(no subject)
Oct. 27th, 2016 12:38 amHalfway through the new Black Mirrors. Booker's getting a little repetitive with endings where someone who the audience is supposed to feel deserves punishment gets too much punishment. That was a frequent Twilight Zone move, wasn't it? (Never had much luck paying attention to that show, for reasons summed up perfectly in Futurama's several Scary Door bits.) I assume it's a way to get across Job-type stories except with endings supplied by Job's wife without audiences bailing? You're supposed to say, "Ah, good. Just deserts!" and then later in the produce aisle suddenly feel vaguely uneasy. Dire warnings seemingly aimed at somebody else, till the pill casing breaks down in your stomach.
In 3.2 the only punishment merited is whatever's approprate for annoying American tourists in the eyes of the British. Which seemed like a jab at Netflix requiring a certain number of episodes with American leads. Not that I have any evidence that there was such a requirement - I just like to make up these little explanatory stories. Which would get me hip-deep in trouble in Bookerland.
3.1 was way too close to the platonic ideal, or maybe just the preconceived notion, of a Black Mirror episode. 3.2 had more subtext, though it really all boiled down to the fact that "enhanced reality," by roping in reality, immediately introduced the likelihood that software developers would be manipulating variables they have no understanding of. Makes sense - I was actually kind of surprised when the Pokemon Go craze didn't cause a bunch of deaths somehow (maybe just because I'd watched several episodes of Black Mirror). 3.3 was better but seemed a little too close to the much scarier season 2 episode with the woman with amnesia. Being derivative has always been the series' problem, though. Even my pick for the single best episode, the memory-as-video one, was basically plagiarized from that Robin Williams movie thst basicslly plagiarized Crowley's "Snow." 3.1 borrows heavily from a Community episode, 3.2 from eXistenZ. Borrowed main ideas seem kind of consequential when the Twilight Zone-ish format is so predictable - if you're not providing the what or the how, what are you providing? "Technology," I guess. With 3.3 it briefly felt like the first screen we saw, at three or four minutes in, was bound to immediately explode, and then the episode would immediately end after the word "Technology" flashed on the screen.
In 3.2 the only punishment merited is whatever's approprate for annoying American tourists in the eyes of the British. Which seemed like a jab at Netflix requiring a certain number of episodes with American leads. Not that I have any evidence that there was such a requirement - I just like to make up these little explanatory stories. Which would get me hip-deep in trouble in Bookerland.
3.1 was way too close to the platonic ideal, or maybe just the preconceived notion, of a Black Mirror episode. 3.2 had more subtext, though it really all boiled down to the fact that "enhanced reality," by roping in reality, immediately introduced the likelihood that software developers would be manipulating variables they have no understanding of. Makes sense - I was actually kind of surprised when the Pokemon Go craze didn't cause a bunch of deaths somehow (maybe just because I'd watched several episodes of Black Mirror). 3.3 was better but seemed a little too close to the much scarier season 2 episode with the woman with amnesia. Being derivative has always been the series' problem, though. Even my pick for the single best episode, the memory-as-video one, was basically plagiarized from that Robin Williams movie thst basicslly plagiarized Crowley's "Snow." 3.1 borrows heavily from a Community episode, 3.2 from eXistenZ. Borrowed main ideas seem kind of consequential when the Twilight Zone-ish format is so predictable - if you're not providing the what or the how, what are you providing? "Technology," I guess. With 3.3 it briefly felt like the first screen we saw, at three or four minutes in, was bound to immediately explode, and then the episode would immediately end after the word "Technology" flashed on the screen.