Category: Black Mirror

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Black Mirror

Black Mirror: USS Callister Into Infinity – Review

Black Mirror: USS Callister: Into Infinity – Review

Black Mirror: USS Callister: Into Infinity follows Captain Cole and crew struggling for survival against millions of players in a virtual universe.

First Reaction – Black Mirror: USS Callister: Into Infinity is an interesting and complex sequel.

Watch Black Mirror on Netflix now.

Director: Todd Haynes

Writer: Charlie Brooker, Bisha K Ali, William Bridges, Bekka Bowling (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: Robert Daly is dead, but now the crew of the USS Callister – led by Captain Nanette Cole – are stranded in an infinite virtual universe, fighting for survival against 30 million players.

Runtime: 1 Hour 28 Minutes 

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Black Mirror: USS Callister: Into Infinity starts as Captain Nanette Cole (Milioti) tries to keep the crew together. However, they are standard in the simulation and must prey off the virtual players. Meanwhile, in the real world, the creator Walton (Simpson) faces accusations that the game is corrupt.

In the game, the five are facing 30 million users hunting them. Meanwhile, in the real world, Nanette must investigate what Robert Daly (Plemons) was doing with his game.

Verdict on Black Mirror: USS Callister: Into Infinity

Recap

This episode follows on from the original as the surviving members of the crew find themselves dealing with online users and needing to survive in the universe. Meanwhile, the creators look to close the program forever. It becomes a battle to survive the universe or find a new place to have their own existence.

Best Parts

There are some interesting discussion points presented when it comes to AI intelligence and cloning. We know from the end of the first story where things are going to create the new universe. The performances are great, and the comedic side of the story comes through strongly.

Worst Parts

If you weren’t a fan of the first one, this isn’t going to do anything to convince you to enjoy the chapters. We have seen more interesting complexes, and this feels emptier for the extended runtime it is granted.

Final Thoughts –Black Mirror: USS Callister: Into Infinity doesn’t stick the landing for the idea.

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Black Mirror

Black Mirror: Eulogy – Review

Black Mirror: Eulogy – Review

Black Mirror: Eulogy explores regret through Phillip's emotional journey revisiting memories of a lost love, highlighting human connection amidst technology.

First Reaction – Black Mirror: Eulogy shows the pain of living in regret.

Watch Black Mirror on Netflix.

Director: Christopher Barret, Luke Taylor

Writer: Charlie Brooker, Ella Road (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: An isolated man is introduced to a groundbreaking system that allows its users to literally step inside old photographs – stirring powerful emotions in the process.

Runtime: 46 Minutes 

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Black Mirror: Eulogy starts when Phillip (Giamatti) receives an invitation to share his memories about an old girlfriend. He is set up a program where a Guide, (Ferran), takes him on a trip through his memories of her. However, the path leads him down the path of regret and their painful relationship.

Phillip is left to wonder why he didn’t do more to save their relationship, revealing the regret he has lived with his whole life. However, the truth behind the break is the biggest regret he lives with.

Verdict on Black Mirror: Eulogy

Recap

The episode follows a man who learns his former lover has passed away. He is invited to share his memories about her, only to lead him down a painful journey of emotions.

Best Parts

The idea that we can journey through memories and re-live the emotions is fascinating. Paul Giamatti and Patsy Ferran are fantastic at carrying the story without going overboard with the sci-fi elements. It is more about the human story with a glimpse of sci-fi involvement. This puts a more positive light on the idea that technology can be good for humanity, unlike a lot of the episodes in the series. We have the biggest emotional journey and easily one of the best in the series.

Final Thoughts –Black Mirror: Eulogy is a powerful emotional journey.

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Black Mirror

Black Mirror: Plaything – Review

Black Mirror: Plaything – Review

Black Mirror: Plaything captivates with suspense, exploring a murder suspect's connection to a transformative 1990s video game.

First Reaction – Black Mirror: Plaything has an excellent level of suspense.

