re: Black mirror season 4 SPOILERS thread that NOBODY asked for

quote:

---

I was certain the mom was gonna see her kid being raped or some shite and be helpless to it at some point.

---

I thought the mom was going to watch her daughter kill herself. Thankfully it didn't get that dark.

I decided to move my post from the NO SPOILERS thread.

quote:

---

I wouldn't be surprised if the genesis for the idea of this story was "That cheetah robot from Boston Dynamics sure is creepy, can you imagine having to run from one of those?" This episode was at it's best when there was suspense from the dog chasing her and that was good, but that's not really why I like Black Mirror.

---

I think the whole point of this episode was to point out how our attachment to AI could fool us into a false sense of reality . I don't think it was just about robot killing people. what they wanted to show was that what would happen if AI turned on us and how dangerous and hopeless it would be. That robot wasn't acting based on set commands in the code, but rather it was utilizing the info available to it, and learning from it, the dog utilizing the knife as a weapon and guarding the teddy bear box were good examples. with growth in the machine learning field in last few year, and everybody jumping the bandwagon of it's usefulness, this was trying to show the other side. I also really enjoyed the way this episode was shot.

As far as Black Mirror as a series. Sometimes I think they are trying to show us "good tech gone bad". For example, you pointed out that in "Crocodile" episode. Mia was eventually caught by the pet guinea pig. I think that was to show that in this society you can't really run away from the terrible things you may do (Remember the dentist that was a bit scared to share his memories of that evening with Shazia). In some ways, this episode felt like it was loosely connected to the episode "The Entire History of You".

quote:

---

I thought how She killed the old boyfriend in the hotel Room was rediculous

---

I thought this was funny because I literally read an article a few days prior about inaccurate death methods frequently used by Hollywood, and strangulation by hand was on there

quote:

---

By cocomoLSU's request - black mirror season 4 with SPOILERS thread

---

I just didn't know if there was one.

So far I've only seen three:


USS Callister - Thought it was great. That episode is the kind of shite that BM should be about at its core. It was easy enough to follow along, and it contained elements of different types of genres. Like someone mentioned in the other thread, it had sort of a Twilight Zone feel (with the clones having to play along or risk getting tortured by Daly; it had elements of a heist when she had to go into his house and retrieve the stuff; it had the makings of a drama with the outcast/work storyline; it was funny at times; had the classic Star Trek feel; etc. It even had a sliver of a White Christmas feel to it. Even if it was a bit farfetched in that the clones would live as themselves in the online game, it was just a cool, entertaining hour of television.


Arkangel - This one was just okay. I thought the premise was decent though. And I could definitely see something like that happening in the relatively near future (minus the "being able to see what they see" angle that is so prevalent on the show). I don't get why the mom went to the furniture store to confront Trick and she was like "She's only 15!!" Isn't Trick the same age, or roughly the same age, as the daughter is? They are schoolmates after all. Anyway, this was typical teenage girl angst shite for me...entertaining enough, but in the bottom half of BM episodes.


Hang the DJ - Watched this one with the gf, and we both really liked it. I love how everybody in this utopia (dystopia?) is a giant whore, and banging each other is basically a given every single time. I was wondering where they were going with everything, and I thought it was cool in the end when it all ended up being a simulation (one of a thousand) that led to their 99.8% match in real life. And the main chick was hot too, so that was nice. I also liked that it was fairly positive, a la San Junipero. As awesome as BM is, it doesn't have to be just a downer all the time. It's nice when they mix in positive/uplifting type episodes sometimes.

now why would i do that?

Hang the DJ is overrated. It was good but predictable from the very beginning. I called they would "escape to be together" the first time they were matched.

It didn't go anywhere really, and was easily guessed IMO after seeing the San Juniperio (sp) episode.

USS Callister, unbelievable and quite possiblly Black Mirror at it's best. Jimmi Simpson and Jessie Plemons both killed it in this one. The virtual exact copy via DNA brings up all kinds of moral issues IMO and it handled it perfect.

Trapping him at the end is a stretch though. Someone would eventually go looking for him and find him, esp knowing he designed the biggest selling VR experience. I guess the question is could they pull him out when they find him. I'm guessing not but it seems like some programmer could eventually figure it out and free him.

quote:

---

USS Callister, unbelievable and quite possiblly Black Mirror at it's best. Jimmi Simpson and Jessie Plemons both killed it in this one. The virtual exact copy via DNA brings up all kinds of moral issues IMO and it handled it perfect.

---

I really liked Callister but the fact that DNA doesn't have your memories really hurt the believability of this one. Considering his position in the company they probably could have set up a better explanation like building personality profiles off of their interaction with the game. With as much personal information as people willingly give to Facebook today, it doesn't seem that far fetched for the programs we interact with in the future to have a pretty detailed personality profile and memory history. Instead of stealing DNA he just hacks their profile to build them on his own personal server.

But stealing DNA makes for a cleaner story and the box of DNA laced items also showed up in Black Museum. A much easier to transfer Easter Egg than hacked avatars.

quote:

---

Trapping him at the end is a stretch though. Someone would eventually go looking for him and find him, esp knowing he designed the biggest selling VR experience. I guess the question is could they pull him out when they find him. I'm guessing not but it seems like some programmer could eventually figure it out and free him.

---

If removing the interface on his temple didn't break the connection there's no way it would have been safe enough to sell.

quote:

---

I really liked Callister but the fact that DNA doesn't have your memories really hurt the believability of this one. Considering his position in the company they probably could have set up a better explanation like building personality profiles off of their interaction with the game. With as much personal information as people willingly give to Facebook today, it doesn't seem that far fetched for the programs we interact with in the future to have a pretty detailed personality profile and memory history. Instead of stealing DNA he just hacks their profile to build them on his own personal server. But stealing DNA makes for a cleaner story and the box of DNA laced items also showed up in Black Museum. A much easier to transfer Easter Egg than hacked avatars.

---

Yea, I didn't even think about DNA and memories. They def used that as just an accessible and clean way to do it. And they actually have a few companies IRL they are doing the whole "digital self" after you die thing by gathering data on you. That's for real. It did confuse my mom a good bit though bc I had to keep explaining to her that they were literally just digital clones.

Real company that creates a digital version of you for your loved ones

quote:

---

honestly, how much difference is there REALLY between a content-filter you can monitor on your router and what the mom was doing in this episode?

---

An enormous difference.