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

Posted on 1/24/18 at 5:33 pm to
Posted by ProjectP2294
South St. Louis city
Member since May 2007
75928 posts
Posted on 1/24/18 at 5:33 pm to
quote:

I didn't get the whole "counting to one thousand and throwing rocks at the robot dog" thing. I may have missed it though...was that something that was mentioned? What made the dog hibernate (or battery die??).


From what I understand it was to make it keep having to do stuff to burn out the battery, at least until the sun went back up. I guess the counting thing might have been to let it go to sleep and then hit it so it wouldn't pick up where the sticks or rocks were coming from.
Posted by Carson123987
Middle Court at the Rec
Member since Jul 2011
67800 posts
Posted on 1/24/18 at 5:41 pm to
quote:

metalhead


quote:

Worst Black Mirror episode yet. Just complete garbage.


Posted by Chucktown_Badger
The banks of the Ashley River
Member since May 2013
35898 posts
Posted on 1/24/18 at 5:59 pm to
quote:

That's sort of the feeling I got from it as well. The whole point was that they were on a mission for a teddy bear(s). I didn't get the whole "counting to one thousand and throwing rocks at the robot dog" thing. I may have missed it though...was that something that was mentioned? What made the dog hibernate (or battery die??). I also would've liked to have gotten SOME kind of look into the people (city?) she was talking to, just to get a feel of what life was like there in this dystopia. But all in all, not a bad episode really.


I believe that that was her way of rationing her candy and keeping herself awake so she didn't fall out of the tree. Of course, she could have just used pieces of bark if she was worried about running out of candy.

ETA: And yes, she was trying to continually force it to wake up to use its battery.
This post was edited on 1/24/18 at 6:01 pm
Posted by Carson123987
Middle Court at the Rec
Member since Jul 2011
67800 posts
Posted on 1/25/18 at 12:56 am to
quote:

Crocodile. Thought this one was kinda stupid, and I kinda hated it.


cant disagree more. it was the most well-directed, well-produced episode of the entire series. it all made sense when I saw that john hillcoat (director of the proposition) directed it. beautiful episode
Posted by WG_Dawg
Member since Jun 2004
89674 posts
Posted on 1/25/18 at 7:23 am to
quote:

Crocodile. Thought this one was kinda stupid, and I kinda hated it.


quote:

Metalhead. This episode was decent.


Man I just don't understand this at all. I thought metalhead was an absolute waste of my time and would go in the bottom tier rung of BM episodes that I have zero desire whatsoever to see again. It was pointless. I posted a bit more about it either earlier ITT or the other BM S4 thread but why do we give the slightest frick about these people? We know nothign about them, their backstory, who they are, anything about the world they're in. The only thing to "root" for is the lady living, because we're humans after all, but other than that so what?

Crocodile on the other hand was riveting. Some people may not like the ending and think it's a copout or whatever, but the whole episode was a slow paced trainwreck that you felt coming on but had to keep going. It was one of my favorites of this season and would probably put it in an upper tier (not top tier, but upper) of all BM episodes.
Posted by BigOrangeVols
Knoxville
Member since Jul 2015
3082 posts
Posted on 1/25/18 at 8:53 am to
Ditto, I don't think i'd watch Metalhead again.
Posted by Freauxzen
Washington
Member since Feb 2006
38454 posts
Posted on 1/25/18 at 10:03 am to
quote:

Crocodile on the other hand was riveting. Some people may not like the ending and think it's a copout or whatever, but the whole episode was a slow paced trainwreck that you felt coming on but had to keep going. It was one of my favorites of this season and would probably put it in an upper tier (not top tier, but upper) of all BM episodes.





This. Crocodile was a serious slow burn, that kept getting better the more I thought about it.
Posted by ShamelessPel
Metairie
Member since Apr 2013
13054 posts
Posted on 1/25/18 at 10:28 am to
I hated Metalhead as well. The best episodes of Black Mirror make you think and question the ethics and morality of what's going on or the effects future technology will have on our lives.

Metalhead did not make you think. It did not even have any surprises in store. It was an ok attempt at a lady getting hunted by robots in the future.

I know some of that is my fault for applying certain standards to Black Mirror. It would be a fun little watch outside of that, but I just wasn't intrigued or interested at any point.
Posted by WG_Dawg
Member since Jun 2004
89674 posts
Posted on 1/25/18 at 10:32 am to
I posted my gripes about metalhead on page 7, and it's mainly waht you said. It's like the writers started iwth an idea "hey let's have some killer badass robot dogs" and that's all they had. Then just sloppily threw together the rest of the story (not that there was much of one). It was lazy writing that did nothing to draw the viewer in.
Posted by Displaced
Member since Dec 2011
32993 posts
Posted on 1/25/18 at 10:49 am to
And being shot in black and white added nothing to it.
Posted by colorchangintiger
Dan Carlin
Member since Nov 2005
30979 posts
Posted on 1/25/18 at 1:08 pm to
Don't have a problem disagreeing with you. Just wasn't logical. why didn't the dog shoot her in the tree? When she lulled it to sleep, why didn't she dismantle it when she got down from the tree? They made it seem like the limbs could be detached with little force. Why didn't all of the dog buddies join in at the beginning? Why TF were the stuffed bears so important that a dog was guarding them. Why TF were the worth dying for? I know she was getting them for her kid, but come teh frick on. Food or medicine I understand and is what I'm sure most people assumed she was going for, but a teddy bear? If these dogs were as prevalent as they made them out to be, why weren't they better prepared? Robots that don't have the cognitive abilities of humans should be a cake walk, especially if you've had dealings with them in the past as they made it seem to be.
Posted by colorchangintiger
Dan Carlin
Member since Nov 2005
30979 posts
Posted on 1/25/18 at 1:12 pm to
quote:

That's great and all, but they're still in teh game trapped right? Granted they aren't "controlled" by anyone and have free will to travel around and explore and talk to people and all that, but they're still friggin trapped for eternity right?


