fjmsoftware

Thank you. This is how it's done. Especially on the writing side, this is what a Black Mirror episode should be. Not shock and horror, not killer robot dogs just going haywire, but a believable technology producing personally or socially... challenging consequences, intended or otherwise. And presented with aesthetic grace and with heart to boot.

It's almost a new San Junipero, my first reaction was to rate it "10/10", but on cooler-head analysis I have to admit it's held back by some... un-charming(?) moments from Issa Rae being suprisingly era-inappropriate for the material her actor-character was supposed to be playing, and from the sliiightly too comical and detached way the showrunner studio side of things was presenting.

Now I can't say if Rae herself is to blame for her off-vibe moments, or if it was the direction or even writing, but at the same time... there's something to be said for the contrast this created between the characters, for how this helped put an extra layer of magic and magnetism around Emma Corrin's character, without which maybe the whole story would have never hit the same way.

Couldn't get through it without fast-forwarding, so 5/10 tops. Had to stop it before it ended (at the t-shirt color change), so let's say 3/10 just because of the good actors.

Ouch, this was painful. I thought we were a good decade past trying to pass off random harebrained paranormal plot ideas as "no but you see it's quantum physics so anything's possible". I know they tried to draw on Everett's many-worlds interpretation, but that's not remotely how it would work.

Old/true Black Mirror used to be about reasonably near-future or reasonably predictable and doable technologies, and what effect they might have on personal and social lives, or society as a whole. This "magic technology" nonsense belongs more in an "anything goes" type of schtick like The Twilight Zone, not in Black Mirror.

Just as I feared after S7E1, there seems to still be a strong taste behind New Black Mirror's production team decisions for putting shock-value above all else, and especially above intelligent prediction and questioning of possibilities - the original hallmark of Black Mirror.

OK episode, not great, not terrible. Most importantly it's recognizable as Black Mirror to me, that's why I can't go below a 7/10.

Conceptually it's in line with what I see some are now calling "old-school Black Mirror", also they picked very capable actors to get it done, most of the ingredients are there. Where it fails is after the intrigue drops the protagonists get past it just a bit too easily, they don't show any real attempt to fight it. They barely even wrestle with the biggest decision that had to be made in the entire plot, there's no discussion with others on what alternatives could be explored, nothing. Then along the way at some other similar moments it seems the decisions that keep a bad situation going are allowed to flow a little too smoothly, it feels too much like we're being fed an off-the-shelf product, with too little questioning of how we got here, what options are there or what new options could be created.

For the purely theoretical/conceptual choice of intrigue it's like old/real Black Mirror, but in the detailed writing I would say it's still somewhat infected with the tendency seen in many episodes since season 4 to prioritize shock/horror over intelligent questioning.

I can only hope this order of priorities is not a constant throughout the rest of the season. If someone had asked me after the first 3 seasons and the Christmas special what genre Black Mirror belonged to, it wouldn't have crossed my mind to say "horror", that should never be the dominant impression, I think that cheapens it.