Charlie Brooker has a new show airing called as you might have guessed from the title The Black Mirror.
The Mirror in question refers to the bleak monolith sitting in everyone's living room or in their pockets. Each episode is to deal with a different aspect of technology and the role it plays in society told through different styled stories.
The first episode deals with a situation where a celebrity is kidnapped and the ransom for her life is that the prime minister fuck a pig on live tv, and how as soon as it hits the internet it goes viral.
While the first episode was good, it wasn't until the second that the show blew me away and it is this episode I would suggest everyone watch.
I won't go into specifics.
It deals with a lot of the themes we're very much familiar with on the boards. All of it works through nightmarish parody of culture we have now, X-factor is brought to its logical and extreme conclusion of utter judgement of a persons worth, we see health obsession, unskippable adverts in life, purchasing digital representations of real life commodities, having an online Doppelgänger to portray an idealised pretend version of yourself (and then being ridiculed when it doesn't fit in), assuming someone is inferior because they don't have the prepackaged lifestyles that are allegedly desirable.
We've seen some of this stuff in the likes of transmet and Doktor Sleepless, but it's never hit so close to home.
I'd really like for some people to watch this episode and tell me what they think.
I don't know if this link will work for everyone:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/black-mirror/episode-guide/series-1/episode-2
if not acquire it any way you can because this is good.
Awesome!
Will most indubbitably keep an eye out for this.
Do, I'd love to hear some PDs opinions of this. Also if that link doesnt work, its up on youtube.
Just watched the first 15 minutes of E1. I have pretty limited data allowance, but I think tomorrow I'll have to go somewhere a better deal and download all of this.
Are you sure it's a parody and that the creators aren't time travellers?
Getting. Will watch later tonight. To anyone searching for it (as indeed the 4oD link seems to only work in the UK), the show's name is "Black Mirror", without "The" (couldn't find it at first).
Quote from: Beardman Meow on December 14, 2011, 10:50:49 AM
Just watched the first 15 minutes of E1. I have pretty limited data allowance, but I think tomorrow I'll have to go somewhere a better deal and download all of this.
Are you sure it's a parody and that the creators aren't time travellers?
Just wait until episode two. Fucking Hell.
I'm watching episode 2 on 4oD right now.
After part 1, the Gmail ad charting how gmail is integrated into the relationship of a dad and his little girl came up. :horrormirth:
I wasn't going to bother after the 1st episode, as I didn't really like it. Episode 2 is goddamn fantastic though. Thanks for the tip, Faust!
OK, just saw to the end.
It really was amazing.
I suspect this one really resonated with Brooker. He quit doing Screenwipe because he felt like he was becoming a self-parody just tearing down all the time. I'm not sure I liked the message that was sent out by the ending, though.
Things below might get spoilery, so...
Not to get too philosophi-wanky, but he's touching on the real paradox at the heart of our consumer culture. Working to consume goods we don't need, or even really want, measuring our self-worth by what we own... but he set up a thread where the characters could have found some meaning through their personal relationships; in fact, that seems to be what the characters themselves have realized...
And then he sharply turns away from that, everyone sells out, engaging with the system at all is shown to be corruptive and there's no way shown not to engage with the system.
It was a very powerful show and I enjoyed it, but I don't think the message is one I agree with. It renders the possibility of collective action impossible, and where the first episode showed the power one man can have... this one implied that one man is completely powerless.
I also see why he took this to Channel 4 - I don't think you'd ever get half the stuff that went on in this past the BBC, and that makes me sad.
Quote from: Demolition_Squid on December 14, 2011, 01:27:35 PM
And then he sharply turns away from that, everyone sells out, engaging with the system at all is shown to be corruptive and there's no way shown not to engage with the system.
That's the thing, it is bleak and dark with little faith in humanity. The end of it has a lot of parallels with "He loved big brother", but it hits home even worse then that did because it doesn't give us an enemy or faceless state to blame all this on.
At the end, the truth of the matter was we had all facilitated that horrible souless world, there was no one to blame but ourselves.
For those that 4OD doesn't work for maybe youtube wont be blocked.
http://www.youtube.com/show?p=c1LJgrhyEsY&tracker=show_av
Quote from: Faust on December 14, 2011, 02:22:57 PM
Quote from: Demolition_Squid on December 14, 2011, 01:27:35 PM
And then he sharply turns away from that, everyone sells out, engaging with the system at all is shown to be corruptive and there's no way shown not to engage with the system.
