34 ms·

'Black Mirror' Is Back, Reflecting Our Technological Fears

250 points by evo_9 10y ago

dexwiz 10y ago
This show is definitely the modern day Twilight Zone. All the episodes have great twists that obviously come from well informed writers.
- laumars 10y ago
  The vast majority of them are written by one guy, the shows creator, Charlie Brooker[1]. He's a UK comedian who has written a number of great shows such as "Screenwipe"[3] (a comedy documentary about the TV industry), "A Touch of Cloth"[4] (crime drama satire) and "Nathan Barley"[5] (which pokes fun at the London hipster scene and was co-written by Chris Morris[2] who is another UK TV legend) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Brooker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Brooker [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Morris_(satirist) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Morris_(satirist) [3] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780206/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780206/ (Screenwipe) [4] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2240991/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2240991/ (A Touch Of Cloth) [5] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426654/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426654/ (Nathan Barley)
  - nabla9 10y ago
    "A Touch Of Clot" is brilliant. It takes off where "The Naked Gun" left and adds more wordplay. It completely saturates every scene with comedy. There is nowhere to go from there. I have never before felt exhausted by the fast pace of puns in my life.
    - ashark 10y ago
      > It takes off where "The Naked Gun" left and adds more wordplay. If you weren't already aware that The Naked Gun started as a TV show called Police Squad! and that it's exactly as great as you'd hope, congratulations because today is the day you get to learn about that.
    - IanCal 10y ago
      This sounds like the absolute perfect thing for me, and I'd never even heard of it! Just a quick check, you've seen Police Squad, right? The precursor series to The Naked Gun. It's only 6 episodes, which always amazes me when I think of how many moments I love in it.
  - desigooner 10y ago
    To add on.. Chris Morris also created the satire show The Day Today with Armando Iannucci (Alan Partridge, The Thick of it, Veep)
    - joosters 10y ago
      Don't forget 'Brass Eye' too!
  - me_again 10y ago
    Brooker's brilliant,misanthropic project 'Unnovations' seems to me like the closest spiritual ancestor to Black Mirror- even bleaker, if anything. It's disappeared from the web but still exists in the archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20011006114750/http://www.zeppotron.com/unnovations/factoid_blaster.html https://web.archive.org/web/20011006114750/http://www.zeppot... for an example.
eludwig 10y ago
This is truly a beautifully produced/written/acted series. They are all eminently watchable. My personal favorite episode? White Bear! Please don't google it. Just do yourself a favor and watch it. So good. The series has lots of future tech stuff to noodle over. It's one of those that sticks with you long after you finish. Warning: the series can be very brutal at times. No holds barred.
- throwanem 10y ago
  My favorite, too. The way it unfolds is just so compelling - they're all good, but that one really hits an even higher level.
- bsandert 10y ago
  That one and the Christmas Special were the two episodes that kept me up at night.
- CPLX 10y ago
  Fifteen Million Merits is the one that does it for me. Crystallizing the futility of modern existence in one small narrowly drawn set piece.
  - ssivark 10y ago
    Fifteen Million Merits (S01E02) is one of the best things I've ever watched, period! Not just the futility, it also subtly depicts the lack of power in a person who has been immersed in an environment that has * denied them any significant agency * ambition can only be expressed in a narrow set of avenues * questioning the way of things is futile There isn't any person behind the screen orchestrating things, simply each individual doing the "best" they can, and boy, that is a chilling world. Not scary in the sense of horror, just chilling because of the dread it fills me with. I won't say any more lest I give away the ending. The acting left an impression on me, even though I don't remember a single word that was said. Definitely recommended!
    - drblast 10y ago
krylon 10y ago
Black Mirror is really, really, really good. The writing, the cast, it is just incredible. But it is also incredibly depressing. Maybe depressing is the wrong word. Emotionally exhausting, you might say. Well worth watching once, but I recently could not bring myself to re-watch it because it so dark. And not even dark humor, which I like, just dark. Maybe in the spring, I'll come around...
- wldcordeiro 10y ago
  I was talking to my SO about this, it's an incredible show but unlike so many other shows that you can binge watch, it just isn't one of those. You need to take time off from it to process it because it's so heavy and dark.
  - dexterdog 10y ago
    You also can't binge watch a quality show like this because it really wrecks the experience.
    - wldcordeiro 10y ago
      Totally agree, aside from the sheer depressive feeling you get from watching an episode they're so high quality that I feel like you're not going to get as good of an experience binge watching it. But I'm far from a binge watcher, my brother is one and my SO to some extent but I can't watch a 45min-1hr long episode and then want to immediately start another.
