Same here, by the way. I didn’t see the twist coming. It got me, I have to admit. It was a good one.
And chalk another one who guessed the twist of San Junipero not long in, but don’t think that’s the point at all. It’s the story it told involving that twist that was original and greatly done.
By contrast, there’s Men Against Fire.
I voted for “National Anthem” for sentimental reasons. It totally blew my mind on first viewing and made me want more. I know many people don’t like it that much, but I think it was a brilliant, audacious choice for a first episode of a new show. (It’s also pretty great in terms of acting and writing, IMHO.)
I’m enough of a fan of the whole series that it’s far easier to list episodes I don’t like so much. The only ones I never really warmed to were “Complete History of You” and the video game testing episode in this last season, whatever it was called. (Although the fact that the latter was on some level a Brick Joke with the punchline/message CALL YOUR MOM! does win it a bit of love from me.)
I can see quickly guessing the “twist” - that is, the reveal of the episode’s central premise - but I doubt too many viewers saw the actual denouement coming THAT far ahead. Am I wrong?
I like National Anthem but it doesn’t feel representative of the series as a whole so I usually don’t recommend people watch that first. Of course I watched it first and still love the series so who knows? 
I wouldn’t believe anyone who knew they were watching Black Mirror if they said they expected that ending.
Maybe if it was someone who’d never seen another Black Mirror.
Emphasis added. Do people find that episode unusual because it doesn’t rely on any futuristic technology? In other words, it’s not as “sci-fi” as other episodes?
I actually think its comparative plausibility makes it a great intro to the series! Particularly because the second episode is so obviously metaphorical and futuristic.
Trying not to spoil - I really liked “Be Right Back” for some of the same reasons I liked “San Junioero” in terms of … having an unexpected emotional tone, when compared to the series as a whole. (“Nosedive” did something similar, actually.)
You think they didn’t record his computer activity?
Even if they didn’t, how would he know they didn’t? Why would he feel confident calling that bluff?
I’d think that having that particular secret would be a big source of guilt, shame, etc. Paranoia would come with the territory, right?
His willingness to go along with the blackmail makes sense to me.
I agree. As I said above, I think “San Junipero”, “Shut Up and Dance”, White Christmas", “White Bear”, and “Nosedive” are the five best episodes ever. Nosedive was good all the way though, but the last minute or two really made it for me. It was just so symbolic and symbolism done so well, I thought.
Wasn’t his secret revealed at the end of Shut Up and Dance, anyway? So, clearly the hackers had video of what he was watching.
My Vote goes to Shut Up and Dance. Though I never understood the meaning of the title.
Honestly, I’m not sure the having verifiable proof really matters in this situation. The accusation alone would likely be enough to significantly ruin your life. Like that recent business with Casey Affleck’s Oscar. The claims were settled our of court, he denied the allegations, and there was no admission of guilt but that didn’t stop people from assuming he was guilty.
For a non movie-star, that kind of reputation could easily prevent you from finding a job, or maintaining a relationship. You might find yourself on the receiving end of some frontier justice.
As an example, I had a friend with a younger looking wife. She could easily be mistaken for 12 or 13 years old; she was short and very girlish looking. Anyway his next door neighbor proceeded to make it her mission in life to slander him as a pedophile, and no amount of reasoning or evidence could dissuade her from her crusade. Long story short, he had to move to a different part of town to escape the repercussions of having that kind of reputation. The narrative was more important that the truth.
The perpetrators were Internet trolls: they wanted their victims to shut up and dance for their amusement. Dance, monkeys! Dance!
I think I fought and lost this point in another thread, but I never thought the kid in Shut Up and Dance was actually looking at anything illegal, despite the trolls clearly telling the world and his mother that he was. I thought he was just doing what regular teenagers do.
I’d be disappointed if I’m wrong. I think it’s a much better story without that being true. For a start the horror of his fate is so much more pure. I find it totally plausible that the not fully developed mind of a teenager will be so mortified by the public shame of even this largely innocent act that they’d be compelled to go along with the troll’s demands. The cruel arbitrariness of just targeting people because you can, without even the pretense of “seeking justice”, is more compelling to me then the more muddied case where the troll might have a sliver of moral justification.
Thanks, everyone is saying they saw the twist early and I am the only one that had the wrong twist in mind. The real reveal was…not that shocking.
Goodness gracious, certainly Men Against Fire is the most obvious twist in the show and additionally the worst episode.
My pick for worst episode for sure.
I think his interaction with the kid at the beginning of the episode was supposed to serve as a hindsight hint that it is true. He is attracted to kids. That, and I do think the episode means it to be true. The primary twist…is that our protagonist is a monster.
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I think his interaction with the kid at the beginning of the episode was supposed to serve as a hindsight hint that it is true. He is attracted to kids. That, and I do think the episode means it to be true. The primary twist…is that our protagonist is a monster.
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I guess. If that’s true it’s a huge negative in my opinion. The twist is the kids actually a monster? Who cares? I’d expect such a “shocking” twist from a stupid Hollywood movie. Black Mirror seems to in general to be better than that, with twists that have larger terrifying implications for the future of our society. Arguably many episodes don’t have twists at all, just an acknowledgement that you don’t know everything that is going on until it is slowly filled in. “The kids a monster” just doesn’t have a lot of resonance with me, and having that as the final act in my opinion diminishes the rest of the story, which is in itself a lot more interesting and frightening.
Agree about Men Against Fire. The episode is done well, but yes the twist was so obvious I thought it was a set up for a larger twist at the end. But in the end, the thing of him going back to a family that is also an illusion makes zero sense and would fall apart immediately.
But my issue with SJ is not merely that the twist is obvious, it’s that the twist is obvious because the story isn’t actually very original.
“Neverland” stories, or afterlife stories, of course go way back in human history, and usually they’ll be some dynamic of a character that cannot, or will not, go to neverland, because writing stories in the neverland itself can be difficult. If all the characters go to neverland then that usually happens as the end state of the story.
So for SJ…OK they’re in a VR, that’s obvious immediately (although in fairness it’s obvious largely because I know I’m watching Black Mirror). Outside the VR they are old and one is terminally…yeah I expected their forms outside of the VR to be radically different, maybe a different gender.
One chooses to live forver in Neverland and the other chooses not to…yes I’ve heard stories like that many times. But in the end they are together…yes it’s nice to get a somewhat positive ending to BM but that is also not so original.
Anyway, don’t want to sound too bitchy about Black Mirror; I still love it, and it’s a testament to how smart it is that when it drops to the level of conventional storytelling that’s the low point.
Well, I think the primary twist is that he’s a monster and you still feel sympathy for him despite that. Revealing that’s he’s a regular guy who some bad people did bad stuff to isn’t a twist, and it’s certainly not provocative; it’s just insipid.
Heh, I notice that the wikipedia summary of “Shut Up And Dance” not only details the dark twist, but under the Production notes it mentions that Brooker revealed that previous versions swapped around whether there was a dark twist at all, or which got the dark twist, until the final version as described.