Metalhead

Negative reviews about "lack of exposition", "no dialogs" and "no context" prove that the viewers nowadays completely lost the imagination and need to be spoonfed with worldbuilding, just to understand what could possibly go wrong in a world where deadly metal robots were created as warehouse sentries.

Not really sure what to make of the negative reviews of this episode. For me this was the first episode of season 4 that got my attention, it was different for sure but definitely in the right way. I appreciate any film/episode that prompts me to think about what is happening and why, rather than spoon feed me every detail of the plot and over explaining the technology presented.

This episode was gritty, gripping, and well paced. It gave just enough pieces of the story to get me thinking about how things came to be and where things had evolved to. I like this type of storytelling, where just enough of it takes place in your head.

Very different than other episodes, and I for one appreciated the presentation of the genre in a completely different and terrifying way.

This is one of the best Black Mirror episodes, along with Shut Up And Dance and The Entire History Of You. It's a tense 45 minutes with a bleak, nihilistic, ending. People complaining about it being about nothing going nowhere are missing the point, if humans put too much into making robots that can fight a war then they're asking for trouble and if a war is fought using them then this could be the sort of scenario the human race faces after such a war. The "dog" robot is eerily close to the systems being developed by the likes of Boston Dynamics and the Chinese Military, only just today the Chinese unveiled a dog robot that can defend itself and I only just watched this episode last night! Just view it as a straightforward sci-fi horror similar to The Terminator.

Among the best so far for my taste, even in black and white. It could be some kind of a PREDATOR scheme where a group of people are tracked down by an Alien machine. The link with the new technology is different from the other episodes, which remained in a more domestic matter. Here, it is more science fiction, and action oriented, with a lone survivor fighting against the "robot" who killed all his - or her mates. It is short, compared to the other episodes, but tense, gripping and very well directed by David Blade, who gave us HARD CANDY and 30 DAYS OF NIGHT before being totally dedicated to TV industry.

Almost at the end of a lesser season of episodes from Black Mirror, Metalhead is probably one of the stronger episodes. The 40 minutes is stripped down to base elements. It is in black/white, only has a handful of characters, and is basically one extended chase sequence. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, a small group of survivors seek out a package in a warehouse, only to disturb a 'dog' - one of the robot drones that we assume has led to the slaughter of most of mankind. From here the drone hunts down the only character to make it far enough to be considered a chase. In essence it is The Terminator but without any plot or backstory to slow it down.

As such it delivers quite a thrilling and tight episode. Technology is in there, with examples of sleep functions, adaptable apps etc, but it is not really making a point on any of these so much as it is just grounding the episode in the recognizable. In the same way the warehouse could be taken to be an extension of the warehouses today where drone pickers are already starting to be used - but again it doesn't labor this point. The stripped down basic essence of it works well, and the special effects are effective - I assume a mix of physical work and CGI in some way. The ending is perhaps a bit corny but brings in a bit of humanity into what is otherwise a technological horror.

Not the best the series has to offer, but an strong episode in the season and effective at what it does.