As do I. The weird dystopian ending is totally unearned but the rest of the episode stands up fairly well to the show as a whole for me. Especially in light of recent events, wherein we've seen ridiculous political figures managing to make a mockery of the whole process and tap into anti-establishment sentiment effectively as a result.
Television Black Mirror | Season 6 out June 15th
- Thread starter Pogue Mahone
- Start date
As do I. The weird dystopian ending is totally unearned but the rest of the episode stands up fairly well to the show as a whole for me. Especially in light of recent events, wherein we've seen ridiculous political figures managing to make a mockery of the whole process and tap into anti-establishment sentiment effectively as a result.
Hang the DJ - 8.5
I thought the black museum ep was decent and more like twilight zone territory.
Crocodile and Metalhead by far the weakest episodes in the series IMO. Crocodile did not really have a great premise or message, Metalhead was just pure boring.
The other four episodes are all very good and it would be difficult for me to name the best.
The other four episodes are all very good and it would be difficult for me to name the best.
The Entire History of You is possibly my favourite one. It's so grounded in its grim realism.
Interesting seeing the contrast between what the US and UK like too. Sort of makes sense San Junipero trumps in the American mind.
Maybe because my expectations had been raised by comments in this thread (and elsewhere) I found Hang The DJ a bit of a let-down. I just didn’t warm to either character, didn’t buy into their love affair and found their banter grating. So the whole episode left me cold. Even the “twist” underwhelmed.
I’ve only got Black Museum left to watch and my current ranking for this season is:
USS Callister
Arkangel
Metalhead
Crocodile
Hang the DJ
I’ve only got Black Museum left to watch and my current ranking for this season is:
USS Callister
Arkangel
Metalhead
Crocodile
Hang the DJ
I thought the first and last were the best. As for the weakest two, I'd have to agree with most people here. Overall:
Black Museum
USS Callister
Hang the DJ
Arkangel
Metalhead
Crocodile (if only for being almost 20 minutes longer than Metalhead, which wasn't any better really).
Black Museum
USS Callister
Hang the DJ
Arkangel
Metalhead
Crocodile (if only for being almost 20 minutes longer than Metalhead, which wasn't any better really).
I thought black museum was the best episode. In fact, they could easily have made it a bit longer.
Black Museum was brilliant. I'd have actually loved to see a lot more artifacts from the Museum.
So Black Museum was good but did anyone else think...
...it would have been a lot better without the stupid sadist doctor short story at the beginning? The whole premise was daft (literally invented by an idiot i.e. Karl Pilkington) didn’t add anything to the subsequent narrative and seemed unnecessarily crude/grim. The remaining two thirds of the episode would have been vastly improved by dropping it IMO.
Am I missing something here? Seen a few episodes but hardly been impressed.
USS Callister, I thought, was pretty average.
USS Callister, I thought, was pretty average.
Just to clarify it was a Penn Jillette story from the early 80s.
I loved Black Museum, but the first two premises (the pain/feeling helmet thing, and the drafting a coma victim inside someone elses head) have both been thought up by Karl Pilkington (although as @Dan says I don't think he was the only inspiration). Makes me wonder if Brooker has listened to the podcasts...
edit - here it is. This episode, Karl comes up with a film idea with Clive Warren (Owen) as a man who gets hit by a truck and put into a coma. His girlfriend is then approached by a doctor to put his mind in her head - hilarity ensues.
This season:
USS Callister - 8,5
Black Museum - 8,5
Hang the DJ - 8
Arkangel - 6,5
Metalhead - 6
Crocodile - 5
USS Callister - 8,5
Black Museum - 8,5
Hang the DJ - 8
Arkangel - 6,5
Metalhead - 6
Crocodile - 5
I made the Karl Pilkington reference, knowing that he had been mentioned in reference to Black Mirror before and Penn Jillette gets a mention in the credits. I just think it was a really stupid premise, whoever dreamed it up. The idea that feeling in agony/nauseous/faint/dizzy/whatever will help a doctor diagnose someone, instead of doing the exact opposite. Plus I felt, tonally, that section clashed with the other two stories in the episode. Start with the monkey, finish with the electric chair, job's a good 'un. The doctor segment just didn't work for me and unnecessarily bloated the duration of what didn't deserve to be longer than any other episode.
My final rankings.
USS Callister
Arkangel
Metalhead
Black Museum
Crocodile
Hang the DJ
Actually really enjoyed Black Museum from this season, liked how the museum houses artifacts from previous episodes - Arkangel tablet, scanner and lollipop from USS Callister and I'm sure there was a few more.
That's a good point. I dont know if it has always been there and I just didnt notice it before but this season seemed to be crammed full of references to previous episodes. The song the girl sings on 15m Merits cropped up a few times, and I seem to remember there was a visual reference to that episode as well on an album cover or a poster or a book or something.
Well spotted. Black Mirror is apparently crammed full of Easter Eggs (presumably because of Booker’s love of computer games). I’m never observant enough to spot them.
watched 4 and 5 of season 3 last night was not impressed , half way thought ep 6 and thats much better.
Season 4 also tonight.
Season 4 also tonight.
Just watched Hang The DJ , I liked it , it was better than Crocodile I thought.
Finished season 4 , liked it.
My rankings
Black Museum
USS Callister
Arkangel
Hang the DJ
Metalhead
Crocodile
My rankings
Black Museum
USS Callister
Arkangel
Hang the DJ
Metalhead
Crocodile
Funny how all these resonate with people differently. I thought they were all good. My order would be:
Hang the DJ
USS Callister
Black Museum
Metalhead
Crocodile
Arkangel
USS Callister - 6
Darkangel - 6
The novelty is lost so far.
