The others are good, but you have certainly already seen two of the best. Entire History Of You is so on the nose and scary is amazing.
-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
LTTP: Black Mirror Episode 2 is so fucked up
- Thread starter Trojita
- Start date
- Status
The others are good, but you have certainly already seen two of the best. Entire History Of You is so on the nose and scary is amazing.
I thought White Bear was fantastic. Then I again I don't dislike any of the episodes really.
Garrett 2U
Member
This show is incredible. I just finished the series today.
All of the episodes were great, but 15 Million Merits, Entire History of You, and Be Right Back were jaw droppingly incredible.
After a couple of the episodes I just had to go take a walk and think.
All of the episodes were great, but 15 Million Merits, Entire History of You, and Be Right Back were jaw droppingly incredible.
After a couple of the episodes I just had to go take a walk and think.
EarsOfASnake
Gold Member
Be Right Back is in second season right? With Hayley Atwell? It's probably my favourite of the bunch. That episode, The Entire History of You and the episode the OP referenced are fanatically morbid peices of television. They take current trends and show where it could potentially go if we aren't careful.
I'm very certain that it is actually a real window, as it being real was what made the ending have its effect, I think. What was being shown was also stylistically different from all of the other interfaces throughout the episode.
Doesn't one of the birds flying past have a minor visual glitch, suggesting it's a fake image?
Air Zombie Meat
Member
Cool to see more people discovering this series. It's pretty unique and yeah, some episodes can leave you feeling wrecked.
Trojita
Rapid Response Threadmaker
Sibersk Esto
Banned
Man this show gets too real at times
A Fish Aficionado
I am going to make it through this year if it kills me
Charlie Broker is the man. His Gameswipe series and Dead Set are yop notch and his column in the Guardian.
PushTheButtonMax
Banned
Episode 1 was pretty great, but episode 2 in my opinion is just a damned masterpiece. I've rarely been so impressed with an episode of television.
Watched these over the last week or so; Fifteen Million Merits was probably my favorite although I really don't think the ending was as effective as it could have been. I get what they were going for, it just felt weirdly muted. Which might have been the point! It probably had my favorite setting, though.
Dead Set was great and deserves some more love. Maybe not as high minded as Black Mirror, but a solid watch.
Dead Set was great and deserves some more love. Maybe not as high minded as Black Mirror, but a solid watch.
Leona Lewis
Banned
White Bear is the very absence of light, its mirror is the blackest black.
I'm pretty sure that a more dread-filled, horrific, utterly hopeless scenario is possible in the realm of imagination, but pure nightmare has never been so vividly realized on screen until White Bear.
I have no intention of ever watching it again, not that it matters when the
last ten minutes
DAMN YOUUUUU
devjin
Member
Also don't forget 'a touch of cloth'!
Mushroomer25
Member
Great show, and I can't wait for the Christmas special.
Personally, my hierarchy is probably
1. The National Anthem
2. Be Right Back
3. White Bear
4. The Entire History of You
5. The Waldo Moment
6. Fifteen Million Merits
The first episode is just genius. From the reveal of
, I was on edge for pretty much 40 straight minutes. There was something so abstract, yet intensely real, that it just put me right off. The middle bit is fairly cliche, but as everything ramps up - it's brilliant.
Personally, my hierarchy is probably
1. The National Anthem
2. Be Right Back
3. White Bear
4. The Entire History of You
5. The Waldo Moment
6. Fifteen Million Merits
The first episode is just genius. From the reveal of
the pig
Foxy Fox 39
Banned
Will do. Thanks mate.
Leona Lewis
Banned
Yep, I agree that National Anthem was the best one. As grotesque as it is, it presents such an immediately compelling premise and squeezes every last ounce of juice from the central dilemma...
(controversial time)
...unlike the more ambitious Fifteen Million Merits, for example, which starts off so well but just loses steam as if the writers had no idea where the finish line was.
(controversial time)
...unlike the more ambitious Fifteen Million Merits, for example, which starts off so well but just loses steam as if the writers had no idea where the finish line was.
No. It felt like a real step down from Season 1 in my opinion. For some reason it felt like most of the nuance from season 1 was lost, it was much more clumsy.
And Be Right Backs is definitely the highlight of the season. Beautifully acted by Atwell.
Fifteen Million Merits is by far the best episode. Just incredible from beginning to end. And yeah that ending...
Although I thought Entire History of You was pretty weak imo. I mean I get it and know what the message of that episode was, but still...it was very boring majority of the episode. Too much chit chat conversations and I found the main character to be monotone and boring. Didn't really care about him or anybody in that episode regardless of what happened.
poor Abi. 