      - throwanem 10y ago
        I'd be curious to know how you found Stranger Things, if you've seen it. As a rule I don't binge-watch either, but after watching the first episode of that show, I found myself quite strongly compelled to keep watching until it was done. Having previously had such experiences only with novels, and quite few even of those, I found it very odd that a TV show could manage to produce the same effect.
pashabitz 10y ago
I'm going home, see you in a few hours.
jabbanobodder 10y ago
I heard the third season was coming out so I checked it out...wow, great show! The first couple of seasons have few episodes so it's easy to catch up. Great writing, but I shouldn't be surprised as it comes from the mind of Charlie Brooker.
internaut 10y ago
If you enjoyed Black Mirror you have to watch Utopia by Channel 4 in the UK. It's remarkable. Don't search for a synopsis online. It's a sci-fi conspiracy thriller like none you'll have ever seen before. This is an imdb review that echoed my sentiments: "First of, I made an account at IMDb solely so that I could submit this review. Utopia is exceptional. It is a masterpiece. It gets 10\10 from me. I won't explain what Utopia is about because I don't want to give any possible hint of what is to come, so I'll describe it by comparing it to other things. Buy the DVD or download the show and your life will get.... stranger. Its rather unsettling how Utopia gets under your skin. There are a few television shows that share some similarity to Utopia. For example, if you enjoyed Fringe, the X-Files, then you'll be quite at home with Utopia's paranoid wanderings. So then you cross the weirdness of Fringe and the paranoia of the X-Files with the violence of Kill Bill and the action\suspense of the Jason Bourne series. Now cross that already bizarre hybrid with a series of scientific TED Talks given by Joesph Mengale, yes, the Nazi who chopped countless pairs of twins to pieces for the greater good. I'm not sure which is more bizarre. That description or that incredibly, it works. However Utopia is much, much darker than any of those. It is the darkest TV series I have ever seen. It also as others have said, feels very real. A note of warning. When I said Utopia was dark, I was not joking. If you suffer from excessive anxiety or you're squeamish, then do not watch Utopia. Because this TV show is nothing like you've ever seen before, it will affect you. You will be thinking about the themes in it long after you've watched it. The violence in Utopia isn't actually that strong at all, most of it occurs off the screen. But the intense atmosphere of paranoia which accompanies it makes it brutally real. On the other hand since the governments of the world have apparently taken a leaf out of Utopia's manuscript lately with regard to surveillance, Utopia could well seem prophetic in a few years time. This really is a TV series for 21st century of flying killer robots and universal surveillance. The Sopranos changed the way I thought about television. I thought television was for lightweights until I watched The Sopranos. It was like thinking books were mostly about erotica and then coming across Shakespeare and entering a world full of subtle complexities on a bunch of levels. Utopia is nothing like The Sopranos. But the way it'll change how you view television is very similar. Just one last thing. There is an American show called "Person of Interest" or something like that which has similar themes. Watch this instead. In a word: this is intense. " It also has one of the strangest soundtracks you'll ever hear. Listen to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2f6MfEzhvo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2f6MfEzhvo Warning: Do not watch if you are especially prone to paranoia, depression or anxiety.
darawk 10y ago
I'm really surprised by all the people here that like this show. I tried to watch it and found it to be absolutely unbearable. It seemed so trite and utterly lacking in any real insight to me. They just took the most obvious, silly things everyone predicts about the future and rendered them in the most simplistic, stylized ways. Can anyone explain to me what they like about this show?
- steve_b 10y ago
  Have you seen White Bear? It's one of the most terrifying and thought provoking things I've ever seen. Sure you could probably find elements of that episode in other shows/films, but that's probably true of everything. Honest question: what are you watching that makes Black Mirror trite and obvious by comparison?
  - jdeee 10y ago
    2nd this request, what are the names of 2 or 3 shows that aren't "trite"?
    - eppeltert 10y ago
      Go read some classic scifi, PKD did the capitalist dystopia pretty well (and amusing) for example.
    - darawk 10y ago
      Well, I suppose the difference between this show and say Game of Thrones, or Breaking Bad or something (two shows that I have enjoyed) is that they don't think they're teaching me something philosophical. At least, not overtly. Black Mirror is extremely overt and heavy handed in its moralizing. I guess it feels sort of condescending, but from a place of ignorance. It's ok to repeat trite cliches and tropes culled from the latest medium articles on futurism, but if you're going to do that, weave it into a compelling narrative, don't try to appropriate those simple ideas and claim them as your own. And that's sort of the vibe I get from Black Mirror - that its writers think really highly of their insight into the interplay of technology and culture, but I find that insight to be pretty shallow. And i'd be tolerant of that shallowness of it was a more background element of a more compelling story (say, The Matrix), but Black Mirror feels to me like it takes it self undeservedly seriously, if that makes sense. I realize the foregoing was sort of rambling, but it's a little hard to articulate exactly why it rubs me the wrong way. I certainly enjoy plenty of things that could be said to be trite, shallow, or even stupid. But I feel like those things know their place and Black Mirror doesn't.
