The best moment is you can see Lasie having genuine smile at the end when she's exchanging curses with the guy. It's the final screen of the episode and it was very brief, but it's brilliant.
I don't usually comment much on yt or any social media really, but i just wanted to say that i really enjoy and appreciate your analysis of film/tv. Particularly look forward to you black mirror reviews. (Would definitely rate you 5 stars!) Keep being awesome :)
This and White Christmas are my favorites so far. This one really freaked me out at the airport scene when she was so frustrated and powerless. For some reason it made me think of aspects of the Handmaid's Tale (which has traumatized me only half way into the second season). Also this episode has actually transitioned into my real life! My stepdad and I went to DC the day after we watched this episode and any time we had a good or bad experience we responded with "Ugh, no, one star!" or "do, do, do, do, do! Five stars!" The second half really hit me. It reminded me of my first week as a nurse when I was in a nosedive in a place where you really can't show that you're losing your shit! I could relate to that powerless frustration so well. The lead and the guy yelling at each other (kinda flirting at the end?) and it was just great.
I totally get what you mean about hating humiliation (or especially cringe-y moments) in films and television. I'm pretty much the same way. When I was watching The Office, there were so many episodes where I just had to stop, do something else for a few minutes to prepare myself, then pick it back up again.
I agree about the humiliation stuff. I hate cringe moments, I skipped ahead during the speech scene cuz I felt like I was cringing out of my skin. Not a bad episode, def made sense to have such cringe with the plot but still, peraonally not my favorite thing.
I hate humiliation in TV and movies, too, unless it's really well done (ex. The "Shame!" scene in GoT, although arguably that went on a bit too long). It just feels unnessesary, not to mention kind of like a form of blackmail torture, like "Oh, you wanted to watch some entertainment? BOOM this character is going through the most horrible in this world and all you can do is watch, this is what you get for walking into this!". Just doesn't do anything for the plot in my opinion, except deliver a ham-fisted message and punish the audience just because the writers felt like it. It's tedious at best, a face punch at worst.
Heard about Bryce Dallas Howard´s "mental breakdown", after she watched some Black Mirror for the first time? Look it up, it´s actually kind of adorable!
I loved the light pretty colours and aesthetic of this episode to go against a really dark idea and social situation. Reminded me of stepford wives lol looks lovely and pretty, but really dark and crazy
My pal, I have been watching this playlist all evening to pass the time while I grind Fire Emblem, so I haven't hit like on every video, but you earned the "set down the game and click the button" moment IMMEDIATELY with that opening, lol.
So, I don't watch Black Mirror. Or even a lot of the other stuff you remark on. I just enjoy how articulate and introspective you are on stuff. And I wonder if you are this clear sighted or as understanding about your own life. They say an unexamined life isn't worth living, but as much as I may examine mine, I am so clueless at times. Most of the time? Anyway, I admire and appreciate your bravery for putting yourself out there. And I give you a 5 ***** gold sticker for the day.
This is Black Mirror at it's most unsettling. When we can see ourselves in the main characters, when we know the same quandries, judgements, insecurities, the seduction of the technology. Even, though I don't create any content, I might still revisit old comments, see if they've connected, provoked replies, likes, hatred?!, or too banal to register even a single response, or like? Oh.... and you probably know, Season 5 has now been commissioned. No idea when it'll be written, shot, released, but already nervous... excited?!
Many people I know didnt get the ending the way I did. They called it super depressing and some even said it was stupid. I loved the ending, I actually started feeling so good for her. Im glad you liked it too.
It’s interesting to hear how you resonated more with the first part than the second! Personally, the second part hurt me the most (the way she spirals is my own personal nightmare), but it’s cool how this one episode resonates with different people in different ways. Sign of a well-written and dynamic episode.
I would totally be that person that just gives everybody 5 stars unless they REALLY do something to piss me off. I already do that with stuff like Uber and restaurant surveys. I always give them the highest rating lol But god if there aren't some people I would LOVE to rate 1 star
I literally just found your channel maybe 3 hrs. ago. While I don’t 100% agree with the limited number of videos I’ve watched in your catalog, I appreciate your rational and different perspectives. Made me a subscriber! Keep up the great work!
Im so glad that you got so much out of this one. I dont use social media so it did not impact me that way, which makes it so much more enjoyable to hear your connection to it.
