Can’t wait to tuck into the latest season of What If Phone But Too Much today

_________________

Surprisingly the episodes were less technology related and more focused on social commentary. I don't think I'd recommend any of the episodes, unless you have a fetish for public defecation. Beyond the Sea had good acting but it seemed like lazy writing. I really didn't feel affected by either of the plot twists in it. NetFlix just continues to pump out shitty original programming at a high cost to subscribers.

_________________

finished this up this weekend. on the whole, it is an underwhelming season. and the shine has been wore off from this show a while now.

in order of how i watched it:

"joan is awful" - really fun premise, but it goes in too many directions for its own good. it could've been a few episodes dedicated to each plot twist (especially the idea that a streaming service has a link to our personal lives, the satire being that "binging" is literally a way of life). it does have some laughs, and it's fun at times. but it goes on too long and wears thin by the end. plus, the happy ending undoes a lot of the impact of the theme.

"loch henry" - also goes on too long (the end with the BAFTA awards was completely unnecessary), but had me intrigued throughout. i liked the true crime aspect, and how the story progresses. i liked it more than "Joan".

"mazey day" - easily my top pick. just for its simplicity, and it's the shortest of all the episodes. i love the twist, because i honestly didn't see it coming. it's just gory fun, something that could be rewatched during halloween.

"beyond the sea" - the longest and inexplicably so. there was no need for this to be a full length feature film style episode. unlike something like "USS Calister", which has a ton going on...this is an empty vessel. The story not only telegraphs itself, it takes forever to get to its predictable conclusion. the acting is excellent, which makes it watchable for a time. but i had a few moments where i almost turned it off, just by boredom. i think the story could've been stronger, given the idea that a "robot replica" exists in this alternate reality...there was something to flesh out, but it never really did anything with that idea. like CLH said, just lazy. it's a shame. "X-Files" did a ton better with that title.

"demon 79" - this was the most disappointing one for me. it starts out looking authentically like a late 70's British horror film, credits and all. But it starts becoming just another modern TV show episode, with the predictably evil WASPs getting justifiably killed so that we avoid an apocalypse. what makes no sense about this premise is that when the girl discovers the talisman, the demon that comes to her gives her glimpses into the future of specific targets (she has to sacrifice 3 people in 3 days, one each day)...but if the demon knows the future, he would know that none of these people would have futures. the story reminded me of "the cabin in the woods" and "frailty". the latter being the far, far superior film. but the idea that this demon is like...a friendly sidekick, is lame. i'm not sure what we're supposed to think as an audience. are we rooting for this girl to kill people? of course, like i said, these people that she kills and targets are "bad people". so they deserve to die? according to a demon? wouldn't the opposite be true, and the demon would just be fucking with you to think you're doing something good? it's just superficial jokey crap instead of something that could've been profound. like the idiotic "cabin in the woods", the logic of the story is incongruent and shakey. the conclusion is also flat...at 74 minutes, again...have something to say other than "punish wicked people or we all die". and in today's world of slippery slopes, what's good and bad anyway? people justify evil every day. so, the message doesn't come through. this is supposed to take place in 1979 but gets tripped up by "presentism" writing, which is completely ruining storytelling.

out of for the whole season.

Joan is awful should have been 6 episodes and the whole season. The other episodes weren't black mirror at all... What the fuck was that all about?

_________________
the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

I just started this series and for some reason I was started at season 6 without me noticing. I'm pretty happy with Joan is Awful and Loch Ness. Beyond the sea was a 25 minute idea stretched into 70. I would have liked to know more about the cult and the general public's appetite for the robot men.

I look forward to getting to the even better episodes everyone referenced.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I'm jealous you get to experience the show for the first time

most overrated show on Netflix. It was good for about 1 season and then it became a show where there was a good episode every once in a while and the rest were crap. Stopped watching a long time ago.

_________________

It's difficult to write great stuff in that genre, episode after episode. People think well of the Twilight Zone and it had plenty of misses. Shamalan and Peele get deals thrown at them and they bat well below .500.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Creepshow and Love, Death and Robots have surpassed it as anthology shows in my opinion, quality wise.

As usual, I am late to the game on any series. It's enjoyable. But I have seen six episodes from various seasons, and the idpol is hard to take. In "Demon 79," the most evil person they can find is The Grand Racist who stirs up anti-white sentiment, and even the demon shakes his head sadly in commentary at him (though he later does say he's loved by the other demons). Most couples are bi-racial. All the characters talk about "shitting," like that makes them liberated, uber-cool subversives. (Even the wealthy can slum!) The fact that half the episodes seem to involve some virtual world seems to reflect this upper-middle-class fantasy the writers have.

I have heard that is an episode "about" class--Nosedive, or something--but the episodes I saw are all about class--just a specific one.

Fucking awful verisimilitude, too. Fits in with the class thesis.

It's been fun watching them, even though it plays like it was written by an identity politics-obsessed dorkier version of Tarantino.

I usually post things like this under my Curious Hair account, but I am on my brother's computer, and I haven't the foggiest idea what my password is.

