Reddit can be an exceedingly strange place, but many of its strangest corners can be explained as something much simpler: inside jokes. Shitty battlestations, Slavic dudes squatting, a forum devoted to the letter G—all are, at their root, the product of seemingly unlimited free time and the internet’s capacity to…
Every few months, the geniuses at Boston Dynamics debut another one of their terrifying robotic creations that stirs up everyone’s apocalyptic anxieties. The most unsettling of these inventions is easily the SpotMini, a creepily agile robo-dog that quite literally looks like something out of a Black Mirror episode.…
The fourth season of Black Mirror encouraged many lovelorn souls to entrust their romantic lives to an app, so there’s no telling what aspect of daily living will be taken over by the new season Netflix has just ordered. Maybe a playlist will decide which job is right for you based on which songs you choose to repeat?
Suggesting that some of us aren’t paying sufficiently close attention to the messages—“Technology can be dangerous,” “Don’t give up personal autonomy in the interest of convenience,” “Never turn your back on Jesse Plemons”—that Netflix’s Black Mirror is constantly shouting in our faces, Netflix is offering the show’s…
Our future is pretty bleak. At least, that’s the impression you get watching most popular movies and TV shows these days, or reading most best-selling books, or watching the nightly news, for that matter. With Handmaid’s Tale, Black Mirror, and too many darkly futuristic Y.A. novels-turned-film-franchises to count,…
Some of my favorite people on TV are dead. In certain cases, they were goners before I even met them: squashed by heavy objects, asphyxiated by their own stupidity, or murdered by unwitting hands. Characters frequently die on television; two of the biggest series of our time have made a sport of it, and a third is…
Black Mirror’s fourth season was a mixed bag of the brash, prescient ideas we’ve come to expect from the series and the inevitable regurgitation that tends to afflict stories treading such unexplored ground. What many can agree on, however, is that the season’s first episode, “USS Callister,” was its strongest, most…
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Monday, January 1. All times are Eastern.
Saving the worst for last, then. “Black Museum” is the closest Black Mirror has come to self-parody, and there’s an argument to be made that this was the intent. Rollo Haynes (a terrifically sleazy Douglas Hodge) narrates his way through three mean-spirited stories about people making bad choices which lead to…
Ah, the pleasures of a 40 minute chase scene. Shot in black and white and following the adventures of a woman (Maxine Peak) trying to escape a vicious robot “dog,” there’s not a lot of frills on display in “Metalhead.” Dialogue is limited, essentially non-existent after the first 10 minutes, and world-building is done…
As much as we value individual experiences, it’s hard to get thrilled at the prospect of slogging through an indeterminate number of romantic partners with the dim hope that one day you’ll find the One (Who Probably Doesn’t Exist, At Least Not For You, Because You Are So Horrible). The past decade has been a slow…
I think the title is about crocodile tears. Maybe there’s something I’m missing (there so often is!), but that’s my best guess: an expression of sorrow that’s all surface. It would be fitting, given how often Mia (Andrea Riseborough) cries in the episode while doing terrible things. It would also have that nice hint…
There is something merciless in Black Mirror’s compassion. It spends time introducing us to its characters, and then slowly, patiently, it allows them to pick up however much rope they need to hang themselves. Occasionally there’s dark humor in the karmic punishment, but generally the perspective is removed, almost…
“USS Callister” isn’t really about Star Trek. Oh sure, it has the trappings. There’s a ship crewed with people in colorful outfits, a paternalistic white guy captain, a fair amount of sci-fi jargon. The episode’s ultimate villain (aforementioned white male captain) gives a speech at one point outlining the ideals of …
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Friday, December 29. All times are Eastern.
One of the big appeals of Netflix’s techno-horror anthology Black Mirror is that it always feels borderline plausible; Charlie Brooker and his team are experts at teasing out the implications of modern technology and finding the right ways to twist them into outright horror. The series can’t always stay all the way…
A highlight episode from the upcoming season of Black Mirror is one directed by Jodie Foster: “Arkangel,” starring Rosemarie DeWitt as a mother whose daughter goes missing for a brief, panic-stricken moment in a time, and after recovering her, enlists in an experimental procedure to keep her daughter safe. While the…
The new season of Black Mirror is near, and we’ve just received our first taste of the dystopian vision Charlie Brooker and company have in store for viewers. One welcome addition to the anthology series is an episode directed by Jodie Foster: “Arkangel,” starring Rosemarie DeWitt as a mother who goes to desperate…
The lead-up to a new season of Black Mirror presents a particular challenge to TV critics. Namely: A show this dependent on twists and turns, in a format that traditionally thrives on an atmosphere of secrecy, is no fun to discuss if the person on the other end of the conversation hasn’t seen the damn thing yet. On…
