Finally finished the season, now I can go back and read the rest of the thread!
Episode 6 - Black Museum
This was an interesting one. The story itself was basically three stories (the doctor who felt the patients’ pain, the girlfriend trapped in her babydaddy’s brain, the wrapping story about the museum). All of them were fairly predictable (hey, a voice of another entire human being in my brain, able to think and feel, but never able to control anything… how could THAT possibly go wrong?). It certainly wasn’t a surprise that the girl visiting the museum had a secret.
And some of it rang fairly false to me. Yes, people are dicks. But family vacations where everyone ceremoniously re-executes a convicted killer? Uhhh…
More interestingly, the whole thing overall was clearly some commentary on Black Mirror itself. The name, the artifacts from other episodes in the museum, etc. But what point was it making? Are we, the Black Mirror audience, the same as the guests at the museum?
Some interesting bits, and I’m curious if anyone has a clearer take on it, but for me, mostly a miss. C-
So, my personal ratings for the full season:
USS Callister: C-
Arkangel: A-
Alligator: C+
Hang the DJ: B
Metalhead: A-
Black Museum: C-
Curious to see how this compares with other people’s overall thoughts.
Right, I got that. But it was also seemingly a callback to the conversations the avatars had had earlier in the episode, where “the system” was described as having a “99.8%” success rate.
But that was during the simulation, when presumably it was not yet determined that 998/1000 attempts would end in rebellion.
Were there other couples matched, who ended up 96.5% compatible (still very successful), because 965/1000 attempts ended in rebellion, but, inside those simulations, the avatars talked about the system’s success rate? If so, was it still “99.8%”?
The difference here is that we KNOW, with absolute certainty, that DNA doesn’t story memory. That’s not “here are some fakey sciencey terms, just go with it, it makes for a good story”. It was “here is a REAL science-y term, and we’re going to misuse it”.
And I don’t see why “illicitly keeping copies of brain scans that are supposed to be deleted” is any less creepy than stealing DNA. If anything, it’s MORE creepy, because a full brain scan is YOU, while DNA is just recipe for making a clone of you, but one without your memories/personality/experiences.
If I ran a company whose product was virtual universes I would take it a lot more seriously than you’re implying. Sure, a 140-character tweet with no context might not have been convincing, but that doesn’t mean a phone call could not possibly have worked. Not to mention that with blackmail their accomplice in the real world is unwilling and uninformed and unmotivated. There are plenty of things with the blackmail plot that could have gone wrong (oh no, he moved the fridge) and the blackmailee would just give up. Whereas if you convince the real-world people of the truth, then they will truly be on your side, and be motivated to actually try hard to accomplish your, and their, goal.
I agree that one of the better parts of the episode is how our view of the characters evolves over its running time. Daly starts out seeming a sympathetic protagonist and it turns out he isn’t… but what it turns out he isn’t is SO totally horrible, I found that less interesting than if he’d had any redeeming features left at all.
Re: Black Museum. Why is it required to stop at an old boarded up gas station to recharge your car’s solar cell? Was it just a coincidence that was where she stopped?
I’ve thought about it some more and come up with a clearer explanation for why I thought it was a weakness of Ep 1 that Daly was SO evil.
The thing is, I’m kind of like him. I’m a middled aged white man. I’m a video game developer. I’m somewhat lacking in social skills. I’m fortunately married now, but before I met my wife, I definitely had my share of unrequited and probably somewhat awkward crushes on female co-workers.
(Granted, I’m not a famous genius level programmer, and I’m just a senior engineer, not a CTO, but…)
So I definitely started out identifying with his character. And I find the question of what I might do with that kind of technology fascinating. If I weren’t married, and were just a bit more bitter than I am, and could create my own virtual universes, would I put female avatars in it that looked like women I had a crush on? Would I maybe twiddle their settings a bit in an effort to make them like me? Honestly, I don’t know, obviously the question of sentience is paramount, but I might be in denial, there might be a slippery slope, yada yada yada. So something like that, I look at, and I see myself.
On the other hand, you know what I would not do? Ever? And never even be tempted to do? Torture a child and make his father watch, even as a simulation. So at that point, my investment in the character, my identification with the character, was wasted.
