Charlie Brooker’s new thing.

Thank you, now squeal piggy.

Well he did it, I mean wow!

Does that mean it’s not worth watching it on 4+1 then?

It is worth it. It’s only an hour, and makes some interesting points about the relationship between traditional media and government and social media, and about must watch media events.

Basically wtf!

Hmmm…engaging enough, but not a very clever ending

personally id have gone for a bike ride ratehr than watch it london empty get some street riding in!

Again tonight. Critique of x factor.

Could we keep the plot/twists/results until after it’s been shown on C4+1, I’m on Wyatt Earp at the moment.
I could, of course, just not open this thread again…

9.30 tonight

Cheers, I thought 9pm…

so did i…it’s pretty good so far.

I’ll go with weird…

dark

I’ll go with weird…

yes

and getting darker…

proper satire

… And back to weird…

Would be interested to hear Charlie’s take on what message these mini programmes are conveying.

Quite compelling viewing I find though.

ell_tell – Member
Would be interested to hear Charlie’s take on what message these mini programmes are conveying.

Not sure about next week’s as it looks from the trailer a bit more like ‘straight’ sci-fi (although guessing it has a ‘your life is probably already recorded in minute detail online’ slant?).

The first two to me don’t seem to have a direct message (apart from today’s pretty direct and slander/libel-dodging attack on the Cowell and all he stands for – although it was also a pretty vicious attack on those who enjoy his programmes too). Guessing from the tone of the two so far (and the title of the series) that it’s more a media-focussed ‘this is what things are like – now make up your own mind’? Of course, most of the people he probably wants to affect with this stuff either won’t get it or won’t care.

Regardless, so far this is some of the most thoughtful, media-savvy and best-written (and acted – the guy from today’s who was in The Fades deserves to become a huge star – VERY watchable and massively talented) bits of TV I’ve seen in a long time.

Brooker is preaching to the converted with me though…YMMV.

Sorry for waffling a bit – Media Studies teacher in me seeping out.

slainte 8) rob

Ace!

ell_tell – Member
Would be interested to hear Charlie’s take on what message these mini programmes are conveying.

The clue is in the title. It is a reflection of society, but dark (maybe). Or, in his words…

Every life includes significant landmarks: your first kiss, your first job, your first undetected murder. Maybe that’s just me. Anyway, last week I experienced a more alarming first: my first unironic conversation with a machine.

I was using the new iPhone, the one with Siri, the built-in personal assistant you talk to. You hold down a button and mutter something like “Set the alarm for eight in the morning,” or “Remind me to ring Gordon later,” and Siri replies, “OK, I’ll do that for you,” using the voice of Jon Briggs, better known as the voice of The Weakest Link. And he sets everything up, just the way you wanted.

Siri is a creep – a servile arselick with zero self-respect – but he works annoyingly well. Which is why, last week, I experienced that watershed moment: for the first time, I spoke to a handheld device unironically. Not for a laugh, or an experiment, but because I wanted it to help me.

So that’s that. I can now expect to be talking to machines for the rest of my life. Today it’s Siri. Tomorrow it’ll be a talking car. The day after that I’ll be trading banter with a wisecracking smoothie carton. By the time I’m 70 I’ll be holding heartbreaking conversations with synthesised imitations of people I once knew who have subsequently died. Maybe I’ll hear their voices in my head. Maybe that’s how it’ll be.

The present day is no less crazy. We routinely do things that just five years ago would scarcely have made sense to us. We tweet along to reality shows; we share videos of strangers dropping cats in bins; we dance in front of Xboxes that can see us, and judge us, and find us sorely lacking. It’s hard to think of a single human function that technology hasn’t somehow altered, apart perhaps from burping. That’s pretty much all we have left. Just yesterday I read a news story about a new video game installed above urinals to stop patrons getting bored: you control it by sloshing your urine stream left and right. Read that back to yourself and ask if you live in a sane society.

