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Black Mirror

Nick R

By Nick R,
in Film, TV & Radio

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The Liberal Elite

The Liberal Elite

Posted
Posted

I've seen network of course. There's definitely some Howard Beale at work here, but ultimately I felt Brooker was talking about himself.

Actually, I did get that impression too. On the other hand, he's hardly about to stop writing his column, nor recall and pulp all copies of tvgohome or dawn of the dumb, so, whilst a reasonable tale, not something that's about to change the way he works, or pays the bills, and nor should he.

Another, closer to reality programme that I watched recently that reminded me how tawdry the x factor is, but has some way to go, is the documentary Videocracy, about berlisconi's video channels, where women battle it out with each other to become pretty faces/topless models on night time programmes. It's incredibly depressing.

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Smitty

Smitty

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You seem to think so in this thread.

Christ, its nothing to do with me being an intellectual or the programme being somehow beyond criticism.

The people mentioned seem incapable of perceiving the irony.

Still, yeah, totally like Ian Beale in Network. Sigh.

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SqueakyG

SqueakyG

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I don't have the heart to switch on my Xbox 360 tonight, because the fucking dashboard will depress me. They've squeezed the game in your disc tray into a little corner and made the adverts for online entertainment services really huge. And look, I can see all my "friends", and their avatars have funny animations so that I may feel "connected" to them, rather than be reminded that they are complete strangers with whom I play childish games of fantasy violence. And of course my fucking Gamerscore, which is a mocking indictment of how many man-hours I have spent making lights move around on a screen, whilst feeling good about it because a numerical value on my Microsoft account increases.

So anyway.

This episode turned out to be brilliant and very affecting, in some ways bleaker and scarier than most other "concept" dystopias. It turned into a great story the moment when he had to watch Abi's porn because he didn't have the credits to switch it off (nor the freedom to close his eyes to ignore it). His speech at the end was a great piece of work for both the writer and the actor... but of course the speech achieves nothing... it gets packaged and processed as another piece of "stuff".

Rather like how The X-Factor takes the dictionary definition of music and turns it into shallow all-surface product, whilst the judges describe this product as having "heart" and "soul" and "depth", until our culture reaches a stage where we really think this bland product has "heart" and "soul" and "depth" because musical experts (read: the product's producers) are telling us so.

Edit to add: You know how I know about that "mad as hell" speech from Network? Because it crops up in those "100 best movie moments" TV shows and it's one of those movie scenes you just know about, completely detached from its meaning and artistic merit specific to the film, while we pat ourselves on the back for knowing a movie reference. Just saying.

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DeadRussian

DeadRussian

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That was Charlie Brooker writing himself as that Bing fella, right? He use to spill out columns of righteous anger, but got repackaged as the acceptable face of misery and disaffection, and then got his own awful quiz show on Channel 4, featuring Rufus Hound.

I really enjoyed this one, a fair bit more than the first one. They're a little "on the nose" at times, but I suppose you've not got a great deal of time to be subtle in TV format, have you?

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Matt Defis

Matt Defis

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It was boring and dragged horribly right up until the last 10 minutes, I think it was mostly lost on me though because I haven't touched this gens consoles and I don't watch TV apart from the odd thing maybe once every couple of months that might catch my attention.

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Rudi von Starnberg

Rudi von Starnberg

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That was excellent. Gripping from start to finish and very unpleasant.

I thought the best thing in this regard was that you're forced to watch the ads (or pay to skip them) - look away and they pause. All too plausible.

You've already got this sort of thing - try muting the ads on Spotify when they appear. They pause until you turn the volume up again.

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Comrade

Comrade

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I really enjoyed it, but it was too thin a premise for being as long as it was. It could have easily fit into half an hour. I'm surprised people are comparing it to 1984 or other dystopias - it's simply not fleshed out enough to be considered similar to those. That's not a criticism, I don't think that what Charlie's going for. It's an allegorical slant on the modern world, not any real attempt to predict the future of it. But I think for the length we had that wasn't quite enough.