I'd rather be trapped there than trapped on earth
Posted by CocomoLSU
Inside your dome.
Member since Feb 2004
155580 posts
Posted on 1/25/18 at 2:33 pm to
quote:

Man I just don't understand this at all. I thought metalhead was an absolute waste of my time and would go in the bottom tier rung of BM episodes that I have zero desire whatsoever to see again. It was pointless. I posted a bit more about it either earlier ITT or the other BM S4 thread but why do we give the slightest frick about these people? We know nothign about them, their backstory, who they are, anything about the world they're in. The only thing to "root" for is the lady living, because we're humans after all, but other than that so what?

Crocodile on the other hand was riveting. Some people may not like the ending and think it's a copout or whatever, but the whole episode was a slow paced trainwreck that you felt coming on but had to keep going. It was one of my favorites of this season and would probably put it in an upper tier (not top tier, but upper) of all BM episodes.


I'd argue that I didn't give a single shite about the chick in Crocodile either though. But this all goes to show why BM is so great. I touched on it a while back, but one cool thing about the show is how it resonates completely differently with different people. One man's "worst episode ever" is another man's "best episode ever." I feel like few shows can pull that off.





As for Metalhead and the throwing rocks thing. I guess I can buy that it was to drain the battery, but I didn't get the whole "count backwards from a thousand" thing. And did she count from one fewer each time, or am I making that up?
Posted by Mac
Forked Island, USA
Member since Nov 2007
14786 posts
Posted on 1/25/18 at 2:53 pm to
quote:

As for Metalhead and the throwing rocks thing. I guess I can buy that it was to drain the battery, but I didn't get the whole "count backwards from a thousand" thing. And did she count from one fewer each time, or am I making that up?



Yea she was definitely trying to drain the battery but I have no idea why she counted from 1000 each time. Why not throw another rock down just after it crouched back down? And how can it run miles and miles over mountains and not run out of battery but not be able to handle having to "wake up" throughout the night?

And where did she get rocks up in a tree? Might have been obvious in the episode but I can't remember.

And I think she counted from 1000 each time. They just skipped to the next rock throw a little quicker each time.
Posted by WG_Dawg
Member since Jun 2004
89674 posts
Posted on 1/25/18 at 3:05 pm to
quote:

I'd argue that I didn't give a single shite about the chick in Crocodile either though


True we may not necessarily "care" for her but at least we knew her. We know her name, her occupation, where she lives, she has a husband and child, etc. We at least have some kind of connection to her. Lady in metalhead is basically a stranger.

Posted by Carson123987
Middle Court at the Rec
Member since Jul 2011
67800 posts
Posted on 1/25/18 at 4:11 pm to
quote:

why didn't the dog shoot her in the tree?


his gun arm was the one that was detached

quote:

They made it seem like the limbs could be detached with little force


ehh i dont think so. it got crushed from a vehicle falling off a cliff, i dont think she could've pried off parts with a log or something

quote:

Why TF were the stuffed bears so important that a dog was guarding them. Why TF were the worth dying for? I know she was getting them for her kid, but come teh frick on. Food or medicine I understand and is what I'm sure most people assumed she was going for, but a teddy bear? If these dogs were as prevalent as they made them out to be, why weren't they better prepared? Robots that don't have the cognitive abilities of humans should be a cake walk, especially if you've had dealings with them in the past as they made it seem to be.


most of these are valid concerns and im 99% sure that these things were discussed by Brooker and Co. when writing. why did they have to track the bears to a warehouse instead of stealing one from an old department store? how did the 3 humans survive so long despite being so incompetent? why even have a gate on your compound if the dogs can just walk up and open it? lots of odd things like that, but it didn't detract enough for me to hate it. it wasn't trying to be a mentally stimulating BM episode, it was just a cool, well-made cat and mouse game with a very scary cat
Posted by Carson123987
Middle Court at the Rec
Member since Jul 2011
67800 posts
Posted on 1/25/18 at 4:13 pm to
quote:

I guess I can buy that it was to drain the battery, but I didn't get the whole "count backwards from a thousand" thing


i think the implication was that the dogs had a standby period before entering a "deep sleep" mode to preserve battery. by keeping it in the standby mode, the battery was still consumed.

i prefer the common theory that she was trying to trick the AI into regarding the sound as inconsequential so that she could slip away.

quote:

And did she count from one fewer each time


nope. just the editing
Posted by AMS
Member since Apr 2016
6534 posts
Posted on 1/25/18 at 5:26 pm to
I think they museum guy said the bear was the crime. Consciousness put in inanimate objects needed at least like 5 reactions or something like that.
Posted by 1BamaRTR
In Your Head Blvd
Member since Apr 2015
24554 posts
Posted on 1/25/18 at 6:29 pm to
quote:

why did they have to track the bears to a warehouse instead of stealing one from an old department store?

Maybe there weren’t any nearby or the stores didn’t have it. Even if they set the scene in a store it wouldn’t really have made a difference.
quote:

how did the 3 humans survive so long despite being so incompetent?

I agree
quote:

why even have a gate on your compound if the dogs can just walk up and open it?

I’m pretty sure that place was built before this whole apocalypse thing.
Posted by KosmoCramer
Member since Dec 2007
80087 posts
Posted on 3/5/18 at 2:36 pm to
quote:

The doctor she went to told the mom to trash it. She just stored it bc she herself was addicted to the monitoring and tracking aspect so she couldn't give it up. Much like an addict that quits but keeps substance around in some hiding place "just in case"


It should have been confiscated and destroyed of it was shown to cause death like every other device or drug tht causes death.
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