understand who he is and preparing us for the nightmare he will experience later in the episode. And now it's time to discuss the terrifying nightmare that Cooper was put through when testing the game. The idea of the game is hardly described to us and all we know is that it's going to be a new experience for Cooper. Of course we know that anything can happen, our minds have been trained to expect anything in a simulation and we have also been trained to expect twists in this show. But Cooper isn't aware in the way we are and he obviously believes that he is actually safe from any harm. Of course this is a signature set-up for any horror film, and leads to Cooper getting way more than he anticipated as he faces horror after horror which slowly breaks him down. So many horror films are fixated on jump scares but this is smarter than that and even makes fun of jump scares. Instead we are treated to the horror of having to face all of your worst fears one after the other, which has so much more entertainment and emotional value to it. It makes for some genuinely affecting television. The fears which are explored here are fantastic and have a lot of meaning because of what we know about Cooper. We see a casual fear like arachnophobia explored at first, but then things ratchet up as we see fears from Cooper's past explored like Josh Peters and memories of his dad's Alzheimer's, and then we climax as we see fears stemmed from anxiety and paranoia as we see Cooper's fears about how his mother is in a terrific scene which has a lot of power (see: Best Moment). The writing was sublime as usual. I was ready to complain about inconsistencies like Saito's English-speaking, but it turns out that the whole sequence was part of the game which essentially forgives every single inconsistency which just becomes foreshadowing. There were a couple things in this episode which I noticed which have been present in other episodes too but I haven't had a chance to explore them. For one, the show's transitions to sex are always hilarious. Every time it's a smooth transition which puts a smile on my face. Also, the show does a tremendous job with irony. The big example in this episode being the observations of Cooper's death being that he finally "called Mom". The Bad: This episode fell into the trap of too many twists which don't have much resonance to them. The twists were fairly predictable and unsurprising, and they didn't really offer any new depth to the story. The ending was too depressing. For this show to have a depressing and cruel ending, it needs to establish that the characters deserved their fates. This was done expertly in previous episodes like "White Bear" and "White Christmas" but it really wasn't done at all here. Cooper was a good guy and the only mistake he made was turning his cell phone on, and it led to his death. This show often makes me feel emotionally drained after an episode, but here I feel it was too far. At least give me a reason for putting me through this pain, but instead the only reasoning here is for shock value and the irony of "called mom". This also leads to my next point: the theme. This episode is missing a proper theme to examine. Other episodes have all focused on something in particular about technology and how it will impact our future, but this one is missing that. The examination is very weak in this episode and it's tough to center around an actual point being made. I suppose it's that we shouldn't get careless with testing technology. Or that we should turn our phones off. Either way it's unsatisfying and it doesn't do its job of neatly tying the episode together. Instead what we are left with is just a terrifying nightmare, and while that is still impactful to watch, it's nowhere near the level of quality that the show usually explores. The Unknown: Has this ever happened before where a playtest killed somebody? What consequences would be brought on by Cooper's death? Best Moment: Cooper finding his mother, only to see she has Alzheimer's was the perfect personification of how anxiety will create our worst fears. After all the scariest thing is always the unknown, and our greatest fears come from us imagining the worst possible outcome. This scene explored that in a tragic and heartbreaking way. I just wish the ending had perhaps gone in a more hopeful direction like the previous episode to make this scene even more powerful. Character of the Episode: Cooper. Conclusion: This was a terrific nightmarish episode that was well on its way to being one of the show's very best until the ending. Had we gotten a happier ending which had more thematic relevance, this would have been thought-provoking and cathartic in all the right ways. Instead the show opted for the edgier depressing ending and I feel that it diminished the quality of this episode by a lot. Hopefully the other episodes don't fall into a similar trap. Score: 68 Summary: Lacie lives in a community where your social status is judged by a rating from 1 to 5 which is given by other people based off of how much they like you. Lacie is a 4.2 but needs to be a 4.5 to get a house she wants and she needs approval from high 4s. She goes to attend a wedding which will have a bunch of other high 4s, but things go wrong and her rating steadily falls as everything goes to hell. She begins to realize that the ratings won't make her happy. She arrives at the wedding as a 1.1 and gives her speech solely to embarrass her friend. She is taken to jail where she feels more free than ever before and properly connects with a guy in another cell.
