Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror

[JazzFunk]

Just watched it, a stoner thought expanded for 50mins, anyone on here could've done it, even Team Andromeda.

Also hate the B/W pretentious adbreak statements, this is only the fourth episode of this franchise, I'd recommend people check out Importaku's Twilight Zone thread, THAT is how it's supposed to be done.

[CMcK]

I really enjoyed the new episode of Black Mirror. I certainly didn't expect that ending. A good examination of how the relationships you have with people online are incomplete.
In a round about way it reminded me of something that happened to a mate a couple of years ago. He's a bit of a Facebook fiend and uses it all the time. However a couple of years ago he had made contact with an old mate who had moved down to Englandshire about ten years ago. After a while they had arranged to meet up which seemed great. But just before he went down my mate confessed that he wasn't looking forward to going as there had been a lot of online arguing over stuff mainly politics. One pro Independence and the other pro Union.
Anyway he still went down and when he got back he told me they had a great weekend. The narrow focus of the stuff they discussed on Facebook was just a subset of the stuff that had made them friends in the first place.

I think Mr. Brooker understands this and managed to made some good TV based on the idea. Looking forward to the rest of the series now.

[wakka]

Reading you describe it CMcK, I like it more than I did when I actually watched it. While Brooker's ideas are good (and his scriptwriting really very good), I find the way he deals with these ideas so obvious and heavy handed. It's bait as ****.

[DANGEROUS-3]

One thing this episode did make me think about (aside from it being a rip off of the film 'Clone') was whether we actually ever love (or even care about) the other person in a relationship, or if instead, what we actually love is what they provide us with.

In 'Be Right Back' the main character orders a clone of her deceased bf, for the purpose of helping her deal with her grief. And later when she is humping it, she tells it 'I love you'.

Soon she realises despite his bedroom prowess, the clone does not really have her ex's personality and is more like a robot. So they stop sleeping together. But what if he was a perfect copy?

Would the clone then have replaced her ex? Would she have been 100% happy with him and ceased to mourn the death of her previous bf? That would be pretty f-ed up...

[Se7enus]

Reading you describe it CMcK, I like it more than I did when I actually watched it. While Brooker's ideas are good (and his scriptwriting really very good), I find the way he deals with these ideas so obvious and heavy handed. It's bait as ****.

Why would Brooker dress it up any other way? We are a predictable, self destructive race who are easily manipulated by the media and other people's affairs, that is exactly how Brooker portrays us.... Some of us believe we do not fall under this category, strip yourselves back, it won't take long until you find a part of your life which has in someway been influenced by Government morals, or warped by trending media, we all have our price.

Blog's, Social Networking groups, blah blah blah...... In one respect these man made creations are superb, we speak as a collective now, we could make a difference if making a difference was one of our priorities, instead we twiddle our idle thumbs and choose to intrude in other peoples lives, sad enough we take great pleasure in other people's demise unable to place ourselves into their situations, instead as a nation we point and laugh, laugh at other peoples sadness and happiness respectively but not so much..... Our greatest gift in eon's turns out to be our biggest downfall, this is why there must be order, there must be one responsible voice for us all, without that one true voice the world would be like our greatest gift, Anarchy..... Unfortunately our 'one true voice' is equally responsible for our ever growing demise, we point and laugh at the unfortunate, to them we are the unfortunate........ A mundane, robotic nation awaits in the aftermath of our technology driven world, some visionaries illustrate our direction as evolution, some as a curse, bottom line man is destructive and given the right tools we will craft our own demise, look in your pockets, your rucksacks, the centre piece of your living room, now go, your tools of self destruction await...... Now go fellow voyeur's, for once try not to prove me right

[JazzFunk]

I like a lot of his stuff but his 'dramatic' stuff feels super-sterile, overly metrosexual and seems to forget that working class bods exist, too, it's all set in this autistic, metallic world, full of gadgets n' cash n' big fancy houses in the sticks. Offputting.

Would've much rather had a new series of You Have Been Watching, tbh, though I will watch the rest and hope they carry a wee bit more gravitas than this one. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't BAD, just clumsy and a bit bland and the Irish guy seemed a bit of a

->Open Spoiler<-

robot

to begin with.

[Se7enus]

I like a lot of his stuff but his 'dramatic' stuff feels super-sterile, overly metrosexual and seems to forget that working class bods exist, too, it's all set in this autistic, metallic world, full of gadgets n' cash n' big fancy houses in the sticks. Offputting.