I agree the environment was more compelling and unsettling than the story itself. It felt a little like watching Requiem for a Dream, where you see where it’s going and it’s just a slow descent. It’s being strapped into a seat whether you like it or not. I loved the ending - finding meaning and satisfaction in honesty and disconnecting (insert irony of a positive feedback on an electronic platform)
Haha, love your reaction to having to ask people to like, comment subscribe! I also love your description of the discomfort for humiliation. I've never be able to put my finger on the types of humor I dislike and why this episode isn't my favorite. Thanks for that.
I love this episode, it's one of my favourites. The story might not be the strongest, but I love it anyway. Bryce Dallas Howard is fantastic, it's beautifully shot, great soundtrack. I have a different reaction to you, in that I don't experience what happens to Lacie as 'humiliation' - even though in the context of that world, I suppose it is. It's pitched just right for me, in that it's everyone else who looks ridiculous, not Lacie, even as she spirals into becoming a social pariah. And I love the ending - one of my favourite endings to anything, ever: the most joyous, cathartic, liberating 'fuuuuuuckkkk yoooouuu!' I've ever seen.
A couple of thoughts on this episode. First is the notion that you have to achieve a certain social level of popularity for you to be able to do things. That to a degree is something that is happening for example there are services provided by RUclips which isn't available to everyone and you can only use them once you have a certain amount of subscribers. What I thought was great about the ending was that throughout the episode she was concerned with the opinions people she didn't see, know or couldn't touch people on the other side of the screen. Then at the end she meets someone literally on the other side of a screen but because he's really there and even though they are separated by a screen they still connect with each other.
Wow - I get uncomfortable with and put off by “humiliation humor” too, but have never heard anyone express that. So glad I’m not alone disliking that trope 👍 Fortunately true that it didn’t undermine the story in this instance since her “nosedive” wasn’t actually played for laughs 😃
That's interesting, I had pretty much the opposite trajectory with this episode. I didn't like the beginning, I got more into it in the middle, and then I didn't like the ending. The beginning felt like it was inviting me to view the characters from the outside. They're so obviously fake and uncanny that I found it impossible to identify with them (and thus see their behaviour in myself). It felt like it was saying "Look at these ridiculous people, aren't you glad you aren't like them?" rather than "Look at these ridiculous people -- do you recognise yourself in them?" It didn't help that there was the brother character who seemed to be acting as an audience surrogate (him being the most relatable and also the most critical of Lacey). But then the middle started to grab me, just because of how easily her numbers started to slip once they'd got going. The bit that hit me was when she was walking along the road and got 1-starred by someone passing, and she says "I didn't even do anything!" It's easier to judge people harshly when we already consider them below us. I also quite liked the bit with the truck driver, but there was one way it could have been better for me. When she started talking about her husband getting cancer, I figured she was going to say that her previous friends started giving her low ratings because they found her talking about it depressing. I've seen people do that, cut people out because they don't want to deal with hearing about what they're going through. I think it would have been more powerful if the truck driver's low numbers were due to something out of her control, rather than her actively deciding to buck the system. A lot of the time when someone is socially ostracised, it's not because of something they have control over. I didn't like the very ending because I felt like it was equating honesty with cruelty. Like, it was clear that neither of them were hurt (and in fact were enjoying it), but it still rubbed me the wrong way. I've known people who think being rude is the same as being honest, and I've fallen into that trap myself.
I compleeeeetely agree on the humiliation humor! That's the main reason I totally despise the movie "Bridesmaids". That was pretty much the entire movie and ruined the whole experience for me. >.> In this BM episode, it was definitely uncomfortable to watch, but of course it was meant to be cringey.
This is my favourite of them all. I absolutely *adore* how it ends... it finally, finally, finally doesn't matter to her any more! Such a great moment of utter rejection of the material trappings she was so caught up in. I found this to be the most joyful ending, which itself is a surprize for my favourite pick, since I usually prefer bleak endings. So yeah - it's a really weird one! One little nitpick that did bug me a bit after, though... don't those guys want their vehicle back? I mean... they just *gave* it to her, like for nothing? Slightly annoying detail.