thom 10y ago
I've never really enjoyed Black Mirror, I've always found it too sneering and pessimistic (and I speak as someone who has enjoyed Charlie Brooker's sneering all the way back to his prank call days). So I sat down to watch this series, and in some ways the first episode confirmed all my biases, hitting all the usual notes about technology we use and like actually being a terrible slippery slope and you should all feel bad about yourselves. But then I got to the San Junipero episode, which is so magnificent in every way that I immediately forgave everything. Character driven, subtle, sentimental but optimistic. And probably, over Stranger Things, the piece of sci-fi 80s nostalgia that I'll remember most from this year.
- m_fayer 10y ago
  I had the same experience with "Be Right Back", the first episode of season 2. I thought the show was cynical, cutting, ruthlessly executed and a bit too polemical. And then there was this episode, which leaned on a common sci-fi plot device but took it just far enough, and stayed focused on humanity as opposed to technology. The writing displayed obviously genuine respect and empathy for human love, grief, and powerlessness - no cheap cynicism to be found. Astounding what this episode did with all of 44 minutes.
h4nkoslo 10y ago
The other fantastic & fantastically relevant contemporary show is Westworld. Setting up to be a masterpiece. Between Black Mirror, Westworld, Utopia, Mr. Robot we're really hitting a good run of SF.
- drchickensalad 10y ago
  These are probably my top shows of all time. I love the past few years just for this. Unfortunately with all these revolutionary shows coming out constantly people think you're just recommending everything you see :P
- exBarrelSpoiler 10y ago
  Don't forget The Expanse, which is coming back in January.
- mrlambchop 10y ago
  I've really enjoyed Westworld so far - GoT lost me after the red wedding (too much... television stress) and 3 episodes of this restored my faith in sunday night episode treats. So much reddit theories to read :)
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  Unfortunately Person of Interest (made by the same guy who's doing Westworld now) is no longer with us, but if you haven't seen it, I strongly recommend it. Personally, I consider it one of the best shows of the decade, definitely the most sensible portrayal of AI in movie history ever, and also pretty uncanny in a way it hits close to home with most of the surveillance things.
omouse 10y ago
I remember this, it was an app! People! Made by some douchebags :/
- jagermo 10y ago
  I remember the drama. Delicious.
Jordrok 10y ago
Based on all the talk I've read about this show, I feel like I should love it, but watching the first episode "The National Anthem" so turned me off that I put it down and never gathered up the will to give it another shot. From what I've read, there's somewhat of a split opinion on that specific episode, but to me it was just too unbelievable and silly, all while taking itself so seriously. And because I couldn't suspend my disbelief, it made the whole concept of the episode seem even more pointlessly lewd and uncomfortable. I don't consider myself a squeamish person, and I get that the uncomfortableness is kind of the point, but it just didn't leave me with the desire to watch any more. I dunno, maybe I should give it another try.
- croon 10y ago
  I watched the first episode when it aired. Then the second episode after a year or so. I watched the third episode just a couple of weeks ago. I like it, but that's about how often I can stomach it. It's a tough watch.
  - hfsktr 10y ago
    I am curious if the same things are uncomfortable for everyone. Some of the episodes I disliked the most didn't even have the most gruesome things but seemed to be just a couple of logical leaps from real events.
    - croon 10y ago
      I'm sure it differs, but for me it's mostly the dystopian outlooks that does it, even if the first episode mainly did it on a primal level. I wholly agree on your second point. I watched 10 O'clock Tonight, Weekly Wipe as well as read his columns, and while he's really cynical, I think Charlie Brooker is brilliant and does have a real eye for seeing the world today and imagining what kind of horrors can spring from that.
    - mdrzn 10y ago
      I binge-watched the season3 as soon as it came out on Netflix.
mrlambchop 10y ago
Just watched tonights episode with the wife who was on FB liking and commenting on photos of our friends kids doing ordinary stuff. I called this episodes rhetoric after 3 minutes and she was not pleased to find I was right. We're going to the zoo tomorrow. I might like a tiger if its not sitting around in the California sun and doing nothing.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  Watched the first episode while impulsively grabbing the phone to play 2048 game (I do that a lot recently, to pad up the "brain use" to 100%). The episode made me immediately notice and think about what I was doing and why...

