Last week, "Black Mirror" S5 was launched. Compared with the three and four seasons and the experimental work "Bandersnatch" launched at the end of last year, the fifth season seems to be particularly "low-key"...
After Netflix took over the high-quality IP of "Black Mirror", although the number of episodes has expanded to 6 episodes per season, the ratings have continued to decline. Whether it is the expected value before watching or the actual feeling after watching, the "embarrassment" of the fifth season is not surprising.
I think this season’s mood is a "rising line": the first episode is quite disappointing, the second episode is pretty good, and the third episode is more exciting, so I changed the original title "Van Random People" to Now this--
"Black Mirror" S5 is essentially a good show, but its biggest problem is that it shouldn't be called "Black Mirror". With Netflix's current strength, it can completely recreate a series, so that you don't need to live on channel 4 forever. Under the shadow of the original British drama, you can really form your own style ... Regarding this bit of thought, I will leave it to the end after analyzing the three episodes.
"Striking Vipers"
Danny and Carl are a pair of "good friends". They have the purest happiness, favorite game, and simple life in their world... Friends who have good brothers and good buddies understand.
In a blink of an eye, time came 11 years later.
Danny had already married his lover Theo and had children, and lived a tedious life. At another boring birthday party, old friend Carl brought the latest VR simulation game "Life and Death X".
It is worth mentioning that this game is again a product of TCKR . It seems that Netflix is determined to work hard on the setting of the "Black Mirror Universe" .
For this part of the content, you can read the drama review "Black Mirror" S4E6 "Black Museum" I wrote early last year : the last part of mankind is always desire and dissatisfaction .
To put it simply, since the third season, Netflix has been explicitly or implicitly shaping the technology giant TCKR SYSTEM in the "Black Mirror World", and its status is by no means inferior to the umbrella company in the "Resident Evil" series. .
Closer to home, what kind of life are the two good partners now living?
On the surface, Danny has a good life and a happy life, but his spiritual level is extremely empty, because from morning to night, inside and out, he is full of boring topics, which is far from the pure pleasure of his youth;
Carl seems to be living a more free life, a cool job, a hot little girlfriend, but when he tells a friend of the same age who understands that his girlfriend can only search for "Who is Rodman", he will find him and Danny has the same problem.
Under this premise, the two played their beloved fighting game. Carl's natal character is still the sexy Roxette, and Danny is the Asian fighter Lance... The next step is to "fight". Ming carried out countless times without shame and shame...
According to the "technical maturity" shown in "Life and Death Fight X" in this episode (interactive experience only in simple scenes), this should be an early product of TCKR, and the time node should be earlier than S3E4's "St. Juni" Pello.
And this kind of no-taboo game that can fight or "drive" will definitely become a large-scale "auto show" in the end. Carl's words when persuading Danny to "change his mind" also illustrate this point- as long as you want to get it, you should play Anyone can play.
But the problem with Carl and Danny is that what they long for and escape is not just the cheap enjoyment of "physical pleasure", but a true "spiritual and physical unity" of the ultimate co-production experience: in the soul, they Already the best partner, now "Life and Death X" has solved the physical barriers, making the "series" between them unimpeded.
Later, the offline "verification behavior" of the two also provided testimony to this conclusion.
Once out of the flesh that is pleasing to each other in the game, the reality kiss between Danny and Carl loses its feeling, because they are not homosexual in nature.
In any case, for Danny, the "great harmony of life" between good friends is ultimately a spiritual derailment to his wife Theo... At the end of this episode, everyone reached a new consensus .
Since everyone is overwhelmed by the boring life, why not take a step back and give each other more freedom? As a result, the once most boring birthday party became the "reserved show" that Danny, Theo, and Carl most look forward to.
Although the completion of this episode is good, I think it is too mediocre . The main reason is that the same source of "Black Mirror" S3E4 "San Junipello" can complete "Life and Death Fight" .
It is not that themes such as "life and death, times, memory, euthanasia, and immortality" are higher than "friendship, love, marriage, sex, middle-aged crisis", but rather, whether it is the technique of suspense setting, layer stacking, or the degree of interpretation of the theme Waiting for the expression of will, "Life and Death Fight", which is flat and straightforward, lacks in-depth space, seems to lack bright spots.
"Smithereens" (Smithereens)
This episode is the highest-rated episode in the fifth season, which is not difficult to understand, because "Shards of Life" is the most "black mirror" in the season in terms of spiritual theme and impression temperament.
At the same time, the wonderful performance of "Mo Niang" Andrew Scott is also a very important bonus.
Especially after Christopher (Chris) learned that he was just kidnapping Jayden, the intern of "Shards of Life" , the trembling of madness, resentment, and nowhere to vent is very hierarchical , and even reminds me of last year. "Volume" Benedict's performance in "Melrose" (Well, you can still get it right outside of the "Shen Xia" scene).
The reason why this episode is a "black mirror" is that it is based on reality, and it reveals the efficiency and "mechanism" of the "information age" everywhere .
