Hiding the phone from a loved one over breakfast. Driving an electric car to wherever. Joan Tait is the Change Squad Leader who is afraid that the coffee machine is not good enough for her to consume its outputs. Messages flash across her phone about her being missed and loved; while she spends the next moment firing a staff member who clearly knows more about the bigger picture than her middle management.
It is a striking reflection of the corporate contemporary while also being a parody.
In a world filled with anxiety, Joan seems to embody much of it in the early scenes of this episode, and everything feels "normal"; until she goes to a psych. Then she gets home and there's a show to watch - Joan is Awful.
It's her life. Its uncanny.
Turns out she agreed to the whole thing, and we've got an occasional fourth wall shattering Black Mirror episode. This isn't up to the normal scratch of "Black Mirror" quality that I seem to remember from the previous seasons; but it is a subtle stab from the Writer's Guild to the very heart of entertainment as a service.
I say this with the benefit of hindsight and allowing my broad consumption of various media to intermingle and marinate with one another in my mind, and its a proud view point.
It feels pretty B-Grade towards the end, and feels like it was massaged by human hands to make it feel like it would quickly resolve instead of really dig into the issues of expectations of privacy, and what you're really agreeing to in Terms and Conditions, and if these are really enforceable.
The house arrest anklets will just have to wait to decide that, I imagine.
It is just going to be a matter of time until our social liberties are defined by the "fun" services and products that corporations supply. If it isn't manufactured or sanctioned by corps with a monopoly, then you can't do it for yourself.
Imagine a world like that, because it is coming, and this episode acts as a cautionary tale to that very end.
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I love Black Mirror but have been a bit disappointed with all of the new episodes but they are still really good but the bar has been set so high by past seasons that even if they are better than almost anything else available on streaming, they have huge shoes to fill... except for the Miley Cyrus episode, that was terrible.
I'm glad I am not the only one who feels that way. I haven't yet had the time to sit down and watch any of the other episodes. I really do hope that I will get around to it, but my copy of Final Fantasy XVI beckons. I suppose I should let the wife finish Persona 5 on the PS5 before I take that away from her :D
I really liked the episode, but I wasn't a hige fan of the ending. It does feel like they tried to wrap it up quickly.
Yeah, I think getting into the idea of whether or not terms and conditions can be enforced to that extent, considering nobody reads them, or there is no real proof that someone fully understood what they were signing.
Also, I thought of a plothole during the discussion with the lawyer.
Technically Joan didn't break her NDA, since it was the person she was firing who mentioned that stuff. Also, I'm sure Streamberry would have been liable for breaking the NDA by publicly broadcasting that information without conscent.
It was a good episode though, and so far I'm enjoying this season.
Interesting loop hole. Plot holes be damned. Must be part of that Writer's Guild strike? :)
I saw this post, then watched the episode before coming back to read it.
I actually really enjoyed it. Michael Cera's eloquent revelation was particularly fun. First time I've laughed out loud at a show in a long time. The end did feel a little rushed, but then; they did fit a lot of story into less than hour.
Call me an opportunist but I'd have lined up some sponsorship/product placement deals.
Or just go camping. Read books by a campfire in the forest for a week.
Cera's part shattered the fourth wall, to some extent. Didn't even see him as a character, just as his legitimate self.
Campfires would be nice on a night like tonight :)
Loved the episode. All of them actually. Finished the final 2 yesterday. I see and agree with your view. TOS are going to be like that, who really reads the 100 pages of crap before they hit "accept"? No one. Will be interesting to see the first case come out IRL. On the other hand, depending on how far gone we are as a society by then, I could see all the other users signing off and disassociating with Streamberry as they do not want to end up like Joan. Again, will be interesting to see, if/when it comes to fruition.
I think when society goes to the wild beasts, we won't be worrying all that much about courtrooms and lawyers to solve civil and corporate disputes.
That would be ideal imo. Hope that's the case.
I haven't seen this movie yet but the way you describe it is very interesting and I will try to watch it this Sunday and then let you know how I like it.
Hopefully you get the chance, its on Netflix at the moment.
Ok