_________________

I've watched most all of these and while I've liked each episode my favorite was the one most u like all the others..m San Junipero. I just thought it was very sweet and kind of innocent. The only episode where tech wasn't the bad guy. It was a great episode

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

call me crude if you want but when the warning at the top of the show says nudity, I damn well expect nudity. If it were made by French you wouldn't get people making fuck while fully clothed.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Did he just say making fuck?

_________________

It doesn't get more old school than that. Dude's a viking.

It's all the same fucking episode. Over and over and over again.

I'm convinced these episodes are written by an extremely clever 17 year old. But still a 17 year old. That's the nuanced, edgy take on the world and human relationships I am getting from this.

_________________

I don't care much for the British.

new season just dropped, including a sequel to "uss callister". 6 episodes total.

so far i've seen the first one, "common people", and man does it pack a punch. it hits every note perfectly and touches on a lot of sensitive stuff about med tech. save your wife's life with a synthetic brain but the corporation that owns it makes you pay a premium (including a non-ad package...lol).

very good start. probably the best episode i've seen from this show since the 4th season (series).

Giamatti in Eulogy was great. That's where I've started. Not a typical Black Mirror episode.

I thought it was another example of a good short story stretched beyond its limits. We get the point, really, after the first upgrade. It's a totally believeable story as a future in the US. However, its core point is happening today, with almost the entire nation one medical procedure away from bankruptcy. I think the secondary point about us applauding people to degrade themselves on the internet for our amusement is worthy of its own entirely separate exploration.

Rashida Jones probably isn't the best person to be in an episode about the dangers of altering oneself through surgery. I questioned whether it was her at the beginning because of all her plastic surgery and she is only 49.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I enjoyed the sequel.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

the episode started off really strong, but i started to get irritated with this notion that the guy (who lives alone and clearly beats himself up over his choices in life) is going to get digisplained that whatever happened between him and this girl was his fault and he should feel bad about what he did even though these were early twentysomethings. then, the reveal made more sense. i think there could've been a more subtle way of revealing it, and not having it being this overbearing fingerpointing from a digital entity.

the episode redeemed itself in the end and giamatti always can pull off the self-deprecating but also eternally angry guy extremely well. wouldn't be surprised if he gets a nomination for this either for an emmy or GG.

not sure what i want to go to next but the uss sequel is beckoning.

USS sequel was good. Hopefully not ruining it, but I think there was something missing from the fact that Jesse Plemons character is had died in the original episode.

The episode on alternate realities apparently has a twist if you watch it multiple times. Kind of like the Baldersnatch episode, I think Netflix is looking for ways to get return engagement. Felt kind of sneaky.

Other than the first episode, Common People, just overall disappointed, but on par for Netflix programming.

_________________

It seems like every episode has some non-sensical thing happen. As far as Eulogy, it's the note. Goes from the desk to the floor to a book to him finally reading it 40 years later. Also, did the girlfriend bang Quasimodo on the one night stand?

Harsh.

_________________
The Court will accord substantial deference to the government's immigration policies, particularly those that implicate matters of national security.

My favorite episode of the season. But --- you must be kidding about "all" of her plastic surgery? She looks the same as she did in Parks and Rec. I'm sure she's had a touch up or two but not enough to tell and point out she's had something done.

watched "uss callister: into infinity". it was kind of a mixed bag, with an odd muddled message about...i don't think they even knew. the last scene is either a happy ending or a pathetically nightmarish one depending on your interests. it also ran long, even though i know it was supposed to be feature length.

there were some really cool things about it, especially the manifestation of the heart of infinity. seeing the lonely robert just building worlds. i think it could've been played as more a sad and lonely existence that he can't escape rather than turning him, once again, into some incel villain.

i guess it was OK, i didn't like it as much as the first one. and to think that there could be more...is really overkill. it's not *that* original of a concept and i think the most has been done with it.

the funniest part was the hole in "rocky".

Her skin is stretched more than Estes Hood's b-hole after getting laid

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

_________________
"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

You guys are nuts. Again, she looks the same as she did 5 years or 10 years ago. She's got good genes. Now, Cheryl Hines or Jennifer Aniston, you can tell.

i watched "plaything". didn't recognize peter capaldi at first but this episode was another that ended with a dud.

yeah, we get that there's the singularity looming. i don't see the connection between that and basically a giga pet/sims/furby subplot. the story revolves around a petty thief who has a backstory that connects him to the creator of "bandersnatch". but the "game" the creator is working on isn't a game, it's true artificial intelligence. there are some batting-the-bunny-around parallels of how we "treat" AI, referenced as "playthings". what should be a somewhat cute, darkly funny little caper, becomes heavy handed when it becomes clear that there's something more to it. the problem is, what exactly is the attitude toward the eventuality of AI taking over? we have this interrogation that sets itself around a murder of a john doe, never identified, but linked to the main character (capaldi). the main inspector is wildly overacted, maybe intentionally (but of course the psychologist is patient and kind)...it doesn't really pay off that well. in fact the whole ending doesn't have much of an impact.

yeah, fun to see the legacy of tech growing from the mid-90's through now. soundblaster sighting. cute.

this episode isn't important enough to be disappointing, it just was flat. it never really builds to anything that spectacular, and it leaves the purpose vacant.

what started as a really strong season, isn't delivering that much after the first episode.

i have 2 left, and now can't really say i'm excited to see either.