250 points by evo_9 10y ago

This show is definitely the modern day Twilight Zone. All the episodes have great twists that obviously come from well informed writers.

laumars 10y ago
The vast majority of them are written by one guy, the shows creator, Charlie Brooker[1]. He's a UK comedian who has written a number of great shows such as "Screenwipe"[3] (a comedy documentary about the TV industry), "A Touch of Cloth"[4] (crime drama satire) and "Nathan Barley"[5] (which pokes fun at the London hipster scene and was co-written by Chris Morris[2] who is another UK TV legend) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Brooker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Brooker [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Morris_(satirist) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Morris_(satirist) [3] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780206/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780206/ (Screenwipe) [4] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2240991/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2240991/ (A Touch Of Cloth) [5] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426654/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426654/ (Nathan Barley)
- nabla9 10y ago
  "A Touch Of Clot" is brilliant. It takes off where "The Naked Gun" left and adds more wordplay. It completely saturates every scene with comedy. There is nowhere to go from there. I have never before felt exhausted by the fast pace of puns in my life.
  - ashark 10y ago
    > It takes off where "The Naked Gun" left and adds more wordplay. If you weren't already aware that The Naked Gun started as a TV show called Police Squad! and that it's exactly as great as you'd hope, congratulations because today is the day you get to learn about that.
  - IanCal 10y ago
    This sounds like the absolute perfect thing for me, and I'd never even heard of it! Just a quick check, you've seen Police Squad, right? The precursor series to The Naked Gun. It's only 6 episodes, which always amazes me when I think of how many moments I love in it.
- desigooner 10y ago
  To add on.. Chris Morris also created the satire show The Day Today with Armando Iannucci (Alan Partridge, The Thick of it, Veep)
  - joosters 10y ago
    Don't forget 'Brass Eye' too!
- me_again 10y ago
  Brooker's brilliant,misanthropic project 'Unnovations' seems to me like the closest spiritual ancestor to Black Mirror- even bleaker, if anything. It's disappeared from the web but still exists in the archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20011006114750/http://www.zeppotron.com/unnovations/factoid_blaster.html https://web.archive.org/web/20011006114750/http://www.zeppot... for an example.

