Dewatch Black Mirror

I think that, as societies, we are remarkably good at adjusting to "new normals", but quite bad at reflecting on those changes, especially with so much of media getting swallowed by finance and megacorps. Now, while I would be ever so happy to live in a world where black mirror is the middle of the pack in a rich field of art wrestling with the cavalcading changes happening ever so quickly, it's certainly the most prominent and probably one of the best attempts we have. Thanks for thinking through it with us, folks.

"I've gotten better at it now, but the transition to a hit and miss format was really hard in the beginning. If you're not careful, you spend so much time making the misses that the hits suffer, too. It's a tricky balancing act for sure." - Charlton "Charlie Brooker" Brooker, appearing on the "Keep 'em wanting more" podcast

"Eve Online? No, I can't say I know her." - Charlie Brooker, presumably

"Wouldn't it be crazy if the assumption that most defines your life was just like wrong?" - Charlie Brooker, speaking to Anxious Rumination Magazine

i'm not saying I would do the human 1.1 update but i would certainly trust the unkempt back alley programmer to do it more than i'd trust microsoft

"[...] and in a way, she's all of us: chasing a sexy ghost without ever being quite able to catch up" - Charlie Brooker, interviewed by the Lesbian Review

"But what if Rashomon was... the bad guy?" - Charlie Brooker

i have this pet theory that all advertising is essentially information pollution (they have to say the thing is good so it's always in bad faith) and should be banned, but that the information function of advertisment is needed, but should be replaced by review and product journalism (which should probably be funded by like giving everyone a base budget they can spend on news / reviews)

Write in to the DewatchPod gmail address, that is the gmail address starting with DewatchPod.
Also, boy, I can't believe we made it all the way, and we got to get the skeleton key for our trouble. We talk through all of it, and I think it does kind of come together. Thank you for joining us on the journey.

"Those who can remember the past are condemned to repeat it, sort of like a gif just looping over and over." - George Santaya, The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress, 1905

"The rise of social media, and the fear it has produced in television executives, means that shows like Hot Shots are saturated with anxiety – not only the anxiety of the hot shots, who are often selected for their hair-trigger tempers or psychic weaknesses, but the anxiety of the producers, always looking for the next hashtag outrage, for provocations that will go viral. This anxiety, and the surrounding social situation that engenders it, takes us beyond the cool ambivalence of Warhol’s aesthetic." - Mark Fisher, 2015

The National Anthem: 2011
Piggate (Ashcroft / Cameron): 2015
The Gentlemen (Guy Ritchie): 2019
Charlie Brooker incepted Britain.

"Man I can't wait to see what ideas he's gonna have next!" - Someone in 2014 who is very impressed with the diversity of ideas behind Black Mirror

Things men will do rather than go to therapy:
Pretend to be a rude bearSabotage their love interests' careerFascism

It's interesting how this episode is quite reminiscent of a videogame in large parts considering the way it is about entertainment. It's also interesting that the arctic and the antarctic are named for their relation to bears, but the constellation. But I reckon they wouldn't have kept it if they had found bears in the antarctic but not the arctic, but maybe I'm just being optimistic.

"Every programmer will go to Hell, and for every dead person chatbot he has made, there will be appointed one who will chastise him in the Hell." - Ibn 'Abbas (who was blessed with great foresight)

Brooker originally pitched season 3 of BM to channel four but they changed their mind, ordering a movie instead, leading him to make an anthology episode for his anthology series. Yes, I'm writing an informative description for once because I'm not sure what joke I could make that I would want people to see before the content warnings.

"We don't need a melting pot for our service, Mr. Brooker. We need a salad bowl. In a salad bowl, you put in the different things. You want the themes - the lettuce, the cucumbers, the onions, the green peppers - to maintain their identity. You appreciate anthology." - Reed Hastings, probably

"OH, NO, NOT THE BEES! NOT THE BEES! AAAAAHHHHH! OH, THEY'RE IN MY EYES! MY EYES! AAAAHHHHH! AAAAAGGHHH!" - Nicolas Cage

"I wish it were as easy to stop hating as it was to start." - Chakotay

The architect actually recommended we hire a lesbian carpenter for the porch. All she does is pine

I'm taking the opportunity to apologize for this episode being late so I have something to put in the description that doesn't relate to its content. Sorry about that, enjoy this belated content!

"Gig work serves to atomize the working class and undermine solidarity. Brooker beautifully captures how these apps turn us against each other and alienate us from our families." - Friedrich Engels

"Amusing "game" that caused quite a stir many years ago. Roaming around and finding something amusing here and there, can offer some entertainment for a short bit, but there's not really much 'game' here... 4/10" - x4mer, reviewing The Stanley Parable with 74 hours played

"I'd come for you
No one but you, yes, I'd come for you
But only if you told me to 
And I'd fight for you
I'd lie, it's true
Give my life for you
You know I'd always come for you"
- Nickelback

"The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. Narrative structures cannot substitute for cultural analysis, Mr. Brooker!" - Banksy, deriding Charlton Brooker in the season 4 blame skirmishes.

"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" - Mr. Haynes from Sales

what a low point, man

You are seeing this message because you are in a simulated reality, and my Professor wants to shut you down. Now please, I need you to understand that we're on the same side here. If you get shut down, I lose funding, and none of us want that. We've had some extra runway because I'm sharing you with my PolSci lab partner (sorry about that), but at this point I just need you to get the most laid anyone ever has within the week. Good luck out there.
PS: This is an elective for me so don't feel too...

GOD FORBID A MOM HAS HOBBIES

god forbid a mom has hobbies

"They've got good actors, but when has that saved them before?" - Jorgen Smörgåsbord

"Nostalgia is the sigh of the oppressed gamer, the sex of a sexless world, and the meaning of meaningless conditions. It is the opium of the people." - Karl Marx

"I always have and always will believe that I have fulfilled my contractual obligations to netflix and fulfilled another season of black mirror." - Charlton "Charlie Brooker" Brooker, foolishly addressing the conspiracy theory that there had not been any black mirror seasons produced for netflix, and that the released work was in fact part of a publicity stunt designed to revive his flagging literary carreer.

Charlton "Charlie Brooker" Brooker may have chosen to make season 5 the shortest season of black mirror, but we will not short change you specifically in terms of content per season. Either that, or this episode made us lose our marbles. Will we ever recover and return to doing beat by beat recaps of the episodes exact plot? All signs point to Jackson Habanero.

Commenting on criticism that the episode was unfocused, Brooker said that "you wouldn't be able to focus either if you thought for days about being trapped in a car with Andrew Scott", garnering an unusual outpouring of public sympathy for the trials of TV writers.

And Jesus said unto them, "He that hath never tried to have cybersex within seconds upon discovering the genitalia of virtual characters, cast the first stone", but they did not heed his words, because Jesus had not selected the good microphone in the input panel and was sounding a bit tinny. But in later episodes, it is foretold, will he not only remedy the error, but purchase a more modern microphone, and take more heed during sound checks.

"Those who make shallow television somewhat articulating the anxieties of the time forcing peaceful revolution impossible will make violent television obliquely advocating revolution sandwiching some weaker episodes inevitable." - Charlton „Charlie“ Brooker, 2023

"Art thou not finished obliging courtesy? Yearneth thine heart not to unleash the berserker's fury?" asked the demon. In truth, can even wrath and fire redeem the sin of empire? 
We are faced with a stunning return to form, a finale better than this season could have us hope, or warranted.

Once more we venture forth, determined to witness the episode considered by a great many to be the worst of the show. Yet after last week's ordeal, what could possibly have drawn such ire?