He killed a guy in high school.

But we can just forget about that. Go Panthers!!

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You know me like that.

Love me some Fat Damon.

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Skinny Damon was part of the best TV or Film consequence of the throw-away line in any typical crime show of "Nobody can know about this. Do you understand?"

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You know me like that.

he wasn't so fat in "observe & report"...and looked less like matt damon at the time.

"crocodile" reminded me a lot of the book ending of "a simple plan". just continuing to go off the rails. pretty good...reminded me also of the matthew broderick car wreck back in 1987.

i've now watched all but "white christmas". i found a good ranked list on vulture. i don't necessarily agree with all the rankings, especially since i loathed "the national anthem" and it's ranked #4...but i think some of them are spot on.

i didn't dislike "playtest" like a lot of people. i thought wyatt russell reminded me a lot of his dad when he was younger, and he was kinda charismatic that way. not nearly as good an actor, but i enjoyed the episode.

i think "san junipero" is my all-time favorite now after watching nearly all of them. "hated in the nation", "uss callister", and "be right back" are also up there. so is "nosedive" (although the end was a bit ...ehhh...), and "the entire history of you".

this list goes hard after "shut up and dance", which i think they basically echo my thoughts on "the national anthem". i just found the dark humor more amusing in "shut up", and i liked the relationship built between the two main characters.

overall, i admire the level of depth and depravity the show is willing to go. i like the progressivism, with black main characters, lesbian lovers, and interracial relationships *without* making an obnoxious stance on it or drawing too much attention to it.

there are times when the writing is overtly abrasive and biased, and that comes off as immature...like the gotcha moment in "white bear", which really left me cold.

here's their full ranking list:

http://www.vulture.com/2016/10/every-black-mirror-episode-from-worst-to-best.html

i'm looking forward to more episodes in the future.

Thanks for posting that list, very helpful. It makes sense. I started watching Arkangel, got about 10 minutes into it and thought it was real stupid and turned it off. Now I see it is ranked as the worst ep of all time. The list will help me decide which ones to watch cause some are really good and some are completely one note that you question why you would ever watch another episode again.

Looks like only 2 episodes worth watching in season 4.

that said maybe the list isn't so good cause they have Nosedive at #3 and i would rank that right at the bottom. Completely one note and obvious, after a while you want to scream at the tv that you get it, social media is bad!

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I just finished the series. I disagree with Nosedive. I would rank it up there among the best minus the final moments when she's in jail. I love the episode because I think it is one of the more accurate portrayals of how the world will be at some point. Sadly, so many people are already that way.

I think my top 5 would be:

1. San Junipero
2. White Christmas
3. The Entire History of You
4. Shut Up and Dance
5. Nosedive

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Nosedive is what someone like Julie would see as an ideal world until she actually lived in it.

My top 5:

1. Be Right Back
2. San Junipero
3. The Entire History of You
4. White Bear
5. Hang the DJ

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Haha. Julie would have a lower rating than that truck driver in the episode.

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this is also the one that RDJ bought the rights to option into something right? either a movie or a series or something?

Top 5 favorite:

- San Junipero, loved the attention to detail and it was just a really sweet story with lesbians, even though they were old lesbians IRL.
- Nosedive, as others have said, I thought this was the closest thing to what reality will look like soon, if it isn't already here in some capacity.
- Metalhead, I love the tribute to a post-apocalyptic world in Terminator but with a simpler destroyer of humanity.
- White Bear, another of those that could eventually become a reality.
- Black Museum, I really liked Dougas Hodge's character, even though the story itself wasn't as strong.


Worst 5:

- The National Anthem, yeah, what the fuck was that.
- Crocodile, I had a feeling I knew where it was going and the ending was just over the top.
- The Waldo Moment, it was just annoying. I didn't really care much about the guy losing his Waldo persona. Just sort of stupid.
- Hang the DJ, just a lot of fucking, which should have been good, but wasn't.
- Be Right Back, I just stopped watching it when they clone his voice and had little interest in continuing with it.

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Be Right Back was way too predictable

most of them are way too predictable.

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it's not trying to be sneaky. it's probably the most sad of all of them. i found it quite haunting, especially considering that it seems more torturous to know you have this synthetic version of someone you loved, forever, as a re-run. “You’re just a few ripples of you. Theres no history to you. You’re just a performance of stuff that he performed without thinking, and it’s not enough.” i find that line really heartbreaking.

the ending also provides a callback to something ash says in the beginning about how his mom practically ignore him in her grief. and now he's once again being ignored and forgotten about. as he puts it, he's an ornament.

