Black Mirror

[Prolescum]

Did anyone catch Charlie Brooker's new Twilight Zone-esque series?

For those who haven't, here's a quick synopsis of the episodes:

• 
  1. The National Anthem
  
  A much-loved British Princess is kidnapped, and the kidnapper's demands consist of instructions for the British Prime Minister to engage in a sexual act, live on television by 4pm the next day. With a pig.
  
  2. 15 Million Merits
  
  The cycle of production and consumption gets a literal interpretation as Bingam Madson looks for and finds something 'real' in his mundane existence.
  
  3. The Entire History of You
  
  What would you do if everything you see is recorded for posterity, ready to play back at a moment's notice?

Thought-provoking and slightly perturbing would be the best way to describe them. It's been quite a while since I watched an anthology series, and I am so very glad that it's Charlie Brooker doing it. There are probably flaws, plot holes and other negatives, but really, it was such a refreshing change I can easily forgive it minor quirks.

If you saw them, what did you think? If not, you really should put them on a want list.

 

[australopithecus]

I'm a massive Charlie Brooker fan, and as such thought the series was fantastic. I much preferred the first episode to the others (15 Million Merits seemed a bit too similar to 1984 in my opinion, but it was still excellent). Jessie Armstrong's final episode was a nice satire of social networking, and worked very well.

Hope there's a second series in the works.

 

[Prolescum]

What I thought was rather great was that the second episode uses the dystopia to utterly skewer the output of Simon Cowell and his ilk, and the incestuousness of the corporate world. The truth is, pretty much everyone I've spoken to on the matter of X-factor or whatever has always been 'it's a pile of shit' or 'it's fixed by the Cowell', 'it's ruining the music/tv industry' etc, yet those same people watch it, discuss it and accept it anyway.
It's been done before, I know, but I went in only with the knowledge that it was a series dealing with the unease of our modern lifestyles in a Tales of the Unexpected-y/Twilight Zone-ish thing. Yesterday...

I thought the lead actor chap was brilliant (I want to call him Tealeaf as I don't know the guy's name...), and was rather taken by the object of his affections. Her song was quite sweet too, although I got the feeling I'd heard it before.

I did enjoy the other two (the first particularly - loved the premise, the ever increasing stress level of the PM, and the conclusion), but give me a good dystopia, and you've won yourself a Twitter follower (I believe that's what we do these days, yes? Does anyone remember when we had actual fanzines for that sort of thing? :lol.