Black Mirror

I thought the three season five episodes were fun, but yes, not the chilling, unnerving episodes of earlier seasons.

I thought Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too was going somewhere completely different, and the direction it took felt like a Scooby-Doo cartoon plot. And the weird use of Trent Reznor's songs was also, well, a bit surreal.

Smithereens was intense and held the tension well throughout the episode. The acting was good and believable, but although it was the most unsettling of the three, it wasn't really unnerving.

Striking Vipers was strangely fun, having watched my kids play Street Fighter games as kids and teens. I wasn't quite sure about that ending. When Theo gave Danny his VR add-on back, what did he give her? The only thing I could think of was her diaphragm. Geez.

These were fun, and quick to binge, but they're not going to stick with me like a lot of the earlier episodes did.

It's getting more difficult for them to come up with unique twists on new technology, I think.

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

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Sounds like I was correct in my assessment.

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OH MY GOSH. I swear I hadn't read this article ranking all the Black Mirror episodes until just now, AFTER I wrote my previous post. They mention the Scooby-Doo vibe in Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too. (It's listed as #17.)

That's hilarious.

https://ew.com/gallery/black-mirror-...274289#6274289

Full article starts here:

https://ew.com/gallery/black-mirror-episodes-ranked/

I liked 2/3 of the season, but Striking Vipers was a miss for me. The moral play at the end was bogus. I also agree it was trying to recapture the magic of San Junipero, but it just didn't do that. Smithereens was definitely unnerving to me, and had my wife and I considering deleting FB yet again, although we never actually do it, which is the really scary thing.

Ashley Too was hilarious. Was fun to see Miley Cyrus of all people in an episode slaying the pop inductry and the sycophantic hanger-on types that orbit these cookie cutter cutsie doddle pop stars. That said, the scooby-do complaint is warranted.

Meanwhile... McClane! Nosedive is awesome. get with it!

The Christmas episode is fantastic, too, so I agree there. Definitely one of the best.

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I thought all three were mediocre. They all had moments, but overall, average or below-average for the show as a whole. And not even bad or mediocre in interesting ways, because they didn't even really take any big swings. They felt safe and simple, and relied almost entirely on the quality of the acting (very high, save for Miley Cyrus, of course) and the production as a whole. They secured some real talent for these, and that stopped the whole thing from being genuinely bad. But the ideas really weren't there, in my opinion.

"Didn't take any big swings."

Yes, that's exactly right. Unlike earlier seasons (especially that first season), none of these episodes felt innovative.

McClane's contention that show has lost its edge is pretty spot on.

So...weakest season yet?

Also, I thought Miley did a pretty decent job with her acting, but obviously not as good as the other players, and I kind of liked her husky voice. I am also curious as to her thoughts on the presentation of the pop industry (if she feels like a commodity etc.) or if it was just an acting gig for her and she doesn't give a ****.

Miley was better than I was expecting, the episode doesn't deserve it's "lowest Black Mirror episode" rating on IMDb

On the one hand, something's got to be at the bottom of the list and I can definitely see why it would be for reasons I outlined previously. On the other hand, IMDb users apparently rank "Hang the DJ" as the second-best episode after the Christmas special so I don't think I can put too much faith in their collective assessment.

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I don't get the "Hang the DJ" hate. I wouldn't put it second or anything, but the relationship duration idea is a great premise that's explored pretty well, and while it does a lot of really Black Mirrory things...that's kind of what I'm tuning in for.

Super high concept, good execution, and in the last 10 minutes, 20 different endings had been foreshadowed enough to be plausible. That's what I'm all about with this show.

I think it might be because it had to follow "San Junipero" in terms of being season four's obligatory "relationship" episode (especially when it also involved a similar concept and ultimately positive vibe - maybe even more positive than "San Junipero" depending on your interpretation/s) so it comes across as a not-entirely-successful attempt to recapture the magic of one of the show's most popular and distinctive episodes (the same can arguably be said of "Striking Vipers", which marks even more diminishing returns). For reference, I consider "The Entire History of You" and "Be Right Back" to be the series' other relationship-centric episodes - both of which I'd definitely consider solid episodes by the show's standards even without taking "San Junipero" into consideration.

That makes sense. And maybe I like it more because I thought "San Junipero" was very-good-but-not-otherwordly, contra a fair number of people. But then, as I mentioned above, I'm mostly about the concept and how well explored it is.

I'm not much of a fan of the romantic episodes.

Just sitting here thinking if I would rate San Junipero or The Entire History of You higher in the list of best episodes in my brain. Tough call, but I think I might go with the latter by just a tad. As for the scariest tech, White Christmas is way up there in that regard, even though Boston Dynamics continues to make Metalhead a reality.

Have never understood the acclaim for San Junipero. Not sure I even finished this episode.

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Would need to finish the episode to understand the acclaim.

There was also the matter of it being a distinct shake-up of the show's sensibilities as it avoided the usual nightmarish pessimism that was in danger of growing stale and monotonous by that point (and arguably has by now) so it's an easier episode to watch and like than most.

Pretty sure we know how this goes...

⬆️ Scary. Horrid things. Especially in the episode.

Just started the pilot for this series, and the only way I can describe it is "terrifyingly fresh".