So good! However in my opinion you missed the biggest point of white bear. The whole punishment was carried out in an amusement park setting where spectators could take glee in the suffering. The idea that it’s a delicious moral treat to behave badly but call it righteous indignation situation. They are torturing her but “she deserves it”, and the reveal of the nuances of her crime make it hit even harder. Great episode.
Agree - came down here to write the same thing. The twist of White Bear is that "normal society" turns out to be the sadistic villain. I give it more like a 7/10.
We tsk tsk at our ancestors enjoying the spectacle of a public hanging, but we think it’s great fun to watch a dogpile on social media. I agree, White Bear was one of the better episodes.
Yes, exactly. They don't pay the people who are punishing the murderer -- people pay to come to "White Bear Justice Park" and participate in punishing her. The horror of the episode is that it's _totally believable_ that people would enjoy this -- take a look at photos of a lynching party some time.
He also got the details of blocking in White Christmas wrong -- the person who blocked you isn't a red blob, they're more like black-and-white static. There's a screencap here:
Thanks for the “lynching party” reminder. The white people who attended lynchings brought picnic baskets, often brought their KIDS, and they sent postcards of the event with “we lynched a < redacted > today, here’s a picture! Love, your grandson!”
And I’m also reminded of Particicutions in the Handmaid’s Tale. Or even less organized but still violent incidences of public humiliation and “mob justice.” We shake our heads and disapprove of the crowds who came to see public executions (and sell snacks and pick pockets), in Hogarth’s engravings, but, there are a lot of people who would still gleefully participate if they could.
Of late your columns have been pretty bleak, with all the shit that's happening. I had started to avoid reading you just as I have started to avoid the news.
This essay was a great antidote. Found episodes that I want to rewatch as well as some that I've never seen and need to watch for the first time. Do a top 10 sci-fi movies list, why don't you?
Same here. I just can’t deal. And I’m a paid subscriber, lol! (I pay Substackers because I believe in supporting independent journalism. I just need a break from the endless parade of bad news.) I know that Noah and everyone else is just reporting on what is going on, so no shade, but it’s just been *waves hands*. (Here is where I want to send swarms of angry robo bees after so much of social media, the “influencers” and the enablers.)
“White Christmas” was the single best and most terrifying show I’ve ever seen. The concept of a human essentially having the power to send another person to hell on a whim raises profound questions. If the tech ever develops to upload consciousness, I will refuse, specifically because of the moment that man turned the knob
San Junipero is great! I agree. And not just because of the like, totally, 80’s look that Gugu Mbatha-Raw brings, or the Belinda Carisle theme song. I remember thinking “yup, that’s what I want to have happen, maybe with less nightclubs and more cats.” Incidentally, Yorkie’s “meat life” situation may have been loosely based on the Sharon Kowalski case; Kowalski was a lesbian who was with her domestic partner Karen Thompson, got into a serious accident and was disabled, and her parents stuck her in a nursing home to rot. Thompson challenged the parents in court. The challenge was “were Kowalski’s parents or Thompson her proper POA” since legal rights for LGBT couples had not been invented yet. But, San Junipero was one of Black Mirror’s rare optimistic happy episodes and I was there for every minute.
And, I agree, at this point, I’m ready to send a swarm of robo-bees after every manosphere bro and TikTok baby Karen in existence. Not All Influencers (Kelly Gooch is great for the makeup world, and she actually tells people to spend less and buy less and a lot of what is out there is a scam! I’d spare her from the bees!) but a lot of social media, especially TikTok and X, have proven to be absolute cesspits and bad actors in society.
There was another episode, Arkangel, where a mom implanted a chip in her daughter’s head and used a tablet to track her every move *and control her behavior remotely* - helicopter parenting taken to it’s obvious conclusion. I won’t spoiler the ending but Mom gets a deserved comeuppance.
