Review/Rate the Last Television Show You Watched

[menaceuk]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Bit too much family dram rather than Drug King pin

Saw the first 2 Episodes of season 3 though and am loving it thus far.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by menaceuk

Bit too much family dram rather than Drug King pin

Understandable

Saw the first 2 Episodes of season 3 though and am loving it thus far.:

What did you think of the opening scene of the first episode where everyone is

[Show spoiler]crawling on the ground? I was very WTF? but i LOVED it as well.

[menaceuk]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Understandable




What did you think of the opening scene of the first episode where everyone is

[Show spoiler]crawling on the ground? I was very WTF? but i LOVED it as well.

Yeah. I was like WTF to but Figured

[Show spoiler]they were practising to cross in to America or something. What made it weirder was when the 2 ( I presumed People smugglers) turned up and just dropped to ground and joined in.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by menaceuk

Yeah. I was like WTF to but Figured

[Show spoiler]they were practising to cross in to America or something. What made it weirder was when the 2 ( I presumed People smugglers) turned up and just dropped to ground and joined in.

No.... they are not people smugglers.

[Show spoiler] They are drug smugglers. Everyone crawls low to be respectful to their God, prior to making offerings. Did you catch the sketch of Heisenberg inside the little building with the alter?

[menaceuk]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

No.... they are not people smugglers.

[Show spoiler] They are drug smugglers. Everyone crawls low to be respectful to their God, prior to making offerings. Did you catch the sketch of Heisenberg inside the little building with the alter?

Well yeah, I get that now and yes I did catch that sketch

[iam1bearcat]

Dawson’s Creek: The Complete Second Season [4.5/5]

***Fourth Viewing***

952 mins | The WB | 22 episodes | 1998-1999

Dawson Leery – James Van Der Beek
Joey Potter – Katie Holmes
Pacey Witter – Joshua Jackson
Jen Lindley – Michelle Williams
Andie McPhee - Meredith Monroe
Jack McPhee - Kerr Smith
Mitch Leery – John Wesley Shipp
Gail Leery – Mary-Margaret Humes
Grams – Mary Beth Peil
Bessie Potter – Nina Repeta

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD

It amazes me how some shows can add so many working, moving pieces to an already well-oiled machine and still keep track of everyone and everything and not get burden down in story lines and continuity. Dawson’s Creek is one of those shows, and the bold moves the creative team took in season 2 show a world of growth from the (by comparison) relatively “small” scope we saw of the Creek in season 1.

Let’s get the major additions out of the way first for a variety of reasons – Andie and Jack McPhee. Two brand new teenagers to Capeside who come from a wealthy family somewhere up the East Coast (they seem to move a lot) who certainly have been dealt their fair share of devastating blows.

The reason to start with them is pretty simple – they instantly become main characters, each with interesting and intriguing character arcs that once again leave Jen Lindley looking like the odd woman out. Looking back on season 2 it’s easy to see why they sneak in so unsuspecting like and become favorites: Jack is clumsy, goofy, and unable to detect sarcasm and is a very nice, well rounded artsy, quiet guy. Andie meanwhile is loud, talkative, chirpy, apparently always happy, smiling and very high strung and super serious about school, but not in a dictator like fashion. Compared to the moping party that is our four-course meal already on the Creek, they add a breath of fresh air to the atmosphere and show.

And really, the show couldn’t go on with JUST the four main characters from season 1. There’s only so many relationships to intertwine and hash over with four characters, and even with these two great additions the show still (STILL) continues to beat these dead horses (i.e. later seasons – lack of ideas and direction ). Anyway!

Season 1 left us with Dawson and Joey kissing in his bedroom after he finally realized her feelings for him and his feelings for her. Boom. Just like that, their relationship is changed forever. Season 2 picks up right at this exact moment and in typical Dawson and Joey over analyzing, the moment gets awkward and frustrating. Ah, soul mates!

However, this has always been their relationship roundabout, so when times are good, times are REALLY good. And they are. We see them as a great couple, but Dawson certainly has issues as far as personal space, privacy and needing to know absolutely everything people think about him and his work. Joey has always been insecure as she just can’t seem to grasp the scope of her beauty and move past her terrible family secrets and make a new road for herself. And because these two have their lives so inevitably intertwined and grew up together, all they know is each other. This causes a severe divide between them.

The up and down relationship roller coaster of Dawson and Joey covers the entire season, but in a very neat move, they have them (mostly) focus on rebuilding their friendship after they break up (early in the season). Then they even have Joey have another major relationship with Jack (!!!) while Dawson kind of falls back to Jen, who early in the season wanted nothing more than to jump his bones, but now has “matured”. Or something, once again, bad timing for Dawson. Also while away from each other, Joey discovers a love for art and painting, while Dawson finds out his film won the festival and is awarded $2,500 to make his next film.

