Black Mirror - Series 7

THEY CALL ME GAJA

THEY CALL ME GAJA

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Just watched Common People and
I now need a big hug and a good cry. The commentary on the American Healthcare system was rightly scathing. Now Michelle, I want to take a minute to talk to you about Squarespace
 
I’ve watched the first 2 episodes - episode 1 stronger than 2 but both of them were decent. Personally I’ve never felt like it dropped off that much in the last couple of seasons like some people think it has anyway.

First episode hit at least 2 very interesting themes:
not just the healthcare stuff but the encouraging people to do very dangerous things online - the anonymity and how that can make people push strangers to do things they wouldn’t get them to do offline. That bit was horrible too.
. Can see that Brooker was originally going for a very dark comedy with that episode until he decided on his ending.

Second episode was a little far fetched for me even by Black Mirror’s standards. For me it works best when it’s JUST out of the reach of what we can do with technology -
if she was able to just change the CCTV footage using AI and not change the whole fabric of reality -e.g. NOT change the baseball cap but just be able to change the records of the company name online, I think I’d have bought the plot a bit better and felt it was a better commentary on how dark AI can take us.
 
First episode was classic Black Mirror. Bleak but amazing with a real gut punch ending.

My one quibble, which I realise isn’t really the point of Black Mirror but still…

Would you really just be fired with no apparent further consequences if you were directly responsible for a guy being crushed by an industrial vehicle? I feel like that’s more of a protracted legal case, but they just sort of dropped it. :D
 
Hotel Reverie (Episode 3) was a bit on the dull side for me.
Shades of San Junipero and Hang The DJ with the romance element, but I didn’t buy the whole premise of her having the potential to die in the machine which is where all the stakes came from really. I also didn’t really rate the acting - Harriet Walter hammed it up a bit too much for me and in contrast I thought Issa Rae underplayed it a bit.
 
Plaything and Eulogy were both great I thought (though Plaything looks like it's not been so well received on IMDB).

Capaldi was excellent and it felt like a really dark place to go and I liked that - personally thought the ending was frighteningly plausible as a way for the machine to take us over. I definitely got the feeling that those things were not playing at the end. Always enjoy Michele Austin in everything she's in too so she was a nice surprise being in it. Fun to have the throwbacks to Bandersnatch too.

One of the most tragic episodes of Black Mirror I think. What could have been made me really sad and closest I've been to tears in this series. I normally find Giamatti a bit overrated but thought he was genuinely fantastic here. I thought the girl in the receiver was going to be Carol about 15 minutes in when she started getting all aggy with him, so didn't quite guess the twist right, but what they wrote actually made more sense. I liked the fact that Giamatti's character was clearly so flawed - blaming the world for his problems and ignoring his own faults.

The final episode has best IMDB rating of the season but I always found USS Callister a little overrated so I'm interested to see how I feel about that...
 
The first episode could have easily been in series 3 or 4, albeit with slightly higher production values. Just enough to keep it from being more of the same, but wonderfully enthralling nonetheless.
 
One of the little touches in the first episode that I found quite darkly clever

Initially she only disassociates for very brief 'ad breaks', but clearly by the end those ad breaks have become long enough that he'd have time to suffocate her before she came back - another very accurate depiction of how these streaming services are going!
 
VoR said:
One of the little touches in the first episode that I found quite darkly clever

Initially she only disassociates for very brief 'ad breaks', but clearly by the end those ad breaks have become long enough that he'd have time to suffocate her before she came back - another very accurate depiction of how these streaming services are going!
Click to expand...

I thought he had a countdown on his phone and that signalled the end of their subscription. The ads just started at the same time. It was unclear whether she’d be reduced to speaking ads indefinitely (in case they wanted to renew), or if it was a one-off.
 
I'm pretty sure I saw Barnies then Bernies later on. I remember thinking that when I watched it :D I love that touch.

USS Callister 2 was what I expected - just not for me, even though IMDB ratings place it top of the season. I just didn't love the first one (it was ok) and this one I liked less.

Best episodes were Common People and Eulogy, followed by Bete Noire for me.

A lot of people seem to be saying this season is better than the last but I loved all the first 3 episodes from last season: Joan Is Awful, Loch Henry and Beyond The Sea and think they were stronger than the best from this season.
 
VoR said:
First episode was classic Black Mirror. Bleak but amazing with a real gut punch ending.

My one quibble, which I realise isn’t really the point of Black Mirror but still…

Would you really just be fired with no apparent further consequences if you were directly responsible for a guy being crushed by an industrial vehicle? I feel like that’s more of a protracted legal case, but they just sort of dropped it. :D
Click to expand...
Yes i was wondering that too and also on a similar note
wouldn't it have been easier if they missed their payments so that the company shuts her down? Isn't a necrotomy ordered by law for every death that takes place in someone's house? How is he going to make asphyxiation look like a death of natural causes? How does he know the company does not store incriminating records on him given the ads were contextual and the company won't be happy he ruined company property to end his contract?
 
I mean, for episode 1

granting them the fiction of no class action lawsuits, you'd get the top tier and use the new skills and monetise them and make more than enough back, surely?

I did enjoy the episode a lot regardless though
 
I think I'd have preferred Hotel Reverie to have just continued with them trying to get the story back on track, rather than going all existential tbh. I know it being black mirror made the latter inevitable, but sticking to increasingly unhinged improvisation would have been a really fun watch.
 
ZenGiraffe said:
I think I'd have preferred Hotel Reverie to have just continued with them trying to get the story back on track, rather than going all existential tbh. I know it being black mirror made the latter inevitable, but sticking to increasingly unhinged improvisation would have been a really fun watch.
Click to expand...
Same

Also I’m sorry but I thought the lead actress’ acting was just bad; she didn’t sell me anything at all - unlike the co-star!
 
I thought Hotel Reverie and Plaything were both dull.

Hotel had this thing about it where it felt like I was supposed to absolutely spellbound by these two falling in love for real within two minutes but the shoddy acting put paid to that. Couldn’t wait for it be over. Much preferred the @ZenGiraffe suggestion of them just having fun with it. Almost a bit like The Play that Goes Wrong?

Plaything didn’t go anywhere for me either.

Eulogy fell asleep twice watching it but by the third attempt I did actually get into it. Although like Hotel I think I was more keen on the technicality of how it was made 🤷‍♂️ Going into the photos looked so good!
 
Suomi said:
Same

Also I’m sorry but I thought the lead actress’ acting was just bad; she didn’t sell me anything at all - unlike the co-star!
Click to expand...

She really was dreadful. And as I said in my spoiler tag, I even thought Harriet Walter was too. The whole cast just seemed to not be into it (with the exception of Emma Corrin).
 
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