Charlie Brookers 'Black Mirror' Trilogy

[Cardie]

New three part mini series starts this Sunday, first one is National Anthem which is described as

 

"a political thriller in which fictional Prime Minister Michael Callow faces a huge and shocking dilemma when Princess Susannah, a much-loved member of the Royal Family, is kidnapped."

 

Given the 'Shocking dilemma' is that...

Warning! The following content is NOT WORK SAFE. Click the Show button to reveal.

the prime minister must fuck a pig live on tv as a ransom

 

...then it's your usual Brooker fair.

 

 

Liked bits of Dead Set but it tailed off after the first few so I wonder how this will go.

[Cardie]

Ahhh fuck it, double post.

 

Bin the other one.

[Redder Lurtz]

Just watched the second part. Outstanding telly.

[clone number 3]

I agree, I thought the 2nd one was superb.

[Redder Lurtz]

Quite Orwellian stuff. Some quite incredible moments such as the "continue viewing" alarm. Superbly written. I enjoyed Part 1 but this walked all over it. Brooker is superb.

[Carradona]

I've just finished watching all three of them. Brilliant TV. Better than This Is England 88.

 

I love dark humour like that.

[Remmie]

Can you watch this online?

[Dan M]

Can you watch this online?

 

Black Mirror - Episode Guide - Channel 4

[Kevin D]

Blown away watching this. Aside from that final episode, which was almost good but turned into a mess, they were 9/10 episodes. I didn't think any of the ideas strained credibility and they left me thinking for days.

 

Like "The entire history of you", which I thought just edged out "Fifteen million merits" as the best episode, I couldn't help thinking what I'd be like with the capacity to review everything I had ever seen and I concluded that I would not be very pleasant. Not psychotic, like the guy we saw, but it definitely wouldn't be in my best interest; fuck going out and interacting with people when I can revisit some of the greatest nights of my life. That's without getting into the amount of time I'd spend studying other people and trying to figure out if there is any advantage to be gained. Yeah, it really would accentuate all the worst aspects of my personality.

 

"Be Right Back" was another that seems so surreal, especially for someone with as many forum posts as I have. They would have a wealth of material to work with and I think they could do a very passable job imitating me. If one of you had been replaced with that thing, would I be able to tell? Or one of my friends who've moved to work abroad and I rarely see, anymore? Would they be able to tell it wasn't me? How many of your facebook friends could really figure it out? It implies a lot about human interaction and what it actually means to be friends with someone in 2014. 

 

World-class show.

[Elite]

Any news on a new series?

[Stu Monty]

Blown away watching this. Aside from that final episode, which was almost good but turned into a mess, they were 9/10 episodes. I didn't think any of the ideas strained credibility and they left me thinking for days.

 

Like "The entire history of you", which I thought just edged out "Fifteen million merits" as the best episode, I couldn't help thinking what I'd be like with the capacity to review everything I had ever seen and I concluded that I would not be very pleasant. Not psychotic, like the guy we saw, but it definitely wouldn't be in my best interest; fuck going out and interacting with people when I can revisit some of the greatest nights of my life. That's without getting into the amount of time I'd spend studying other people and trying to figure out if there is any advantage to be gained. Yeah, it really would accentuate all the worst aspects of my personality.

 

"Be Right Back" was another that seems so surreal, especially for someone with as many forum posts as I have. They would have a wealth of material to work with and I think they could do a very passable job imitating me. If one of you had been replaced with that thing, would I be able to tell? Or one of my friends who've moved to work abroad and I rarely see, anymore? Would they be able to tell it wasn't me? How many of your facebook friends could really figure it out? It implies a lot about human interaction and what it actually means to be friends with someone in 2014. 

 

World-class show.

 

It's as good as television gets for me. Right up there with anything else I've ever watched.

[stringvest]

'Twas excellent

[Kevin D]

It's as good as television gets for me. Right up there with anything else I've ever watched.

I wouldn't go that far, myself.

 

Forgot to include my favourite line, which came from the Tory MP in the last episode: "Maybe the system is broken, but it built these roads". Considering how subversive the series is, that really stood out.

[razor]

The DVD release is missing episode 2 because of "music copyright issues".  What's all that about, then?

 

Like the DVD of Filthy Rich and Catflap missing the "Vienna" sequence...

[Kevin D]

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/black-mirror-christmas-special-jon-hamm-episode-will-see-people-blocked-in-real-life-9881630.html

 

Channel 4 has released plot details and pictures from Black Mirror's upcoming Christmas special, which will consist of a trio of "Yuletide techno-paranoia" stories.

 

Taking smartphones and social media to their inevitably grim conclusions has been a theme of several episodes of the drama to date, and one of the new strands will follow suit, seeing people "blocked" in real life just as you can on Facebook and Twitter.

 

The other two are a little harder to pin down.

 

Here are the synopses for all three:

 

"In a mysterious and remote snowy outpost, Matt (Jon Hamm) and Potter (Rafe Spall), share a Christmas meal together and swap creepy tales of their earlier lives in the outside world. Matt is a charismatic American trying to bring the reserved, secretive Potter out of his shell. Are both men who they appear to be?

 

"Along the way we see Jon Hamm offering an unusual form of romantic guidance to an inexperienced young man, watch Oona Chaplin thrust headlong into a nightmarish world of ‘smart’ gadgetry, and explore what might happen if you could 'block' people in real life, just as you can on Facebook or Twitter.

 

"All three stories are bound together into a suitably unsettling whole. Fans of eerie Christmas stories are in for a treat…"

 

Black Mirror Christmas special

1 of 6

• 
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  

 

Next

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

 

Jon Hamm will star in each intertwined story of the 90-minute special, alongside Oona Chaplin and Rafe Spall.

 

One picture sees Hamm apparently in the future, talking to some sort of electronic egg, while another sees him looking beaten down in an older or else dystopian setting.

 

Charlie Brooker returns to write the drama, which promises to be "the most mind-bending episode yet"

 

[Elite]

Ace.

 

Fucking brilliant show.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

The special one of these "White Christmas" is starting on Ch 4 at 9pm UK time this very evening......

[manwiththestick]

Ohh nice and Christmassy I bet.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

Well that was good. 

[Stu Monty]

I liked that a lot. Always plenty of sinister edge to the thing and some interesting extrapolation of technology.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

That block gadget could come in handy........a 1000 years a minute, imagine that shit. 

[Stu Monty]

That block gadget could come in handy........a 1000 years a minute, imagine that shit. 

 

It's pretty much infinite mental torture. Quite apt for it to come out in the week of the torture reports really. 

 

I love watching Rafe Spall.

[Elite]

Such a clever show. Love the way the writers portray how technology could impact the human race in the future and the scary thing is, certain ideas may come to fruition!

[Elite]

Also....

 

Charlie Brooker is a genius.

[Juniper]

Enjoyed that. Good stuff again.