Meanwhile on Relationship Paradise, Pacey and Andie steal the season as a great bickering, sarcastic friendship blossoms into a full blown romance of epic proportions (that’s right, epic!). It’s cute and “aww” inspiring because Pacey’s character is shown to be a great boyfriend and all around good guy. Season 1 showed glimpses of that, but in season 2 he probably easily shoots to the top of all the girls’ favorite “heterosexual male character on the show” list (more on that later). But Pacey is still a “bad boy” when it comes to not caring about school, and Andie eventually helps with him with that. All around, Pacey improves greatly and is shown to be a sweetheart. Interesting they show this ability, especially with what happens in season 3…

From start to finish the Andie and Pacey relationship is the anchor to the season. They have fights, yes, but they also are just something special to see on screen. Monroe and Jackson have great chemistry and these two polar opposites work great together.

Jack, like I said before, starts off as clumsy, quiet and shy. He likes art, he impresses Joey and shockingly enough, “steals” Joey away from Dawson (!!!!) even though she broke up with Dawson to “find herself” and then pretty much stumbled right into Jack. And they have a pretty great relationship as well… until the epic two parter of episodes 14 & 15 which we all discover that Jack is gay! Who saw that coming?! Now, if he wasn’t a fan favorite already, he has to be now. He instantly is off Dawson’s hate (and punching) list and now that the entire city (apparently) is against him, he has the sympathy vote. And because of this character reveal, fans no longer have to worry if he will steal Joey (or Jen) away from someone else. Interesting choice. Bold choice. Very nice choice.

Meanwhile Jen pretty much stays Jen. Season 1 ended on a bad note for her with her grandpa dying, and season 2 (almost) ends with her giving a god-awful speech at her best friend’s (who wasn’t her best friend, really) funeral! Her arc / season is book ended by drunken escapades, one night which almost ends in a freaking threesome until Dawson rescues her. During the middle of the season she becomes confident and strong as she helps Dawson with his movie (as producer) but then suddenly the writers have her turn back to old ways for no real apparent (or good) reason. And of course, late season religion fights with Grams. What kind of a season would this be without those?

Sprinkled throughout all this are Mitch and Gail working out their marriage and getting past Gail’s infidelity through truly brilliant ideas such as an open marriage, Thursday date night and Mitch moving out. Surprised at how much time the writers have spent on keeping these two apart and nice to not just have the story wrapped up in a neat little bow right away. Kudos for that. However, as great as it is, it’s starting to reach the point of either have them shut up about it and move on, or get back together. This is a TV show folks, and we can’t watch Mitch blunder around forever!

Also Grams becomes a nicer, more rounded person (for a while), but then disappears for about 10 straight episodes. Bessie also becomes more real and “sister-like” to Joey, but Bodie is NOWHERE to be seen and no explanation is ever given. I don’t think we ever see him again, to be honest.

Another blip on the radar from season one, but almost a main character in season two is Abby Morgan. The snarky, snide, rude, cruel ***** we saw glimpses of in season one. Well, she’s back, and at it again in full force. She’s kind of a neat character, but learning she causes problems because her home life and Capeside, to her, are “boring” and her boo-hooing all about it was just stupid. That girl needed some ADHD pills for that, but alas, the Creek got her in the end. Good riddance, really.

Season two did a lot of things right and not too much wrong. It took bold new steps and talked about a lot of topics that teenagers probably want to talk about, or are fearful to talk about (likely both) – including suicide, being gay, religion, marriage and other not-so-fun-to-talk-with-the-folks-about topics. But the writers handle most of these situations pretty masterfully, and having the characters NOT come off as geniuses on the subjects is a very smart move. Their worries and confusion is our own worry and confusion when all of us were / are growing up.

Part of the reason I love the show.

Hell, season two also really shows how great of friends Dawson and Pacey are. Season one showed moments, but not enough to really make me believe they’ve been best friends for a long time. Season two changed that with a variety of simple scenes that progressed their friendship greatly. Again, a cruel sign of things to come with what some of us know about season three…

By the way, this show has a real parent complex issue. My god, aside from Dawson’s dad, every main character’s dad is a horrible, cold, distant person! And again, for mom’s, aside from Dawson’s mom sleeping around because she “had it all” and was “bored” she is likely the best of the best (still around) since Joey’s mom has passed away from cancer, Jen’s mom shipped her to Capeside, absolutely no mention of Pacey’s mom… and Jack and Andie’s mom is crazy. Someone has some hidden parent issues!