Also, I kind of felt that the story was a bit of a rehash of Nathan Barley. They're both obviously (seriously, how did anyone not notice this) autobiographical, and based on the fact that Brooker first gained success by ranting against people he hated, and then was immediately co-opted by those same people. And his entire success up to now ultimately probably wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been. It's an interesting and affecting idea, but ultimately it's one he's told us before.

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joffocakes

joffocakes

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What do you mean? People did notice that, and have been talking about exactly that in the last couple of pages. It wasn't exactly subtle.

I really enjoyed it; seemed like it would have been better suited to an hour though, as the build up was pretty slow. The payoff was great though, and using the shard of glass as a gimmick in his wee doppel shop advert boxout was hilarious. I have not seen Network.

Kanak.

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NecroMorrius

NecroMorrius

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Christ, its nothing to do with me being an intellectual or the programme being somehow beyond criticism.

The people mentioned seem incapable of perceiving the irony.

Still, yeah, totally like Ian Beale in Network. Sigh.

It's this kind of boring 'intellectual hipsterism' which gets you into trouble.

Brooker himself is a massive fan of Network and has referenced it many times in his 'wipe' shows and articles. The parallels, which are not absolute, between the story here in episode two of Black Mirror and the story in Network are fundamentally obvious to anyone who has seen both.

Was it me or was the music really similar to Clint Mansell's Moon OST? Specifically 'welcome to lunar industries' I think.

Loved the show. Can't wait to see what Brooker has in store for us in the final episode.

Very similar to Moon, and also very very very very similar to:

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SMD

SMD

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I don't think these shows are meant to be subtle. It's not really about preaching to the converted. Yes it's obvious to us what the message is but it's still thought provoking in the same way that any reminder is.

Of course it's still missed on all those who complained on Twitter about it :facepalm:

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joffocakes

joffocakes

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What were the complaints on Twitter?

I think it's been great so far; I'd like them to invite some more writers to continue on with another string of episodes each. I just like having a nice, contained single episode like that, and it would be nice to see a few different takes on the theme.

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Delargey

Delargey

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Christ, its nothing to do with me being an intellectual or the programme being somehow beyond criticism.

The people mentioned seem incapable of perceiving the irony.

Still, yeah, totally like Ian Beale in Network. Sigh.

Brooker acknowledges the Network connection:

@charltonbrooker Would you say that 1976's Network was an inspiration for the series? #BMQA

Definitely for 15 Million Merits.

I think he had his own career in mind when he wrote the ending, but to admonish people for commenting on the connection isn't really fair.

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myoozikk

myoozikk

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I just caught up on this & absolutely loved it. I didn't think it was too long personally. I think it really needed the slow pace at the beginning to make that life seem so dull & mundane & allow that 1 moment of connection & potential happiness & love have all that more impact.

The leads acting was superb, the main speech was stunningly played & the "torture" scene as he can't skip the Abi porn trailer was incredible & he was superbly subtle in the rest. Especially loved the lack of real dialogue in the start & his eyes in the lift when he 1st see's Abi. Rupert Everett as "Cowell" was great as well. Very hateful.

It's one of the few shows I can think of where I'm gutted the lead didn't kill himself. Great twist that he sold out & took the show & became part of the system. Rage packaged as entertainment. (brooker himself I guess) it made the show all the more poignant & depressing (in a good way)

This has been a great series so far & fair play to Brooker for making them.

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Smitty

Smitty

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Smitty's genius is lost on him!

What's sad is that people can only mention it or describe it in that context.

I've seen Network, I know Brooker likes it. I understand the similarities.

The point isn't that there isn't some inspiration there, the point is about how this powerful performance can only be described with a reference to some other thing thought to be similar.

I dunno, read Mediated.

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Pete

Pete

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Konnie Huq help write it. Well I never.

I was really impressed - what good TV sci-fi should be right there. Brooker still gets modern culture - going onto xbox live after this was interesting for sure. Quite like the auto-bio-satire idea as well.

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