eludwig 10y ago

This is truly a beautifully produced/written/acted series. They are all eminently watchable. My personal favorite episode? White Bear! Please don't google it. Just do yourself a favor and watch it. So good. The series has lots of future tech stuff to noodle over. It's one of those that sticks with you long after you finish. Warning: the series can be very brutal at times. No holds barred.

throwanem 10y ago
My favorite, too. The way it unfolds is just so compelling - they're all good, but that one really hits an even higher level.
bsandert 10y ago
That one and the Christmas Special were the two episodes that kept me up at night.
CPLX 10y ago
Fifteen Million Merits is the one that does it for me. Crystallizing the futility of modern existence in one small narrowly drawn set piece.
- ssivark 10y ago
  Fifteen Million Merits (S01E02) is one of the best things I've ever watched, period! Not just the futility, it also subtly depicts the lack of power in a person who has been immersed in an environment that has * denied them any significant agency * ambition can only be expressed in a narrow set of avenues * questioning the way of things is futile There isn't any person behind the screen orchestrating things, simply each individual doing the "best" they can, and boy, that is a chilling world. Not scary in the sense of horror, just chilling because of the dread it fills me with. I won't say any more lest I give away the ending. The acting left an impression on me, even though I don't remember a single word that was said. Definitely recommended!
  - drblast 10y ago

krylon 10y ago

Black Mirror is really, really, really good. The writing, the cast, it is just incredible. But it is also incredibly depressing. Maybe depressing is the wrong word. Emotionally exhausting, you might say. Well worth watching once, but I recently could not bring myself to re-watch it because it so dark. And not even dark humor, which I like, just dark. Maybe in the spring, I'll come around...

wldcordeiro 10y ago
I was talking to my SO about this, it's an incredible show but unlike so many other shows that you can binge watch, it just isn't one of those. You need to take time off from it to process it because it's so heavy and dark.
- dexterdog 10y ago
  You also can't binge watch a quality show like this because it really wrecks the experience.
  - wldcordeiro 10y ago
    Totally agree, aside from the sheer depressive feeling you get from watching an episode they're so high quality that I feel like you're not going to get as good of an experience binge watching it. But I'm far from a binge watcher, my brother is one and my SO to some extent but I can't watch a 45min-1hr long episode and then want to immediately start another.
    - throwanem 10y ago
      I'd be curious to know how you found Stranger Things, if you've seen it. As a rule I don't binge-watch either, but after watching the first episode of that show, I found myself quite strongly compelled to keep watching until it was done. Having previously had such experiences only with novels, and quite few even of those, I found it very odd that a TV show could manage to produce the same effect.

pashabitz 10y ago

I'm going home, see you in a few hours.

jabbanobodder 10y ago

I heard the third season was coming out so I checked it out...wow, great show! The first couple of seasons have few episodes so it's easy to catch up. Great writing, but I shouldn't be surprised as it comes from the mind of Charlie Brooker.