When Chris asked to talk to Billy Ball, the founder of "Shards of Life", COO Penelope, Tang of the Legal Department, and Sinel of the Analysis Department quickly called up Chris' information and quickly attributed him to " "High IQ and low income" irritable and dangerous elements , and formulated corresponding countermeasures.
Coincidentally, the negotiator at the scene, David, also analyzed Chris’ motives based on his identity, "He is eager to be noticed . "
Whether you admit it or not, "labeling" is recognized as the fastest and most accurate way to understand a person in society, and the accuracy rate is very high . Before seeing the end, the audience may agree with their ideas...
There is also a full "live webcast" , we are certainly not unfamiliar.
The two young people who accidentally appeared at the scene of the "gun hijacking case" are a microcosm of "tens of millions of netizens who are highly involved in hot Internet incidents."
As long as you open the Internet and see this, you are a part of the incident. The only difference lies in your response , whether you are silent, express your opinions, or take the opportunity to fan the flames.
And this kind of participation may also directly affect the direction of the incident. For example, Chris's sentence comforting Jayden that "the gun is fake" was leaked, which directly led to the further intensification of the confrontation.
At this point, we have to say that in the "big data era", the reality of "people no longer have secrets" -shortly after the hijacking occurred, the "Life Fragments" technical department found Chris' account and invaded it. His in-vehicle system easily monitored the situation in the car.
Neither Ernesto of the FBI in the United States nor Grace, the British Superintendent of the United Kingdom, have the same information as a company. This unexpected comparison further exacerbates the "contrast and excitement."
More intuitively is Billy Bauer's words when he determined to find Chris by himself: "The only advantage of my position is that I can occasionally enter God mode."
As long as you have left traces of people in this world, you will have nothing to hide-this is not an alarmist intimidation, but the reality that is happening.
What Chris wants to say is very simple: Three years ago, he drove his fiancée Tamssin home. The road conditions were so boring at night, so he took a glance at his phone and found it together with a drunk driving driver. In a car accident... For three years, Chris has always believed that his original "Internet addiction" killed Tamssin.
Chris does know more than ordinary people. He understands that "life fragments" are deliberately designed to make users addicted. Not only do they occupy people's fragmented time, but they will eventually tear all of their time into pieces.
"It wasn't like that when I designed this app! I don't want it to become as addictive as it is now! But I don't know how to stop..."
Billy’s response is not surprising. It can be understood from his “10-day silent practice” that he plunged into isolation from the world... But “the speed and direction of the great wheel of the era is never due to the will of the person pushing it. And change".
The biggest suspense in this episode is "What is Chris' intentions?" I once thought he was trying to scold the app "Shards of Life", which should be guilty of death, or to take the opportunity to accuse everyone of indulging in the Internet and harming others and self. , And even do not want the tragedy to happen again, by sacrificing oneself to promote the other party to design an "anti-addiction mode"... the result is nothing.
"I don't care what you think, I just want to say what I think." What Chris wants is to ask Billy to speak out. If he can, he doesn't even want to attract attention-for the bereaved mother Hailey's request for the password of her daughter's social account is just the most trivial thing.
When the dust of this incident settled, most people just glanced at the news, opened their eyes, closed their eyes, and then life continued... "Shards of Life" had no intentions on the surface, but it was its biggest attempt.
"Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too" (Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too)
Unlike many people who love the second episode, I prefer the third episode, and think this is the best episode of the fifth season.
To a certain extent, this stems from my low expectations for the episode : At first, I thought it was just a simple "satisfaction of the idol economy, as well as the penetration and reflection of artificial intelligence" and other clichés...
But later, I found that this episode was not so superficial, and even more rewarding when I watched it the second time.
There are two story lines in this episode. The protagonists on the bright side are the idol-worshipping girl Rachel and the distressed disguised singer Ashley, but in fact, the real power in these two lines is one. The dark "sir" Goggins and Catherine.
Goggins is a tech fanatic who only thinks about the "rodent eradication business". On the contrary, he doesn't care much about other things around him. After his wife's death, he often just pretends to care about his daughter.
Driving a flamboyant rat-killing cart swaggered across the city and embarrassed his daughters. The humor about them remained more verbal. When Rachel had a quarrel with Jack, who pretended to lose Ashley’s substitute, he just said nonchalantly. "You guys don't quarrel"...
I don’t mean to criticize Goggins. After all, there are too many fathers like this... What I want to say is that it is precisely because the father became a single dad during the most critical growth period of the two daughters that they have helped them to form each other. Character defects.
Compared with Goggins’s "doing nothing", Catherine-pop icon singer Ashley O's aunt, supporter, mentor, agent-is at the other extreme, she is eager to control Ashley everything of.
What Ashley really wants to sing is the kind of dark rock music with dirty words, but Catherine will never let her idea come true, because Ashley shows the youthful and beautiful image in front of the world, and the rhythm is active. Songs are more capable of harvesting fans.
For this reason, Catherine gave Ashley a psychedelic drug for a long time. When the two turned their faces, she simply caused her to fall into a drug coma, and six months later, she released a new album by reading brain waves...