I have never heard of this == so thank you. I will search for it though my use of paid streaming services is quite limited. People who are interested in such things might be interested in the work of Cordwainer Smith. He mostly wrote short stories of the very distant future -- 20,000 years from now. He writes some really odd stuff but it can be quite fascinating. His only novel (really 2 novellas merged) says something about economics and tarriffs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norstrilia
He imagines a planet that is the only place in the universe capable of producing an immortality drug bur wishes to maintain a conservative rural life style so they have a vast tariffs on their immense wealth that greatly limits imports. People can leave and be vastly wealthy but will not be allowed to return.
Here is a short quote:
"The place? That's Old North Australia. What other place could it be? Where else do farmers pay ten million credits for a handkerchief, five for a bottle of beer? ...Old North Australia has stroon—the santaclara drug—and more than a thousand other planets clamor for it."
You have an error in your summary of Hated In the Nation. The chance to murder-by-tweet _isn't_ fake, and that's part of the point. Initially, the hacker uses the robo-bees to kill whoever the mob nominates most. After the first couple of murders, everyone clearly understands that this process is legit -- that participation in it isn't just some kind of "free speech" thing, they're truly shaping a process that will end with somebody dead. This is part of why he feels justified in turning around and committing an act of mass-murder. (His underlying motivation is that somebody he loved was hounded to suicide by a "cancel mob". He's targeting people who choose to participate in a mass "cancelling" even when they're _explicitly told_ it will end with the cancelled person dead.)
Similar to White Bear, the horror is that it is _completely believable_ that a ton of people would still hit Send on those tweets, as long as they believe nobody will hold _them_ accountable for the death.
This is one of my absolute favorite episodes, particularly for how haunting the soundtrack is, over the denouement.
Noah wrote in the original post that Black Mirror is spiritual and artistic successor to the Twilight Zone. I think he’s right (though whether it’s BETTER, I can’t say!). It made me remember an interview I saw on YouTube with Rod Serling where he said, basically, you can say a lot of things in science fiction shows you can’t in more “mainstream” programming. Serling lived during a different era - the Twilight Zone started in 1959 and the Hays Code was not repealed until 1968, so there were vastly more restrictions on what could be shown on TV. Sci-fi was sniffily relegated to junk TV for teenage boys and weirdo nerds, so, that was one reason Serling and his fellow science fictioneers could be more outspoken; the other, of course, was “this is all pretend. Speculation. Double pinky super secret swear.”
Now we’re more open both with what we can show, in general, and the acceptance of sci-fi and speculative fiction, but, I think the general idea still holds. Call it “science fiction” or “speculative fiction” or even “horror” and voila! You don’t have to hold back, because it’s all “pretend.”
I agree. White Bear is extraordinary TV. Pulls you apart and reminds you that extreme punishments make victims of criminals - which still doesn't resolve the issue as you could think this is a good thing (makes you feel sympathy for someone deeply unsympathetic) or a bad thing (makes the state a victimiser). And that's the point I think: we are conflicted about punishing crimes in a way that eludes resolution. Don't think I saw Crocodile here which I also loved. Great performance from Andrea Risborough as the title character - just keeps killing until everything in the lake is gone and then after she's murdered her last victim, a child, cries at her own daughter's nativity play. I haven't seen San Junipero but obviously I should!
You skipped the interactive Bandersnatch (to which Plaything is a sequel). I thought Bandersnatch was a decent way to spend an hour or two. I played it enough to get most of the possible "endings", though there's one particularly tricky one that I ended up just reading about / watching on YouTube.
Also, a Thronglets game was released for iOS and Android. I've heard it's amusing, haven't had a chance to try it yet.
Agree 100% about "San Junipero." It's the moment where we remember WHY WE STRIVE FOR PROGRESS despite all the downside risks. I was waiting for the twist and...it never came. Humans created Utopia.
Good you took a break from economics. The United States will be a good place to invest and live despite the orange kings jesters. Hyperinflation and defaults on our debt will never happen. I’ll bet 20 bitcoins 😎
You really have to watch Bandersnatch. I think it is the best “episode” ( really more like a cross between TV and a video game). The music (including Tangerine Dream & Tomita) is fantastic. The self-referential recursive structure (like a computer program) and twisted plot & path that you select through it make it amazing. Make sure you use a Netflix app or client that is capable of interactivity.
