Originally Posted by: Debaser 
Just watched San Junipero for the first time about a week ago. I have only ever watched one other Black Mirror episode; Be Right Back with Domhnall Gleeson and Hayley Atwell.
That was one was also about living an afterlife through technology. Are they all like that?
It was good, if vaguely disconcerting. Especially the idea that everyone who remembers the '80s is now old or dying
. But I guess it's set in the future. I'm not sure the real year is actually specified though.
Some nice tunes in there anyway, from Alexander O' Neal (who lives in Greater Manchester these days), T'Pau, The Bangles, The Smiths, Robert Palmer etc. And yes, Heaven Is A Place On Earth by Belinda does work really well. But the one that really excited me was the 'scary' song we hear when Yorkie visits The Quagmire. Cos it's by Pixies!
No, they're not all about living an afterlife through technology if that's what you mean.There's a whole variety of stories mostly with a theme of how technology might become in the near or distant future but some just have a dark twisted plot.The very first episode of the first series for example was a story about the prime minister having to have sex with a pig on live television to pay the kidnapper of a royal family member.
There's been so many episodes i struggle to remember what happened in some of them, is the Be Right Back one the story about the woman who gets an android replica of her dead partner?
One particular episode that really had an impact on me at the time and that i do remember is Fifteen Million Merits which was the second episode of the first series in 2011.It's a kind of future nightmare vision of shows like X Factor (as if shows like that aren't a nightmare enough already).
Some episodes have similar endings.Like for example of people getting trapped in forever repeating virtual situations .
A lot if not all episodes have a dark and shocking ending.San Junipero though is widely viewed as having a happy ending, a rare thing for Black Mirror.
I'm not so sure it is a happy ending though.The 2 women are stuck with each other forever in a virtual reality.What if they get bored of each other?
I think San Junipero is specifically set in 1987, well when the couple originally meet i mean, not sure what the future year is meant to be.I think in one scene the banner at the cinema is advertising Lost Boys is being shown there and that film was released in 1987.And Belinda Carlisle's hit i think was released that year.Also i recall Charlie Brooker stating in an interview he chose that year to set the story.
I feel the first couple of series on Channel 4 in 2011-2013 were more consistently good than the episodes that have been on Netflix since its move there in 2016.I feel they've been very hit and miss since the move to that service.There was a one off Christmas special last year called Bandersnatch.That episode was interactive, at certain points in the episode options come up on screen inviting you to choose which way the story goes (though it seemed my tv was too ancient to play along and so i had to watch it on my laptop). There's a lot of different endings and you can spend hours trying to reach them by going back and taking a different path .I don't think i ever got to all endings.Having said all that, i don't think the story was actually very good! There is a New Order spotting scene in one path where there's a giant P,C & L poster on the wall of an apartment and the main character under the influence of a drug starts rearranging/morphing the roses.
The most recent series had 3 episodes and was released in June this year on Netflix.I felt it was the weakest series yet and it seems Charlie Brooker (and other writers?) have run out of ideas or have lost inspiration.Or maybe i've just tired of the concept and the novelty has worn off.
