how tv lies to you

[pwalpwal]

 

[Notes_Norton]

The last TV show I watched was Jay Leno's first “Tonight” show. And I had to go to my mother-in-law's to see it.

So they don't lie to me. I depend on the Internet for the lies.

 

[bitflipper]

Next you're gonna tell me that music production is similar fakery.

[Starship Krupa]

On 5/1/2025 at 6:16 AM, pwalpwal said:

 

Ha! When I saw the topic title I thought "Charlie Brooker."

I discovered Screenwipe and his other shows several months ago after falling in love with the Philomena Cunk shows on Netflix.

For anyone who likes that sort of thing, his shows are all available on YouTube.

Brooker is the evil genius behind Black Mirror. An excellent show that while it has done well, would have taken over the world had it not been for its unfortunate first episode, which probably cut its potential audience by about 50% due to people watching it and deciding that the show was not for them.

If the show had started with the second episode, the amazing "Fifteen Million Merits," Black Mirror might have its own movie, theme park, and game franchise by now. That episode pretty much made Daniel Kaluuya's career happen (and rightly so, he's unforgettable in it).

So when I recommend the show to people, I beg them not to watch the first episode, at least not until they've watched the second one. It's an anthology show, so it doesn't much matter what order you watch them in. As long as you skip the first one.

This season's first episode is an incisive commentary on a subject much discussed in our forum here. Given that Brooker started out writing reviews of video games, it's not surprising that he'd have something to say about a current trend in the software industry.

[Amberwolf]

6 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Black Mirror. An excellent show that while it has done well, would have taken over the world had it not been for its unfortunate first episode, which probably cut its potential audience by about 50% due to people watching it and deciding that the show was not for them.

I made it partway in to that episode, and did indeed leave and not come back to the show, as nothing about what I saw was watchable to me.   If the rest of the series is not like that one, I'll give it a shot with ep2. 

[pwalpwal]

8 hours ago, Amberwolf said:

I made it partway in to that episode, and did indeed leave and not come back to the show, as nothing about what I saw was watchable to me.   If the rest of the series is not like that one, I'll give it a shot with ep2. 

each episode is completely different, although they've done a second start trek one in the latest series

here's brooker guesting on hignfy with shatner hosting haha

 

[Starship Krupa]

10 hours ago, Amberwolf said:

I made it partway in to that episode, and did indeed leave and not come back to the show, as nothing about what I saw was watchable to me.

Right? I recall it as more of an ordeal than an entertainment.

An unfortunately very common story. I said 50%, but that's actually optimistic based on my hope that devoted fans of the show by now are guaranteed to warn their friends away from watching the first episode, at least until they've watched the second one and a few more, and even then, one's life will not be diminished at all by skipping it entirely.

I'm a BIG fan of the show, and it took me some time to make it to the second episode because I thoroughly agree with you about the first one. I've watched the remaining episodes of the show multiple times but have never gone back to the first one. It's not just the obvious repulsive elements; I didn't find the storytelling, etc. to be very good. It's as if Brooker always wanted to write a TV script where the Prime Minister is forced to....in order to ensure the well-being of a member of the royal family, and then he didn't manage to build anything interesting around it. My experience was of thinking "why am I even sitting here watching this?" Because I didn't really care about the contrived crisis or any of the characters. The Prime Minister is neither bad enough that it feels like he has it coming nor noble enough that we care about his plight.

I kind of wonder if it was somehow a deliberate move on Brooker's part to make sure that his show would always be a cult item. It's designed to alienate everyone who watches it from the start, and then they have to give it another try because someone begged them to. Or who knows, maybe the first episode was more relevant in the UK. Maybe there are references in it that viewers in other countries won't pick up on. Something about how low the government will degrade itself to protect the royals at all cost?

I can vouch for the second episode, "15 Million Merits" as not merely being an improvement, but even approaching the "as good as TV gets" level. Good storytelling, humor (although very dark humor of course), a very relatable, likeable protagonist....as I said, a career-making role for Daniel Kaluuya (Jordan Peele hired him to star in Get Out based on his performance as Bing). It's representative of what Black Mirror does well when it does it well, which is give us a look at where current social and technical trends might take us if we're not careful. It has things to say about class, employment, entertainment....speculative fiction at its best.

The show of course doesn't always maintain that quality level; even The Twilight Zone had its clinkers.

I found the most recent season to be of generally lower quality than previous ones, although the first episode should be required watching for software company executives to educate them as to why a significant number of users will NEVER be comfortable with the software licensing model that must not be named. I also liked the one with Paul Giamatti for multiple reasons. There's one with Peter Capaldi that is delightful due to the trip down memory lane of technology from the past 30 years. Brooker must have had a blast with that one. The one with the return of the U.S.S Callister had no reason to exist, IMO.

[pwalpwal]

I usually suggest nosedive as an in, one of the less dark episodes

BTW only just started the new season, so no spoilers please

[Starship Krupa]

6 hours ago, pwalpwal said:

I usually suggest nosedive as an in, one of the less dark episodes

"Nosedive" is brilliant, although one where reality overtook speculative fiction.😄

And "one of the less dark?" Maybe by Black Mirror standards.

I recommend "15 Million Merits" in part because it's only the second one and some people like to watch even anthology series in order. But it really is a favorite.

[craigb]

I recommend not watching TV! 😁

[Amberwolf]

I don't watch much...mostly I leave assorted science type videos streaming in the background as I do things that don't require my full complete attention (pretty much only music creation/editing does that, aside from the dog...  ). 

Mostly that's because I am always exhausted, never get enough sleep (too many nightmares), so I wake/doze/wake all the time when I'm not at my dayjob (I try not to do that there or on the way to/from  ), and I can't really concentrate on any one specific thing very well, so I let my brain learn multiple things while it's melting anyway.  

When i cannot even do that, but can't sleep, I'll stream assorted scifi shows, mostly ones that are long-running and that I know well enough that I can doze to them without being wakened or having my brain activated by new things.  

 

But I originally learned to like some of the shows when I didn't have such a big problem with the sleps and bad dreams....  Some things I like because they don't take themselves completely seriously all the time, but they do some thought provoking stuff, or at least have characters / ideas I like: Firefly, Dollhouse, Stargate's various incarnations, the various Star Treks, Doctor Who, the various Outer Limits, the original Twilight Zone (maybe some of the later version); Altered Carbon, and a bunch of ohters ATM I don't recall all the ones I've liked at least some of. 

 

I really prefer to read than watch, because then it's all in my imagination (which is very very good at visualizing / realizing things whether I want it to or not), but haven't been able to do much of that for some years now; requires more concentration than I have most of the time (i spend that concentration on places like this, trying to help out where I can while I still can; all this crap in my head has to be good for *something*).   Dunno what authors are around nowadays, I'm not even sure that most of the ones I know are still alive much less writing. 😊