Those little filler segments from Doug are on youtube and are the perfect little gateway drug into his messed-up world.
And it also had Philomena Cunk & Barry Shitpeas.
I also ended up binge watching over a couple of nights, and I agree that the last one was a disappointment. I kept expecting it to go somewhere much more interesting but it just sort of petered out.
The first episode, “The National Anthem”, and the fifth “White Bear” were my favorites.
An interesting thing about Black Mirror is that 5 of the 6 episodes (arguably excluding “White Bear”) focused on the potential effects of information technology, either current or extrapolated into the future.
Regarding “White Bear” (MAJOR SPOILER. Seriously, don’t read this if you haven’t watched the episode. It WILL ruin it for you.):I suppose that you could argue that “White Bear”, being an extreme extrapolation of reality and Candid Camera type shows, was also about information technology, but it seemed to be more about a live theme park and didn’t appear to be something that was broadcast or streamed (it would quickly become boring).
White Bear was my only episode so far and:
I thought that it was a reality show right from the get go, but I did not figure it was a punsihment for a crime. Oddly enough, my favorite part was the closing credits, where they showed the upbeat and relaxed presentation the company makes to the paying customers. It was so eerie and at the same time, fascinating, to see the behind the scenes outakes/setup for the “performance”.
I’ll likely watch The Entire History of You next, just based on what I’ve heard.
Thanks for the recommendation! I watched the first episode and Fifteen Million Merits yesterday and enjoyed the show. Suitably dark and biting, biting satire.
Ah, I love British telly.
Regarding White Bear, it wasn’t as much extrapolating on the potential of streaming technology…
It was extrapolating on the tabloids, and people’s thirst for vengeance and extreme punishment. I’m sure if you asked Nancy Grace or other people like her, they would definitely want White Bear type parks to be built. I’ve seen a lot of imaginative comments on the internet on punishment criminals should get.
The AV Club review goes into it, and talks about an inspiration for the episode. Do NOT read the review if you haven’t seen the episode, but if you have seen the episode it is an interesting and thoughtful read.
Charlie Brooker has said that there will be more episodes.
Black Mirror will be back... eventually : News 2014 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide…_eventually
Why can’t Weekly Wipe be a regular show? He only does it for a bit at the start of the year and then does one “year-end wipe”. He could have replaced Colbert if given the chance.
Is there any place to watch this besides Netflix? I don’t have a Netflix account and it sounds interesting. Looked on Amazon and it’s $30 for the first season, but there’s only two episodes.
It has a sort of undercurrent of recurrent themes that are dark and provocative.
The thing I like about the show is that I never feel like at the end there is some clear point or moral view that is clear - I do not feel like I’m being preached to. I may be being preached to but perhaps I’m too dense to notice. I’m left with the feeling that the world is really just kind of a shitty place, I’m shitty, you’re shitty. as individuals we’re shitty collectively we’re even shittier. But, once in a while someone attempts to do something noble, but it ends in shit and the protagonist is worse off than he or she was in the first place. And the world keeps going as if nothing of importance happened.
Can I Stream It says it’s on OnCable by XFinity, so if you have that you should look on demand there. Can I Stream It is usually pretty good about saying where things are available, although it doesn’t say that Black Mirror is on Netflix, so maybe it doesn’t always get updated immediately.
There are several full episodes on youtube, but I suspect they will be taken down before too long.
The good thing about Netflix is that you could join for just one month at a cost of $8.00 or so. There’s no contract, so you can cancel any time.
The first season has 3 episodes, not 2, although I suppose it’s possible that Amazon is only offering 2. If you do buy a DVD, make sure that you get one that you can actually play. I just glanced at a couple for sale on Amazon and they won’t play on region 1 (USA and Canada) machines.
The DVD will not play in the US, though I do have a PAL player. The Blu-Ray version they have only has two episodes on it. I did check that, and the price is more then I’d like to pay. I might just have to sign up for Netflix again.
Netflix for 1 month will cost you less than the DVD. You can sign up for a month, watch all 6 episodes, and then cancel if you don’t really want Netflix.
Pay $8 and watch you some Black Mirror, House of Cards and Orange is the New Black.
Then spend the next month locked in a closet mumbling to yourself, maybe.
Seriously tho, Black Mirror is so amazing. A friend told me about it in January of this year and I think I watched it in the spring. It absolutely sucked to watch something so amazing only to not have anyone to talk about it with or explain it to.
So, I hope this takes off like wildfire and John Hamm’s involvement brings it to the US more readily and we can all finally be on the same page!
The first episode, by the way, made me physically ill. I think though because of the buildup of what is basically animal abuse. That made me so sad. Plus all the other stuff of course.
Anyway, I didn’t get sick from the other episodes but they were great and deep!
And yeah, bring back Weekly Wipe! He actually is a little bit preachy in his solo segments (which I am glad does not carry over to Black Mirror) but the show was always just…fun!
The first episode is a lot more grounded than the rest, If you don’t like the first one, please give another episode a try.
Charlie Brooker the comedian, writer and social commentator is amazingly talented and thought provoking, but the horror director Charlie Brooker is terrible, I love most of his stuff, but when he dabbled in horror in the series Dead Set, I couldn’t be more bored.
I’ll say. Holy shit that was stupid.
We’re really supposed to believe that 86 percent of the British people would demand the PM give in to terrorist demands? With no thought as to what precedent that would set, never mind fucking a pig on live tv? And that the security services would threaten the life of the PM’s family if he didn’t capitulate? This silliness is supposed to “deep” and “thought-provoking?” Maybe if you’re a drunk and high college fresman.
It is satire and black comedy, cynical musings on a near-future-maybe-world not an accurate representation of how things are.
I don’t think we are supposed to think that such things will happen, more that we are invited to consider exactly how close to that scenario we would go. How do we respond to similar situations now? In what direction are we travelling? How far will we go?
No happy endings, no easy answers, no firm predictions.