Hi, I'm really enjoying your Black Mirror reviews and look forward to them every Wed..lol. I watched the entire 4 seasons over Christmas and as a whole it is definitely up there as one of my favourite tv shows of all time. Dare I say up there with Buffy and Breaking Bad. Anyway keep up the great work.
i usually don't enjoy humiliation humor as well, but in this case, i didn't feel like she was being humiliated because i did not really care about what the wedding guests thought. she was being herself and they were still being fake, so in a sense, she was the one being set free and they were still imprisoned in their world. so, what i mean is, i actually felt good for her
I understand what you mean about humiliation humour (I'm not a fan of it, but I don't hate it either). But I didn't see what happened to Lacie as an example of that. After her encounter with the lady in the truck, she gave up trying to build her rating. She stopped caring what people thought of her, so she couldn't be humiliated. She knew well what she was saying and doing at the wedding, even though she was drunk. She was originally planning to give a fake sappy speech about her and Naynay's 'friendship', but instead she used her newly-found emotional liberty to spew out exactly how she felt. Lacie's wedding speech felt to me like Bing's speech in front of the judges in 15 Million Merits - the culmination of a lifetime of playing by the rules, finally liberated to say exactly how he felt.
I have to agree, humiliation humour usually feels spectacularly contrived. But, for me, social awkwardness can make it's own problems. Just curious what your opinion is with Ricky Gervais? Personally, I've never seen his sitcoms (The Office, Extras, Derek) and not interested, but I love his stand-up shows. Is that weird?
Can you give some examples of what you mean by humiliation humor? I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Is it when other characters make fun of one or does it included self-humiliation (by circumstances)? Slapstick?
My Best Friend’s Wedding when Julia Roberts takes Cameron Diaz to a karaoke bar knowing she can’t sing is the first one that pops into my head. Basically every other scene in Bridesmaids.
Yeah... while I do love that movie, I agree that Roberts' character doing things like that is VERY frustrating; at least it's kind of intentional (as the film is a deconstruction of those rom-com tropes by making the protagonist the "villain", for lack of a better term) and the climactic scene of Diaz's character publicly calling her out is genuinely cathartic after enduring her the whole film. But it's still hard to witness regardless, and I can agree that there are some things in fiction which I just can't enjoy because of my own gut reaction to the nature of them. I totally get where you're coming from, and that humiliation aspect is hard for me too (if not to your level). If nothing else, Bryce Dallas Howard pours her very being into this story, which makes the ending so layered and satisfactory.
What you liked about this episode is what I didn’t like. I see everyone so focused on having a good strong social media footprint while I put very little stock into it so seeing it on black mirror made me more annoyed because it reminded me of today. I can understand why people would like this episode though :)
Probably my second least favourite episode, just behind Arkangel. Don't get me wrong, she's beautiful, but boy she irritated the hell out of me. The whole practising her fake smiles and giggles in the mirror, taking a cutesie picture of her coffee and biscuit that she actually found disgusting. There are too many superficial people like that in real life. Five stars for the review though, since it was a meaningful encounter.
I’d consider that a misreading. It’s not anti-technology. The technology is never the problem. It’s the people who are using the technology that are the problem.
I normally like your reviews, but I feel like you lingered on the embarassment rant for a bit too long. Still love your videos though don't worry I won't give you 4 stars. ;)
They say not enjoying humiliation humor (aka secondhand embarrassment) is a sign of empathy.
That makes sense I've got that empath thing and I can't stand the second hand embarrassment lol it hurts my damn soul stg 😂😂😭😭
Ironic that while she’s inside a cell, she’s actually finally free...
I would definitely say the ending of Nosedive is one of the most cathartic moments I have experienced watching Black Mirror
The best moment is you can see Lasie having genuine smile at the end when she's exchanging curses with the guy. It's the final screen of the episode and it was very brief, but it's brilliant.
I don't usually comment much on yt or any social media really, but i just wanted to say that i really enjoy and appreciate your analysis of film/tv. Particularly look forward to you black mirror reviews. (Would definitely rate you 5 stars!) Keep being awesome :)
This and White Christmas are my favorites so far. This one really freaked me out at the airport scene when she was so frustrated and powerless. For some reason it made me think of aspects of the Handmaid's Tale (which has traumatized me only half way into the second season). Also this episode has actually transitioned into my real life! My stepdad and I went to DC the day after we watched this episode and any time we had a good or bad experience we responded with "Ugh, no, one star!" or "do, do, do, do, do! Five stars!"
