I am a fan. What's not to like about it?
The twisted little turn he put and quickly turn into a worst case scenario, and make it funny and/or horriffying.
But I don't think I would like to live in the author head though.

Spoiler

Some episode are more memorable than some other. I think it was in the first season where the Prime Minister was blackmailed in front of the nation.
I couldn't help but wonder if that could really happen.

Or the episode with the wanker in the third season. A first you can't help but think: 'come on, it's just a wank, embarasssing but not worth commiting a crime over it. Go to the cop or something'. And then at the end you are: 'you totally deserve it'.
Now I wonder, was that episode based on Anonymous actions ?

Now I just hope that if they make a fourth season, I won't need to wait as long as I did for the third.

 

It's pretty good, but some are more memorable to me (like a lot more). Specifically the bicycle episode had a delightfully cynical ending.

 

Season 4 is out on Netflix. Just finished the first episode, USS Callister.

Spoiler

It kind of mirrors White Bear and the Christmas Special, but this one ends on an uplifting note, because the person that gets stuck in an inescapable virtual prison is the villain and the people you're rooting for get to basically live the fantasy of everyone who ever wanted to be a space explorer.

Of course there's the unspoken detail of "what happens when they take the game servers offline", but it's not addressed. It's well made, but imo Black Mirror is supposed to be the bleak, disturbing interpretation of the ideas they explore. This one being essentially a "feel good" episode doesn't sit well with me, just like San Junipero, which I didn't like either.

Hopefully some of the other five new episodes will cast me into existential dread, like Shut Up And Dance and Playtest.

 

Hmm... Maybe it's that the freshness of BM has worn off on me, or that I've been conditioned to expect something fucked up in every episode, but this season hasn't made as big an impression on me as some of the earlier stuff.

I already said my piece about USS Callister above. Spoilers for all episodes follow.

Spoiler

Arkangel was probably the closest to the "BM formula" if such a thing can be defined, but I feel like the ending wasn't enough of a downer, heh. Like, okay, the daughter-mother relationship has been damaged, perhaps irreparably, but that's kind of... small in scale? Not ominious enough. The Entire History of You played up similar themes better imo.

Actually, I think the reason I find S4 underwhelming is that it seems to be too much of retread of previously explored ideas. Episode 3, Crocodile. Someone does something bad, they are faced with the possibility of the secret getting out and are forced by circumstance into doing more bad things. Sound familiar? Yeah. That's basically a rehash of Shut Up And Dance. The difference is that Kenny was blackmailed by the troll squad, Mia chooses to kill witnesses more of her own volition.

SUAD was a real gut punch, more visceral or something, Crocodile seemed more sterile to me. The sheer horror Kenny went through being forced to do all this shit was a really stark contrast to the rather subdued performance of the lead in Crocodile. Plus, once I caught on to what was going on, I was constantly thinking back to SUAD.

Hang the DJ, episode 4, is S4's San Junipero. While SJ bored the hell out of me, I actually enjoyed Hang the DJ, the leads had great chemistry together, but you can't escape the conclusion that you've seen this story on BM before.

Episode 5, Metalhead, is the only episode that felt fresh, like it explored something new. The backstory is kept to the absolute minimum and runtime is only 40 minutes--you're supposed to focus on the here and now of the chase, Bella's struggle against the dogbot. There's been a theory put forth in the BM subreddit that this shares the universe with Men Against Fire and Bella and the other humans are roaches. The minimal background is an interesting choice, but for me, it leaves the storyline a little too bare. It's really just the skeleton--a well-made skeleton, but with no meat on the bones, I was left wanting. Not bad--I couldn't really say any BM episode is bad--but it doesn't have the X factor.

Episode 6 is such an obvious retread of the Christmas Special that I almost stopped watching when Rolo began his first story--but I kept watching, because the first story is the best. Actually, it's so good I think it should have been it's own episode. Instead we get the abridged version in a big episode that seemed to me like it was the show patting itself on the back for all the fanservice and self-references. Also, it too is a refeature of previous tech gimmicks, especially the cookies from the Christmas Special. I mean, come on.