With regard to the bike-produced energy in “Fifteen Million Merits,” there was a lot of buzz back at the time (mid aughts) about technology that would allow ordinary people to produce energy for the common grid just through movement. There were proposals for and experiments with (IIRC) patches, smart watches, etc. designed to, if you will, micro-dose energy when a person wearing it walked or biked. Again IIRC, the whole idea was given up, or at least mothballed for now, as being way too hard to scale - people riding bikes, or walking to the store, or whatever, do not produce enough energy to be worth harvesting.
“White Bear” as well as “Nosedive” are explorations into life in the panopticon that is social media, and what happens when someone decides you need to be punished (what you have actually done and if it’s worth punishing is not relevant!). Then the resultant pile on and the public spectacle of humiliation. We think the ancient Romans were barbaric, what with feeding “noxii” (criminals) to lions and all that. Today you just get fed to the social media lions. Or at least your punishment is there to be witnessed by all. I remember a story of a young artist who tried to kill themselves because they got death threats and abuse hurled at them for… drawing a Steven Universe character “wrong.” An *anthropomorphic gemstone* FFS. There was also a discussion way back on Ask a Manager that, I recall, had someone accuse a coworker of being one of the Charlottesville Nazi marchers when that coworker was attending a wedding or something back in the area. But the Nosy Coworker saw Goody So and So in Charlottesville that weekend.
I think we are *in* both Nosedive and White Bear, maybe not exact one to one, but we’re either there or close to it.
So good! However in my opinion you missed the biggest point of white bear. The whole punishment was carried out in an amusement park setting where spectators could take glee in the suffering. The idea that it’s a delicious moral treat to behave badly but call it righteous indignation situation. They are torturing her but “she deserves it”, and the reveal of the nuances of her crime make it hit even harder. Great episode.
Also thanks for the blog this shit rocks
Agree - came down here to write the same thing. The twist of White Bear is that "normal society" turns out to be the sadistic villain. I give it more like a 7/10.
We tsk tsk at our ancestors enjoying the spectacle of a public hanging, but we think it’s great fun to watch a dogpile on social media. I agree, White Bear was one of the better episodes.
Yes, exactly. They don't pay the people who are punishing the murderer -- people pay to come to "White Bear Justice Park" and participate in punishing her. The horror of the episode is that it's _totally believable_ that people would enjoy this -- take a look at photos of a lynching party some time.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/the-cruelty-is-the-point/572104/
He also got the details of blocking in White Christmas wrong -- the person who blocked you isn't a red blob, they're more like black-and-white static. There's a screencap here:
http://www.thebackseatdriverreviews.com/blocked-honesty-and-isolation-in-black-mirrors-white-christmas
Thanks for the “lynching party” reminder. The white people who attended lynchings brought picnic baskets, often brought their KIDS, and they sent postcards of the event with “we lynched a < redacted > today, here’s a picture! Love, your grandson!”
And I’m also reminded of Particicutions in the Handmaid’s Tale. Or even less organized but still violent incidences of public humiliation and “mob justice.” We shake our heads and disapprove of the crowds who came to see public executions (and sell snacks and pick pockets), in Hogarth’s engravings, but, there are a lot of people who would still gleefully participate if they could.
Agree, I think Noah missed on his review of this one. I recall seeing some other negative reviews and wondered if I was the only one who liked it.
Really appreciate Noah for opening up the discussion, though!
"For those who saw it but don’t remember, “San Junipero” starts...."
I can't believe there's *anyone* who saw it but doesn't remember it :-) It's my favorite, too, although Hang the DJ is just a fun watch.
Of late your columns have been pretty bleak, with all the shit that's happening. I had started to avoid reading you just as I have started to avoid the news.
This essay was a great antidote. Found episodes that I want to rewatch as well as some that I've never seen and need to watch for the first time. Do a top 10 sci-fi movies list, why don't you?