Darkangel - 6
The novelty is lost so far.
took me a while to get into this, I nearly turned off during the first EP , glad I stuck with it, well worth watching.
Season 3 has the poorest eps for me.
Season 3 has the poorest eps for me.
I actually think episode one of series one, with the PM and the pig, is one of the worst episodes of the entire thing.
I think it's great, but I don't know why it's the first episode. A lot of people watch Black Mirror assuming it's a dystopian view of what technology CAN be, but that episode is basically just a satire of our current social media.
Agree, the parallels with recent times are almost eerie. I recall enjoying this a lot more than my mrs and then seemingly more than anyone else who ever watched it, for me it's not the obvious clunker it's made out to be. Although as you say the ending is poor and feels tacked-on.
That's a good point but I look at it that the show isn't necessarily about technology, more about where we are and where we're going as a society. Tech obviously plays a huge role in both hence the proliferation of tech-based episodes but more dark, exaggerated social commentary without the need to introduce us to the 'rules' of a new world/piece of tech would suit me.
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So i've watched Hang The DJ and Black Museum.
Enjoyed Hang The DJ fine. Thought it was decent enough. Didn't mind the characters and actually believed in their relationship as they seemed to have decent chemistry.
As for Black Museum i thought that was brilliant. Loved the Tales Of The Crypt/B-Movie vibe it had going on. The first story in particular i liked just for the absurdity and ridiculous nature of it, which i'm assuming was the intention of the creators.
Got one or two more episodes to watch now. Really enjoying so far. White Christmas will take some beating though.
Enjoyed Hang The DJ fine. Thought it was decent enough. Didn't mind the characters and actually believed in their relationship as they seemed to have decent chemistry.
As for Black Museum i thought that was brilliant. Loved the Tales Of The Crypt/B-Movie vibe it had going on. The first story in particular i liked just for the absurdity and ridiculous nature of it, which i'm assuming was the intention of the creators.
Got one or two more episodes to watch now. Really enjoying so far. White Christmas will take some beating though.
I think the Waldo moment has aged really well, and said as much in this very thread just before Trump won, but I'm still not convinced it's actually a great episode.
This series was a bit of a let down. In hindsight I enjoyed Callister more than most, but don't think it compares very well to past Mirror and Metalhead is possibly the worst episode they've done – with Crocodile not that far behind.
Hang the DJ and Black Museum were good but not great, and Arkangel felt like it could have been so much more.
This series was a bit of a let down. In hindsight I enjoyed Callister more than most, but don't think it compares very well to past Mirror and Metalhead is possibly the worst episode they've done – with Crocodile not that far behind.
Hang the DJ and Black Museum were good but not great, and Arkangel felt like it could have been so much more.
Watched all but Black Museum, I enjoyed USS Callister but feel massively underwhelmed by this season. Thought Hang the DJ was really quite bad. Like, it had no redeeming features at all and I can't see myself going back to it. It's usually casted really well but I didn't care for either of the characters. His goofy, slightly awkward shtick missed the mark for me.
Just watched USS Callister.
GOAT episode. Jesse Plemons channelling his inner Todd again, frigging brilliant.
GOAT episode. Jesse Plemons channelling his inner Todd again, frigging brilliant.
Was the same for me. Couldn’t warm to either of them at all. Dunno if it was the acting or the script. Probably both?
I'm English, but San Junipero is my favorite Black Mirror, was the episode that had thinking for days afterwards and listening to the 'heaven is a place on earth' song on repeat a few times, love 80's culture though and concept of a place like San Junipero being reality so appealed to me a lot.
White Christmas is my 2nd favorite - Favorite episode of the new series was Hang The DJ, but didn't really enjoy this season as much as the previous seasons if I'm being honest.
Just feels like Charlie Brooker as ran out of things to make stories out of and this seasons Black Mirror have just been different stories of the same technologies as in previous seasons.
He should make some stories out of Artificial Intelligence/Crypto Currency/Nano Technology (can think of lots of doomsday scenario's to go wrong with Nano bots)/Autonomous robots how they are taking all our jobs/driving us everywhere etc.
The wonderful thing about San Junipero was it was actually quite optimistic. The idea that maybe technology could deliver eternal life in some kind of nirvana, the idea that someone with such a severe physical handicap would have access to this kind of quality of life, the fact it was a love story where things actually worked out for them, it was all quite uncharacteristically uplifting. I love the darkness of Black Mirror but it was nice to have one that bucked the trend. I might be forgetting one but I cant think of any others quite like it in that respect.
Of course, it's a great episode and will make many top 5's, top 3's, or even top 1. I just think it definitely appeals a little bit more to the US audience.
The best bit of San Junipero was how much I annoyed my mates by constantly putting Heaven Is A Place On Earth on the jukebox in the pub.
I'd actually like to see a spinoff series of positive ones, maybe a couple of comedy episodes thrown in. If Brooker is running out of ideas it might be a good way of freshening things up too. I know most won't agree though.
I read somewhere that Brooker secured permission to use that song right at the beginning and said if he hadnt been able to use it he wouldnt have made it anything like how it was. He saw the song as absolutely fundamental to the whole story.
Aye I've read the same thing. Excellent choice.
I had the same thought with the Karl Pilkington two brains thing 
He got mocked on that Podcast and now it's in Black Mirror.
USS Callister was the best for me, then Black Museum. Rest were a bit wank I thought.
He got mocked on that Podcast and now it's in Black Mirror.USS Callister was the best for me, then Black Museum. Rest were a bit wank I thought.