Would've much rather had a new series of You Have Been Watching, tbh, though I will watch the rest and hope they carry a wee bit more gravitas than this one. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't BAD, just clumsy and a bit bland and the Irish guy seemed a bit of a

->Open Spoiler<-

robot

to begin with.

I'm intrerestred to know where you think man is going within this technology, consumer and media driven world we live in...... Brooker delves into the human make up and does a good job of portraying an alternative reality, a reality of potential things to come if we don't get our acts together. I respect Brooker and his work for saying it as it is, too many of us hide behind alter ego's and are oblivious to what we are becoming, I say oblivious, we are not oblivious, more complacent and the same trends will apply, we will not try to resolve these issues until it is too late.

[JazzFunk]

^Well, I'm not sure exactly where we are going and it's 100% clear that tech has become VERY invasive in people's lives, the much feared '1984 situation' happened by stealth, they sweetened it with funky gadgetry and we now spend all our hard-earned on portable surveillance devices, in a nutshell! I don't think Brooker needs to place himself as some kind of messianic figure in all this, all it takes is a little intelligence and it's super-clear to see for anyone. I think we need to know more about what goes on BEHIND the scenes, that's the really scary part.

It was obvious to me in 2007, when my ex became addicted to Facebook. I could see where all this info-obsession would lead, and it has.

BTW, I have a cheap mobile, that's that. All that "social networking" guff is just static n' interference to me.

PS: been playing thru Dead Space 2 and the storyline in that is truly warped speculative sci-fi that rips the piss out of how warped society can be in a much sharper way than B.M. In it, a religious cult is secretly crossbreeding human kids and necromorphs in an attempt to create a 'unified race'. It's much blacker than Brooker's mirror, and much more indicative and satirical of darker powers at work, maybe it's spoiling me.

[Se7enus]

^Well, I'm not sure exactly where we are going and it's 100% clear that tech has become VERY invasive in people's lives, the much feared '1984 situation' happened by stealth, they sweetened it with funky gadgetry and we now spend all our hard-earned on portable surveillance devices, in a nutshell! I don't think Brooker needs to place himself as some kind of messianic figure in all this, all it takes is a little intelligence and it's super-clear to see for anyone. I think we need to know more about what goes on BEHIND the scenes, that's the really scary part.

It was obvious to me in 2007, when my ex became addicted to Facebook. I could see where all this info-obsession would lead, and it has.

BTW, I have a cheap mobile, that's that. All that "social networking" guff is just static n' interference to me.

PS: been playing thru Dead Space 2 and the storyline in that is truly warped speculative sci-fi that rips the piss out of how warped society can be in a much sharper way than B.M. In it, a religious cult is secretly crossbreeding human kids and necromorphs in an attempt to create a 'unified race'. It's much blacker than Brooker's mirror, and much more indicative and satirical of darker powers at work, maybe it's spoiling me.

We already live in Brookers portrayal of society, Issac Clarke's warped reality is the future :-).

I do wish more people would apply that intellect in our future instead of living for today, I have three children and I fear for their future everyday. It's evident in our everyday routine that people are content on complacency, as you say, people are so easy to fall into a robotic routine and allow other people to make decisions for them, complacency is the problem, freedom of speech is snatched from under our noses and we are to caught up in trivial matters no notice, very clever, but why take away our vocals, what is the ulterior motive?

[JazzFunk]

Well, life is cheap, innit? It's better that way for us, the sheeple, just keep your head down n' stuck in that iPhone! Look at the Middle East, look at Africa. Look at the UK. It's bizarre, the world right now.

I don't wanna get all tinfoil hat here, but all you can do is try to subtly educate people. Most of 'em already know, anyway. Most peeps are decent, just unneedingly addicted to pointless apps. I notice a lot of users I know are starting to FINALLY get bored of FB, so who knows....

[wakka]

Blog's, Social Networking groups, blah blah blah...... In one respect these man made creations are superb, we speak as a collective now, we could make a difference if making a difference was one of our priorities, instead we twiddle our idle thumbs and choose to intrude in other peoples lives, sad enough we take great pleasure in other people's demise unable to place ourselves into their situations, instead as a nation we point and laugh, laugh at other peoples sadness and happiness respectively but not so much..... Our greatest gift in eon's turns out to be our biggest downfall, this is why there must be order, there must be one responsible voice for us all, without that one true voice the world would be like our greatest gift, Anarchy..... Unfortunately our 'one true voice' is equally responsible for our ever growing demise, we point and laugh at the unfortunate, to them we are the unfortunate........ A mundane, robotic nation awaits in the aftermath of our technology driven world, some visionaries illustrate our direction as evolution, some as a curse, bottom line man is destructive and given the right tools we will craft our own demise, look in your pockets, your rucksacks, the centre piece of your living room, now go, your tools of self destruction await...... Now go fellow voyeur's, for once try not to prove me right

If you would be so kind as to put this into sentences, I would gladly read it.