And let’s not forget that killer season finale! After a late season jaw dropper that was seeing Joey’s dad get paroled early, and after her and Dawson reconnect at a wedding, the “top of the world” feeling quickly crashes down. While I loved the sappy, happy ending of season one, season two’s ending is outrageously depressing and sulk worthy over. My god, I don’t know how 15 year old girls and boys dealt with such a bleak ending to a season. I loved it of course! And the best part is that, unlike the season one finale (in which we should have all known Joey and Dawson wouldn’t stay together forever, how boring would that be?), season two really feels like it could be a game changer as far as scope and direction of the series from here on out. No guarantees, no “well, they can’t do this…” comes with the season two ending. And that is an awesome ending for an awesome season.

Favorite Main Characters
• Pacey
• Jack
• Joey
• Andie
• Dawson
• Jen

Favorite Secondary Characters
• Tyson
• Chris
• Abby Morgan

Worst Characters
• Mr. McPhee
• Pacey’s dad

Favorite Episodes
• “The Dance”
• “Be Careful What You Wish For”
• “The All-Nighter”
• “His Leading Lady”
• “Parental Discretion Advised”

Worst Episodes
• “The Reluctant Hero”
• “…That Is the Question”

[Diesel]

Heroes

Picked this up during the Black Friday sales when it surprisingly reached my price of $15 that I set a long time ago.

I've been working my way through it since it arrived and finished the last three episodes today. This is my second time through the show.

In my original "review", I mentioned gaps in power usage and logic...I don't remember which I was talking about specifically in that post, but this time around I don't really remember too many...so either I didn't notice them this time around, I misunderstood something the first time or a combination of the two.

The show has a lot of good ideas and executes most of them quite well. The majority of the characters are interesting...but the interesting ones could be even better with some better writing in areas and the ditching of (in my opinion) unnecessary characters.

With the large main cast things do get pretty busy and some characters get lost in the shuffle for episodes at a time...most notably my favorite, and the best character with the most potential, Peter.

Nathan is another character that could have used more time than he got. He's such a conflicted character throughout the show and that dynamic could have provided for some very interesting exploration into the character.

Sylar is developed well in the time he has, but a little more would have been nice...but not too much.

If I had it my way, the whole Nikki/DL/Micha story line would be completely done away with. This would open very valuable time to further explore the character of Peter, his relationship with Nathan, Nathan himself, add a little to the Sylar character and perhaps some of the other story lines that could use a little buffer here and there.

But...what we got is still very good in my opinion. I don't really want to delve into any details as the story has so many criss-crossing paths for its characters and reveals that I might inadvertently spoil something


The acting is pretty good all around for the main characters...that I like

Milo Ventimiglia and Zachary Quinto are definitely my two favorites. They don't get very much screen time together unfortunately
But when they do, it's very good

Larter, whatever DL's name is and whatever Micha's name is (didn't care enough to look it up ) are definitely the weakest of the main cast...on top of the fact that the characters aren't really needed


Now, I didn't title the review Heroes: Season One, because as far as I am concerned, there ARE no more seasons. I read lots of hate for the rest of the seasons before originally watching this one and read ahead on the details...and didn't like what I read and decided to stop at the end of this season. The season finale serves as a very good series finale by having just about everything wrapped up by the time it is finished.

So, for me, Heroes is a 23 episode 'mini'-series


Rating - 4.25/5

[Foggy]

Black Mirror: The Entire History of You

The Black Mirror trilogy (I guess that applies) concludes with the entire history of you...YES YOU!

Ok, maybe it isn't about you, but what happens in the final part could easily apply to all of us if this sort of thing happened to us.

The episode is set in the near future where we all have pieces of technology which allows people to access all of their memories and view them in an iPod like way. They can go back and re-evaluate in detail, or re-live happy memories. As you can guess in this we don't focus on the positives of the memory bank, and we get to see the negatives of having a Tivo box in your mind.

The biggest fear I had of The Entire History Of You was the fact that after having two episodes focusing on the modern implications of media and it's effect it can have in the UK (or anywhere as a matter of fact), and a future world dominated by media, stepping down for a personal story seemed a bit underwhelming, and ultimately it is. I personally feel like this was supposed to be the middle piece of the trilogy (since they would then have a chronological order) but the ties between The 15 Million Merits and The X-Factor where just too much to pass up on.

