r/blackmirror

Watched the episode recently I don’t get why people see it as the rare feel-good episode. It’s world where it’s tehnologically possible to accurately digitally simulate a person and tech companies ran millions of tests trapping these consciousnesses into unpleasant randomised trials in order to improve dating app match accurary. That’s pretty messed up.

It’s undeniable that cookies trapped in dating app think they’re real people and they feel - they suffer, they feel pain and heartbreak going though cold heartless randomised trial. I personally don’t care if they’re switched off at end of simulation but their suffering absolutely matters.

So when you sign up for this dating service you're subjecting your digital copy cookie for subjective years of suffering so you can find your next partner easier. That’s pretty unethical and selfish. Let’s not act like it’s impossible to meet a partner without it, people been doing it for hundreds of years.

I just re-watched Plaything last night. I really enjoyed it the first time I saw it and even more so last night.

I got around to reading some of the threads here on Plaything and while the ending is certainly ambiguous, most people seem to believe that the Throng accomplished what the Throng set out to do as explained by Cameron their messenger.

Am I the only person who has doubt about the true intentions of the Throng and whether they were honest with Cameron?

Cam himself, when speaking of Lump, says that “…he was just someone I met once or twice who saw a soft touch and exploited it.”

Cameron is explicitly set up as somebody naïve and potentially deceived.

Perhaps uniting human consciousness as a hive mind was just a goal they had fed Cameron in order for him to devote himself to their plan.

Perhaps their real goal was more ominous. Maybe revenge on humanity for the violence Lump subjected the Thronglets to. Maybe some other goal unimaginable to us…

Yes, the ending is ambiguous, but I think this adds a whole other layer to the ambiguity.

There’s practically no technology at all; it’s just mediocre fantasy. The plot itself has no essence and tells me absolutely nothing, and it’s full of forgettable characters. The social commentary is merely nonexistent, and if it does have any, it doesn’t stand out in the slightest. The ending made no sense to me at all. Simply put, I couldn’t find anything redeemable about this episode, and believe me, I really thought about it. And I simply came to the conclusion that this episode is the biggest piece of crap this series has ever made, and it would’ve been better if I had never watched it.

If you were to create the story for a BM episode, what would it be?

My idea for the episode would be a group of friends hearing about an upcoming movie about a man's cruel deeds being documented (found-footage style? Idk) and him being caught by vigilantes in the end. Simple sounding, right? The kicker is that the audience get to decide the fate of the man by the end of the movie with a button installed on the seat; whether to kill him (I don't know how but probably in a gruesome way to really sell the message) or to give him up to the police. (For my vision, majority of the audience decides to kill the man) Once the movie ends and credits roll, it is revealed that the man and his deeds in the movie were real and the ending part where the audience gets to decide was actually a livestream. The theatre lights up, the audience stay seated, probably still shocked from the revelation, and a line just flashes brightly on the screen; "Thank you for watching!" and the episode ends.

The secondary turmoil in this episode is how the friend group reacts while watching the entirety of the movie. Some are reserved, some follow the majority, thinking its just a fictional movie, while some are adamant in killing the man. By the end of the movie, they are broken. Those wanting to kill the man turn silent while those who chose otherwise looked at their other friends in disgust and shock.

What do you think? I don't know if BM already has something like this because I got too busy with college to really watch each episode. Also the title of this episode would probably be "Thank you for watching!" to tie in the last scene.

I honestly feel that he would probably get off on the bank robbery and murder charge considering the circumstances but idk about the cp charges

https://preview.redd.it/o89ti7m3u42h1.jpg?width=707&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dc3088c82cdaaee42fa5bf349f77180e62a92faa

So I am a A Level Media Studies student who is currently trying to analyise San Junipero and its use of media language. I am aware of the some of the more surface level meanings of the cinematography (like how the lighting and sets are very colourful in San Junipero but become very bland in the real world, or how the camera uses closes ups so the audience can understand Yorkie and Kelly's facial expressions), but I am curious to know the deeper meanings of the cinematography. Is there any motifs or camera movements that are significant? Are they any shots where the framing has a semiotic meaning? If anyone could help me understand the episode more, then that would be greatly appreciated. 😄

1. A high school history teacher who works in london. his life changes when he comes across a device that can take any media, text, audio and video and make it so immersive that its indiscernible from reality. He uses the device to watch a show set in the 1800s, he falls in love with the male lead of the show and finds it extremely difficult to leave the "reality" where he experiences passionate love like never before and go back to his repetitive life. what starts as simple research to see if he could spend more time in the show's world turns into maniacal desire to find a way to live there permanently and it gets to a point where he hires a hitman to off him while he is in the alternate reality so he could be permanently free from his actual reality.
2. A car salesman's picturesque life takes a turn when he loses his husband and son in a terrible accident. months pass but his life never feels the same anymore. to cheer him up and help him ease through his grief, his coworker offers to take him out for a few drinks. character gives in after his coworker insists. at the bar he sees a couple of drunk men on a gambling machine that instead of paying you when you win, lets you talk to anyone, dead or alive for a few minutes. the drunk men rejoice as they talk to an holographic version of a popular actress. its an algorithmically designed persona of the actress that already knows what conversation player wants to have. character gives it a shot, he talks to his "husband" for a few minutes and is emotionally overwhelmed. it addicts him to a point where he spent hours just gambling just to talk to an algorithmic version of his husband and son. he watches his husband grow old, his son graduate college all through an hologram while his life goes completely south as he gets deeper and deeper into his addiction.

So just rewatched nosedive and am blown away-especially as it was one of my least favourite.

I think the crux of the episode is the speech and the big reveal-before all this Naomi as a child was one who helped Lacie overcome her fears. She may have made mistakes or completely left her behind but Lacie saw the good in her.

Is this basically the theme of the episode that the environment takes out the good in people? Also Lacie finally being free to truly express herself?

What is your worst black mirror episode not worst as in bad episode but the worst as in if that were me? For me white Christmas the white void!!

I've always found the shot of Kenny staring at a guy on his phone while walking out of the hotel with Hector to be a bit strange (in a good way), and after Kenny robs the bank, Hector says: "There was some bloke standing there on his phone, freaking me out."

Is it possible that the blackmailers were actually watching them in-person throughout the episode or are these things that are focused upon or mentioned to display their paranoia?

Am I the only one just now realizing that “wraith” means an apparition or a ghost? Therefore, Abi isn’t just a medicated version of herself, she is a ghost of her former self. Or maybe the Judge is the ghost she saw before the death of herself.