Black Mirror (Channel 4, Netflix) TV Show • Page 25

i dont think either of the main characters in the episodes are worthy of sympathy and both episodes rely on deception and story telling manipulation throughout to lure the audiences into feelings of sympathy for the characters only to find out the twists are that they're terrible people and there's a reason why that's happening to them. i think both episodes are excellent and probably in my top 5 behind TEHOY and SJ. i get it if it's not one of your favorite episodes, but i don't get hating on it or being mad about feeling manipulated given that a lot of the episodes rely on twists and selective story telling

 

you don't think there's a difference between a character who did something wrong but has no memory of it and is facing a trauma and a character who has conscious memory of what they did and is upset they were caught?

 

Sure, but that doesn't make it okay for television shows to use delbritley use misleading techniques (like fading black and implying that a character dies / watches some porn only to reveal that lol whoops they lived / actually watched kiddie porn). Doing so loses the audience's trust, as everything now needs to be explicitly spelled out and we can't infer anything from context because who knows what other tricks the writers might have up their sleeve

 

I'm not sure that characterization applies because, while the protagonist's exact crimes weren't made known until the very end, I'd argue it's still reasonable to infer he was trying to protect more than just a video of him going to town on himself given the escalating nature of the demands. They didn't drop this bombshell out of absolutely nowhere - there was context, just not full context.

Though it's worth mentioning that I was mainly responding to the "they're trying to make us sympathize with a pedo" argument which isn't the argument you're making. While, again, I don't think your characterization is perfectly accurate, there's still a valid point underlying it imo and in principle I agree with you anyway.

 

i never tried to equate what either character did or compare their crimes. only brought up the point that both episodes rely on similar story telling techniques and asked what others had the same opinion of both.

 

i don't have the same opinion on both because the two characters and their motivations are entirely different lol

 

As far as the escalating nature of the demands go, it only really jumped to "come on dude its not worth it" with the bank robbery, but he only got pushed into willing to do the robbery by the other guy's manipulation.

Went back and watched the scene at the start with the toy and I'm really not seeing it. Sure, its creepy in hindsight but it still plays just as a teen who isn't super comfortable around kids interacting with one.

Not sure what other context was there. IIRC, we don't find out what any of the other people's crimes were until the end of the episode, just the guy cheating on his wife. That isn't enough for me to try and conclude that it was some kind of vigilante justice instead of just blackmail.

 

Actually now that you made me think about it, I don't even remember when everyone else's crimes were revealed, so if in fact that no one's were revealed 'til the end, then I retract the first half of my previous post and agree with you completely.

 

afair none of the other character's crimes are ever specifically revealed other than the main guy and the guy from got who was cheating on his wife. i don't think that really matters, though

 

I'll have to rewatch it cause I don't remember catching any hints that the kid was a pedo. It's possible I could just be dumb though. Also I tend to binge shows late at night and I certainly miss things lol

 

The twist in SUAD is fully unnecessary whereas the twist in White Bear is the entire point of the episode

 

Maybe SUAD isn't actually about the kid but rather about "Anonymous" and it simply uses the kid as a vessel through which to deliver the story. Bear in mind this series is about technology and the typically unforeseen consequences thereof, and in this episode we have these people wholly anonymously enacting vigilante justice via technology. Wouldn't it make sense that they are the focal point? The pedophile twist being arguably poorly written becomes largely irrelevant framed like this because, potentially, its entire purpose was to get the audience to (re)consider their position on the concept of vigilante justice, which is particularly pertinent given the technology in question is actually presently available to essentially everyone.

Moreover, perhaps the twist being so sudden and unpredictable was the entire point rather than a grievous misstep. The episode spent so long establishing Anonymous as clear antagonists, allowing the notion of their villainy to nestle itself comfortably in our minds, only to rip it away in an instant at the very end, thereby forcing us to question our preconceptions and making us all feel like dumb presumptuous assholes.

 

I never sympathized with the character in Shut Up and Dance. I figured throughout the entire episode that there was going to be a reason laid out as to why he was the subject of their interest in him. Also, I got major creep vibes in the restaurant when he was with the little girl, so I knew something was up rather quickly.

 

Yeah i dont feel like Black Mirror enforces its viewer to sympathize with each episodes’ main characters. Oftentimes they are pretty bad people. A good TV show teaches the viewer how to watch it and one thing that is constantly reiterated in this show is not to sympathize with its characters on first impressions.

 

The twist in Shut Up and Dance was dumb for a number a reasons, but the difference from White Bear to me was that it didn't have any of the complexity in the concept of justice that White Bear possessed. Also the troll face was so cheesy that it felt like a meta troll for having sat through such a useless and largely predictable story.

 

It definitely doesn't get you to sympathize with every main character. Something like The Entire History Of You or Nosedive I don't think intended to create much of any sympathy for the main characters.

SUAD did seem to have narrative elements in place designed to get viewers to sympathize with the kid.

 

Just watched San Junipero

Up there with White Bear as the best of the best. Great concept, beautifully executed.

 

San Junipero was one of the best pieces of media of the year period

 

I just re-watched San Junipero, goddamn what a work of art.

 

hey same
it definitely has my favourite aesthetic of any black mirror episode

 

oh damn this comes back in 2 days

 

*keeps checking the clock*

 

I just watched san junipero. Very good, wasn't expecting it to be so...happy? Seems like the only episode that's not monumentally fucked up. Maybe that's why everyone likes it so much lol

 

that’s exactly why i hate it, heh

 

it's the only one with an ending that resembles anything happy lol