Black Mirror

[Professor_k]

Yeah, the episodes aren't connected but i would really recommend chasing down the first series on 4od or whatever.

Each episode is absolutely fantastic and left a lasting impression on me that i rarely experience from tv drama.

[lokas]

Did anyone else pick up on the fact that the memory-wiping device may not be 100% effective?

When they're driving to the woods, she mentions that she remembers the guy and she thinks they're going to the woods and that they'll have lunch.

Maybe the wiping device gets less and less effective after every use?

[womblingfree]

What the fuck am I watching...

[Sirloin]

Every time I see the lead character I just expect him to start gibbering on about broadband prices.

[cavalcade]

This is....... odd.

[womblingfree]

It's a shame that with all the talent Brooker has and all the hilariously scathing people Brooker works with that Waldo isn't convincingly appealing, or funny.

[womblingfree]

The premise is good, typical Tharg's Future Shocks stuff, just the implementation that's naff. Sell it to Hollywood and maybe they'll run with it. Ted Goes to Washington.

[Moz]

Is it just me, or was that shit?

[Delargey]

I thought the guy who played waldo was actaully quite good and would have liked to see more of his and the woman's relationship develop. Most of the characters where fairly one dementional in this one.

[Huz]

Cack Mirror more like!

By far the worst episode of the entire series. I found it difficult to watch in the same way as the pig-fucker episode, but with none of the emotional impact. Presumably Waldo's popularity was supposed to evoke the sort of disappointment you can sometimes feel about society (looking back to the riots in 2011 being the clearest example), but it didn't really do it for me.

Interesting to see that it was originally an idea from Nathan Barley - it felt like that all the way through. Were they kicking around the idea of Barley becoming some kind of worldwide political phenomenon, back when Brooker and Chris Morris were working on that series? To be fair, that would have been pretty funny.

[Mentazm]

I liked the new episode. I liked all 3. Artistically the first was the best, but I "enjoyed" White Bear more. Still not as much impact as pig fucker anywhere to be found in the 2nd series though.

[Comrade]

I thought it was OK, but my problem with this and the last episode is that they basically had nothing to do with technology, which is supposed to be the theme of the whole series - the un-thought-of consequences of our modern age. If you just took out the camera phones, White Bear could have been set in the seventies. Similarly, if Waldo had been an actual puppet or a man in a suit, this could have been set at any time.

I do agree that I'm sick of the "all politicians are shit" idea though, which is basically why I stay away from the UK politics thread.

[Vulgar Monkey]

I'm sick of it but mainly because it's true.

Sometimes it'd be nice to have proper quality heartwarming stuff so I can ostrich a bit and pretend things arent shit.

[chris on the moon]

That was not good

[JPickford]

It's a shame that with all the talent Brooker has and all the hilariously scathing people Brooker works with that Waldo isn't convincingly appealing, or funny.

Isn't that the point? He's meant to be empty and lame. The bloke behind it knows this which is why he hates himself and his own involvement.

[JPickford]

Interesting that they cast the bloke from the broadband adverts. He must be able to identify well with this character - being famous/well paid for something utterly shite.

[Moz]

Like this episode of Black Mirror?

[Vulgar Monkey]

Isn't that the point? He's meant to be empty and lame. The bloke behind it knows this which is why he hates himself and his own involvement.

Yep, and as a concept I thought this bit was quite interesting, but they didnt really do much with it.

Could've focused more on how it made a mockery of a bullshit political system, how the public will lap up anything that runs contrary to the status quo regardless of its own merits (or lack thereof), or even an assange-like cult of celebrity angle.

[RubberJohnny]

The Italian election just had a comedian helmed anti-politics party get 25% of the vote.

[JPickford]

I don't think the political system was his target. It seemed more about the inanity of waldo and how easy it was to get away with that instead of insightful comment. Basically we're all idiots distracted by anything sufficiently shiny or knob related. Basically Avid Merrion isn't funny.

[Daley]

I dunno, I think there was something being said about our current politicians and the political system.

I just don't know what.

[JPickford]

Comedy snobbery then? The fact his Waldo wasn't remotely amusing proves there's more to Keith Lemon and Mrs. Brown's act than plain vulgarity.

Not sure I quite follow. He didn't try and fail to be funny with Waldo. It was deliberately written to be lame.

[Yoshimax]

The weakest by far (of either series) but I did a big guffaw at

£500 to whoever throws a shoe

[part]

I thought that the basic premise was really interesting, but it was handled clumsily. The idea that people would like Waldo because he's so obviously a fake, and they would like the fact that you can see people live Googling his responses etc. just doesn't make sense.

Also, it made the classic mistake, which loads of TV writers seem to make, of assuming that everyone can relate to having to deal with dickhead TV exec/producer types, even when 99.99% of the population have no experience of this.

[womblingfree]

Isn't that the point? He's meant to be empty and lame. The bloke behind it knows this which is why he hates himself and his own involvement.

Empty and lame would be fine but you have to make it vaguely engaging and interesting to convince us that he could take over the world. Nathan Barley was empty and lame but hugely entertaining for the viewer whereas Waldo was just embarrassing for all the wrong reasons.

Like I said, the idea was fine, I just thought it was very poorly done.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

It was just rather nothingy. Nowhere near enough character stuff in it. And the epilogue bit was completely out of place.

[Uzi]

It seemed like some weird spinoff of the Ali G movie but tried to be a lot deeper. Put idiot in front of the masses who speaks street and insults other MP's to shake up politics.

[RubberJohnny]

I hope Charlie Brooker gets someone else to write the next series. Everything else - direction, acting, etc are fantastic, it just needs better scripts.

[Daley]

I thought the first two were really good but this just seemed a bit weak. But I didn't really like the pig fucker one either. But I do agree that it's a concept that could be kind of spread around, i'd like to see what some other writers would do with the loose constraints of the series.

[Puck]

For me credibility stretched too far on this one. I didn't believe the reaction the general public seemed to have toward Waldo. He was offensive rather than irreverent, so much so that I don't think even the students at the hustings would have been impressed.

His appeal in reality I believe would be limited to the kind dickheads you find commenting on youtube and I'd be amazed if any of them vote.