The second half really hit me. It reminded me of my first week as a nurse when I was in a nosedive in a place where you really can't show that you're losing your shit! I could relate to that powerless frustration so well. The lead and the guy yelling at each other (kinda flirting at the end?) and it was just great.
I totally get what you mean about hating humiliation (or especially cringe-y moments) in films and television. I'm pretty much the same way. When I was watching The Office, there were so many episodes where I just had to stop, do something else for a few minutes to prepare myself, then pick it back up again.
OMG. You nailed exactly why I can't bear to watch Meet the Parents/Fockers.
I agree about the humiliation stuff. I hate cringe moments, I skipped ahead during the speech scene cuz I felt like I was cringing out of my skin. Not a bad episode, def made sense to have such cringe with the plot but still, peraonally not my favorite thing.
I hate humiliation in TV and movies, too, unless it's really well done (ex. The "Shame!" scene in GoT, although arguably that went on a bit too long). It just feels unnessesary, not to mention kind of like a form of blackmail torture, like "Oh, you wanted to watch some entertainment? BOOM this character is going through the most horrible in this world and all you can do is watch, this is what you get for walking into this!". Just doesn't do anything for the plot in my opinion, except deliver a ham-fisted message and punish the audience just because the writers felt like it. It's tedious at best, a face punch at worst.
Heard about Bryce Dallas Howard´s "mental breakdown", after she watched some Black Mirror for the first time? Look it up, it´s actually kind of adorable!
I loved the light pretty colours and aesthetic of this episode to go against a really dark idea and social situation.
Reminded me of stepford wives lol looks lovely and pretty, but really dark and crazy
My pal, I have been watching this playlist all evening to pass the time while I grind Fire Emblem, so I haven't hit like on every video, but you earned the "set down the game and click the button" moment IMMEDIATELY with that opening, lol.
So, I don't watch Black Mirror. Or even a lot of the other stuff you remark on. I just enjoy how articulate and introspective you are on stuff. And I wonder if you are this clear sighted or as understanding about your own life. They say an unexamined life isn't worth living, but as much as I may examine mine, I am so clueless at times. Most of the time? Anyway, I admire and appreciate your bravery for putting yourself out there. And I give you a 5 ***** gold sticker for the day.
Stfu
+Josh Navarro Seriously man? I thought this show was for emotionally inteligent and mature audience.
This is Black Mirror at it's most unsettling. When we can see ourselves in the main characters, when we know the same quandries, judgements, insecurities, the seduction of the technology. Even, though I don't create any content, I might still revisit old comments, see if they've connected, provoked replies, likes, hatred?!, or too banal to register even a single response, or like?
Oh.... and you probably know, Season 5 has now been commissioned. No idea when it'll be written, shot, released, but already nervous... excited?!
Robin Hislop I saw a news article a few weeks ago that they were shooting an episode of season 5 in London.
Many people I know didnt get the ending the way I did. They called it super depressing and some even said it was stupid.
I loved the ending, I actually started feeling so good for her.
Im glad you liked it too.
Also, 10/5 stars from me
It’s interesting to hear how you resonated more with the first part than the second! Personally, the second part hurt me the most (the way she spirals is my own personal nightmare), but it’s cool how this one episode resonates with different people in different ways. Sign of a well-written and dynamic episode.
I would totally be that person that just gives everybody 5 stars unless they REALLY do something to piss me off. I already do that with stuff like Uber and restaurant surveys. I always give them the highest rating lol
But god if there aren't some people I would LOVE to rate 1 star
Five stars
I literally just found your channel maybe 3 hrs. ago. While I don’t 100% agree with the limited number of videos I’ve watched in your catalog, I appreciate your rational and different perspectives. Made me a subscriber! Keep up the great work!
Im so glad that you got so much out of this one. I dont use social media so it did not impact me that way, which makes it so much more enjoyable to hear your connection to it.