That's the thing, it is bleak and dark with little faith in humanity. The end of it has a lot of parallels with "He loved big brother", but it hits home even worse then that did because it doesn't give us an enemy or faceless state to blame all this on.
At the end, the truth of the matter was we had all facilitated that horrible souless world, there was no one to blame but ourselves.
For those that 4OD doesn't work for maybe youtube wont be blocked.
http://www.youtube.com/show?p=c1LJgrhyEsY&tracker=show_av
It reminded me more of Brave New World. Only he doesn't get the final strike back against it that the savage in BNW does.
In the case of Big Brother, it was done out of a conscious desire to control, too. In this, it seems to be perpetuating simply because that is what it does. I get that these are supposed to be a warning if you like, but even in 1984 there was a nod made to the worth of human relationships through the romantic subplot. This felt
too bleak to me. The message the ending left me with was 'You won't beat the Society of the Spectacle, so don't bother trying, sell out, at least you'll be comfortable'. I don't find that a useful message.
Quote from: Demolition_Squid on December 14, 2011, 02:30:16 PM
Quote from: Faust on December 14, 2011, 02:22:57 PM
Quote from: Demolition_Squid on December 14, 2011, 01:27:35 PM
And then he sharply turns away from that, everyone sells out, engaging with the system at all is shown to be corruptive and there's no way shown not to engage with the system.
That's the thing, it is bleak and dark with little faith in humanity. The end of it has a lot of parallels with "He loved big brother", but it hits home even worse then that did because it doesn't give us an enemy or faceless state to blame all this on.
At the end, the truth of the matter was we had all facilitated that horrible souless world, there was no one to blame but ourselves.
For those that 4OD doesn't work for maybe youtube wont be blocked.
http://www.youtube.com/show?p=c1LJgrhyEsY&tracker=show_av
It reminded me more of Brave New World. Only he doesn't get the final strike back against it that the savage in BNW does.
In the case of Big Brother, it was done out of a conscious desire to control, too. In this, it seems to be perpetuating simply because that is what it does. I get that these are supposed to be a warning if you like, but even in 1984 there was a nod made to the worth of human relationships through the romantic subplot. This felt too bleak to me. The message the ending left me with was 'You won't beat the Society of the Spectacle, so don't bother trying, sell out, at least you'll be comfortable'. I don't find that a useful message.
It's true that his only avenue of rebellion after Hope dismantles his speech and admits its all bullshit is to kill himself. He sells out his rage for some tangiable well, things and even those... It is ambiguous if what he is looking at out the window is real or not. The unsung villian was humanity. I didn't fet the impression that the message was sell out for comfort to make the best of your situation I got a warning for his end situation was just as horrible as his original one. "Don't let this happen, we're all responsible for making sure the world never becomes this because at that point revolution and rebellion are impossible".
Either way it is REALLY bleak and hard to watch but I find it more powerful for that, we don't get any seblance of a happy ending.
It was definitely powerful. I felt it was much more successful at being hard to watch than the first episode.
I just felt the level of hopelessness overpowered any underlying message that we shouldn't let it happen. There was never any implication that there was any alternative; rebellion was shown to be just as vapid as acceptance. If he'd followed through and killed himself, the message that there is at least an alternative would have been preserved.
It would have still been depressing, but I think the message you got out of it would have come through clearer for me. As it was, it felt very mixed to me.
I'll get back to this thread when I've watched Ep2. Dunno when that will be, maybe tomorrow or friday or so.
Jesus FUCK, Faust...
I swear, there are spiders dancing up and down my spine. :x
My fucking god... :x
I just sat here for 5 minutes trying to write something about how I felt about that (watched first and second episodes). I've got nothing.
Too bleak?
Turns out I did start on episode two.
Will watch episode one later.
Quote from: Faust on December 15, 2011, 10:21:30 AM
Too bleak?
Too POSSIBLE.
I've been thinking about the whole thing of The Machine turning an act of rebellion back on itself and using it to further profit and exploit it, and it is a actual documented and insidious thing, seeing more and more examples of it the more places I look.
