I haven't seen this season yet, but the worst Black Mirror episodes aren't bad, it's just that the best ones are really, really good.
I would argue that the worst Black Mirror episodes are actually pretty bad. And at least in a bad episode of a normal show, you still have pre-existing characters/storylines you like that you can latch onto.
Anthony Mackie gave the best performance of the season imo. The dead look on his face as he trudges through the mundanity of his life is so sad and effecting.
The acting was the only part that I felt was up to their previous standards pretty much across the board.
Yeah I finally finished the season last night, and thought Smithereens was good too. Didn’t care for the Miley ep, but overall I thought you guys were too harsh on this season.
Not to derail, but I just watched Hang The DJ for the first time. Wow. I yelled things at the screen.
Just watched the Miley ep, actually really liked it. I didn't have Disney Channel while Hannah Montana was a thing, and I never really paid attention to pop music as an adult, so I've always been ambivalent towards the newer generation of pop stars, but I low-key always admired Miley's individuality, and I think a lot of that comes through here. Doesn't feel a lot like Black Mirror, though, but I guess that's fine.
Just finished Striking Vipers. I think I really liked it but there was also a lot to it that I'm gonna need to unpack. Which is how any good black mirror episode should be.
I’ve now watched Striking Vipers and Smithereens and both were enjoyable. I’ve seen much worse BM episodes. Not sure when I’ll get to the last episode...comments here and reviews have been very offputting so I’ll be going into it (eventually) with rock bottom expectations.
The Ashley O episode might be the all time worst episode BM in my opinion-- felt like a poorly made, R-rated Disney movie. Smithereens didn't make much sense to me. Striking Vipers was an interesting look into the future of virtual reality and its implications on sex and relationships.
Smithereens is definitely one of my least favorite episodes. Trying to think of one that was worse and at least Metalhead had cool robots and Waldo was different. This just all felt incredibly boring and predictable, with none of the cool futurism that makes most episodes fun or the absurdity that makes the episodes set in the current level of tech work. Even if you evaluate it on its own, not as a Black Mirror episode, the tech guy being so over the top 'good' gives it such a sour taste. But also like They try and set up the idea that its the apps fault he was distracted. But a text would've done the same thing. Or any other notification. And instead of addressing it they just have the ceo guy go 'well I got pressured into making the app more addictive I didn't want to I'm really still the good guy here'. It just felt like a giant swing and a miss.
I agree. Though there are the occasional happy endings, I feel like the show is at its best when it leaves you feeling a little shaken up about what you've just seen. Striking Vipers and Smithereens focused on topics that had already been (more effectively) tackled in previous episodes, and they didn't really leave us with much as far as "morals" go. Bad episodes are still better than a good deal of the other things one can watch, but there are so many great ones that it's far more noticeable when the show fails to live up to its own standards.
Is a bad Black Mirror episode better than a lot of other things? Sure. Are there still 1000000000 shows that are better than than this season of Black Mirror? Absolutely.
Not gonna make a list, but there's plenty of prestige TV out now. The first couple of seasons of Black Mirror were excellent, especially for them to have been released in 2010 and considering some of the themes they tackled. But in 2019, after 4 seasons of the show, these episodes seem like they were written by fans or something.
This... whatever it's called when you take the song but change the lyrics up, of Head Like a Hole in MJ&AT is throwing me for a bit of a loop (reminders me of the mashup with call me maybe) but liking the episode so far.
haters can back off this episode is both charming and hilarious. might be the most fun episode of the series. I still love the episodes that really make you think about the morality of the main characters... but the just plain fun episodes are good too.
Striking Vipers was okay. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. Liked Smithereens a lot. This Miley episode is so damn weird. I can’t tell how I feel about it. Some of it is cheesy and fun and other parts are just embarrassing. I like the main girl though, she’s good in this and in The Nice Guys.
I liked all 3 episodes, but none were close to series best. They also weren't series worse, definitely mid-tier overall. That being said, still solid watches. I'm ready to be blown away by an episode again though