When I was making the series How TV Ruined Your Life, we went out and asked members of the public to comment on a new invention we were claiming was real: a mobile phone that allowed you to call through time, so you could speak to people in the past or future. Many people thought it was real: not so much a testament to gullibility, but an indicator of just how magical today’s technology has become. We take miracles for granted on a daily basis.

Nonetheless, I relish this stuff. I coo over gadgets, take delight in each new miracle app. Like an addict, I check my Twitter timeline the moment I wake up. And often I wonder: is all this really good for me? For us? None of these things have been foisted upon humankind – we’ve merrily embraced them. But where is it all leading? If technology is a drug – and it does feel like a drug – then what, precisely, are the side-effects?

This area – between delight and discomfort – is where Black Mirror, my new drama series, is set. The “black mirror” of the title is the one you’ll find on every wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the cold, shiny screen of a TV, a monitor, a smartphone. The series was inspired, indirectly, by The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling’s hugely entertaining TV series of the late 50s and early 60s, sometimes incorrectly dismissed as a camp exercise in twist-in-the-tale sci-fi. It was far more than that. Serling, a brilliant writer, created The Twilight Zone because he was tired of having his provocative teleplays about contemporary issues routinely censored in order to appease corporate sponsors. If he wrote about racism in a southern town, he had to fight the network over every line. But if he wrote about racism in a metaphorical, quasi-fictional world – suddenly he could say everything he wanted.

The Twilight Zone was sometimes shockingly cruel, far crueller than most TV drama today would dare to be. In one famous episode, the main protagonist, a luckless bookworm, wanders through the rubble following a nuclear holocaust. Discovering he is the last man on Earth, he decides to commit suicide, only to spot the remains of a library nearby just as he lifts the gun to his temple. Suddenly lifted by the realisation that at last he can read all the books he wants, uninterrupted, he gleefully assembles a year’s worth of reading. But as he reaches for the first book, his glasses fall off and smash on the floor. He ends the episode weeping and alone.

In Serling’s day, the atom bomb, civil rights, McCarthyism, psychiatry and the space race were of primary concern. Today he’d be writing about terrorism, the economy, the media, privacy and our relationship with technology. Or trying to, because while present-day TV drama may be subject to less censorship, it also has fewer avenues for exploring ideas. The majority of dramas are long-running returning series or genre pieces – detective stories, period dramas and the like. It’s as if there’s a constant pressure to reassure a nervous viewer: to say look, it’s episode 89, it’s got the same faces as last week, in the same precinct, with the same woes. You know you’ll like this – because you’ve already seen it.

For me the joy of shows like The Twilight Zone, such as Tales of the Unexpected, or Hammer House of Horror, or erstwhile “showcase slots” such as Play for Today, was precisely that you hadn’t already seen it. Every week you were plunged into a slightly different world. There was a signature tone to the stories, the same dark chocolate coating – but the filling was always a surprise.

That’s what we’re aiming for with Black Mirror: each episode has a different cast, a different setting, even a different reality. But they’re all about the way we live now – and the way we might be living in 10 minutes’ time if we’re clumsy. And if there’s one thing we know about mankind, it’s this: we’re usually clumsy. And it’s no use begging Siri for help. He doesn’t understand tearful pleading. Trust me, I’ve tried.

The three episodes of Black Mirror

1. The National Anthem

Set slap-bang in the present, The National Anthem, starring Rory Kinnear and Lindsay Duncan, recounts what happens when fictional royal Princess Susannah is kidnapped and prime minister Michael Callow is presented with an unusual – and obscene – ransom request. The traditional media finds itself unable to even discuss what the demand is, while the Twittersphere foams with speculation and cruel jokes. As the ransom deadline nears, events start to gain a surreal momentum of their own. This was inspired partly by the kerfuffle over superinjunctions, and partly by the strange out-of-control sensation that takes grip on certain news days – such as the day Gordon Brown was virtually commanded to apologise to Gillian Duffy in front of the rolling news networks. Who was in charge that day? No one and everyone.

2. Fifteen Million Merits

In 1984, Apple ran a famous advert that implied the Mac might save mankind from a nightmarish Orwellian future. But what would a nightmarish Orwellian future that ran on Apple software actually look like? Probably a bit like this.

