Black Mirror SPOILER DISCUSSION

Post by **TPRJones** » Sat Feb 21, 2015 10:13 pm

GORDON, your hat is safe.

Just finished ep 1. He absolutely shouldn't have done it. If you start to give in to those sorts of demands there will be no end of it.

Post by **GORDON** » Sat Feb 21, 2015 10:50 pm

I don't even know. It was a tough call.

Post by **TPRJones** » Sat Feb 21, 2015 11:16 pm

Doesn't matter if it turned out to be an art project, it was still fundamentally an act of terror. And you really can't negotiate with terrorists. It only encourages them.

Post by **GORDON** » Sat Feb 21, 2015 11:20 pm

Yeah, I see that.

But still, what if he didn't and she died.

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Sat Feb 21, 2015 11:20 pm

GORDON wrote:I don't even know. It was a tough call.

No, it's not.

We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!

But still, what if he didn't and she died.

States being forced to do random shit at the whim of psychopaths is worth more than one life. By all means, launch every rescue operation possible, but do not acquiesce. Do not feed the wolves.

Episode 2:

Fucking brilliant all around. Probably the best sci-fi I've seen on the big or small screen in a long time. Although the power generation scheme is fucking insanely inefficient.

Edited By Malcolm on 1424579274

Post by **TPRJones** » Sat Feb 21, 2015 11:39 pm

Ep 2 was just depressing.

Good show, but sad.

Post by **GORDON** » Sun Feb 22, 2015 12:09 am

I thought Ep2 might be a criticism of capitalism. Fat peeps in yellow were "the poor."

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Sun Feb 22, 2015 12:39 am

GORDON wrote:I thought Ep2 might be a criticism of capitalism. Fat peeps in yellow were "the poor."

No, it's not. The lemons are those that can't be used to earn the attention span of the masses. If you ain't shit to look at, if you aren't marketable, then you're worthless. That's reinforced by mandatory cycling to encourage physical fitness. Note all the "eat healthy" adverts all over. That's why the protagonist uses the trick the dumpy-looking chick taught him to impress the hot chick while completely ignoring the former.

Post by **GORDON** » Sun Feb 22, 2015 12:46 am

Malcolm wrote:No, it's not.

No, it's not.

I disagree.

Post by **GORDON** » Sun Feb 22, 2015 1:10 pm

Episode 3:

As if having naked selfies and sex tapes stolen from your iPhone aren't enough, now people keep infidelities and shit on their brain SSD in order to get caught?

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Sun Feb 22, 2015 1:26 pm

GORDON wrote:Episode 3:

As if having naked selfies and sex tapes stolen from your iPhone aren't enough, now people keep infidelities and shit on their brain SSD in order to get caught?

I'm a bit unclear if people's ability to form and keep memories on their own is gone or if the playback's some tech on top of normal brainpower.

Post by **GORDON** » Sun Feb 22, 2015 1:36 pm

That woman who was gouged remembered being gouged, so at least to an extent...

Post by **TPRJones** » Sun Feb 22, 2015 11:52 pm

I got the impression that normal memory was mostly unaffected. Just no more playbacks. There's probably some minor loss of fine-grain memory from not having to use it so much, but that's probably minor.

You still have to be able to remember when to play back, after all.

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Mon Feb 23, 2015 12:29 am

I got the impression that normal memory was mostly unaffected. Just no more playbacks.

That lessens the sting on that one considerably, then.

Post by **GORDON** » Mon Feb 23, 2015 2:14 pm

Episode 4:

Women don't have control of their emotions and, combined with technology, end up with a not-boyfriend that even her daughter will be able to fuck, someday.

Regarding episode 2, and the capitalism metaphor:

Regular working stiffs go to their non-important jobs every day... literally spinning their wheels but supposedly providing some overall value to the society. Their primary motivation in life is to buy stuff that literally has no value, and to not be poor.... errr, end up in yellow. Those who aren't pulling their weight, literally, end up in yellow as second class citizens.

The poor, those in yellow, are treated like shit. They do the most menial labor in a service industry, produce nothing, serve the working class, get ridiculed by those with the jobs, are mocked on television, and ironically, are fed a diet of unhealthy things until they are obese as hell and end up on reality shows.

Those who do manage to spin their wheels a lot have a chance to break into the upper class and be rich. Those who do manage to get there with their morals intact are quickly absorbed, used, and consumed by those already there.

Sounds an awful lot like a dark metaphor for capitalism, to me.

Edited By GORDON on 1424718957

Post by **GORDON** » Mon Feb 23, 2015 7:38 pm

Episode 5:

Interesting take on justice/revenge. At first I thought that it seemed like it would be an expensive way to punish someone, then I figured out they were charging admission and torturing her probably paid for itself.

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Tue Feb 24, 2015 1:58 pm

Another thought on ep 3. The memory tech would be squashed in the initial stages because Sony sues for copyright infringement.

Post by **TPRJones** » Tue Feb 24, 2015 2:55 pm

Or they insert commercials over any copyrighted content.

"Funny, I thought they were playing Lady Gaga at the club, but apparently we were all dancing to mouth wash commercials."

Post by **GORDON** » Sat Mar 14, 2015 11:09 pm

In the XMAS episode, what do you suppose the more horrific technology was.... making a duplicate of your mind to be your personal slave, or the real-life "blocking" ability?

Post by **TPRJones** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 7:23 pm

Eh, both have good and bad points.