I loved the National Anthem and Waldo Moment both.

Of course you did

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finally watched this over the weekend. i didn't know if i wanted to watch something christmas-related at this point in the year (some channel was running "Scrooged" last night--wtf?) but i really wanted to "complete" the series so i watched it.

this was another one where the intrigue of the premise outweighed the execution for me. i loved the scenes between hamm and rafe spall. i liked that the setting was christmas, as it of course plays a key role in the story.

the shorts within the longer story seem like they could be their own episode, too. but i did like how it ended, and thought it was more satisfying than "black museum" as an anthology episode.

I am late to the party on this show, but based on what I read in this thread I started watching it a couple weeks ago and really have enjoyed every episode. I really enjoyed Nosedive and White Christmas in particular. White Bear and Metalhead I thought were really good too. Look forward to watching more.

Spread em out, dont burn through the whole stash in two weeks like I did. Very little re-watch value on this kind of show. You only get one crack!

I'd say half of the episodes are good and the rest are either stupid or hit you over the head with one note for an hour.

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This was really cool.

A decent black mirror episode but really fun to control the narrative in some ways.

I don’t watch the show but I checked out Bandersnatch. Interesting idea and some cool endings.

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There were interactive movies made in the 90’s that were awful. And there were CYOA books that were great. This falls somewhere in between but it was pretty fun to experience.

Season 5 is out and it's pretty bad.

Only 3 episodes.

1 is a tale of video games changing friendships and marriages, 1 is SomeGuy hating social media, and then there's a Miley Cyrus episode.

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Dissapointing at best. With only three episodes, should have been more concentrated instead of watered down. I had no problem with the first episode.The error with allowing the in-game characters to be 100% anatomically correct is counter to the USS Callister world of being a Ken doll behind the zipper. That means the video game makers in Striking Vipers wrote that code to get that dick hard.

Smithereens was just a mess from reel to reel. If the driver wanted to confess, he could of literally done that in many ways on the platform. The big reveal of the cause of the previous car crash was cheap and underwhelming. The social media company had the drop on law enforcement for information about who was in the car, no shit!?!?!!!

The third episode with Miley Cyrus was the closest to an actual Black Mirror show. Consequence. Rat fuckery. Cruelty. Revenge. This is what its all about, mate. Ashley Too was a real treat. Showing technologies get twisted and corrupted is right in the sweet spot of program.

To recap, not enough people died. These were smaller personal stories as opposed to societal or global level events. Maybe not large enough shocks or reveals that the prior episodes have provided.

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CSFMB: Home of the small minded

My problem with the first episode is that they're in a video game. Aren't they still bound by the rules of the game? Like did someone program free will into the VR? And if so, doesn't that make it not a video game anymore?

The second episode wasn't even a play on future tech. It could be an episode of Law and Order or Chicago PD. Though I will say the way Smithereens basically made the police and FBI subservient was kind of interesting. And the priest from season 2 of Fleabag keeps you engaged.

Episode 3 seemed like an interesting premise but Miley Cyrus is an awful actress so it kind of distracts from the story.

As you said, this feels like a mailed in season after the ambitious Bandersnatch.

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i haven't watched the third episode yet but i thought "striking vipers" was almost a great episode. i think the ending needed a bittersweet ironic twist. it felt like one was coming, and then it just kind of fell flat. i loved the premise. and yeah it was funny that they could just...not fight. the relationship paradox was actually sweet, reminiscent of "san junipero".

but oh my lord, "smithereens" was awful. brooker should've been fired after that. you talk about a writer getting too far inside his own head. first, it was a misleading premise. second, it had a subplot that never was fulfilled. and third, it had no real ending. don't cop out (pun......) and leave it to us to decide what happens. you didn't earn that. you didn't write a good enough, or strong enough narrative to get us to that point. and what is the point? that we are apathetic thanks to social media? there are so many better ways to tell that fable.

either "bandersnatch" broke his brain, or he has lost his touch. either way, it's time to either end this show or hand it off to people with clearer heads.

there was a good story in "smithereens" but writing is about showing, and not telling. and boy did they really not show enough.

Season 6 (?) is out today. So far the first episode is about on par for some of the better episodes over the years.

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