The Good: This community is a very frightening concept, and is a great social commentary on social media taking over our lives and us becoming a slave to our devices. Everything is this community is so fake, from the pastel look, to the interactions of the people living in it. There are some really great scenes which really highlight the fake nature of this episode, like the conversation Lacie has with Beth in the elevator which is all about what they post on social media and as no real heart to it. It's a horribly uncomfortable atmosphere which got me emotionally engaged just from the concept. Furthermore, the idea that the higher ranked you are, the better you are, is insane and often it seems to be completely inaccurate as Susan (1.4) comes off as a much better person than Naomi (4.8). Additionally I love how it's implied that when talking with a high 4, it doesn't matter what you do, because they can rank you low and nobody bats an eye, but it's an awful thing to rank them low because it will lower your popularity. Essentially you are being judged for the conversation and they just aren't at all. A great example is Lacie's conversation with a high 4 in the elevator, where this high 4 makes absolutely no attempt for conversation. While most episodes of Black Mirror tend to disturb or leave you extremely tense, this episode instead lets you feel how it would be like to live in this world. In doing so, the episode causes you to feel intense anxiety throughout, while you hope for Lacie to not have too hard of a fall in the episode. The episode is called "Nosedive", and by now we have been accustomed to the horrors of this show, so there is a huge anxiety created in the first half hour as we know that Lacie's fall is coming but we really don't want so many terrible things to happen to her. Of course it has to happen though, and I think that Lacie's fall was handled pretty well and offered some really horrific encounters, like the man listening to porn at the charging station and the terrifying security guard who just smiled through everything as Lacie went through a pretty rough moment. It was uncomfortable to watch of course, and it all led wonderfully to a climax when Lacie arrives at the wedding to finally give the speech she prepared so hard for and ends up doing it to embarrass Naomi and provide some subtle insight to the high 4s on how life is so fake that nothing is real anymore and nothing really matters. The story was really good, but it wouldn't have worked without good motives for Lacie. I thought the motives given were excellent, as we see Lacie wanting to buy a really expensive house. Why? Not because she wanted it, but because the house seemed to promise something real for her. Living in this world without any real human interaction has created a loneliness inside Lacie who longs for something real, and her entire trip to increase her fake social rank is all to get her to something real. It's a great motive because it's relatable and understandable, and it makes sense why her motives led to her downfall. I think that the title "Nosedive" isn't entirely accurate for this episode. Sure Lacie had her rating fall pretty hard, but was it really a fall for her character? I don't think so, and I'm very happy to say that for once it actually feels like a happy ending on this show. Lacie was looking for something real, that was what she wanted, and by falling so hard, it actually led her to exactly what she wanted as she sat in her prison cell, free from the rating system. In the end, she finally found something real as she got to talk to a guy without the crutches of the world she lives in, allowing for the most organic conversation we have seen in the entire episode. The Bad: This episode was notably longer and I think it really does feel its length. The episode tends to drag on more than others, and is hurt by the fact that it doesn't have as many cathartic scenes or devastating twists as every other episode. The episode gives a great message and tells a nice story of character transformation, but it's missing that level of emotion that Black Mirror usually hits in every episode. The episode does feel anticlimactic. There was so much anxiety built up in the first half hour, and honestly there is never really any pay-off for that. Compared to every other character's story, Lacie's suffering is extremely tame and as such I feel unsatisfied when the episode built to such a foreboding ending, only for there to really not be anything that bad at all. I wasn't a fan of Susan's character who was used to spark a change in Lacie. The wise old sage cliché has been done to death and I wasn't a fan of seeing it here. Furthermore, it's implied that you can still have a successful life with a lower rating, so why aren't there more people who just don't care about the ratings system who live their own life. For a system like this to work, everyone needs to comply and that's really hard to buy into, especially when it seems like there aren't any people around who just ignore the system. The Unknown: Prison seems to have more freedom than the actual world. I wonder if people actually go to prison to free themselves from the ratings system? Best Moment: The airport scene was really great. The staff was about as unhelpful as they get and their fake happiness was just annoying. And when Lacie lets out some emotion instead of her fake cheer, she is immediately downvoted by everyone. If that's not a metaphor for how society judges people, I don't know what is. It's really painful to see that success in this world is based off of how other people judge you, and I think this scene best demonstrated the horrors of that. Character of the Episode: Lacie. Conclusion: This was a really good episode with a solid story. I don't think it reached the heights of the best Black Mirror episodes, as this felt very safe and by the numbers, but it was still a really great episode to watch. Score: 70 Summary: Matt and Joe are in a house of sorts where they have worked for 5 years. Joe has hardly talked and Matt wants him to talk. Matt reveals his past and how he provided a service to a boy named Harry to help coach him to be more romantic. Matt guides Harry but witnesses the girl harry going after murdering him and committing suicide. He tells another story about his day job where he creates copies of people called cookies which do work for them using technology. Joe opens up and reveals that he had a girlfriend who he loved. She got pregnant and they had a fight which resulted in Joe being "blocked". Beth eventually dies but her child survives. Joe goes to visit and discovers Beth had an affair. He kills Beth's dad and causes the death of the child. It's revealed that Matt was sent to get a confession from Joe's cookie, and that he was arrested for not reporting a murder. Both men are given cruel fates.
