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Black Mirror

hellteam

First Grade
Messages
6,529
Love this show but I think Metalhead was the first episode of all seasons that I completely didn't see any point. To me it was just a dog chasing around a lady for an hour. Can someone explain?

Unsure about this series, I felt it was quite easily the weakest. All the concepts felt the same as other episodes, there's only so many virtual reality stories I can stomach. Something else please.
 

Zigwaa

Bench
Messages
2,744
Only discovered a few weeks and nearly through them all. Have been watching episodes out of order and hasn't made any difference which is great. Loved USS Callister. The only thing is you are always looking for a twist each episode.
 

Zigwaa

Bench
Messages
2,744
Love this show but I think Metalhead was the first episode of all seasons that I completely didn't see any point. To me it was just a dog chasing around a lady for an hour. Can someone explain?

I really enjoyed the episode.

I think it was pointing to the fact that in a post apocalyptic world people are still trying to bring joy into their lives and make them feel human. The trip to the warehouse you would initially think they were trying to get something essential to their survival like food, water or some spare parts etc. Where in actual fact they were trying to get a child a replacement teddy bear, 3 people were risking their lives to get a kid another teddy bear, i thought it was quite impactful, could just be because I have kids however.
 

vvvrulz

Coach
Messages
13,298
Love this show but I think Metalhead was the first episode of all seasons that I completely didn't see any point. To me it was just a dog chasing around a lady for an hour. Can someone explain?

What drew me in was the minimalist & unexplained horror of a simple piece of tech such as this helper dog going completely rogue to the point of wiping everyone out. I took the story as basically Skynet on a more realistic tone. Yes it was a dog chasing a lady for an hour, but in that hour we saw humanity was struggling for survival, livestock was wiped out, homes were invaded and people shot themselves in their own beds. Only because a simple piece of tech went awry.
 

Timbo

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
20,270
I really didn't enjoy Metalhead either, tbh. I also meh'd pretty hard at Crocodile and Arkangel.

They need to give the 'cookie' concept a rest, they've absolutely done it to death.
 

Eelectrica

Referee
Messages
20,976
Almost finished season 3. Mostly just watching one episode a night.
Wow this show really is something, don't know why I didn't catch it earlier. Still good to have something left in reserve for a drought.
 

gUt

Coach
Messages
16,876
Don't understand the apathy toward Metalhead. It wasn't about ideas, it was about the possible consequences of many of the ideas that had been explored already in other episodes. Just a pure action episode and despite some of the weird little plotholes in it (eg why was it exactly in that spot to begin with?) I thought it was really good.

EDIT just scanned the thread here. I hadn't thought about the dogs as helpers gone wrong. To me they were either created by a hostile AI or by another invading power.
 

myrrh ken

First Grade
Messages
9,817
Only discovered a few weeks and nearly through them all. Have been watching episodes out of order and hasn't made any difference which is great. Loved USS Callister. The only thing is you are always looking for a twist each episode.

Ive made my way through a few now. Its a great series and what i enjoy most are the futuristic storylines, the visuals and the production values.

Will be in a minority here but i think in some of them the big twist endings are a bit too unsubtle and detract from the pacing of the whole story. Ends up feeling a bit cheap and you just dont care for the character at the end. I get thats the point. The horror game one is an example, cant even remember the name.

The stand out for me is the entire history if you. Just stays with you that one.
 

vvvrulz

Coach
Messages
13,298
EDIT just scanned the thread here. I hadn't thought about the dogs as helpers gone wrong. To me they were either created by a hostile AI or by another invading power.

Yeah I was thinking basically Amazon Alexa with legs, capable of simple household tasks & programmed with some machine learning on human behaviour.

Somewhere in it's programming it gets the idea of extermination, learns to handle weapons within its physical limitations, and bingo. AI can learn all it needs in the blink of an eye, including how to tap into the vast amount of weapons and ammo already available; no time for us to react. If they're scattered around as vastly as an iPhone and knows how to sustain itself, then it's pretty much impossible to contain.

The scary part is this sort of thing isn't far fetched at all. Sure nobody would program a 'kill all humans' function, but it could be something as simple as someone somewhere sending an instruction to stomp on a cockroach - it getting interpreted wrong & mixed up with 'all living things', and a self-learning patch goes viral via a central AI.

I dunno, just an interpretation.
 

bileduct

Coach
Messages
17,832
There's a new episode of Black Mirror dropping on Netflix today.

I'm not gonna spoil it by watching any previews. Apparently it's a "choose your own adventure" style episode that goes for 90 minutes, but has 5 hours worth of content. Not sure how that's gonna work, but it will be interesting.
 

axl rose

Bench
Messages
4,936
There's a new episode of Black Mirror dropping on Netflix today.

I'm not gonna spoil it by watching any previews. Apparently it's a "choose your own adventure" style episode that goes for 90 minutes, but has 5 hours worth of content. Not sure how that's gonna work, but it will be interesting.
Yeah apparently this is the movie tonight then season 5 is out early next year.
 
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bileduct

Coach
Messages
17,832
Damn, it's starting to look like I'm gonna need a Netflix subscription to watch this.

What an ingenious way of confusing the alternative distributors.
 

bileduct

Coach
Messages
17,832
Well that was... an experience.

Without spoiling anything, the Black Mirror twist on a Choose Your Own Adventure-style story was a little predictable. I saw about four different endings and only found one of them to be really satisfying. I got stuck in a loop at one point and sat through the same scenes three or four times which was a little tedious. The branching needs a bit of work, as there was no option to go back to some of the earlier decisions I'd made without having to restart the entire episode.

I really wanted to like it but came away feeling kinda let down. 6/10.
 
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axl rose

Bench
Messages
4,936
The branching needs a bit of work, as there was no option to go back to some of the earlier decisions I'd made without having to restart the entire episode.
Right, after disposing of a particular character I was making a phone call to the quack's office and I buggered up the number. Then it took me back and I never got to try it again.
 

bileduct

Coach
Messages
17,832
Right, after disposing of a particular character I was making a phone call to the quack's office and I buggered up the number. Then it took me back and I never got to try it again.
Yeah I wanted to go back and jump off the balcony instead of Colin. I also let him live later on. The fight with the therapist was f**king hilarious though. Some choices seemed to make no real difference, like karate chopping the dad in the neck or kicking him in the balls.
 
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