To a certain extent, that’s not the episode’s fault. The episode is not a story about Daly, he’s not some greek-tragedy-flawed-protagonist. He’s just an antagonist, an obstacle for the actual protagonist to struggle against. Nonetheless, that’s the experience I had while watching it.
(On the topic of Jesse Plemmons, btw, to me he’ll always be Landry from Friday Night Lights. But, we should not forget some of his early work.)
It was certainly not coincidence. That said, I think the reason the museum was in such an out-of-the-way location was to mess with the audience’s expectations, not because it actually makes in-universe sense that if one were to open up a museum, and intend to make money by charging admittance, the best place to do so would be way the heck out in the middle of nowhere next to a run-down gas station.
Right, clearly, the protagonist intended to go to the museum. But she parked at the gas station, started her car charging, and then walked the relatively short distance over to the museum. Why not just park the car in the museum parking lot and charge it there?
There seemed to be some sort of requirement/custom to park a car in an old gas station parking lot and charge it there. It seemed odd.
My mild fanwank is that in case whathisface noticed her arrival, she wanted to appear to be a random passerby, as opposed to an intentional visitor, so he would let his guard down around her.
But it’s not a father and child, right? It’s just code. How many video games do we play where we shoot the bad guys? We don’t worry about their families and so forth because they are just computer simulations and not real.
Black Mirror explores this in several episodes (and some say that they over explore it) and asks the question about how at what point these are not simulations, but just as human as you or I.
Sure. But I don’t think it was asking that question in this episode. In this particular episode, I thought it was quite clear that we were supposed to view the simulations as effectively fully human. And it certainly didn’t seem that Daly was justifying his actions to himself on the basis of “oh, it’s not really humans, it’s just a bunch of 1s and 0s”.
This isn’t an episode where I feel like the writers want us to end up saying “who was right and who was wrong?”. Rather, this is an episode where the writers want us to end up saying “how does this very clear example of horrible behavior illuminate less clear examples in the real world”, or something like that.
That was obviously entirely intentional on their part. The episode is an indictment of a certain type of toxic fan/fandom. Who tend to be middle-aged white guys with limited social skills and awkward crushes on female coworkers. But the episode also played up sympathy towards Daly in the beginning, casting him as almost a victim.
Until we find out his other, and more horrible, traits. It’s like going to a convention and having a brief conversation with an old-school Trek fan… which segues into his rant on Gamersgate and pick-up artistry. Eventually, one hopes, you realize you should drop any sympathy that superficial shared traits might have implied.
This sort of emotional bait-and-switch was done better in “Shut Up and Dance”, where the episode is structured to engender sympathy toward a character the viewer would probably feel animus toward in the abstract. But I don’t think “USS Callister” was going for that; it’s more focused on skewering the more toxic tropes of Star Trek-like fandom: reverence for Kirk’s womanizing (not actually evident in Trek episodes), casual drinking shown by the bridge alchol bar, women presented as sex objects by the revealing miniskirt uniforms, etc. If you come out of the episode thinking “whoops, I liked that jackass who’s sort of like me”, rather than “whoops, I liked some questionable stuff in [whatever] fandom”, I think the episode missed its mark.
…its still just a fudge though. Fudges happen all the time. This happens to be a fudge where you know more about the science than the typical viewer: so it annoys you. I get annoyed by things like that all the time. That Person of Interest episode where Finch remotely controlled a plane with a game controller? When he took over the plane in less than a minute, then proceeded to safely land the thing? That couldn’t happen! My disbelief was suspended! Bad TV!
But that wasn’t a plot hole. It was a fudge that took me out of the programme. I got over it.
You don’t have to come into physical contact with someone to “scan them”. Getting your DNA involves actual physical contact. It involves premeditation. A sneaky plan. He stole a lolipop to get the son’s DNA. He waited for Cole to leave the office before grabbing her DNA. Both of those are infinitely more creepier than logging into a computer and downloading a scan. You don’t go “ewwwwww” when someone downloads stuff. You do go “ewwwwww” when they steal your saliva.
Do you see yourself more of a Daly or more of a Walton though? Daly would absolutely believe it. I probably would too. But Walton? He’d think it would be a prank. Walton knows Walton. It wasn’t worth the risk.