The Good: This was a busy episode, but like almost all Black Mirror episodes, it had phenomenal writing and extremely powerful moments which left me awestruck by the end of the episode. This episode was essentially divided into three stories, so I'll start with the first (Matt and Harry). Matt's job of offering Harry romantic advice was very creative and led to a lot of funny moments which kept things light early on. I enjoyed the portrayal of Harry and the creepiness of the idea of Matt watching his every move. Of course things got weird really suddenly which led to the shock of Harry's death. The scenes leading up to that were written very well, getting the most out of the brutal twist that Jennifer was suicidal, hence her silence. I love the way that the scenes were written to have Harry's conversation accidentally convince Jennifer to commit suicide and also kill him with her. There was a really uncomfortable tension through these scenes and I think it paid off very well. The second part of the episode was focused on introducing us to cookies. I thought this part didn't have much of a story to get us interested in, but essentially just served to bring us up to speed on a complex piece of technology which would become important later on. The scenes weren't great but they were definitely passable and necessary, considering the twist later on. I love the concept of cookies and I think it was a creative take on how far people would be willing to go with technology to make their lives easier. While the first 2 parts were fine, it was the third part, the longest part, which had the main climax and impact of the episode. Joe's tragic story is really painful to watch, made worse because he seems like such a good person who was thrust into an awful situation and made mistakes. Pretty similar to some of the other main characters on this show. The story of Joe and Beth was tragic at first glance as Beth seemingly ditched Joe for no real reason and was completely indecent to him. I was ready to put Beth's huge overreaction into The Bad, but the twist later on made Beth's decision to cut out Joe more understandable, though it does make her character much more detestable. The sad part of this episode wasn't so much what happened, but it was how Joe reacted. He couldn't let go of Beth, he had nothing to move on to and was just stuck trying to get some of the happiness he lost and also see his daughter. It's easy to empathize with somebody who just holds on to their past life, and this episode uses this fact brilliantly, ensuring that we relate with Joe in every step of his story. Then of course there is the episode's big twist that Joe's daughter isn't actually his. That twist was so powerful and I'm glad to say that I didn't predict it since I had expected the show to go a different route. The impactful realization that Joe essentially spent the past 6 years of his life longing for something which didn't exist hits hard, and it's easy to understand how Joe's entire world completely fell apart around him. Then in typical Black Mirror fashion, Joe flies off the rails and that results in the death of two innocent people, which is revealed in painful fashion and leads to Joe suffering even more as he feels absurd amounts of guilt over what he just did. While Joe's story is easily the most cathartic bit in the episode, it isn't really the primary focus of the episode. Instead, the primary focus is once more about technology and how it destroys people. This time the piece of technology which is used in this case is "blocking". Of course we all know what blocking is in terms of social media and texting, but in this episode we get to see what blocking is like in real life and how it actually worsens problems instead of fixing them. Had Beth just told Joe what happened, it seems likely that this awful chain of events wouldn't have happened, and furthermore Joe's life wouldn't have been spent chasing after a shadow in total pain. The fate of both the main characters is pretty brutal too, creating the message that when technology can be used to do anything, we will lose every ounce of mercy and understanding. Matt and Joe committed crimes, but they weren't exactly the worst crimes in the world. Compared to what Victoria did in "White Bear", these were pretty tame, and yet both men suffered a fate worse than what happened to Victoria. Joe is forced to spend an eternity doing absolutely nothing and Matt is forced to live out the rest of his days without interacting to anybody else ever. Cruel and painful stuff. The Bad: The "legal block" seemed ridiculous to me. Surely there would be a trial about that and it would be treated like a restraining order. Instead it seems that a block can just be legalized immediately which is really poor and I can't imagine that happening to this world. Cookie Joe not remembering his life in the snow globe was inconsistent. How did they make Joe forget that he was a cookie and how did they transfer the cookie without raising any questions? Furthermore, how did they seemingly control his memories? These things need to be explained. The fates of Matt and Joe both feel way too cruel. I understand