Watch Black Mirror on Netflix now.

Director: David Slade

Writer: Charlie Brooker (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: In a near-future London, an eccentric murder suspect is linked to an unusual video game from the 1990s – a game populated by cute, evolving artificial lifeforms.

Runtime: 45 Minutes 

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Black Mirror: Plaything starts when Cameron Walker (Capaldi) is captured by police. He is a murder suspect and dives into his story for the incident. A young Cameron (Gribben) is a gaming journalist who gets a chance to interview famous coder Colin Ritman (Poulter).

Cameron became addicted to a cute evolving artificial lifeform game, which changed his view of the world. He has played for decades, leading to him becoming the person he is.

Verdict on Black Mirror: Plaything

Recap

This episode follows a murder suspect explaining his story. He reveals his connection to a 1990s video game that began transforming his life, creating the understanding behind the murder. However, it doesn’t explain how he has eluded capture for all these years.

Best Parts

The way the story keeps you on edge is fantastic, you are drawn to Peter Capaldi’s performance as he keeps the secret to his story going. It blends nicely with a previous Black Mirror and how AI can be used in dangerous ways. This uses the tight runtime to keep us wanting more without ever running too long.

Worst Parts

The ending is a little bit more anti-climatic and leaves you wanting to know more, rather than being complete. It felt more like it was preparing us for a sequel in the next chapters too.

Final Thoughts –Black Mirror: Plaything is incredibly tense but slightly anti-climactic.

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Black Mirror

Black Mirror: Hotel Reverie – Review

Black Mirror: Hotel Reverie – Review

Black Mirror: Hotel Reverie explores cultural changes through a trapped actress navigating a vintage film's technology and AI implications.

First Reaction – Black Mirror: Hotel Reverie is a beautiful tale of cultural changes.

Watch Black Mirror on Netflix now.

Director: Haolu Wang

Writer: Charlie Brooker (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: A high-tech, unusually immersive remake of a vintage British film sends Hollywood A-list star Brandy Friday into another dimension, where she must stick to the script if she ever wants to make it home.

Runtime: 1 Hour 16 Minutes 

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Black Mirror: Hotel Reverie starts when Kimmy (Awkwafina) works with Judith Keyworth (Walter) to bring vintage British films back to life. They recruit A-List star Brandy Friday (Rae) to star in their movie. However, the technology puts Brandy into the original movie in a different role.

When things begin going wrong, Brandy becomes trapped in the vintage world with the star Dorothy Chambers (Corrin). She must fix the story, while understanding the technology to stop the world falling apart before she can escape.

Verdict on Black Mirror: Hotel Reverie

Recap

This episode follows a movie studio trying to capture the magic of a vintage film with new technology. The idea is to put a new star in the leading role and watch them bring the story to life. However, when she goes off script, the technology leaves her trapped living in a vintage film world.

Best Parts

This has a big message about remakes, reimagining and recreating older movies. It highlights the dangers AI has when making movies a possibility and how it can cause lasting effects to the people involved. There is a brilliant style to everything showing the different eras in time clashing. The performances are brilliant, and it feels like we have opened doors to many other stories and warnings.

Final Thoughts –Black Mirror: Hotel Reverie is a wonderful tale and warning behind AI involved in entertainment.

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Black Mirror

Black Mirror: Bête Noire – Review

Black Mirror: Bête Noire – Review

Black Mirror: Bête Noire follows confectioner Maria's unsettling experiences with her former classmate Verity, leading her to question reality.

First Reaction – Black Mirror: Bête Noire uses the slow breakdown over a week perfectly.

Black Mirror is available on Netflix.

Director: Toby Haynes

Writer: Charlie Brooker (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: Confectionary whizz kid Maria is unnerved when her former schoolmate Verity joins the company she works at – because there’s something altogether odd about Verity, something only Maria seems to notice.