Seems to me like they ran out of ideas, so they deciced to make S4 one giant reference, fanservice-fest. I doubt I'll be coming back to S4. I see a potential problem where someone new comes into the show with S4, then sees the previous episodes and the reaction to SUAD is dulled because they'd seen Crocodile first, when SUAD is so much better.

For what I've come to expect of Black Mirror, S4 is honestly kind of a disappointment.

 

Nope. There is singular reason that makes this pretty much impossible. An that is an policy called "We don't negotiate with terrorists" I mean imagine if that episode really happened! Do you know what will happen? Every terrorist criminal and two bit crooks will drop everything they do and rush to kidnap some one important. I mean it worked once why not again.

Also the whole thing is horribly demaning. As far as most goverments concerned the Country is more important any invidual. No princess is more important than Country.

Also that scene where that breucrat bitch says "you have to do this or we can't protect you"? SoD breaking. I was surprised nobody took her away because she is clearly in on it.

Also whole thing rests on Internet being untouchable and I can tell you that is not true either. If UK goverment wanted to take down a video but couldn't? They would shut down entire web. I should know b/c that is exactly what happens when there is a counter-terrorist action around here. Internet goes down for hours in the entire region so Terrorist can't use it to warn eachother. If we can do it UK can too. So body double thing would work without Tweeter.

All in all I was horribly dissapointed by the first episode. IF this hadn't come from a close friend with highest reccomendation I would have stopped watching right there. But I kept going and I kinda like the other episdes I watched. Like that bike episode. Best one so far.

 

Just finished the latest season. It started strong, I enjoyed the first 3 episodes. Episode 4 was decent, though I'm convinced I must have missed something near the end to tie it all together because it just seemed to trail off a bit. I got 10 minutes into episode 5 before I got bored enough to skip to episode 6. And episode 6 was pretty strong, although it suffered from being a bit slow and too 'talky'.

 

People, watch Bandersnatch. Best thing Netflix has done in a while. No spoilers because you really have to watch for yourself. And please, watch it on Netflix, steal someone's password, borrow, make a throwaway email to grab the free trial, don't stream it on a pirate site. This really deserves to be watched as it's meant to by Netflix.

This is some crazy shit.

 

Spoiler

When I got to the bit with who's controlling Stefan for the first time, I went for P.A.C.S. Went back intending to pick the branching path symbol. I had the biggest grin on my face when I saw the Netflix option.

 

Just went through it. Damn. Not gonna spoil it, but fuck does it get weird. Lots of fun little tidbits and thematic elements to pull out of the whole thing.

Pay attention to the color of the therapist's clothing.

 

If you're going back and looking for alternate paths, try picking up the family photo twice.

 

I was really into it until I'd gone through some of the various endings, but then it seemed like I got stuck in a bit of a loop where I couldn't go back far enough to get anything different. Might just have been me doing it wrong, tbf. I will probably go back and try it again from the start though, see if I can get some of the different paths, and I was very impressed by both the concept and the performances.

 

@pbluekan What about therapist's clothing?

Spoiler

Blue/white shirt in the first meeting, black in the second when she prescribes the pills, red in the Netflix scene... What did I miss?

 

No shit?

Spoiler

Blue black if you went through the Netflix but and then back out again, all black if you killed and chopped up dad, I never saw what her clothing would be if you managed to kill dad and then correctly dial the number in the PACS path.

Also, did anyone get the PAX path in the office lockbox?

Nothing important really, I just found her clothing changed with Stephan’s mental state. Brighter clothing was generally better for a happy ending.

 

@pbluekan

Spoiler

When you type PAX as the password it says "incorrect password" and the Pax monster from the book/game does a scare and Stefan wakes up and you go back to an earlier decision. It's the monster that shows up after Colin jumps.

I want to emphasize that I fucking love Bandersnatch. It's stuffed full of great little details. If you pick the book instead of the family photo, you go to the safe. The book is a guide to game design, where in old games with text controls you'd have something like "look door" in simplified language meaning "look at the door/approach the door". The book is called Look Door Get Key. Stefan gets the key and opens the door. He's also being controlled, like a game character.

 

Apparently the rest of S5, three new episodes, drop on June 5th on Netflix.

 

Trailer dump