that it's the point of the episode, but I had great difficulty buying into the idea that they would just be allowed to have such a terrible fate. This show does a really poor job portraying women. Once more the women character is utterly detestable and is cheating. I would like to see some more likeable women on this show, as this is the second example in just 7 episodes where a women has cheated. I found this episode to be very similar to "The Entire History of You" with Joe's story. Joe not being able to let go mirrored Liam's paranoia, the child twist was very similar, and of course both characters' fates being away from their loved ones was also similar. I would have liked some more creativity to make this episode feel more original. The Unknown: What was the sound Joe heard in the snow globe? There is likely an answer to this which was written in expertly, but I couldn't figure it out. How did Greta's cookie not remember that Greta wanted to buy it? The memory thing is really inconsistent. I noticed a lot of references to previous episodes of the show (The Hot Shots program, the song from "Fifteen Million Merits", the White Bear symbol, etc.) so could that mean this is meant to be a sort of connected universe? That could be exciting to explore. Best Moment: Joe's confession was the most powerful bit of the episode. It's so hard to not feel bad for him. Character of the Episode: Joe. Conclusion: This was yet another expertly written and brutally affecting episode of Black Mirror. This show continues to impress, though there were some holes in this one which lowered its score. Still, season 2 ended with another masterpiece. I think season 2 (minus "The Waldo Moment") was actually better than season 1. The writing was improved by a lot and the episodes affected me even more than the ones from season 1. The only flaw was "The Waldo Moment". If you remove that episode, this season's score would be so much higher. Either way, I'm excited to watch the next season because this episode made one thing clear: "The Waldo Moment" was just a fluke. Score: 74 Summary: Jamie is a depressed comedian who plays a fictional animated character named Waldo. TO promote an upcoming TV show, Jamie is ordered to enter politics and make fun of candidate Liam Monroe. Waldo completely blows up and becomes an official candidate who gets votes, while Jamie isn't happy with it. Jamie eventually leaves the Waldo boat but it's continued by his boss and Waldo eventually takes over the world.
The Good: There were some funny moments here. Tobias Menzies was great as the stoic politician and his responses to the idiocy of Waldo were usually quite fun. The panel scene was really well done. It was the only scene in the episode which felt like it had legit power and meaning to it, as the idea of politicians being fake and Waldo being more real was explored nicely. I also liked Jamie's attack on Gwendolyn, as it felt like the perfect way for him to end up garnering more support than her. The Bad: This was terribly disappointing and not good at all. This episode hurts so much more because the last 4 episodes have been amazing, so expectations were pretty high. This not only failed to meet expectations, but also managed to be an overall poor episode. The biggest flaw for me was Jamie's character. He was just so boring and had nothing interesting about him. He didn't go through anything, and he didn't learn anything. He started the episode hating his Waldo character, not being interested in politics and depressed. He ended up in the exact same place, so I must question what the whole point was. Besides, what were his motives here? Why does he keep playing Waldo when it's clearly getting out of control? This is a critical question which we need an answer to, but we get nothing. I don't understand why he makes his decision and that's really sloppy. Jamie's depression was the worst handling of depression I've seen in a long time. Why is he depressed? I couldn't tell you. All we get is Jamie making sad faces sometimes and saying he isn't happy. We need to know why he isn't happy so that maybe we can at least sympathize with him a little bit and understand why he makes some of his decisions. Instead we get nothing, and the whole depression just seems like it was shoehorned into the episode. Jamie allowing Waldo to shine at the conference was really stupid. If Jamie is supposed to be bad with politics, it's hard to buy that he would just come up with an amazing speech on the spot and completely destroy his opposition. That moment felt severely out of character and dumb. Not only that, but it also enforced the stupidity of the whole Waldo campaign. The reason he is loved is because he is real, but apparently anybody can be more real than a politician if Jamie can make a powerful speech like that. We could just have some random guy show up and make that exact speech, so how is Waldo special? Why do people rally behind him and not anyone else? No idea. But seriously, how did Waldo gain such a huge following? Literally everybody acknowledges that Waldo isn't even funny, and I would agree! He has no charm and is immature, so how the hell do people actually