Yeh, although it was a while ago, I remember having a debilitating cringe attack when she stumbled into Alice Eve’s abode
I agree the environment was more compelling and unsettling than the story itself. It felt a little like watching Requiem for a Dream, where you see where it’s going and it’s just a slow descent. It’s being strapped into a seat whether you like it or not. I loved the ending - finding meaning and satisfaction in honesty and disconnecting (insert irony of a positive feedback on an electronic platform)
Haha, love your reaction to having to ask people to like, comment subscribe! I also love your description of the discomfort for humiliation. I've never be able to put my finger on the types of humor I dislike and why this episode isn't my favorite. Thanks for that.
It sounds like your experience of this episode mirrored mine exactly. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. *****
I love this episode, it's one of my favourites. The story might not be the strongest, but I love it anyway. Bryce Dallas Howard is fantastic, it's beautifully shot, great soundtrack. I have a different reaction to you, in that I don't experience what happens to Lacie as 'humiliation' - even though in the context of that world, I suppose it is. It's pitched just right for me, in that it's everyone else who looks ridiculous, not Lacie, even as she spirals into becoming a social pariah. And I love the ending - one of my favourite endings to anything, ever: the most joyous, cathartic, liberating 'fuuuuuuckkkk yoooouuu!' I've ever seen.
A couple of thoughts on this episode. First is the notion that you have to achieve a certain social level of popularity for you to be able to do things. That to a degree is something that is happening for example there are services provided by RUclips which isn't available to everyone and you can only use them once you have a certain amount of subscribers. What I thought was great about the ending was that throughout the episode she was concerned with the opinions people she didn't see, know or couldn't touch people on the other side of the screen. Then at the end she meets someone literally on the other side of a screen but because he's really there and even though they are separated by a screen they still connect with each other.
Wow - I get uncomfortable with and put off by “humiliation humor” too, but have never heard anyone express that. So glad I’m not alone disliking that trope 👍 Fortunately true that it didn’t undermine the story in this instance since her “nosedive” wasn’t actually played for laughs 😃
That's interesting, I had pretty much the opposite trajectory with this episode. I didn't like the beginning, I got more into it in the middle, and then I didn't like the ending.
The beginning felt like it was inviting me to view the characters from the outside. They're so obviously fake and uncanny that I found it impossible to identify with them (and thus see their behaviour in myself). It felt like it was saying "Look at these ridiculous people, aren't you glad you aren't like them?" rather than "Look at these ridiculous people -- do you recognise yourself in them?"
It didn't help that there was the brother character who seemed to be acting as an audience surrogate (him being the most relatable and also the most critical of Lacey).
But then the middle started to grab me, just because of how easily her numbers started to slip once they'd got going. The bit that hit me was when she was walking along the road and got 1-starred by someone passing, and she says "I didn't even do anything!" It's easier to judge people harshly when we already consider them below us.
I also quite liked the bit with the truck driver, but there was one way it could have been better for me. When she started talking about her husband getting cancer, I figured she was going to say that her previous friends started giving her low ratings because they found her talking about it depressing. I've seen people do that, cut people out because they don't want to deal with hearing about what they're going through.
I think it would have been more powerful if the truck driver's low numbers were due to something out of her control, rather than her actively deciding to buck the system. A lot of the time when someone is socially ostracised, it's not because of something they have control over.
I didn't like the very ending because I felt like it was equating honesty with cruelty. Like, it was clear that neither of them were hurt (and in fact were enjoying it), but it still rubbed me the wrong way. I've known people who think being rude is the same as being honest, and I've fallen into that trap myself.
Cannot wait for you to do Shut Up And Dance
I compleeeeetely agree on the humiliation humor! That's the main reason I totally despise the movie "Bridesmaids". That was pretty much the entire movie and ruined the whole experience for me. >.> In this BM episode, it was definitely uncomfortable to watch, but of course it was meant to be cringey.
This is my favourite of them all. I absolutely *adore* how it ends... it finally, finally, finally doesn't matter to her any more! Such a great moment of utter rejection of the material trappings she was so caught up in. I found this to be the most joyful ending, which itself is a surprize for my favourite pick, since I usually prefer bleak endings. So yeah - it's a really weird one!
One little nitpick that did bug me a bit after, though... don't those guys want their vehicle back? I mean... they just *gave* it to her, like for nothing? Slightly annoying detail.