Fifteen Million Merits, co-written with my wife Konnie Huq and starring Daniel Kaluuya (The Fades) and Jessica Brown-Findlay (Downton Abbey), takes place in a world in which the population is apparently doomed to a life of meaningless toil enlivened only by continual entertainment and distraction courtesy of ominipresent gizmos and screens. So not really sci-fi at all, then. Your sole chance of escape or salvation from this world appears to be a talent contest called Hot Shot, where the judges are played by Julia Davis, the grime MC Bashy, and Rupert Everett.

3. The Entire History of You

Anyone who’s ever nosed through the Facebook profile of a potential lover will feel right at home here. Today, most of us routinely leave a trail of personal information behind us – from emails to idle thoughts on Facebook, to images of ourselves grinning at parties. Go to a live event and instead of lighters in the air, you’ll see the glow of people recording proceedings on their smartphones. This final episode, starring Toby Kebbell and Jodie Whittaker, and written by Jesse Armstrong of Peep Show, Fresh Meat and The Thick of It fame, explores the logical outcome of this, something many might consider a fantasy scenario: what if you had a kind of Sky Plus system for your head, so you could rewind and replay memories at will? You’d never forget where you left your keys again, for one thing. And it would be great for winning arguments. But it might not be brilliant news for the health of your relationship. After all, how much do you actually want to know about each other?

Ditto. I’m quite a fan of his previous broadcasts sctreenwipe etc so thought I would enjoy this. Always end up discussing them after with the missus & we have our own views.

Tonights was clearly aimed at the cowell machine that feeds the public hunger for reality tv but wasn’t sure who (or what) the whole earning credits & frittering away on virtual goods was aimed at though, maybe not cowell per se.

The spending credits on virtual stuff was about Facebook and the games you get on there i thought (Farmville and the like).

Bing was a version of Brooker, right? Ranting about the state of the media on TV for money…

ell_tell – Member
wasn’t sure who (or what) the whole earning credits & frittering away on virtual goods was aimed at though, maybe not cowell per se.

I kinda read it as a comment on the audience for certain reality TV shows. Trudging away in their 9-to-5s to fund a TK Maxx version of the advertising-driven aspirational lifestyle they (we) are fed, all the while ignoring the interesting bits of real life in favour of gossiping about and living vicariously through the lives of those on X-Factor, BB and BGT.

As the lengthy quote above says, it’s us right here right now if we take our collective eye off the ball for 10 minutes.

slainte ❓ rob

Brooker being Brooker, he’ll be saying it’s socially commentary and it’s up to you what you get out of it – that he doesn’t give a ****, but then he’ll say it’s his ironic take on the state of orwellian nation and a future reality, be scathing about celebrity, claim he knows nothing about politics yet has an opinion, call Cameron a lizard, then call himself dickish for having such views and that it’s not real it’s fiction, then advertise the Christmas special of Screen Wipe.
.
I liked Black Mirror – it’s thought provoking and emotive, something lacking on the tele. Bing’s speech on stage was epic.

CaptJon – Member
The spending credits on virtual stuff was about Facebook and the games you get on there i thought (Farmville and the like).
Bing was a version of Brooker, right? Ranting about the state of the media on TV for money…

Possibly also a bleak observation about the human condition. Even those who see the ‘system’ for what it is can be persuaded to change (or at least hide) their views if you offer them enough.

Having said that, both episodes so far have had a very human centre which I didn’t expect. The whole symbolism of the penguin in today’s for example (also a nice nod – and visual pun – to that other dystopian view of our future that is Blade Runner).

slainte 🙂 rob

brakes – Member
Brooker being Brooker, he’ll be saying it’s socially commentary and it’s up to you what you get out of it – that he doesn’t give a ****, but then he’ll say it’s his ironic take on the state of orwellian nation and a future reality, be scathing about celebrity, claim he knows nothing about politics yet has an opinion, call Cameron a lizard, then call himself dickish for having such views and that it’s not real it’s fiction, then advertise the Christmas special of Screen Wipe.