Although I thought Entire History of You was pretty weak imo. I mean I get it and know what the message of that episode was, but still...it was very boring majority of the episode. Too much chit chat conversations and I found the main character to be monotone and boring. Didn't really care about him or anybody in that episode regardless of what happened.
Mushroomer25
Member
Just before they leave for the studio, as the party head threatens his family if he doesn't go through with it.. Holy shit.
To me, Fifteen Million Merits falls victim to something I call "Snowpiercer Syndrome". I don't want to spoil that film, or this episode, so I'll tag it. Again, spoilers for the movie Snowpiercer in the tag below.
I can't stand dystopian utopias that only exist for the sake of metaphor. To me, it's distracting when I see an apocalyptic universe like these two stories - and there's clearly no way it could hold up as a functioning society. In Snowpiercer, it's the fact that those in the head of the train have no reason to keep those in the tail section alive. They waste resources, space, and more on keeping alive a subclass of humanity who serve no purpose. There's also the fact that a perpetual motion machine, apparently able to craft all manner of decor & entire cows - isn't able to craft machine parts. None of it makes logical sense, but it's all strung together to work as a morality play.
Fifteen Million Merits has the same issue for me. Why are they on bikes? Who's organizing any of this? Did such a thing as dissenting thought exist before the main character's turning point? Why does this world only have three TV shows, when everything revolves around television? It's a flimsy support structure for the larger moral message of the story.
Fifteen Million Merits has the same issue for me. Why are they on bikes? Who's organizing any of this? Did such a thing as dissenting thought exist before the main character's turning point? Why does this world only have three TV shows, when everything revolves around television? It's a flimsy support structure for the larger moral message of the story.
I might be alone in it, but that's what makes it the worst episode, IMO. Certainly not bad though - all six are extremely watchable & have interesting elements.
Foxy Fox 39
Banned
I just started watching the first episode tonight and I remember watching this a looong time ago. I think I stopped because it unnerved me haha.
Exterminieren
Banned
The Waldo Moment is the only episode of this which isn't an unassailable piece of TV. This show has an astonishing hit rate.
My favourite's probably White Bear, but I could easily make a case for any of the first five.
My favourite's probably White Bear, but I could easily make a case for any of the first five.
It works best if
you see Bing as a representative within the fiction of Brooker himself.
Foxy Fox 39
Banned
Show is way too depressing. Forgot that was why I stopped watching initially. Good but depressing. My favorite is fifteen million merits.
teruterubozu
Member
I watched half of episode one. If that's the best one then I don't know what to say. The premise was so ridiculous and absurd, I couldn't take it seriously.
I've watched the first four episodes and the first one is really weirdly out of place. It's not like the others at all.
Exterminieren
Banned
Finish watching episode one. It's a silly premise, but it's played dead straight and is followed through to its inevitable conclusion.
War Peaceman
You're a big guy.
It is my favourite one. It is the most complete and full. It could have been awful - conceptually it is stupid - but it is played pitch perfectly. Kinnear is excellent as David Cameron.
BertramCooper
Banned
This series is awesome. Really big fan of it.
Except for The Waldo Moment. Oof.
Except for The Waldo Moment. Oof.
Christoff Yurievich
Member
I love you. I have those same thoughts on stories like this; It's so hard to take it seriously when there's no rational reason for the events to have occurred.
That said, I enjoyed 15 mIllion merits.
What is that from? It's too close to be a coincidence.
If that's from Sniper Elite 3, then that is him. He was mo-capped in as a cameo because he's a fan of the series.
But the metaphor in Snowpiercer goes deeper - it's made clear that those in the end carriage serve the purpose of maintaining a balance within the closed ecosystem of the train, much as the w/c are required to keep the wheels of capitalism working, and the thing with the kids and the PM machine is saying that even a miracle still requires blood. The story is completely anti-capitalist, but also deeply nihilistic - the revolution leaves nearly everyone dead, and the survivors in a seemingly impossible survival situation.
Obviously as well, 15 Million Merits is far more a satire on X-Factor style TV shows than it is post-manufacturing capitalism economics, but it does have a theoretical basis in that the final stage of capitalism, in a classic Marxist sense, would consist of one, single giant corporation which managed everything in society, but unlike government was still, wholly, privately owned by a ruling class. There would be no need for separate entities in any market, only sub-entities of the main body, all still competing with each other.
Obviously as well, 15 Million Merits is far more a satire on X-Factor style TV shows than it is post-manufacturing capitalism economics, but it does have a theoretical basis in that the final stage of capitalism, in a classic Marxist sense, would consist of one, single giant corporation which managed everything in society, but unlike government was still, wholly, privately owned by a ruling class. There would be no need for separate entities in any market, only sub-entities of the main body, all still competing with each other.