Same here. I just can’t deal. And I’m a paid subscriber, lol! (I pay Substackers because I believe in supporting independent journalism. I just need a break from the endless parade of bad news.) I know that Noah and everyone else is just reporting on what is going on, so no shade, but it’s just been *waves hands*. (Here is where I want to send swarms of angry robo bees after so much of social media, the “influencers” and the enablers.)
“White Christmas” was the single best and most terrifying show I’ve ever seen. The concept of a human essentially having the power to send another person to hell on a whim raises profound questions. If the tech ever develops to upload consciousness, I will refuse, specifically because of the moment that man turned the knob
San Junipero is great! I agree. And not just because of the like, totally, 80’s look that Gugu Mbatha-Raw brings, or the Belinda Carisle theme song. I remember thinking “yup, that’s what I want to have happen, maybe with less nightclubs and more cats.” Incidentally, Yorkie’s “meat life” situation may have been loosely based on the Sharon Kowalski case; Kowalski was a lesbian who was with her domestic partner Karen Thompson, got into a serious accident and was disabled, and her parents stuck her in a nursing home to rot. Thompson challenged the parents in court. The challenge was “were Kowalski’s parents or Thompson her proper POA” since legal rights for LGBT couples had not been invented yet. But, San Junipero was one of Black Mirror’s rare optimistic happy episodes and I was there for every minute.
And, I agree, at this point, I’m ready to send a swarm of robo-bees after every manosphere bro and TikTok baby Karen in existence. Not All Influencers (Kelly Gooch is great for the makeup world, and she actually tells people to spend less and buy less and a lot of what is out there is a scam! I’d spare her from the bees!) but a lot of social media, especially TikTok and X, have proven to be absolute cesspits and bad actors in society.
There was another episode, Arkangel, where a mom implanted a chip in her daughter’s head and used a tablet to track her every move *and control her behavior remotely* - helicopter parenting taken to it’s obvious conclusion. I won’t spoiler the ending but Mom gets a deserved comeuppance.
I have never heard of this == so thank you. I will search for it though my use of paid streaming services is quite limited. People who are interested in such things might be interested in the work of Cordwainer Smith. He mostly wrote short stories of the very distant future -- 20,000 years from now. He writes some really odd stuff but it can be quite fascinating. His only novel (really 2 novellas merged) says something about economics and tarriffs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norstrilia
He imagines a planet that is the only place in the universe capable of producing an immortality drug bur wishes to maintain a conservative rural life style so they have a vast tariffs on their immense wealth that greatly limits imports. People can leave and be vastly wealthy but will not be allowed to return.
Here is a short quote:
"The place? That's Old North Australia. What other place could it be? Where else do farmers pay ten million credits for a handkerchief, five for a bottle of beer? ...Old North Australia has stroon—the santaclara drug—and more than a thousand other planets clamor for it."
I'm looking forward to when AI can make an infinite number of brilliant Black Mirror episodes.
Great review. I approve skipping Mazey Day 😂. I agree the 7th season is a great return to form.
"Eulogy" honestly broke me. One of the best hours of television ever aired. Right up there with "Long, Long Time" from TLoU s1
You have an error in your summary of Hated In the Nation. The chance to murder-by-tweet _isn't_ fake, and that's part of the point. Initially, the hacker uses the robo-bees to kill whoever the mob nominates most. After the first couple of murders, everyone clearly understands that this process is legit -- that participation in it isn't just some kind of "free speech" thing, they're truly shaping a process that will end with somebody dead. This is part of why he feels justified in turning around and committing an act of mass-murder. (His underlying motivation is that somebody he loved was hounded to suicide by a "cancel mob". He's targeting people who choose to participate in a mass "cancelling" even when they're _explicitly told_ it will end with the cancelled person dead.)
Similar to White Bear, the horror is that it is _completely believable_ that a ton of people would still hit Send on those tweets, as long as they believe nobody will hold _them_ accountable for the death.
This is one of my absolute favorite episodes, particularly for how haunting the soundtrack is, over the denouement.
