Board 8 > Rate the Black Mirror Episode: S3E3 - Shut Up and Dance

(+) Yeah! (+)

Screen buzzes, cracks.

Sorry for the late, late topic! I was supervising the preparation and opening of my community theater's ticket presale (we're doing Legally Blonde the Musical). Thankfully, it sold beyond our expectations! Anyway, in contrast to that...the dance in this episode's title isn't a literal dance!
The episode tells the story of a teenage boy, Kenny (Alex Lawther), who is blackmailed into committing bizarre and criminal acts by anonymous hackers in possession of a video of him masturbating. The teen is joined by a middle-aged man (Jerome Flynn), who is also being blackmailed over infidelity. The episode is dark in tone and has themes related to a previous episode, "White Bear".

Guidelines:

• Rate the episode from 1 to 10
• Feel free to share your reasoning
• You can rate previous days

Previous ratings:
9.04 - S1E2 - Fifteen Million Merits
8.71 - Special - White Christmas
8.37 - S2E1 - Be Right Back
8.13 - S1E3 - The Entire History of You
6.89 - S3E1 - Nosedive
6.88 - S2E2 - White Bear
6.79 - S3E2 - Playtest
6.22 - S1E1 - The National Anthem
4.83 - S2E3 - The Waldo Moment

7/10

2.5

Pretty easily the worst episode of the series imo

7/10

3/10

I didn't outright hate it, but it didn't feel very Black Mirror to me and overall wasn't very interesting. With the twist ending, I get why the kid was motivated to do whatever the hackers said, but Bronn was just cheating on his wife. I wouldn't go along with any of that shit if all I was doing was cheating on my wife.

3.5

9.5

9

9/10. A bit surprised by some of the negative reactions.

7

Neat concept
Didnt use it to the best extent
7/10

9.3

I rewatched it yesterday and enjoyed it immensely. Some of the things you don't pick up on the first time around are absolutely chilling like the way Kenny dwells a bit too long on that kid's menu like he's thinking about the child that filled in the activities sheet *shudder*. It's so interesting how they frame him in such a sympathetic manner throughout the duration only to reveal toward the end that he's a disgusting deviant who deserves everything that's happened to him. Even remembering what I did I still somehow felt sorry for him when he was forced to rob the bank at gunpoint. The kid went through it.

9/10

8.5/10

Playtest: 7.5
White Christmas: 10
Shut Up And Dance: 7

2.5/10

Haha we made you sympathize with the bad guy

GenesisSaga posted...

It's so interesting how they frame him in such a sympathetic manner throughout the duration only to reveal toward the end that he's a disgusting deviant who deserves everything that's happened to him. Even remembering what I did I still somehow felt sorry for him when he was forced to rob the bank at gunpoint. The kid went through it.

I think this is part of what makes this episode fall flat. Like a teenager masturbating to child porn on his computer is awful, obviously, but is it "be forced into a televised fight to the death with a grown man" awful?

Part of what made White Bear work is that the protagonist was revealed to be someone who kidnapped, abused and then murdered a child, and the weight of those actions almost makes understandable why the town does what they do

Then this episode tries to pull the same "gotcha" moment but with a much weaker premise and it just didn't land at all

Johnbobb posted...

I think this is part of what makes this episode fall flat. Like a teenager masturbating to child porn on his computer is awful, obviously, but is it "be forced into a televised fight to the death with a grown man" awful?

Part of what made White Bear work is that the protagonist was revealed to be someone who kidnapped, abused and then murdered a child, and the weight of those actions almost makes understandable why the town does what they do

Then this episode tries to pull the same "gotcha" moment but with a much weaker premise and it just didn't land at all

See that's the exact opposite of how I feel about White Bear. It's way overdone because she played a part in that child's suffering, but she was confirmed to be the accomplice and not the main perp. The man who killed himself in prison deserved every bit of that punishment, and while she deserved... something for conspiring with him that wadn't it , chief.