And there was one good throw-away line, after they’d infiltrated Streamberry: “How can you not find them? Most of the walls are made of glass!”
Ha! Between that episode and discovering he’s the genius behind Philomena Cunk, I think Charlie Booker is probably my favorite currently working TV comedy writer.
…I LOVED Joan is Awful. Its my favourite kind of Black Mirror story, that kinda started with San Junipero, where the ending
was an upbeat one, it didn’t end on a downer.
I also really quite enjoyed Demon 79, that was co-written by Ms Marvel’s Bisha K. Ali and directed by Toby Haynes, who did my favourite episodes of Doctor Who, as well as Black Mirror’s USS Callister. The music for this episode was on point, much of the story seemed very personal about how difficult it could be merely existing in the UK at a certain point of time, and there was a reference to a
classic British TV show and one of my FAVOURITES, Sapphire and Steel. I’m choosing to believe the oblivion that Gaap and Nida were heading too was probably the cafe that Sapphire and Steel ended up in when they got trapped in the final episode.
If you have never seen his “wipe” shows, they are terrific. He did a pandemic wipe that was a hilarious hour. Definitely of the 2020 year, but my wife and I reference/quote it all the time.
Here is a clip, but you MUST find the whole thing. It’s pure hilarity from start to end and we all lived through all this so it hits so hard.
I haven’t read anything much in this thread yet because I’m not quite done watching them all and I don’t want to be spoiled, but Mazey Day was fantastic. Gosh, I just love these shows. I wish I could think the way this writer does.
Well, maybe.
In Loch Henry, who killed the girlfriend? It was the boyfriend, right?
Or do I miss something?
While running away, she tripped and fell face down in a stream. Apparently she was knocked out and drowned. He loved her and wouldn’t have killed her.
Oh. I thought the edit from the boyfriend learning the truth in the hospital to the death of the girlfriend implied he had accepted his place in his family and was continuing the tradition - seems kind of coincidental the girlfriend would die at just that moment.
Oh well.
I think it was more about how the main character lost everything. He llost his mom, his memory of his parents is tarnished and his girlfriend is dead. Hes all alone in the world despite winning an award for his documentary.
Also I liked how Beyond the Sea and Demon 79 didn’t go with the obvious ending
Because the mission was to test the effects of long space travel on humans
I’ve liked the ones I’ve seen so far, but Demon 79 was a very boring episode. I struggled to finish it was left totally underwhelmed.
Did they say that? I wondered.
Finished the season. Mazey Day was the worst, but none could live up to Joan Is Awful.
A better season than the previous one.
I hope they make the spinoff Red Mirror like Charlie Brooker wants to. Demon 79 was written for Red Mirror, but ended up in this season of Black Mirror.
Mazey Day was definitely my least favourite by a long shot; the first 2/3 was kind of boring and then there was a silly twist.
My favourite was Demon 79, but it was more like Theatre of Blood than a Black Mirror episode. It was practically feature-length, too!
Also the very funny detective parody A Touch of Cloth featuring John Hannah (from the Loch Henry episode).
I had never heard of Philomena Cunk. After reading your post I checked out “Cunk on Earth” and ended up binging the entire series. Thank you for mentioning it!
They foreshadowed that part, though.
When they were explaining (in the first pub scene) how so many people could go missing before arousing suspicion, they explicitly mentioned how there was “a lot of deep water” around there, and people fell in, drowned and were often never seen again quite often. As soon as I saw her trying to cross that stream, I knew she was done for.
Joan is Awful was one of the better episodes I’ve seen. It was very funny and the twist at the end was somehow both a surprise and appropriately foreshadowed. And the scenario portrayed actually felt like something that would be plausible in some form in the not to distant future.
Beyond the Sea I didn’t care for. Aside from the fact that James Cameron has already spent millions to create hours of movies dealing with the ethical ramifications of astronauts using biorobotic avatars, the story didn’t really present any sort of ethical conundrum and the “twist” at the end felt unearned.
As others have mentioned…why send astronauts into space and keep the avatars on Earth (unless that was part of the experiment)? And why were the two astronauts so isolated with almost no contact with NASA or whoever?
But David murdering Cliff’s family at the end made no sense and came out of left field. We are never given a sense that David is deranged or dangerously jealous aside from his obvious infatuation with Cliff’s wife and his grief over the loss his family. It’s like the writers got lazy and decided to toss in a stupid random horrifying twist instead of perhaps more obvious outcomes like:
- Lana actually starts to fall in love with David as Cliff because Cliff is such a turd
- Cliff Actual is accidently killed or incapacitated on the station and David takes over his life (possibly with Lana’s assistance).
Really it just felt random
I concur.
Joan is Awful was great and I’m part way through Loch Henry.
I’m thinking this is their best season so far.
I don’t know about that, but it was a huge uptick in quality.