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Reviews
Black Mirror: Shut Up and Dance (2016)
When one mistake stays in record forever due to its entertainment value
I try not to repeat other reviewers. This is more technical than concept.
I've never been to the U.K., so I checked "Child pornography laws in the United Kingdom" on Wikipedia. Such an offence will result in "maximum penalty of 10 years in prison." I couldn't find the similar description for bank robbery through casual Google search, except for individual robbers like Lee Murray, who in 2010 was sentenced to 25 years (initially 10 years) in jail for robbing £53 million in 2006. So to any sane person, the material penalty for bank robbery is apparently the higher.
This is rather thought provoking to me, because I couldn't believe even Hector and the other guy, as adults, decided that robbery and murder are worth committing for preventing the leaking. Besides, who says the people behind won't strike again with a more outrageous mission? At first the decisions they made seemed ridiculous to me. But soon I realized that it truly depends on the "entertainment value" of the offences, which in turn affects how widely it will spread across the world.
Like a few previous episodes, Kenny's quirky sexual preference was hinted at his workplace. I only realized that near the end.
Black Mirror: Playtest (2016)
The devil's in the detail.
I won't repeat what other top-rated reviewers wrote.
As a gamer, I took a pause at the shot when Cooper went through Sonja's video game collection. I was impressed that most games there are classic horror games like Dead Space, ranging from last-gen to current-gen consoles. I've seen many films where games were just meaningless items in the living room. But clearly the crew here did their homework or are gamers themselves. The scene was around the initial buildup and is a clue to whomever pays attention, and therefore convinced me to watch on.
The other convincing aspect: In many other horror films, the characters are plain stupid and don't know when to quit. They touch things that look obviously dangerous, stay in danger when it's time to bail, and finally die with zero sympathy from the audience because they are just way too stupid to be real. The protagonist here knows the technology, has basic logic, and reacts to events the way that an average person would do. The most impressive part is that the reactions develop from event to event; the acting in lots of other horror films fails to deliver this and so easily falls flat by cloning the same level of excitement throughout.
Compared to the X-Files Season 7 episode "First Person Shooter" almost 20 years ago, this episode shows what the similar concept could be delivered if a more serious angle is taken, the research done right, and the production details attended to.
The only reason why I didn't give it a 10 star is Sonja. I feel that this character didn't receive a full closure.
Black Mirror: Fifteen Million Merits (2011)
When once-meaningful jobs are all taken care of by technology ...
... Then mankind got all the time in the world: They rot in entertainment, i.e., lowbrow stimulation. In the tech dystopia of this episode, hierarchy is easier to build and maintain. Resistance is futile because regular Joes, the majority, can't crack the system that has been perfected by generations of AI, except for maybe a piece of glass, the weaker silicon. The planet is crowed with a multi-billion population that must be managed in concentration camps as livestock. Kiss goodbye your basic human rights, such as a window and the nature view through it. No more cravings of knowledge and wisdom. You are a number at best. Yet it's not impossible to move up the ladder as we do all the time in the current times: Climb at all cost, but for a much smaller trophy at the finishing line than our ancestors.