internaut 10y ago

If you enjoyed Black Mirror you have to watch Utopia by Channel 4 in the UK. It's remarkable. Don't search for a synopsis online. It's a sci-fi conspiracy thriller like none you'll have ever seen before. This is an imdb review that echoed my sentiments: "First of, I made an account at IMDb solely so that I could submit this review. Utopia is exceptional. It is a masterpiece. It gets 10\10 from me. I won't explain what Utopia is about because I don't want to give any possible hint of what is to come, so I'll describe it by comparing it to other things. Buy the DVD or download the show and your life will get.... stranger. Its rather unsettling how Utopia gets under your skin. There are a few television shows that share some similarity to Utopia. For example, if you enjoyed Fringe, the X-Files, then you'll be quite at home with Utopia's paranoid wanderings. So then you cross the weirdness of Fringe and the paranoia of the X-Files with the violence of Kill Bill and the action\suspense of the Jason Bourne series. Now cross that already bizarre hybrid with a series of scientific TED Talks given by Joesph Mengale, yes, the Nazi who chopped countless pairs of twins to pieces for the greater good. I'm not sure which is more bizarre. That description or that incredibly, it works. However Utopia is much, much darker than any of those. It is the darkest TV series I have ever seen. It also as others have said, feels very real. A note of warning. When I said Utopia was dark, I was not joking. If you suffer from excessive anxiety or you're squeamish, then do not watch Utopia. Because this TV show is nothing like you've ever seen before, it will affect you. You will be thinking about the themes in it long after you've watched it. The violence in Utopia isn't actually that strong at all, most of it occurs off the screen. But the intense atmosphere of paranoia which accompanies it makes it brutally real. On the other hand since the governments of the world have apparently taken a leaf out of Utopia's manuscript lately with regard to surveillance, Utopia could well seem prophetic in a few years time. This really is a TV series for 21st century of flying killer robots and universal surveillance. The Sopranos changed the way I thought about television. I thought television was for lightweights until I watched The Sopranos. It was like thinking books were mostly about erotica and then coming across Shakespeare and entering a world full of subtle complexities on a bunch of levels. Utopia is nothing like The Sopranos. But the way it'll change how you view television is very similar. Just one last thing. There is an American show called "Person of Interest" or something like that which has similar themes. Watch this instead. In a word: this is intense. " It also has one of the strangest soundtracks you'll ever hear. Listen to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2f6MfEzhvo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2f6MfEzhvo Warning: Do not watch if you are especially prone to paranoia, depression or anxiety.

darawk 10y ago

I'm really surprised by all the people here that like this show. I tried to watch it and found it to be absolutely unbearable. It seemed so trite and utterly lacking in any real insight to me. They just took the most obvious, silly things everyone predicts about the future and rendered them in the most simplistic, stylized ways. Can anyone explain to me what they like about this show?

steve_b 10y ago
Have you seen White Bear? It's one of the most terrifying and thought provoking things I've ever seen. Sure you could probably find elements of that episode in other shows/films, but that's probably true of everything. Honest question: what are you watching that makes Black Mirror trite and obvious by comparison?
- jdeee 10y ago
  2nd this request, what are the names of 2 or 3 shows that aren't "trite"?
  - eppeltert 10y ago
    Go read some classic scifi, PKD did the capitalist dystopia pretty well (and amusing) for example.
  - darawk 10y ago
    Well, I suppose the difference between this show and say Game of Thrones, or Breaking Bad or something (two shows that I have enjoyed) is that they don't think they're teaching me something philosophical. At least, not overtly. Black Mirror is extremely overt and heavy handed in its moralizing. I guess it feels sort of condescending, but from a place of ignorance. It's ok to repeat trite cliches and tropes culled from the latest medium articles on futurism, but if you're going to do that, weave it into a compelling narrative, don't try to appropriate those simple ideas and claim them as your own. And that's sort of the vibe I get from Black Mirror - that its writers think really highly of their insight into the interplay of technology and culture, but I find that insight to be pretty shallow. And i'd be tolerant of that shallowness of it was a more background element of a more compelling story (say, The Matrix), but Black Mirror feels to me like it takes it self undeservedly seriously, if that makes sense. I realize the foregoing was sort of rambling, but it's a little hard to articulate exactly why it rubs me the wrong way. I certainly enjoy plenty of things that could be said to be trite, shallow, or even stupid. But I feel like those things know their place and Black Mirror doesn't.

thom 10y ago

I've never really enjoyed Black Mirror, I've always found it too sneering and pessimistic (and I speak as someone who has enjoyed Charlie Brooker's sneering all the way back to his prank call days). So I sat down to watch this series, and in some ways the first episode confirmed all my biases, hitting all the usual notes about technology we use and like actually being a terrible slippery slope and you should all feel bad about yourselves. But then I got to the San Junipero episode, which is so magnificent in every way that I immediately forgave everything. Character driven, subtle, sentimental but optimistic. And probably, over Stranger Things, the piece of sci-fi 80s nostalgia that I'll remember most from this year.