Hi, I'm really enjoying your Black Mirror reviews and look forward to them every Wed..lol. I watched the entire 4 seasons over Christmas and as a whole it is definitely up there as one of my favourite tv shows of all time. Dare I say up there with Buffy and Breaking Bad. Anyway keep up the great work.
Very insightful and honest review. Thank you!
This made Imon Snow cry and I cried along...
In my opinion: One of the very best and smartest Black Mirror episodes. A brutal, in your face, satire of today's slightly idiotic Instagram culture.
Favourite Black Mirror Episode!
i usually don't enjoy humiliation humor as well, but in this case, i didn't feel like she was being humiliated because i did not really care about what the wedding guests thought. she was being herself and they were still being fake, so in a sense, she was the one being set free and they were still imprisoned in their world. so, what i mean is, i actually felt good for her
Will you do a ranking of every episode when you have finished your reviews?
I'm not planning to. I think I'll need a breather once this is done. Maybe as a lead up to the next season I'll do something like that.
I understand what you mean about humiliation humour (I'm not a fan of it, but I don't hate it either). But I didn't see what happened to Lacie as an example of that. After her encounter with the lady in the truck, she gave up trying to build her rating. She stopped caring what people thought of her, so she couldn't be humiliated. She knew well what she was saying and doing at the wedding, even though she was drunk. She was originally planning to give a fake sappy speech about her and Naynay's 'friendship', but instead she used her newly-found emotional liberty to spew out exactly how she felt.
Lacie's wedding speech felt to me like Bing's speech in front of the judges in 15 Million Merits - the culmination of a lifetime of playing by the rules, finally liberated to say exactly how he felt.
I know it's not EXACTLY the same thing, but it triggered the same internal discomfort in me so it was the best comparison I could make.
* * * * *
I have to agree, humiliation humour usually feels spectacularly contrived. But, for me, social awkwardness can make it's own problems. Just curious what your opinion is with Ricky Gervais? Personally, I've never seen his sitcoms (The Office, Extras, Derek) and not interested, but I love his stand-up shows. Is that weird?
I have never liked Ricky Gervais. If I'm being honest, I kind of hate Ricky Gervais.
Can you give some examples of what you mean by humiliation humor? I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Is it when other characters make fun of one or does it included self-humiliation (by circumstances)? Slapstick?
My Best Friend’s Wedding when Julia Roberts takes Cameron Diaz to a karaoke bar knowing she can’t sing is the first one that pops into my head. Basically every other scene in Bridesmaids.
Ah, okay. That first example clears it up for me. Thanks! :)
Yeah... while I do love that movie, I agree that Roberts' character doing things like that is VERY frustrating; at least it's kind of intentional (as the film is a deconstruction of those rom-com tropes by making the protagonist the "villain", for lack of a better term) and the climactic scene of Diaz's character publicly calling her out is genuinely cathartic after enduring her the whole film. But it's still hard to witness regardless, and I can agree that there are some things in fiction which I just can't enjoy because of my own gut reaction to the nature of them.
I totally get where you're coming from, and that humiliation aspect is hard for me too (if not to your level). If nothing else, Bryce Dallas Howard pours her very being into this story, which makes the ending so layered and satisfactory.
here, have my thumbs up
*boop 5 stars
What you liked about this episode is what I didn’t like. I see everyone so focused on having a good strong social media footprint while I put very little stock into it so seeing it on black mirror made me more annoyed because it reminded me of today. I can understand why people would like this episode though :)
"Like" is a relative when talking about Black Mirror. "Found more effective" is probably better way to put it.
The world would be better without Yelp.
🌟
Probably my second least favourite episode, just behind Arkangel. Don't get me wrong, she's beautiful, but boy she irritated the hell out of me. The whole practising her fake smiles and giggles in the mirror, taking a cutesie picture of her coffee and biscuit that she actually found disgusting. There are too many superficial people like that in real life. Five stars for the review though, since it was a meaningful encounter.
4.2 😉
*****
I like Black Mirror, but I think the anti-technology mindset just takes over it at times.
I’d consider that a misreading. It’s not anti-technology. The technology is never the problem. It’s the people who are using the technology that are the problem.
300th view
I normally like your reviews, but I feel like you lingered on the embarassment rant for a bit too long. Still love your videos though don't worry I won't give you 4 stars. ;)
Nah, this is crap ;)
★☆☆☆☆ :-)