They had the option of a “possibility” or “absolute certainty.” Cole absolutely knew that blackmail would work. She knew herself better than anyone else. And it did. Why risk doing something that you concede would only be a possibility?
Yeah: everything conveniently worked out in the end. The fridge hadn’t moved. I rolled my eyes as well. But any other variation would have conveniently worked out in the end as well. That’s just how things work on TV.
Have you ever met an internet troll that had redeeming features? Daly is sympathetic in the “real world.” But when he jumps online he becomes an unredeemable arsehole. This is how it actually works. This is what women experienced during goobergate. Relentless attacks from unredeemable arseholes.
Could you imagine saying any of these things to a woman online? (TW misogyny, gendered insults, sexual violence, rape and death threats in the spoiler box)
[SPOILER]“You are a despicable whore”
“Kill yourself feminists are a waste of air also games should have girl characters half naked such as tomb raider”
“shut the fuck up bitch I’m the lawyer of this community got something to say take it up with me”
“I hope that every feminist has their head severed from their shoulders”
“kill yourself oh wait sorry did I hurt your tits on my keyboard”
Could you ever be tempted to say any of these things?
Daly isn’t that outlandish. Internet trolls don’t see their victims as people. Daly didn’t see Walton’s son as a person. They don’t see people being hurt, they don’t see people getting scared, they don’t see how devastating their behaviour can be. I knew somebody who had to move across country and had to entirely change their life because of goobergate.
I saw a little bit of myself in Daly as well. When the “twist” happened I felt uncomfortable with that as well. I’ve gotten used to seeing myself as the protagonist. I’ve gotten used to seeing the “female love interest” becoming the reward.
I think if I had seen this episode before goobergate I might have had a lukewarm reaction to it as well. But I can’t help seeing this from that context. The internet is supposed to be fucking fun. But a small group of toxic gatekeepers just can’t help themselves: they have to have all the fun and to hell with everyone else. Which is why I loved the ending of USS Callister so much. It was that moment that Milo got blocked on twitter, the trolling died down and everybody could start having a bit of fun again. (Then the elections happened. )
(NB: I completely respect your right to have a different opinion, and sorry if my opinion comes across as quite strident. I just love this episode. )
I can see an argument that “plot hole” is the wrong word. But it’s a jarring error in a show that usually doesn’t make them. A typical Black Mirror episode says “ok, it’s the real world, except that we can scan your entire memory out of your head and put it into your little toe”. And I don’t get all wiggy about how that’s implausible, I buy into it. But in this case, it was like “ok, it’s the real world, except that people can be downloaded into virtual simulations”. And I’m cool with that. And then, partway in, it throws in “oh, and also, people’s entire memory is stored in every snip of their DNA”. Why not also throw in that people can eat rocks and the world is flat?
I flat out disagree. What’s more of an invasion of privacy… stealing a coffee cup that someone has drunk from or, say, reading their diary? Physical proximity isn’t the only thing that determines level of offense.
Again, I flat out disagree, on two points:
(1) If you live in a universe in which digital avatars are at least a vague possibility, and you get a phone call, and it’s someone speaking in your own voice, and they say “hi, Banquet Bear, listen very carefully, I’m a digital clone of you, to prove that here are a bunch of your passwords and secrets (followed by 30 seconds of rattling off passwords and early memories that you’ve never shared with anyone). Now, listen carefully…”, and then claims that a sketchy seeming tech genius who has been described to you as creepy has kidnapped your virtual clone, are you NOT going to believe that?
(2) Who would you rather have assisting you? Someone who hates and resents you, and has been given one inflexible set of instructions to follow, with no knowledge of what the actual objective is, so no ability to improvise as the situation changes; or someone who is nearly unlimitedly motivated to help you, because it’s YOU, who will keep trying if the first attempt fails, yada yada yada.
And the better the TV show, the less frequently contrived things of that sort happen
Not sure what your point is. I’m not Daly isn’t a realistic character. I just think he’s not an interesting character. Which I found disappointing, personally.
I also think the gamergate comparison doesn’t really work all the way through. Yes, Daly definitely is in many ways a gamergater. But it’s not like the episode is saying “ok, here’s how to fight against internet trolls… trick them into letting you steal their communicator, then blackmail yourself, then lock them into their own brain” or something. So I wouldn’t say the entire episode is “about” gamergate, if you see what I’m saying.