like him and support him? I understand that it's supposed to be the point that people are supporting this creature, but it's just so incredibly hard to find even a single reason that people would support Waldo. At least when Trump was elected, we could understand why people may have voted for him. With Waldo it just makes no sense why anyone would support him. Jamie and Gwendolyn's relationship was the other main part of this episode, and it's just as hard to buy into. They are nowhere near as good as other couples have been in this show (Bing and Abi, and Martha and Ash were far more compelling), and there relationship feels really dumb. If Gwendolyn was going to just call Jamie after the campaign, why not tell him? Instead she made it seem like she didn't care about him at all, which in turn caused him to completely destroy her. It's impossible to sympathize with Gwendolyn because she brought everything on herself in an illogical way. There were small plot points which were bad as well. It's ridiculous to me that Jamie's identity was kept secret. With the internet working the way it does, I would give the world like 1 day to figure out who the voice behind Waldo is. Surely there will be some guy who records Jamie walking out of the van, and reveals his identity online. This also makes Monroe revealing Jamie's identity all the more stupid, since it didn't feel at all surprising. Furthermore, the plot point of Jamie coming back to Waldo and not quitting was dumb too. I have no idea why he didn't leave Waldo; he never liked the character and he doesn't like politics. So what reason could he possibly have had for continuing? The biggest offense of the episode though was the ending. Apparently Waldo has taken over the world. No. That makes so little sense and is completely at odds with the rest of the episode. Every indicator suggested that Waldo was just a temporary fad, but now he's somehow gone from joke candidate to leader of the world? That is so stupid, and is a ridiculous idea to end the episode. The Unknown: How did Waldo take over the world? What is the new world like with Waldo being treated as a sort of god? Best Moment: The panel was entertaining and Waldo's rant was really good. Character of the Episode: Monroe. Conclusion: This was very bad. The episode made no sense in terms of story and characters and had fewer impactful moments than most other episodes of the show. A total dud of an episode. Score: 46 Summary: Victoria wakes up in a room and remembers nothing, not even her own name. She goes outside and is chased by terrorizing people while others film her and watch. She meets a girl named Jem who tells her that the world has been taken over by technology and that everyone just watches now. Their goal is to reach a transmitter called White Bear to find safety. When they reach there, Victoria fights for her life, but discovers that it was all a play. She is in fact a criminal and is forced to go through this tortuous play every day as penance for her role in the murder of a 6 year old girl, where she filmed the entire thing.
The Good: Wow. This was something else entirely. I have never seen a TV episode like this one, making this one of the most unique television experiences I have ever had. I have never been this confused, stunned or disturbed by an episode of TV since that episode of Game of Thrones (if you have seen the show, you know the one). This episode has to be one of the most uniquely powerful pieces of art I have seen. It's hard to think about where to start, so I'll just start at the beginning. We open the episode completely confused and disoriented along with Victoria, whose name we don't even know at this point. There is lots of intriguing mystery and we genuinely don't know what has happened as we try to piece together who this character is, where she is, and what is going on. It's a genuinely confusing experience, and one which sucks you in right away and allows you to sympathize with the characters since we can completely understand what she is going through; after all we are currently experiencing the exact same thing. The early parts of the episode are crafted really well in how they give us answers without answering much at all. The answers feel credible, but not quite right, and it makes me crave more for an answer. To distract me from the answers though, the episode builds tension brilliantly within the mystery, and it ends up becoming a sort of horror thriller, and a damn good one at that. Fear of the unknown is the worst kind of fear, and this episode capitalizes on that to make for some uncomfortably tense viewing. Then in comes the twist. I have to say I was expecting some kind of big twist, but what we got completely annihilated my expectations and genuinely stunned me. It turns out that everything that happened was just a well-orchestrated play designed to punish our main character who was responsible for the horrific murder of a 6 year old girl which she filmed on camera. The reveal is socking and very well done, as it gives us a satisfying answer about these mysterious flashes Victoria had been having, while also serving as a horrific twist to inform us that