Runtime: 49 Minutes 

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Black Mirror: Bête Noire starts when confectionary whizz Maria (Kelly) plans her next product release. She believes it is a masterpiece, but an old school friend, Verity (McEwen) appears in the taste test, turning the heads of the other testers.

Verity gets a job as a research assistant, leaving Maria feeling uncomfortable, knowing her previous reputation. She must continue to impress her bosses, who want to move to a new market. However, Maria begins questioning her reality as things begin changing around her.

 Verdict on Black Mirror: Bête Noire

Recap

This episode follows a confectionary whizz who is launching a new product. However, an unlikely face from her past joins the team, leading her to question her reality.

Best Parts

The idea that Maria’s life is turned upside down over a week shows the slow spiralling descent. We get two brilliant performances from the leads, which move the story along. There are good twists in the story, leading to a disturbing series of events.

Worst Parts

It doesn’t have the same feel as most of the other stories in the series. More often, this feels like a tense drama before using the sci-fi elements enough.

Final Thoughts –Black Mirror: Bête Noire unleashes a slow breakdown storyline.

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Black Mirror

Black Mirror: Common People – Review

Black Mirror: Common People – Review

Black Mirror: Common People explores a couple's struggle with a life-altering medical emergency and the dark consequences of subscription services.

First Reaction – Black Mirror: Common People is a brilliant reflection on subscription services.

Black Mirror is available on Netflix now.

Director: Ally Pankiw

Writer: Charlie Brooker, Bisha K Ali (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: When a medical emergency leaves schoolteacher Amanda fighting for her life, her desperate husband Mike signs her up for Rivermind, a high-tech system that will keep her alive.

Runtime: 56 Minutes 

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Black Mirror: Common People begins when a couple, schoolteacher Amanda (Jones) and steelworker Mike (O’Dowd), suffer a tragedy. An unexpected illness strikes Amanda, leaving Mike to face an impossible decision. Mike works with Gaynor (Ross) on an experimental procedure that will keep Amanda alive.

However, the consequence of the procedure means that Amanda sleeps longer and Mike is forced to work more shifts to cover the cost. Their normal lives have changed, leading to them losing what made their life special before her illness.

Verdict on Black Mirror: Common People

Recap

The episode follows an everyday couple who suffer a medical emergency, leading them to turn to an experimental procedure. While it brings them together again before the consequences begin to take effect.

Best Parts

This episode does a wonderful job showing how difficult and risky new technology can be for everyday people to keep their lives together. It takes a brilliant turn with how subscription services have begun dominating life and have additions to them, removing the baseline. Way to go, Netflix! let an episode have a dig at your own changes. It shows the darker side of human addiction and how people will do anything for money. The performances are fantastic, drawing you into the quiet little life.

Final Thoughts –Black Mirror: Common People is a brilliant reflection on subscription model lies.

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Black Mirror

Black Mirror – Mazey Day (2023) Review

Black Mirror – Mazey Day – Review

Mazie Day

Director: Uta Briesewitz

Writer: Charlie Brooker (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: A troubled starlet is dogged by invasive paparazzi while dealing with the consequences of a hit-and-run incident.

Runtime: 42 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Black Mirror – Mazey Day starts when paparazzi photographer Bo (Beetz) finds her latest set of photos causing a tragic event.  She starts looking at how the other photographers are acting and finds herself wanting to walk away from this life. Elsewhere, a young star Mazey (Rugaard) finds her career taking off until an unexpected accident happens.

As Bo looks to start an honest living, she gets tempted back into the paparazzi world as everyone is searching for Mazey. The money is too big to turn down but looks to uncover the truth about Mazey Day.

Verdict on Black Mirror – Mazey Day

Black Mirror – Mazey Day follows a group of paparazzi trying to make a payday catching celebrities in their weakest moments. One of them decides she is tired of this life and wants out until a big paycheck comes her way.

This is one of the more fascinating chapters in the Black Mirror series. It highlights the parasite behaviour of the paparazzi toward celebrities. As they always want to catch them at their worst. However, things take a dramatic turn in this story that takes a message about how to treat people and turns it into something even more horrific.

