Board 8 > Tera watches Black Mirror S4 *SPOILERS*

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Terastodon
12/30/17 2:57:36 AM
#1:


Loved most of the show up till now, interested on seeing what new technological fears there are ahead of us.

Ep 1 coming up now, bail if you don't want to be spoiled.

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4x1 - USS Callister

...this is an odd setting.

Okay, this isn't real, it's a dream or something. Tech something given the show. Okay, the captain made out with both chicks, it's definitely not real.

And we're full Oz, with the characters from the VR world populating real life too. Our protag is a pushover in real life hence the power fantasies.

His partner is definitely going to end with the chick.

As he gets back home, I start to wonder if maybe the "real" world is also a fantasy? Inceptionesque. Depending how much of a failure you are, CTO of a major company isn't the worst place to be.

He's taking the DNA from her cup in order to put her in the fantasy? I guess? That is some fancy tech. Is it going to corrupt? Appears not.

...initial gut thought - they have full sentient personalities and lives in the ship and aren't just simulations? Seems that way. Yeah, they know they're not in the real world, which does in fact make this twisted. Oh, it's a game, Infinity is a game, that makes sense.

I wonder how fast time passes in Infinity compared to the real world.

Rob Daly is a sick fuck.

I wonder who the real bad guy is in real life. Maybe Daly's dad? Paused for pizza delivery, lol.

Well, Jillian has a shitty existence.

Full Barbie and Ken Doll models. "Stealing my pussy is a red fucking line." The fact that they have no junk means Daly never uses these for sex fantasies, which is just weird.

The message to the real world goes as well as expected and Daly shows up to mete vengeance as the wrathful god he is.

The robots have a new plan to end their existences, which involve Nanette blackmailing her real life self with the exposure of her nude photos.

...and I repeat. Rob Daly is a sick fuck.

This is a dumb plan and I'm upset that it's going to work. Even if their plan works and they get feleted, I see Daly recreating them afterwards. That might be the stinger.

Nanette is in the house and I am guaranteed he has a digital copy somewhere.

...and we're back in the game.

Loving the Star Trek body shaking, it's in full effect as we go through the asteroid belt.

And we run up to the end and get... a happy ending for the non-Daly characters while Daly's mind gets stuck in a dead game.

Verdict:

Eh. I get that Daly was the one knee deep in tech, but that ending felt very fucking convenient. He has access to the console, but can't shut off or redirect the Callister? There is 0 way they should have been able to get away from him with his knowledge. Trapping him in the game I can believe if they can get to the wormhole before he's aware of the plan.

As a Black Mirror concept I liked it, but it did tread some of the same ideas as White Christmas without as good an execution. Fine, possibly veering to good at parts; but definitely not great.
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banananor
12/30/17 3:09:55 AM
#2:


There was a lot in that episode that didn't make sense

Why does the game continue simulating when he's not playing? Why doesn't he have their dna saved on his hard drive? Why is this magic cto so bad at technology? Why can't he just edit the characters?

Not to mention the tron-like ridiculousness of the 'patch wormhole'

I personally found it lame that her incriminating evidence was just some nude pics. Especially compared to the blackmailed character in that one episode last season

But it was a good choice. The first episode of a season is usually about making fun of science fiction and establishing that this show is cooler, and they need a relatable hero
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banananor
12/30/17 3:11:56 AM
#3:


Overall I really wanted to like it and liked it. Inconsistencies be damned

It was neat that they started off making cto man sympathetic before he became the villain
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Terastodon
12/30/17 3:14:48 AM
#4:


Yes, I did like that they introduced him as a flawed, sympathetic protagonist before revealing him as a sociopath, it made the I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream stuff hit harder.
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Terastodon
12/30/17 10:52:32 PM
#5:


4x2 - Arkangel

We open to a woman being operated on, looks like a C-Section. Hints at an issue? The dog barking a couple years later points the same way. The cat doesn't seem as distressed though.

...and she's missing. Followed the cat to the tracks.

We're in some sort of medical institution. We're implanting some tech which is inevitably going to get Black Mirror'd up. Oh, it's a tracking device. And a complete big brotheresque control system. Creepy af.

Also, the idea of making something scary seem innocent feels very dangerous, even beyond standard Black Mirror weirdness.

Yeah, as we pass the barking dog again, it's been filtered to appear smooth and unthreatening and will definitely rip her to pieces. Maybe.

We also get a filter on grandpa falling down, which sends a positive signal to the mother of a problem.

And timeskip. Grandpa died. Mum being sad is triggering. I guess once you understand the filter means bad, there's less danger of going into it.

Filtering of her own drawings and then injury is interesting. There is in fact a lack of concept of danger as a result of the removal of learning. Turning the system off gives complete freedom to someone who has never had it, but also the full spectrum of negative emotion to someone incredibly unequipped to handle them. You could take the story in either direction. Careening out of control or fetal position.

And naturally, the urge to watch is too strong for the mother to resist.

As the boy gives her a quick overview of all the bad things in the world, this feels like we're creating a psychopath? We develop a lack of fear of the dangers in the world (the dog) quickly, and that dog has to be fucking old by now.

Mum is on a date and we're rebellious teenage types now, partying and doing drugs on the beach after sunset. Mum is screwing the patient she was seeing in the past. When Mum does a check on the girls and doesn't have her show up, we're inevitably getting the ArkAngel switched back on. I like that they went to the effort of plugging it in, because I was about to type how dead that battery should be.

And Mum gets to see Sara have sex. And then neither of them owns up later.

I like the boyfriend because he's not an idiot, but they're both going to get fucked on coke. Also, he reminds me super hard of bane. Straight up Narcotic Alert via ArkAngel.

And via google image search, Mum is going to identify the boyfriend and report him to his boss? No, just going to him directly and blackmailing him to stay out of Sara's life.

I guess the dog did die? Or the owners moved away.

Boyfriend fails to come clean face-to-face so that relationship is dead. Looks like we might just be looking at tech enabling an overbearing mother? Because Sara has basically grown up normally.

And now Mum is dosing Sara with something without her knowledge and it seems like that's having adverse affects. And it was a contraceptive pill. The nurse seems like good people, but now Mum is busted. Sara finds the box in the trash to confirm it and before long finds the ArkAngel as well. Sara is done, she's planning on running away. The filter gets enabled allowing Sara to beat the shit out of Mum with the ArkAngel itself, causing enough damage to break the thing. Mum didn't die from injuries sustained though.

I assume Sara goes back to the boyfriend now? ...or just away. And we're done there.

Verdict:

Another very safe episode - there were throwbacks again to past Black Mirror tech, the ArkAngel had hints of blocking people from White Christmas, the rewinding and reviewing eyepiece from The Entire History of You, Hated in the Nation's amending of distressing imagery. There were lots of directions this episode could have gone, but this felt very tame. It felt more like a cautionary tale against overbearing parents unable to let their children age, rather than technology.
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