Noah wrote in the original post that Black Mirror is spiritual and artistic successor to the Twilight Zone. I think he’s right (though whether it’s BETTER, I can’t say!). It made me remember an interview I saw on YouTube with Rod Serling where he said, basically, you can say a lot of things in science fiction shows you can’t in more “mainstream” programming. Serling lived during a different era - the Twilight Zone started in 1959 and the Hays Code was not repealed until 1968, so there were vastly more restrictions on what could be shown on TV. Sci-fi was sniffily relegated to junk TV for teenage boys and weirdo nerds, so, that was one reason Serling and his fellow science fictioneers could be more outspoken; the other, of course, was “this is all pretend. Speculation. Double pinky super secret swear.”
Now we’re more open both with what we can show, in general, and the acceptance of sci-fi and speculative fiction, but, I think the general idea still holds. Call it “science fiction” or “speculative fiction” or even “horror” and voila! You don’t have to hold back, because it’s all “pretend.”
I agree. White Bear is extraordinary TV. Pulls you apart and reminds you that extreme punishments make victims of criminals - which still doesn't resolve the issue as you could think this is a good thing (makes you feel sympathy for someone deeply unsympathetic) or a bad thing (makes the state a victimiser). And that's the point I think: we are conflicted about punishing crimes in a way that eludes resolution. Don't think I saw Crocodile here which I also loved. Great performance from Andrea Risborough as the title character - just keeps killing until everything in the lake is gone and then after she's murdered her last victim, a child, cries at her own daughter's nativity play. I haven't seen San Junipero but obviously I should!
You skipped the interactive Bandersnatch (to which Plaything is a sequel). I thought Bandersnatch was a decent way to spend an hour or two. I played it enough to get most of the possible "endings", though there's one particularly tricky one that I ended up just reading about / watching on YouTube.
Also, a Thronglets game was released for iOS and Android. I've heard it's amusing, haven't had a chance to try it yet.
Agree 100% about "San Junipero." It's the moment where we remember WHY WE STRIVE FOR PROGRESS despite all the downside risks. I was waiting for the twist and...it never came. Humans created Utopia.
Good you took a break from economics. The United States will be a good place to invest and live despite the orange kings jesters. Hyperinflation and defaults on our debt will never happen. I’ll bet 20 bitcoins 😎
You really have to watch Bandersnatch. I think it is the best “episode” ( really more like a cross between TV and a video game). The music (including Tangerine Dream & Tomita) is fantastic. The self-referential recursive structure (like a computer program) and twisted plot & path that you select through it make it amazing. Make sure you use a Netflix app or client that is capable of interactivity.
With regard to the bike-produced energy in “Fifteen Million Merits,” there was a lot of buzz back at the time (mid aughts) about technology that would allow ordinary people to produce energy for the common grid just through movement. There were proposals for and experiments with (IIRC) patches, smart watches, etc. designed to, if you will, micro-dose energy when a person wearing it walked or biked. Again IIRC, the whole idea was given up, or at least mothballed for now, as being way too hard to scale - people riding bikes, or walking to the store, or whatever, do not produce enough energy to be worth harvesting.
“White Bear” as well as “Nosedive” are explorations into life in the panopticon that is social media, and what happens when someone decides you need to be punished (what you have actually done and if it’s worth punishing is not relevant!). Then the resultant pile on and the public spectacle of humiliation. We think the ancient Romans were barbaric, what with feeding “noxii” (criminals) to lions and all that. Today you just get fed to the social media lions. Or at least your punishment is there to be witnessed by all. I remember a story of a young artist who tried to kill themselves because they got death threats and abuse hurled at them for… drawing a Steven Universe character “wrong.” An *anthropomorphic gemstone* FFS. There was also a discussion way back on Ask a Manager that, I recall, had someone accuse a coworker of being one of the Charlottesville Nazi marchers when that coworker was attending a wedding or something back in the area. But the Nosy Coworker saw Goody So and So in Charlottesville that weekend.
I think we are *in* both Nosedive and White Bear, maybe not exact one to one, but we’re either there or close to it.