From apples early "Think Different" & "To the crazy ones" ad campiegn which is going back a long way now, in contrast to the status item products they sell with restricted functionality nowadays, to the News of the world now fallen but making a fortune for the other tabloids (mostly owned by the same people), they are getting rich off their own bad news. Warner Brothers are making a fortune off of the Guy Fawks mask sales world wide.
Even twitter coverage of rebellions is generating advertising revenue for that social media channel.
The revolution will most certainly be televised.
Yeah! If you rebel against the system, then you are doing exactly the thing that the system needs. It is actually the system itself that is creating the rebellion.
So the only way to stop the machine is to get out completely. Now who has the balls to do that?
Sounds like a good show, I'll have to check it out later today.
Quote from: Reeducation on December 15, 2011, 11:07:49 AM
So the only way to stop the machine is to get out completely. Now who has the balls to do that?
Where do you go when you get out completely?
Quote from: Beardman Meow on December 15, 2011, 11:11:18 AM
Quote from: Reeducation on December 15, 2011, 11:07:49 AM
So the only way to stop the machine is to get out completely. Now who has the balls to do that?
Where do you go when you get out completely?
Into the wild to die young and dirty.
Quote from: Reeducation on December 15, 2011, 11:18:31 AM
Quote from: Beardman Meow on December 15, 2011, 11:11:18 AM
Quote from: Reeducation on December 15, 2011, 11:07:49 AM
So the only way to stop the machine is to get out completely. Now who has the balls to do that?
Where do you go when you get out completely?
Into the wild to die young and dirty.
That doesn't sound better than existing within but not blindly faithful to The Machine.
Quote from: Beardman Meow on December 15, 2011, 11:21:02 AM
Quote from: Reeducation on December 15, 2011, 11:18:31 AM
Quote from: Beardman Meow on December 15, 2011, 11:11:18 AM
Quote from: Reeducation on December 15, 2011, 11:07:49 AM
So the only way to stop the machine is to get out completely. Now who has the balls to do that?
Where do you go when you get out completely?
Into the wild to die young and dirty.
That doesn't sound better than existing within but not blindly faithful to The Machine.
Well yeah, good point. :lulz:
But things change.
Quote from: Beardman Meow on December 15, 2011, 11:45:09 AM
Quote from: Reeducation on December 15, 2011, 11:27:22 AM
But things change.
And what does THAT mean? :argh!:
Sorry.
I just meant that if this all (society and other systems) goes to hell, like in a very very bad way, then the wilderness option would start to sound more appealing.
Caught the third one yesterday.
Numbers one and three were really bad, in my opinion. I rewatched number 1 with my housemate, and his final reaction was 'interesting story, but I don't get the point of it at all' which... is fair enough. The best I can take from it is 'the internet makes it hard for the government to suppress what is being heard?'
Bit of an odd message.
Number three was a real missed opportunity. The tech that they had was great; facebook taken to its logical extreme. Then they use that technology to tell a story about a guy who.... suspects his wife is cheating on him?
What?
There was no real fear, here. No demonstration of the extent to which that sort of tech could actually be abused. The second episode was a masterpiece. The first and third fell really flat.
Quote from: Demolition_Squid on December 20, 2011, 01:49:41 PM
Caught the third one yesterday.
Numbers one and three were really bad, in my opinion. I rewatched number 1 with my housemate, and his final reaction was 'interesting story, but I don't get the point of it at all' which... is fair enough. The best I can take from it is 'the internet makes it hard for the government to suppress what is being heard?'
Bit of an odd message.
Number three was a real missed opportunity. The tech that they had was great; facebook taken to its logical extreme. Then they use that technology to tell a story about a guy who.... suspects his wife is cheating on him?
What?
There was no real fear, here. No demonstration of the extent to which that sort of tech could actually be abused. The second episode was a masterpiece. The first and third fell really flat.
I haven't seen three yet, and I agree, two was the strongest. What I took from the first episode was that we're all so plugged into media (internet, TV, whatever) that we miss important shit going on around us.
Quote from: Luna on December 20, 2011, 01:53:43 PM
Quote from: Demolition_Squid on December 20, 2011, 01:49:41 PM
Caught the third one yesterday.
Numbers one and three were really bad, in my opinion. I rewatched number 1 with my housemate, and his final reaction was 'interesting story, but I don't get the point of it at all' which... is fair enough. The best I can take from it is 'the internet makes it hard for the government to suppress what is being heard?'
