we've been waiting four years for this
wot if ya mum ran on battries?
still laugh about that trashfuture bit from time to time
That episode of Black Mirror starred the Nemik’s manifesto actor in Andor.
Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And remember this: the Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks.
Lol they made more of that shit?
I always thought it was weird to watch a show that was like “imagine if we lived in a corporate techbro nightmare” when we already live in that world.
That is kinda the point of cautionary tales. They're supposed to say "Hey guys, we're kinda on a shitty path here and if we don't steer away things could get real bad."
And yeah "things are already bad" but come on, have some nuance. We're not at the level where facial recognition pauses ads while you're looking away yet. That's the entire point, it's supposed to illustrate bad things before they happen.
I wouldn’t say black mirror makes much of an imaginative leap into the future. It’s like “hey what if things went as bad as possible for like 18 months”. It’s hardly Asimov predicting robots or whatever the fuck
Without media like Black Mirror the average non-politicized person would not bat an eye at the kinds of extreme greed tech companies would push on us. I'm not personally a fan of the show but it's still valuable.
Perhaps in a wider scale yes, capitalist society produces culture that reinforces its own ideology. But there's disagreement among the capitalists, some of them want to exploit more thoroughly to get as much money as they can right now with no regards to long term sustainability, others see the writing on the wall and care enough for their own legacy that they are willing to make temporary compromises in the interest of longevity. In that latter class of liberalism there's space for genuine criticism of the former. It isn't truly subversive as you said, it's infighting, but they are still capable of sabotaging each other. That's why the state exists after all, to stop capitalists from tearing society apart for 5.1% growth in revenue in the third quarter.
E: Also, put some respect on Parasite, and read rule 2. Wouldn't want to need to ask you to post some hog.
i hate to inform you that a lot of people who watch Black Mirror aren't really batting an eye about this tech overreach.
yeah, i guess? i'm not sure what this is in response to
Edit: cautionary tales don't need to take leaps into the future, they can be about contemporary things or even stuff that happened in the past. The story about a girl playing with matches and burning her house down is a cautionary tale, the point is that you tell it to your child before it burns your own house down.
In one episode two people are on a star ship and the clue is that "hippies" (as standin for unwashed young leftists) kill the family of one and he uses a robot on Earth to kill the family of the other astronaut for reasons of toxic masculinity and the world is set 30-60 years in the past and jealousy plays a whole role. Even decent acting doesn't save you from bad scripts.
I'm not interested in this show, but I think by adding a scifi sheen and spooky music to the reality we live in, you can get showbrained people to be like "omg this is like my stories on the telly." It probably doesn't translate to much, but maybe it reframes someone's situation for them?
I dunno. I feel when “satire” is that on the nose, either cynical people are like “yeh duh”, or it goes over the heads of oblivious people. So what purpose did it serve? Getting some views for netflix? How subversive.
We’re not at the level where facial recognition pauses ads while you’re looking away yet
A union comrade I know does actually not get paid when they look away from ads. They earn money by watching and rating them. Once again the cautionary tale could just look into the regular life of marginalized workers of a specific kind and have more horrific tales.
my biggest grip with it is that it looks at all the claims coming out of Silicon Valley and says, "Oooh, but what if it's bad?"
as opposed to the much more transgressive, "What if it's full of shit?"
How would you enjoy things if you keep being reductive about everything?
the chapo bit on black mirror ruined my chances of taking this show seriously aside from San Junipero
i like black mirror, reminds me of reading sci-fi short stories or listening to old radio shows as a kid. or like twilight zone
not every episode is the peak of philosophy, obviously. but it's entertaining slop that explores (admittedly sometimes simple) concepts that are fun to think about and talk about with non-philosophy-interested people
I recently referenced the zombie episode of Black Mirror where
spoiler
the zombies were actually oppressed enemies of the state in a genocidal campaign
in a discussion IRL about the new Apple VR goggles. My personal conspiracy theory is that one big reason for silicon valley pushing VR/AR is due to money from US DoD to push the technology further. Why set up defense research programs when private companies will happily use the money for profit?
Then the DoD will take that technology and use it in future wars.
It's my personal conspiracy mainly because i have no evidence and have done no research to confirm/deny it
san junipero episode was pretty good.
I just hated that they pedal back on a similar theme in the episode Street fighter but for the fellas
Yeah that one felt weird in how they didn't try to discuss how a digital world erodes the structural system of gender and sexuality (which is all just patriarchal dominant structures that suck) and it's relation to previous relationships/connections. Disappointed in how modern scifi is avoiding transhumanism except for instances of "wow cool human into robot beep boop!" because it makes nerds uncomfortable.
Cancel black mirror and death to 202X and bring back Wipe. And bring back Brooker’s anger.
The episode with Aaron Paul:
spoiler
wot if Jody was your space mission partner
Also why wouldn’t they do the opposite and put the Android on the space ship and the real person controls it from Earth lol
Its only 5 episodes in total right ? I will watch it with my brother next week I think.
I did start to watch it and am a bit agitated about how much it is from the perspective of the British Upper Class in terms of script voice and what is presented. It became a more reactionary media than it was before.
Plenty to say but I will just focus on two things: The Anti Drug scare of mushrooms which lead to a drunk driving situation of a celebrity and on the other hand that the actors are not regular people but starlets.
The dystopian thing about black mirror with other words is not its dystopian sci fi story, but the lack of imaginary of the writers who are separated from the daily tolls and struggles of the working class.
Episode 1 is probably the worst Black Mirror episode.
Episode 2 is not a Black Mirror episode.
I may update this as I watch the others.
Episode 3 is bad but still somehow the best of the season so far.
Episode 4 is also not a Black Mirror episode.
Episode 5 is explicitly not a Black Mirror episode, but it is the best of the season by virtue of the moral of the story being to always bash fascists to death with a ballpeen hammer.
