I preferred the series when it wasn't getting outdone by RL
this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2025
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What made this show less interesting is reality catching up too fast
and Americans
I can confirm. We suck. I don’t like us.
makes sense; i'm american and i prefer when americans aren't involved tbh. americans suck.
It isn’t just about Americans being in it though. The original black mirror had nuance and a consistent tone. I knew immediately upon finishing the first Netflix ep when there was a more cheery moral to the ending of the story. You know what the first of the original eps I watched? The Christmas special one where he’s in a time dilation prison and it ends with the time being slowed down further as the guards walk away.
It was the spiritual successor to the twilight zone. Those stories had easily wrapped up morals to learn, sure, but they weren’t so scared to end the story on a more dark or negative tone. The American version of black mirror falls into that trap over and over again. Like they’re scared to have a negative ending, so they have to tell you, “but she’s freer in prison than she ever was on social media!” It’s almost like they’re waving their hands around after every episode saying “blaaaack mirrrorrr! Oooo!” it’s asinine
Look at the plot lines. The British seasons were much deeper and had actual twists. It wasn't just the technology itself, but the specific ways in which it was used. The American ones are basically "technology bad/scary". They lack the nuance that made the first seasons amazing.
Exactly! I think everyone will agree that a good example is the difference between Kitchen Nightmare UK and Kitchen Nightmare US. The UK version was more humane. There wasn't a lot of shouting, and there were long scenes where we could see the situation develop. It focused more on human emotions and had deep moments.
The US episodes, on the other hand, are like watching something through the eyes of someone with ADHD. They don't let scenes develop; they transition to another scene quickly. I hate it.
"technology bad/scary".
And werewolves, for some reason
Have any of you watched the last couple of seasons? It's not just technology bad and one episode of werewolves... It's not tied to any specifics, there's many episodes that are fantasy, or at least not sci-fi.
Oh definitely. But this was at the extreme end of not sci-fi since it goes into werewolf territory.
The first episode ever of Black Mirror was about the British PM fucking a pig after all. Not exactly a critique of tech
do the warwufs have nards?
Yeah, better before there were Americans in it, but not because there are Americans in it. Because things weren't as interesting anymore.
You know what Black Mirror is missing?
It hasn't got nearly enough Philomena Cunk.
Although she did visit Black Mirror's Streamberry in Cunk on Life.
Honestly I just miss Screenwipe/Newswipe/Weekly Wipe.
Hmm, I'm not so convinced that there's something wrong with the actors or that it's degraded in quality. I think the major issue is actually just that the technological dystopian stuff has become so real in the last decade that it no longer hits as hard as it once did. Maybe they realise this too, which is why some newer episodes have "happy" endings. It's a more interesting twist than it used to be.
They just ran out of good ideas it seemed. I don't remember exactly which season it was, either 3 or 4 I think, where basically every episode felt like only a slight variation on the same theme.
Yes, the "copy a brain into a computer then torture it" run. Some good episodes there, but they went back to that well too many times.
The latest series was quite good, imo.
Common people was the best.
I disagree actually, I think that episode exemplified the problem I was talking about. Enshittification is such an old problem now that this episode was just totally devoid of any bite or shock value. Maybe 10 years ago that idea would have been good, but in today's world it was just like reading the news.
I'm an American, and I agree. It's not so much the American cast, but the tone shift that came along with the move to Netflix.
Brooker via https://movieweb.com/charlie-brooker-responds-to-black-mirror-criticism-netflix/ :
"Arguably the happiest [episode] I've ever written was San Junipero and I just did that off my own back. I was aware we're going on a global platform now, so we've got to make these stories a bit more international. And I wanted to mix it up a bit, as in not just keep doing bleak-a-thons."
That said, "San Junipero" is one of my favorite episodes. Probably because, at the time, it was the rare happy ending.
But at the end of the day, it's still a great show that wonderfully extrapolates current tech trends into varying "10 minutes into the future" dystopian scenarios. Sometimes we need to think everything will work out. :shrug:
I think San Junipeiro is distinguishable not necessarily because it made the world seem nice, but just for the fact that it gave a couple of characters the happy ending they deserved while the background noise still illustrates a somewhat broken world.
The elderly are still being shoved away in a simulation of their golden years, because I guess that is easier than trying to make room for them in the real world, and the simulation acting dual purpose as an "afterlife" still places everyone's continued existence at the mercy of real-world infrastructure that could decide to just turn them off at any time.