Bit of an odd message.
Number three was a real missed opportunity. The tech that they had was great; facebook taken to its logical extreme. Then they use that technology to tell a story about a guy who.... suspects his wife is cheating on him?
What?
There was no real fear, here. No demonstration of the extent to which that sort of tech could actually be abused. The second episode was a masterpiece. The first and third fell really flat.
I haven't seen three yet, and I agree, two was the strongest. What I took from the first episode was that we're all so plugged into media (internet, TV, whatever) that we miss important shit going on around us.
Really?
... What gave you that impression? I didn't get the feeling there was actually anything more important going on. I mean, it is a good message, but nobody at any point seemed to go 'shouldn't we do something other than wonder if he's going to do it?'
Maybe Black Mirror is just too subtle for me. :?
The first episode is about the virulent nature of social media and how a single person could cause a world wide incident using it.
The third was how everyone is ultra accountable and ultimately a lot less happy in their lives when everything is documented. I've already seen examples like the third one in real life from people stalking other people, it's just a logical extrapolation of what is going on with it.
I've been simmering around with the various episodes and currently think the first is best. Not just because it is the most memorable, for obvious reasons, but because of how sinister the whole plot actually is w.r.t. Reflection in black magic initiatory rites. I don't know much on the subject, but it seems the whole "circus act" is a commentary both on the economy of power in politics and the ritual sacrifice sometimes required for admission into shady "brotherhoods" and such. Just sharing par-baked thoughts?
Knowing Charlie Brooker, I sincerely doubt there were any references to rituals in this, in fact he would probably curb stomp you for suggesting so.
I also Disagree with your assertion that the first episode is the most memorable. Sure it had a guy fucking a pig, but episode two for me had far more memorable and horrible scenes.
I LOVED Black Mirror. Question though -- did anyone see Network? I felt like the second episode, while fantastic, was kinda just a futuristic retelling of that.
Quote from: Faust on March 07, 2012, 08:31:51 AM
Knowing Charlie Brooker, I sincerely doubt there were any references to rituals in this, in fact he would probably curb stomp you for suggesting so.
I also Disagree with your assertion that the first episode is the most memorable. Sure it had a guy fucking a pig, but episode two for me had far more memorable and horrible scenes.
Charlie Brooker
did devote an entire article to the premise that David Cameron is a lizard. But I would tend to agree.
If there is an element of sacrifice in the episode (I cannot say, for I have not seen) it is more likely it has to do with the literal tens of thousands of dead bodies our political leaders have managed to help happen, quite publically, in recent memory.
I mean, you could very easily claim that 100,000 dead Iraqis were sacrificed to the 2004 election of George W Bush, and Tony Blair's vanity.
Quote from: Cain on March 07, 2012, 09:23:07 AM
Quote from: Faust on March 07, 2012, 08:31:51 AM
Knowing Charlie Brooker, I sincerely doubt there were any references to rituals in this, in fact he would probably curb stomp you for suggesting so.
I also Disagree with your assertion that the first episode is the most memorable. Sure it had a guy fucking a pig, but episode two for me had far more memorable and horrible scenes.
Charlie Brooker did devote an entire article to the premise that David Cameron is a lizard. But I would tend to agree.
If there is an element of sacrifice in the episode (I cannot say, for I have not seen) it is more likely it has to do with the literal tens of thousands of dead bodies our political leaders have managed to help happen, quite publically, in recent memory.
I mean, you could very easily claim that 100,000 dead Iraqis were sacrificed to the 2004 election of George W Bush, and Tony Blair's vanity.
That and the great machine needs its gears to be greased to function, and blood is cheaper than oil.
Quote from: Faust on March 07, 2012, 08:31:51 AM
Knowing Charlie Brooker, I sincerely doubt there were any references to rituals in this, in fact he would probably curb stomp you for suggesting so.
I also Disagree with your assertion that the first episode is the most memorable. Sure it had a guy fucking a pig, but episode two for me had far more memorable and horrible scenes.
I sincerely doubt the redundancy of "stomp"in your assertion if what you had in mind did not entail someone's reputation, reflected in whatever "black" correspondence you fail to see.
In english?
I was watching this documentary that made a point of how black magic focuses on manipulation and black mail and I thought the first episode was in correspondence with that trope?