…its much less jarring and much less problematic than getting basic information about Plan B and abortion wrong. Black Mirror is full of errors like this. You happened to notice this one so it stood out for you. You’ve taught me some science. Thanks! I’m sorry I’m not as smart as you so the experience would have been just as jarring for me. Oh well.
Its not “stealing a coffee cup.” Its stealing the saliva. Its the issue of consent. Reading a diary has the same consent issues. But you didn’t propose “fixing the plot” by having someone “read a diary.” You proposed fixing it by having them do a brain scan. The issues of consent: the ick factor, is just different.
I’ve already said that I probably would.
But would Walton?
Walton doesn’t think so. Which is why they didn’t do it.
What choice did they have? They had one shot. Cole knew that blackmail would work. There is something that I know about that only I know about. If someone called me and threatened to release that information: damn right I’m going to do what they say. If you’ve got a deep dark secret: you understand. If you haven’t, then you probably won’t.
And Black Mirror is fantastic, and it wasn’t that contrived. They got lucky.
You said that you could never be tempted to “torture a child and make his father watch, even as a simulation.” I’m sure you could never be tempted to hurl abuse to someone on twitter. But these people exist. Daly isn’t an aberration. He isn’t unrealistic. There are unredeemable arsehole out there, all over the internet. On this episode of Black Mirror they gave him a starship. There was nothing wrong with giving him no redeeming qualities. He’s the bad guy.
It isn’t about goobergate. Its about toxic masculinity. Its about toxic fandom. Goobergate is just a sub-set of this. Its like the “Black Museum” episode. There are a lot of “shrug-of-the-shoulders” out there over that episode. Lots of C’s. But wander over to black twitter: and the episode is a masterpiece. Read the reviews by black reviewers, and compare those reviews to the mainstream. Its a completely different experience. It was both devastating and uplifting. That it was released on the same day that Erica Garner died had even more of an impact.
USS Callister was the same. If you can’t see it, then you haven’t lived through it, experienced it. Thats okay. But just because you don’t see it it doesn’t mean that it isn’t there.
Cripes. ALL of Black Mirror is crap science. Strong AI that doesn’t realize it’s not a living human is crap science. Strong AI simulations run in a few moments in the cloud by smartphones as in “Hang the DJ” is crap science. People on stationary bikes to generate power is crap science. The endless complaints about this one example of shitty science just highlights how most viewers don’t understand how anything actually works. They blithely accept Sci Fi technobabble explanations as though it were somehow different from Harry Potter mumbling bad Latin as an explanation for how the world works.
The better the story, the characters, and the acting, the crappier the science can be without anyone giving a shit or even noticing. It has to be really extremely egregious crap science to take someone out of a story that is otherwise really good. Which happens, but rarely.
In general the fact that some significant number of viewers complain about crap science is a sign that the story and characters did not engage them.
The other issue is that in science fiction and fantasy the science being completely crap shouldn’t really take one out of the story much - so long as it crap in internally consistent ways.
A central premise inside Black Mirror universe (and they are separate stories but they tend to share the same laws of reality) is that desktop processing can run sentient AI agents at arbitrarily fast clock speeds such that they experience lifetimes in minutes and that consciousness can be transferred to these agents. I guess it has never been clearly established before how that transfer is done but no reason that in universe it is not via a crap science method.
I posit that the reason that crap science of the DNA annoys some is because the episode otherwise annoys them, or minimally fails to engage them.
I wouldn’t overthink the “science” part of the show. At its core, Black Mirror is more in the “speculative fiction” tradition than the “science fiction” one, like Harlan Ellison and some of Vonnegut’s work. I think it’s best to generally not get too hung up on the scientific details and accept whatever conceits are thrown at us by the writers…the character motivation and ethical considerations are really more important than the nuts and bolts of the technology.
I must say I think Black Mirror would do well with at least one episode per season that had no connection with futuristic technology at all. Shut Up and Dance was sort of in this category, as was the pilot episode. I am confident that,with the level of writing and directing displayed by the show, they are capable of making an episode that was essentially unrelated to technology but which could still pack an emotional punch. The Twilight Zone was able to do it with The Shelter.
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I just love this episode. 
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