Victoria is far from a good person. It's deeply uncomfortable to see this, as Victoria screams and suffers as she realizes that she has done something awful and is now living a life of punishment for a crime which she didn't even know she committed. It's brutal and devastating and allows us to still sympathize with this murderer due to the sheer brutality of the situation she is in. This concept is incredible though, and it takes a really creative mind to come up with something so brilliant. To face up for her terrible crime, she is essentially being shown how it felt to be the little girl she killed every single day, where something awful happens to her as people just stand around filming her. And then this all culminates in the final 30 or so minutes of her day, which is the only time where she actually ahs to face what she has done and watch as hundreds of people boo her and throw stuff at her. And of course the irony in all of this is that all of the people who are contributing to this are essentially just becoming what she was: a watcher relishing in the suffering of another human being. It's really powerful storytelling which is not only a thought-provoking examination of justice, but also a look at the hypocrisy of being a human being and the disgusting things we do to get our revenge on other people who have done bad things. One of the most interesting parts of this episode was the fact that the White Bear Justice Park is profiting from Victoria's suffering. Instead of just punishing her in a jail cell, they cause her endless suffering every single day and make money off of it, all the while acting incredibly cheerful about what they do, going as far as to tell their audience to "have fun" at the park. This is a really sick and twisted justice system, which seems to not even care about the unjust elements it has. Lastly, as I was watching the episode I was noticing a lot of flaws and I was ready to put this down as the weakest episode. For example, the same hunters tracking down Victoria felt ridiculous, the amount of close calls were just dumb, Damien dying in such dramatic fashion was ridiculous, and Baxter having no clear motives was dumb. I was thinking about how this sloppy writing just felt like an average film, but the twist at the end surprisingly revealed that it was all supposed to be an average film. There were so many clichés because it was all a play, and with that one reveal, the episode went from one of the worst written, to the very best written episode of the entire show, and that removes almost every problem I had with the show. The Bad: So apparently the people here have the technology to just erase memories. Why don't they just wipe people memories? Surely they shouldn't feel the need for such excessive punishment when they can just wipe memories and have people essentially start anew. The episode had one somewhat major flaw in its main character. She was annoying at times which affected my ability to sympathize with her, and also made her endless screaming feel almost tiresome and too depressing. This episode's character writing isn't as good as other episodes, and it certainly doesn't pack as real of an emotional punch as something like "Be Right Back". As much as I want to give this a really high score for its outstanding writing and twist, I don't feel that it has deep enough emotion to justify that. The shock isn't exactly subtle and it is hammered in repeatedly, and while that doesn't bother me too much, it hurts this episode's chances of being truly ascendant as a TV episode. The Unknown: Is this system of punishment just? I was going to raise a point about wasting money on this park, but apparently it's self-sustaining and likely makes more money than it uses, so there is no money concern here. But is it really okay to put somebody through so much endless suffering? Are there other facilities like this in the world for other criminals? Or is it just for Victoria? Best Moment: The reveal of the twist was spectacular, and everything that followed was just stunning and devastating television. Fantastic stuff. Character of the Episode: Victoria. Conclusion: This was one hell of an experience. I can comfortably say that this was one of the most devastating episodes of television I have ever seen, but it's hard to rank it amongst the best episodes ever, so scoring is really tough. I suppose the best way to describe the episode, is that it's one of the best experiences out there and is something you absolutely should watch, but as an episode of TV, it doesn't hold up as one of the best ever. Still, this episode is a tremendous accomplishment and will go down as another huge success for the show. Score: 79 Summary: Martha and her lover Ash are in a happy relationship until Ash is tragically killed in an accident. Martha struggles to get past this and goes for a new technology which creates a new robot which mimics Ash's voice. She also discovers that she is pregnant. She orders a physical robot of Ash to have with her, but is eventually creeped out by it since it isn't really Ash and is basically just a memory. Martha banishes Ash to the attic as a memory as she lives her life.