[Se7enus]

If you would be so kind as to put this into sentences, I would gladly read it.


[/COLOR]

CD


You don't talk in sentences when you rant. Just read it and don't be so pedantic.

On a plus side you have just demonstrated in part what my rant is aiming at in all of one sentence

[wakka]

You don't talk in sentences when you rant.

Yes I do.

[Charlie]

Why would Brooker dress it up any other way? We are a predictable, self destructive race who are easily manipulated by the media and other people's affairs, that is exactly how Brooker portrays us.... Some of us believe we do not fall under this category, strip yourselves back, it won't take long until you find a part of your life which has in someway been influenced by Government morals, or warped by trending media, we all have our price.

Blog's, Social Networking groups, blah blah blah...... In one respect these man made creations are superb, we speak as a collective now, we could make a difference if making a difference was one of our priorities, instead we twiddle our idle thumbs and choose to intrude in other peoples lives, sad enough we take great pleasure in other people's demise unable to place ourselves into their situations, instead as a nation we point and laugh, laugh at other peoples sadness and happiness respectively but not so much..... Our greatest gift in eon's turns out to be our biggest downfall, this is why there must be order, there must be one responsible voice for us all, without that one true voice the world would be like our greatest gift, Anarchy..... Unfortunately our 'one true voice' is equally responsible for our ever growing demise, we point and laugh at the unfortunate, to them we are the unfortunate........ A mundane, robotic nation awaits in the aftermath of our technology driven world, some visionaries illustrate our direction as evolution, some as a curse, bottom line man is destructive and given the right tools we will craft our own demise, look in your pockets, your rucksacks, the centre piece of your living room, now go, your tools of self destruction await...... Now go fellow voyeur's, for once try not to prove me right

Yup, we're a pretty fu**ed up species. Too weak to do what's right and good, too easily fooled, led astray by what we think we want, by pretty lights, led astray by our silly brains which we belive make us so clever.

It's interesting George Orwell's 1984 was raised as a comparison to Brooker's work, as 1984 is really much more reflective of what's going on in communist states like China and North Korea. Here in the 'West' I think Aldoux Huxley's Brave New World is a much more apt vision of where we find ourselves right now:

In regard to propaganda the early advocates of universal literacy and a free
press envisaged only two possibilities: the propaganda might be true, or the
propaganda might be false. They did not foresee what in fact has happened, above
all in our Western capitalist democracies - the development of a vast mass
communications industry, concerned in the main neither with the true nor the
false, but with the unreal, the more or less totally irrelevant. In a word, they
failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for
distractions.

In the past most people never got a chance of fully
satisfying this appetite. They might long for distractions, but the distractions
were not provided. Christmas came but once a year, feasts were "solemn and
rare," there were few readers and very little to read, and the nearest approach
to a neighborhood movie theater was the parish church, where the performances
though frequent, were somewhat monotonous. For conditions even remotely
comparable to those now prevailing we must return to imperial Rome, where the
populace was kept in good humor by frequent, gratuitous doses of many kinds of
entertainment - from poetical dramas to gladiatorial fights, from recitations of
Virgil to all-out boxing, from concerts to military reviews and public
executions. But even in Rome there was nothing like the non-stop distractions
now provided by newspapers and magazines, by radio, television and the cinema.


In "Brave New World" non-stop distractions of the most fascinating
nature are deliberately used as instruments of policy, for the purpose of
preventing people from paying too much attention to the realities of the social
and political situation. The other world of religion is different from the other
world of entertainment; but they resemble one another in being most decidedly
"not of this world." Both are distractions and, if lived in too continuously,
both can become, in Marx's phrase "the opium of the people" and so a threat to
freedom. Only the vigilant can maintain their liberties, and only those who are
constantly and intelligently on the spot can hope to govern themselves
effectively by democratic procedures.

"A society, most of whose members
spend a great part of their time, not on the spot, not here and now and in their
calculable future, but somewhere else, in the irrelevant other worlds of sport
and soap opera, of mythology and metaphysical fantasy, will find it hard to
resist the encroachments of those would manipulate and control it.

[JazzFunk]

^Yeah, have to agree there.