After this wave of superb "technical marketing + painful marketing" , the new album is definitely a big hit~
What's interesting is that both Goggins and Catherine want to control the brain at some level -the difference is that Goggins wants to simulate the brain of a mouse and use an artificial electronic mouse to control the rat infestation;
And Catherine wanted to master Ashley's brain and create an obedient and sustainable money-making machine once and for all.
The most wonderful scene of this episode is: when Rachel’s Ashley’s double was accidentally activated by the news and malfunctioned, Jack tried to repair it through the system that his father used to simulate the brain of a mouse, and accidentally removed the "firewall" limiter, so that Ashley's consciousness "resurrected" on Ashley's substitute .
There is no need to delve into its rationality here, just know that the Ashley substitute on the market has been destroyed on a large scale, because this "toy" not only has sound simulation software but also copies Ashley's brain... two story lines Here begins to intertwined.
When the two sisters were "rescuing and escorting" Ashley, Catherine was grandly launching "Eternal Ashley", a holographic artist modeled on Ashley without dead ends .
From Hatsune Miku, Luo Tianyi, to Michael Jackson, Teresa Teng, etc., whether it is a virtual singer or a dead superstar, artists created by holographic images have entered our world ... Catherine’s phrase "put down their broken phones, all Look up" really confidently said (this line also forms a "existing hexagram" with Chris' spit in the second episode).
In my opinion, in addition to the reflection on the application/abuse of technology, the more interesting aspect of this episode is the personality and impact of the three girls.
This is also closely related to their parents: Catherine, who has a strong desire for control, cultivated the cynical rebel Ashley ; Goggins, who could not be in touch with his daughter, raised Jack and Rachel who had social barriers , but Jack Older, she pinned her feelings on her mother's favorite punk rock. Rachel was young and was captured by her glamorous idol Ashley.
Especially Rachel, she said "I am your iron fan" three times before and after:
The first time was when I saw Ashley’s stand-in for the first time, the second time when Ashley’s stand-in "awakened", and the third time was when I saw the bedridden real Ashley— not so much Rachel’s "brainless", It's better to say that she can't tell what she really likes. "Stay on being Ashley's hardcore fan girl" is the simplest and easy-to-implement rule.
When other fans saw Ashley’s true face and fled, Rachel can try to like "new things" and can be regarded as a true fan.
Of course, this is also related to their shared experiences...
In the end, Ashley and Jack began to perform in the bar, singing those rock and roll that vent their dissatisfaction and anger. They also found the most suitable positions for each: Ashley the rebel leads, Jack the hesitator follows, and Rachel the confused is innocent.的迷妹.
This is not the best ending, but the most realistic scene.
"Rachel, Jack and Ashley Stand-in" itself is very good, but unfortunately, this kind of good is not "black mirror" good , so I have to talk about my final thoughts.
Netflix's ambitions and dilemmas
Netflix obviously attaches great importance to the sweet pastry of "Black Mirror". Judging from the shooting density and actual quality, "New "Black Mirror" can be regarded as one of the fist series that they have high hopes for.
At the same time, Netflix is still actively expanding the "Black Mirror Universe". In addition to the expansion of TCKR's commercial territory in the first episode , the second and third episodes are directly connected to the real timeline .
The time and place where Chris committed the crime was London in 2018.
When Goggins was tinkering with the electric mouse, news related to China's ban on "foreign garbage" was reported on TV, which presumably would be around 2018.
A familiar and unfamiliar parallel universe is quietly taking shape... Netflix obviously wants to blur the boundary between reality and illusion to increase the sense of reality in the series. This idea is correct. After all, the essence of the black mirror is the medium and the screen. , Technology is a tool used to achieve focused desire. As long as there are human senses, there must be human hearts waiting to be connected, bought, and controlled.
In all fairness, the fifth season of "Black Mirror" is not bad. Its biggest "original sin" is that it continues the original IP of channel 4 ... But there are really many differences between British and American dramas.
The British are born with a three-point "fairy spirit" in their dramas. This unique temperament originates from the accumulation and precipitation of the British drama creation and performance for hundreds of years, and what is reflected in the drama series is a relative A more alienated, calm, and objective stand, a calm and unhurried tone, and even a "sexual indifferent" tone, even playing with black humor, often carries a sullen and sensible cunning .
In contrast, American dramas are characterized by their rich genres and frankness. When creating "Black Mirror" stories, they will inevitably have a sense of roughness and preaching ... But our impression of "Black Mirror" is from the previous The two seasons laid out naturally also brought the British tone and background color.
Therefore, the best rated episode of the fifth season is the second episode with the most "English drama temperament", while the third episode, which I personally like, is not favored-because this is a noisy and lively American story, "Black Mirror" "Thematic elements" are just part of its realization.
Now that Netflix has the financial resources, manpower, ability and ambition, it is better to start anew and recreate a "black mirror-like" new drama, jumping out of the shadow of the original British drama . Judging from the continuous decline in the three to five seasons, sticking to the IP of "Black Mirror" has done more harm than good. Why not take advantage of the situation to amplify your "freedom"? ...Of course, according to Netflix's current performance, this is probably just my wishful thinking .
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