The Good: Another powerful episode kicks off season 2. This episode once more delved into the horrors that technological advancement could hit the world with, while also giving us a moving and devastating character arc throughout the entire hour. The concept, as usual, is nothing short of brilliant. This episode focuses on the idea that technology can bring back the spirit of a deceased loved one in the form of a robot, and how it will affect the way we move on from tragedies. It's a clever idea, and feels like something we may not be too far away from having in our world, making the horrors explored in the episode feel so real and impactful. The episode started off very simply, and with the charm of the actors, it provided us a relationship we could care about in the first 5 minutes. This makes it so when Ash dies, we have a good idea of what Martha has just lost and it's incredibly easy to put ourselves in her shoes, especially if you understand how it feels to lose a loved one. Hayley Atwell does a tremendous job of portraying Martha's pain after she loses Ash, and her eventual desperation to get Ash back, through this mysterious program somebody had suggested to her. Her obsession with the phone Ash was done really well. We get to see her clinging onto his memory more and more, as she loses all other social activity in an attempt to reconnect with this memory of Ash, which she can't help but want to spend all her time with. It's a powerful message which reflects the natural human inability to let go and move on, and through the excellent storytelling, we get to see the negative effects that Martha clinging on to Ash has on her life, and how it ultimately ends up bringing her more suffering than good. This brings me to the robot Ash which Martha does everything to get her hands on. The phone Ash was easier to connect with, as she doesn't get to experience all of Ash's habits, but when this robot comes in, she realizes that what she has gotten is just a shell with pieces of Ash's personality added into it, and the robot just follows her around like some sort of lot child or animal. It's brutal to watch and very creepy, and it's sad to see this memory of Ash rapidly drive Martha insane as she realizes that it can't give her what she wants it to. The climax of the episode is a fantastic scene which perfectly portrays Martha's struggle as she brings "Ash" to the lover's leap spot and asks him to jump off, but at the same time lets out her anger that he isn't refusing in the way Ash would. But in the end, all this does is torture her more, as she now has to look at an image of Ash crying and begging her not to kill him. Her scream at the end perfectly encapsulated her misery and felt like a perfect cathartic conclusion to her story, so perfect in fact, that I think the episode could have ended there if it wanted to. But one thing this show des brilliantly, is offer one extra twist at the end, creating even more emotion while still driving home the episode. The ending to this episode is gut-wrenching as we learn that Martha has sent Ash up to the attic, just like Ash's mother did with the photographs, essentially adapting him as just a memory. It's really powerful, not only from the idea that her daughter seemingly visits him extremely rarely, but also from the thought that Ash is just standing there waiting, probably for months at a time, just for somebody to visit him once for a little while. That's even more powerful stuff to end the episode on. The writing on the show is superb as ever. There were so many little things which impressed me a lot. There were these fantastic little touches which made robot Ash feel even more inhuman when compared to the real Ash, including his hollow reactions to Ash's childhood picture and the Bee Gees song which Martha played in the car. The way the show handled Ash's death was great as well, making it impactful while also leaving some interesting ambiguity to it (see: The Unknown). Lastly, I thought the nature of the pregnancy test was fantastic as instead of a happy moment, it served as a painful reminder of what Martha has lost and how tough it would be to move on. The Bad: Sarah signing Martha up for the program felt stupid. How did she get Martha's information? Clearly they weren't that close since she doesn't appear again in the episode. And also, how would the company let Martha get signed up without her own consent? I felt like there was a bit too much repetition towards the end of the episode. I think the show lingered on Ash's creepiness and how it was bothering Martha a bit too much. I feel like it diminished the power of the episode quite a bit since the overall message seemed to drone on. Though that last point could definitely just be a problem for me. Having lost some people close to me recently, this was a very tough episode for me to watch, and a lot of the time it was too much for me. I can't deny that the storytelling was outstanding, but it was incredibly rough to watch, and I think that for me it was a bit too rough. I can't deny the episode's quality, but considering my uncomfortable reaction to it, I can't rank it amongst the best of the show. The Unknown: How did Ash end up dying? You would have to suspect that it was from his cell phone addition (another nod to the show's messages about technology). I like that the show leaves these small things ambiguous to let us fill in our own answers. Best Moment: The scene between Martha and Ash on the cliff was definitely the most affecting. It was easy to understand Martha's dilemma and her scream was fantastic. Character of the Episode: Martha. Conclusion: Black Mirror continues its strong streak with another excellent episode, which examines loss and the affects it has on people. While this episode is really uncomfortable for me to watch, I can't deny that the writing was outstanding. Score: 75 |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
February 2024
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