And that’s EXACTLY why I like him.

slainte 😀 rob

ha! me too.
he manages to voice my frustration with the media in a way that is beyond my Saturday-night grumbles and swearing at the TV.

brakes, if you liked that speech, you should check out the one at the start of the first episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zyOhZsvIzI[/video]

Once our ‘lead’ had finished his rant the folk I was watching this with turned and looked at me in unison, one saying it reminded them of someone not so far away. It’s true to say I rant like that on a regular basis but, as with this ill-fated chap, it will amount to nowt.

I think the poignancy was in the scene where the Cowell-type character saw the commercial viability of the passionate expression of discontent and is echoed in Bill Hicks’ “Yup, we’ve got a dollar for that one, too…”

Ultimately sickening.

I was expecting this series to be a few dark, cynical, funny sneers at various easy targets, which would have been fun, to be honest, as I like Brooker’s style. I know him chiefly from Screenwipe and Newswipe.

What I wasn’t prepared for was the human side to these stories. I think they’re done extremely sensitively, and I don’t think Brooker at any point puts up any of the main protagonists as one-dimensional caricatures (with the possible exception of the Hot Shot judges – but they’re so carefully modeled on the real thing that I don’t think it counts).

Also, these don’t seem to be parables or fairy-tales with a key “message”. He’s more interested in presenting a short story, framed by aspects of our society that already exist, but taken to extremes, and I like that. There are so many moments of recognition.

A common technique film makers use to soften the “preaching” aspect is to present the make-your-own-mind-up ending – where there has been an implicit question or ambiguity throughout, which doesn’t get resolved at the end. I don’t think Brooker even presents that single thematic question anywhere – he just places a character who we can easily identify with in a situation where they’re constantly confronted by aspects of what our world has, or could, become.

The real gift is in allowing us to identify with a Prime Minister held to media blackmail, and a man who’s been entombed in a futuristic, sterile gymansium/entertainment complex his entire life.

Can’t wait for the next one.

It is a reflection of society, but dark (maybe)

Black Mirror could also be referring to the TV screen…

Next one isn’t written by Brooker, unfortunately.

I think I read that Black Mirror refers to the ubiquitous screens we have around us – TVs, monitors, smartphones, tablets etc.

Another great episode – not as funny as the Pig Episode, but a wonderful and compelling story about TV marketing and where the internet is taking us

Especially pleased that it was on at the same time as the X-Factor final

Dead pleased this year as i didn’t even accidently see any of X-factor. 100% clean record for 2011!!! 😀

The adverts in the room which started buzzing when you closed your eyes was fascinating. it can’t be long till something similar is common in our lives….

Looking forward to next weeks…

Ive missed all the others but to be honest, last nights one was a bit pants IMO. I liked the idea he (Brooker) was trying to get across but it just seemed poorly concieved and played out.

The bit where the stamp is etched into his hand, which we are conveniently told will last around 2 months, along with the discussion they had earlier about how long it would take to raise 12million credits (almost 6-months she exclaims). Then we see ‘Bing’ working away to earn credits and his stamp fading away, ‘oh look’ we think, he must have been saving for 2-6 months for those credits. This is all stuff Brooker would have RIPPED TO SHREDS on screenwipe over the last year, infact, i think he already has.

So yeah, good idea, poor execution (IMO, please dont own me with bombers!)

The adverts in the room which started buzzing when you closed your eyes was fascinating. it can’t be long till something similar is common in our lives….

Spotify kind of did this. If you muted your computer while an ad was playing, it paused.

Bing was a version of Brooker, right? Ranting about the state of the media on TV for money..

Yeah, didn’t get that at the time, but it fits!

I reckon it’d be a good show to watch a 2nd time as there will be some great things you pick up the 2nd time round

Charlie Brooker really is rapidly becoming my favorite writer – his articles in the Indpendent are great

does this mean i’m a middle class w*nker riding the surrey hills each weekend??

I’d like to point out at this point that my Audi is a P-reg….. 😀