White Christmas

Black Mirror: White Christmas (2014) tells three interconnected tales of technology run amok during the Christmas season as told by two men at a remote outpost in a frozen wilderness. This episode is one of my favourite black mirror episodes. The writing is so smart and the acting is perfect. Also, it is very well filmed.

The cinematography in this episode is subtle yet extremely effective. The lighting is brilliant and really helps to set the mood, and the colour palettes have great contrast reflecting the tonal shifts well. The camerawork is very professional looking too. In terms of other visuals, the episode uses a lot of visual effects which look extremely realistic.

The sound design is rather toned down, but it works well in this episode. The soundtrack used includes some iconic tracks, and they're used incredibly well. Also, the score itself isn't overbearing and allows the audience to focus fully on the story and characters.

White Christmas (2014) is a very character-heavy episode, this pays off as the actors all give compelling and intriguing performances. The characters are extremely well written too, with a lot of depth to keep them interesting to the viewer.

Lastly, the episode has a unique concept and a very engaging narrative, with good and steady pacing which make this a super entertaining watch. It has an odd structure and keeps the mystery high with so many twists and turns. The story is layered perfectly and the writers really show their talent for narrative and suspense. Finally, the ending and twist are incredibly impactful and send a strong message.

Take a look inside the mind of Charlie Brooker and you might see some well written articles on pollution and politics, take a deeper look and you might find "Black Mirror" a seriously ingenious method of "emphasising" technology into this thriller.

This episode stood well among its brothers and sisters, it was well written, well directed and its cast performed outstandingly.

The episode itself however, truly amazing. I'd really love to be able to share all of my conclusions and all my revelations, however I think it's best just to say. If you haven't seen it, go watch it!

Also if you like this check out "The Outer Limits", in particular an episode titled "The Sentence" - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0667983/ In some aspects the theme is similar to this.

That was awesome. How everything ended was great. The main idea and how to deliver the concept of memory copy was good. I liked John Hamm. I kept thinking about if we took a copy of mind and made it do nothing for some time just to obey the orders in future. Black mirror is one of the best shows I ever watched.

In this episode, there are quite a few story-lines but which all connect together at some point. It feels a little like Inception, with all the different levels of consciousness, and I like it! I love films/shows with a psychological emphasis that are somewhat heavy and dark to understand (though not too dark that it verges on horror). The story is well crafted and the different timelines are juxtaposed nicely so that everything comes together in the end.

The acting is all great as well, with everyone doing their parts convincingly. The dialogue felt very natural and fluent which made the story really feel like a possible future. In addition, the visuals are on point and complements the show nicely. The effects- especially of the 'blocking' materializes the concept of the dark side of technology into something tangible and realizable. It was scary yet fascinating to watch (hopefully this doesn't turn out to be real).

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I think the first time round I watched it I didn't fully absorb into it, subsequently I would now class it as one of the very best. It's is definitely one of the darkest, bleakest and down right sadistic episodes, and for a show like Black Mirror that's really saying something.

I've tried to think up one narrative that links each episode of Black Mirror, and it's tough, the closest I've gotten is that mankind will always use technology to take advantage of others, be it monetary, politically or for love.

We get several different strands in this episode and that rule could definitely apply in each case. I love the idea of three stories combining to make one, it's a technique that's not often used, but when it does it's hugely satisfying, each story links with each other, elements would also reappear in later stories, such as Arkangel.

Lots of questions come out of it, did Potter get rough justice, or was he the victim, was Matt a good or a bad guy? Is under cooked toast actually edible? You could debate and argue it for hours. John Hamm and Rafe Spall were excellent, two very strong performances. Visually dazzling as always.

The top of many people's Christmas watch list I shouldn't wonder.

10/10.