This chapter goes in a direction you would never imagine and leaves us with one of the surprises of the series. Zazie Beetz is great in her role in the movie, with the only weakness in this one being the length. It is short and could easily feel like a reflection of the paparazzi’s flashy mob reporting.

Where to Watch: Black Mirror – Mazey Day is available on Netflix now.

Final Thoughts – Black Mirror – Mazey Day is the surprise package of the series.

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Black Mirror

Black Mirror – Beyond the Sea (2023) Review

Black Mirror – Beyond the Sea – Review

Beyond the Sea

Director: John Crowley

Writer: Charlie Brooker (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: In an alternative 1969, two men on a perilous high-tech mission wrestle with the consequences of an unimaginable tragedy.

Runtime: 1 Hour 20 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Black Mirror – Beyond the Sea starts as we meet family men David (Hartnett) and Cliff (Paul). However, they are both on a mission in space, where they can spend time with their families between objectives. When David and his family get attacked by a cult against the machine beings left on Earth.

The consequences leave David trapped in space for the remaining part of the mission, while Cliff is left torn between supporting his friend and making sure his own family is protected.

Verdict on Black Mirror – Beyond the Sea

Black Mirror – Beyond the Sea follows two astronauts that have robots back on Earth they can live through during their missions. When one of the robots and the astronaut’s family are killed, the other one is left with a difficult choice.

This is a disturbing alternative reality following the consequences someone lives through after a tragic murder. It uses the isolation from the world to show the side effects causing changes, while a unique relationship unfolds between the two astronauts. This does have an interesting subject matter and one that could have been played differently. It seems to be filled with a lot more misdirection and leaves us with a bitter taste by the end.

Aaron Paul is great in what at times becomes a dualling role. Josh Hartnett gives us a strong performance too. I personally would have liked more from one side of the story that we just seem to leave behind early on. Even if the story manages to create an uneasy tension throughout everything unfolding.

Where to Watch: Black Mirror – Beyond the Sea is available on Netflix now.

Final Thoughts – Black Mirror – Beyond the Sea is filled with uneasy tension throughout.

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Black Mirror

Black Mirror – Loch Henry (2023) Review

Black Mirror – Loch Henry – Review

Loch Henry

Director: Sam Miller

Writer: Charlie Brooker (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: A young couple travel to a sleepy Scottish town to start work on a genteel nature documentary – but find themselves drawn to a juicy local story involving shocking events of the past.

Runtime: 56 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Black Mirror – Loch Henry starts when Davis (Blenkin) brings his new girlfriend Pia (Herrold) home to Scotland. She gets to meet his mother Janet (Dolan) before heading into the ghost town that is left behind. They get to meet an old friend Stuart (Portman) who runs the last pub in the town.

Davis and Stuart fill Pia in with the reason why the town is empty now. A horrific serial killer’s actions lead to Pia wanting to learn more history of the incident. This sees them wanting to change their planned movie to focus on the crimes.

Verdict on Black Mirror – Loch Henry

Black Mirror – Loch Henry follows a young filmmaking couple returning to one of their hometowns. They decide to make a documentary about the murders in the local area. However, they decide to investigate the house that holds the horrors.

This is the second story focusing on filmmaking, this time with a documentary about a small-town serial killer. It gets to reflect the side effects of a crime that it has a small-town community left to struggle. As well as showing the disturbing reality of what is going on inside a series of criminal actions. This is one that is filled with much more tension and keeps us on edge throughout the disturbing actions of everything involved.

Daniel Portman steals the show as the Scottish landlord and old friend. John Hannah is great too here, while the bigger mystery to everything is just waiting to unfold. There is so much tension created in this story, with this fast becoming one of my favourites in Black Mirror history.

Where to Watch: Black Mirror – Loch Henry is available on Netflix now.

Final Thoughts – Black Mirror – Loch Henry is riddled with tension, suspense and disturbing truths.