The elderly are still being shoved away in a simulation of their golden years, because I guess that is easier than trying to make room for them in the real world
Yorkie kind of had it bad in the real world her whole life. I can sympathize (though mercifully not directly relate). And I'd much rather San Junipero myself than live out my days in a nursing home. YMMV, obviously.
afterlife" still places everyone's continued existence at the mercy of real-world infrastructure that could decide to just turn them off at any time.
In a lot of ways, Upload is something of a sequel to San Junipero lol
I couldn't help but think as they showed the two plugs of the women being plugged into the giant wall of residents that the only reason they would plug them next to eachother is if people visited them in reality which I doubt would actually happen, and that it is a huge amount of prime computing power they have plugged into that wall with only a small portion of that power being distracted in a simulation while the rest could be put to use for whatever that corporation wants.
I feel like everyone's forgotten that the reason Kelly was ambivalent about joining the digital afterlife was because her late husband wasn't there and she'd have no chance to be with him if it turned out there was some other kind of afterlife. It was, at most, a bittersweet ending for her.
Yeah, I never got that. I mean, I got what they were going for, but the realist in me always sees what goes into a "digital afterlife" as being a copy with no continuity of consciousness. The copy could still miss her husband, though, and I wasn't even thinking about that TBH.
I guess the way I saw it was that "If there is an afterlife, that wouldn't have been 'her' in the machine and she'd have been able to have both.".
exactly, total SOMA situation.
I don't think anyone will ever be able to convince me of 'transferrance' of the mind/soul through digital means. it's copying
My favorite episode as well. I think it was the first one with a happy ending.
It's not the Americans themselves. It's that the newer episodes are are less bleak. They often end on a more positive tone than the original series.
End on a positive tone? Well what is the fucking point then!
Because it was better then.
Idk if it coincided with American cast, but the past few seasons of Black Mirror have been ass compared to before. I blame the writers. Things have gotten more predictable and lazy.
There's a couple good episodes but I don't think we needed three episodes in one season about how quantum computers are magic
Seems to me that the real problem was running out of ideas. In later seasons half of the episodes seemed like some variation of "Is this AI alive?" and the other half were just boring. The last episode I watched was the one where a guy and his buddy started fucking in a video game. I turned it off about 2/3s of the way through because I just didn't care how it ended.
I actually really liked that one. It really raised a lot of questions about cheating (porn/artificial touch) and about sexuality in general.
i’m so glad he got to hear it
Idk, I tried watching it a few times but the first season was a slog for me, ended up cancelling netflix.
The first episode sucked, though. And most of the old ones were not that good. White Bear and White Christmas being the exceptions. Maybe one or two others.
I liked them, they had charm, but the added budget definitely helped, and that brought us to San Junipero.
The last few seasons were not that good, but the latest one is better than the couple that came before it.
There's also the Amazing Stories reboot, but that sucks too. The one Jordan Peele produced. I watched the first 2-3 episodes and it wasn't any good, so I stopped. Same idea though. Amazing Stories started all this, I think, the comic book. That comic was out long before Twilight Zone, which was the first anthology series on TV in the 1960s. Spielberg's Amazing Stories came out in the 80s, but the comic books are from like the 1930s. You also have Night Gallery from TZ creator Rod Serling if you're looking for more. Another obscure one is Blue Literature, which is animated and in Japanese (subtitles are available but it's not fully translated). What makes that one stand out is, each of its stories are based on a work of Japanese literature.
I'm always surprised by the hate for the first episode, or people telling folks to skip it/start with a different one. It feels like the most Black Mirrory episode they ever made imo. It's horrifying and grotesque. The visceral disgust we have to the beastiality with relatively little acknowledgment of the fact that the PM is not only being raped, but having to actively participate in it, in front of an audience. The joking disregard it's treated with as it escalates, and then everyone watches it against the request of the victim. The fact that it was all ultimately pointless anyway. And that after it was over, people just expect things to go back to normal. That it even raised his approval rating. While his psyche and marriage will never recover.
That brief moment of regret everyone has when watching, when it actually happens and the collective realization hits. When they realize they don't actually want to watch this and it is not a joke. You turn off the screen but that person you are is staring right back at you, ready to consume the next dehumanizing thing to distract. That's the show, man.
It's really actually the same theme as White Bear, which I also liked, but imo sadly more plausible.
completely disagree about the first 2 seasons, didnt know people felt this way
I disagree with some of that, especially about the first episode. But I have to admit it was an utterly insane pick for the pilot to try to hook viewers, much less investors. I still can't believe anyone greenlit the show.