m_fayer 10y ago
I had the same experience with "Be Right Back", the first episode of season 2. I thought the show was cynical, cutting, ruthlessly executed and a bit too polemical. And then there was this episode, which leaned on a common sci-fi plot device but took it just far enough, and stayed focused on humanity as opposed to technology. The writing displayed obviously genuine respect and empathy for human love, grief, and powerlessness - no cheap cynicism to be found. Astounding what this episode did with all of 44 minutes.

h4nkoslo 10y ago

The other fantastic & fantastically relevant contemporary show is Westworld. Setting up to be a masterpiece. Between Black Mirror, Westworld, Utopia, Mr. Robot we're really hitting a good run of SF.

drchickensalad 10y ago
These are probably my top shows of all time. I love the past few years just for this. Unfortunately with all these revolutionary shows coming out constantly people think you're just recommending everything you see :P
exBarrelSpoiler 10y ago
Don't forget The Expanse, which is coming back in January.
mrlambchop 10y ago
I've really enjoyed Westworld so far - GoT lost me after the red wedding (too much... television stress) and 3 episodes of this restored my faith in sunday night episode treats. So much reddit theories to read :)
TeMPOraL 10y ago
Unfortunately Person of Interest (made by the same guy who's doing Westworld now) is no longer with us, but if you haven't seen it, I strongly recommend it. Personally, I consider it one of the best shows of the decade, definitely the most sensible portrayal of AI in movie history ever, and also pretty uncanny in a way it hits close to home with most of the surveillance things.

omouse 10y ago

I remember this, it was an app! People! Made by some douchebags :/

jagermo 10y ago
I remember the drama. Delicious.

Jordrok 10y ago

Based on all the talk I've read about this show, I feel like I should love it, but watching the first episode "The National Anthem" so turned me off that I put it down and never gathered up the will to give it another shot. From what I've read, there's somewhat of a split opinion on that specific episode, but to me it was just too unbelievable and silly, all while taking itself so seriously. And because I couldn't suspend my disbelief, it made the whole concept of the episode seem even more pointlessly lewd and uncomfortable. I don't consider myself a squeamish person, and I get that the uncomfortableness is kind of the point, but it just didn't leave me with the desire to watch any more. I dunno, maybe I should give it another try.

croon 10y ago
I watched the first episode when it aired. Then the second episode after a year or so. I watched the third episode just a couple of weeks ago. I like it, but that's about how often I can stomach it. It's a tough watch.
- hfsktr 10y ago
  I am curious if the same things are uncomfortable for everyone. Some of the episodes I disliked the most didn't even have the most gruesome things but seemed to be just a couple of logical leaps from real events.
  - croon 10y ago
    I'm sure it differs, but for me it's mostly the dystopian outlooks that does it, even if the first episode mainly did it on a primal level. I wholly agree on your second point. I watched 10 O'clock Tonight, Weekly Wipe as well as read his columns, and while he's really cynical, I think Charlie Brooker is brilliant and does have a real eye for seeing the world today and imagining what kind of horrors can spring from that.
  - mdrzn 10y ago
    I binge-watched the season3 as soon as it came out on Netflix.

mrlambchop 10y ago

Just watched tonights episode with the wife who was on FB liking and commenting on photos of our friends kids doing ordinary stuff. I called this episodes rhetoric after 3 minutes and she was not pleased to find I was right. We're going to the zoo tomorrow. I might like a tiger if its not sitting around in the California sun and doing nothing.

TeMPOraL 10y ago
Watched the first episode while impulsively grabbing the phone to play 2048 game (I do that a lot recently, to pad up the "brain use" to 100%). The episode made me immediately notice and think about what I was doing and why...