Mushroomer25
Member
Snowpiercer Spoilers (since this whole post would be spoiler tagged otherwise)
I feel Snowpiercer's metaphor doesn't make sense, because the tail section of the train literally doesn't contribute anything. They're not being worked to death, rather they're just kept at the bare minimum of living. For no real purpose, other than to be occasionally tormented and used for skilled labor. The entire "ecosystem" metaphor doesn't work, because the tail section doesn't serve any purpose. The captain has the power to kill all of them, and it wouldn't have any effect on the "balance".
I almost got the feeling that there wasn't even a ruling class in that society. To me, it felt like this program, or this system - was set up ages ago for some purpose, and now humanity has just been sticking with it. The fact that the main characters are the first people to really aspire to break free is a little bit world breaking for me - but it's less damning than my issues with Snowpiercer.
The fact that 15MM doesn't explain the greater universe (saying that the bikes are powering a larger society, or that this is some sort of slave state) is both a positive and a negative for me. The open-ended nature does foster discussion, but it hammers home the fact that this doesn't have a logical outcome. The world isn't built with a purpose, other than storytelling.
The fact that 15MM doesn't explain the greater universe (saying that the bikes are powering a larger society, or that this is some sort of slave state) is both a positive and a negative for me. The open-ended nature does foster discussion, but it hammers home the fact that this doesn't have a logical outcome. The world isn't built with a purpose, other than storytelling.
I have to agree. Man that was a very messed up in the head episode
wow, I had no idea.
EdibleExplosives
Member
15 Million Merits is my favourite ep of the show. I always see people complaining about the ending, but I thought it was brilliant, especially when you take into account Charlie Brooker and Screenwipe.
poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
What is so ridiculous about it that would make you turn off? It's obviously an extreme 'what if' scenario, but it covers a lot of ground from that premise.
That is definitely my favorite episode of the first 4 that I have seen. It had me still thinking a couple of days later.
I have no problem with criticism and I'm no huge fan of 15MM, although I do think it's pretty good... But many of your complaints about are kind of the main points and themes of the episode. That we don't see the organisers be they a higher class or just some machine is part of the point.
The bikes were used to create power... A sort of distillation of why we work - to get money (an arbitrary value system), to pay for arbitrary things as well as to live, only to work. A literal cycle.
First ones to dissent? Maybe. Maybe not. A lot of these kinds of stories have the same questions - but does it matter what the answer is? What if they are the first? Or what if they aren't? In context of the story itself it doesn't matter and if it does to you, make up whatever reason you want. I know people like to think that hey it can't be the first time. Like Finn dissenting not from the first order. But sure it can. People always ask what makes them so special? Nothing maybe. So why is the story focussed on them? Just because. It's like dos you want the story to be focussed on one of the other characters where nothing happens? Of course The story focuses on the interesting one. The Iraq dissenter perhaps.
Three tv channels? Again it's a distillation to like the only tv channels that actually get responses and a commentary on to culture. It's part of the point. Porn, gratuitous violence as comedy/games and a vapid talent show.
Eh, I've been enjoying the series for what it is, first episode being sort of a weird wtf is this before getting into territory that seems a bit more thoughtful with out as much shock tactics.
The bikes were used to create power... A sort of distillation of why we work - to get money (an arbitrary value system), to pay for arbitrary things as well as to live, only to work. A literal cycle.
First ones to dissent? Maybe. Maybe not. A lot of these kinds of stories have the same questions - but does it matter what the answer is? What if they are the first? Or what if they aren't? In context of the story itself it doesn't matter and if it does to you, make up whatever reason you want. I know people like to think that hey it can't be the first time. Like Finn dissenting not from the first order. But sure it can. People always ask what makes them so special? Nothing maybe. So why is the story focussed on them? Just because. It's like dos you want the story to be focussed on one of the other characters where nothing happens? Of course The story focuses on the interesting one. The Iraq dissenter perhaps.
Three tv channels? Again it's a distillation to like the only tv channels that actually get responses and a commentary on to culture. It's part of the point. Porn, gratuitous violence as comedy/games and a vapid talent show.
Eh, I've been enjoying the series for what it is, first episode being sort of a weird wtf is this before getting into territory that seems a bit more thoughtful with out as much shock tactics.
Cipher Peon
Banned
Really surprised at the criticism at the ending of A Fifteen Million Merits. I thought it was horrifying and sealed the deal by making Black Mirror one of my favorite shows ever.
My favorite episode is still National Anthem and my least favorite (by far) is An Entire History of You.
The National Anthem
White Christmas
Fifteen Million Merits
The Waldo Moment
White Bear
Be Right Back
The Entire History Of You
My favorite episode is still National Anthem and my least favorite (by far) is An Entire History of You.
The National Anthem
White Christmas
Fifteen Million Merits
The Waldo Moment
White Bear
Be Right Back
The Entire History Of You
- Status