There is nothing wrong with the story given in this one, it's a smart story about spotting clues to allude a dark secret, and how this technology can fuel speculation. It makes you question what you're seeing for the most part as one of the side characters brings up that memories can be distorted by what you want to see or leading questions, which is probably the strongest element of the episode as a whole. The weakest problem of the story is that it's poo-pooing a piece of technology that simply doesn't exist, if this was a stand alone piece of work, this would be a great piece of science fiction, but in 15 Million Merits, you see a world that has been built and exaggerated upon what we see and have nowadays, while this simply gives us the point that a form of technology can be misused, kinda already knew this Black Mirror.

Another minor gripe I have with this is that we are given a small hint at what this tech has done for the world, we see an early scene where two security camera look through the timeline of the main character before he boards a plane to spot hints at terrorism, which is a nice nod, and would of made for a bit more space for the story. And I felt like the whole piece was a bit rushed and crushed together, there are moments where the story itself feels claustrophobic and very brash things happen with little build to them, it could of done with an added part like 15 Million Merits.

However, looking at the review I just wrote, and the amounts of times I said the previous episode did so and so better. Taking this piece by it's own accounts, The Entire History Of You is damn good.

The first scene is very well done and has strong implications for the rest of the episode, a lot of the episode makes you want to go back a re-look and see if the memory pill can be trusted, and a lot of the twists and turns are fantastic, with a lot of attention to detail being applied to the direction

The acting is the best out of all the three episodes (all of which are phenomenally acted), and like I said the idea is smart and unique. There is some disturbing content, as with all the episodes, but here it's at it's strangest, and most horrific. I was going to say that some of the content here feels a bit forcefully disturbing and unnecessary, but the end has a reveal that adds a little bit of integrity of the sexual content.

The Entire History Of You is a character study, whether you wanted that or not. It, ideally, wasn't the climax I was hoping for, and I came away disappointed, however, this had more to do with it's placement in the series over it's actual quality. Taken on it's own measures, it's still the weakest of the 3 parts, which only speaks wonders for the quality of the rest of the series and not degrading this episode in particular. The Entire History Of You is still a fantastic piece of television in a series that only offered it.

9/10

Black Mirror as a whole

The ideal of a black mirror is a blank TV screen that reflects ourselves on to the screen, so Black Mirror contains 3 self contained storylines that reflect on our own society, 3 dark, adult fables about the media and it's constant grasp over us. It's some what ironic, and if wasn't handled well enough, could of boarded hypocritical, that a TV show is telling us that TV is bad. But luckily enough, Black Mirror is shaped with such care that it's pointing the finger at individuals that cause bad things to happen. Internet teasing and general curiosity in The National Anthem and the audiences constant thirst for cheap escapism in 15 Million Merits, it's telling us what media has, or will become in years, instead of ignoring the good that can come out of the Media.

Like I've said many times in this review, the order you should watch them is:

1. The National Anthem
2. The Entire History Of You
3. The Fifteen Million Merits

Because this is the gradual progression of contemporary media coverage, to a future dominated by media, this way you can see a tangible link between the three episodes, although each stands by it's own merits. It also leaves the best episode to last.

The National Anthem is probably the most shocking. It's got some nasty content (although there is a lack of the on screen "you know whating") but the most shocking thing is the believability of the events, as far fetched as the episode seems to get, the conclusion feels like a believable outcome if such an event really happened. Through all the episodes, the shock factor comes more from the thought provoking element of "Could this happen".

Like I also already said here, The Entire History Of You is the weakest out of the three, it's a human story about a sci-fi world you want to know more about. But, while I'm complaining about what we get, it's always good to get a piece of television that makes you want to see more about it's reality.

15 Million Merits is the strongest and best out of the three, which is strange, because like The Entire History Of You, it's a human story set in a futuristic world, but unlike The Entire History Of You, it's completely detached from a reality we see ourselves in. It's set in a glossy dystopian universe, where we learn about the world through the interactions of characters in the place they live in. 15 Million Merits is also the longest, but most balanced out of the three, it features comedy, romance and a lot of drama, along with some thriller tension. The National Anthem is a straight up thriller with black laces of comedy, and The Entire History Of You is a straight up dark drama, completely devoid of comedy.

The final thought about Black Mirror is that when, and if, it hits the US, makes sure you watch it as soon as it airs, as you will be missing one of the most impressive and ambitious pieces of television of 2011/2012.

9.5/10

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by Diesel

Heroes

[Show spoiler]
Picked this up during the Black Friday sales when it surprisingly reached my price of $15 that I set a long time ago.

I've been working my way through it since it arrived and finished the last three episodes today. This is my second time through the show.

In my original "review", I mentioned gaps in power usage and logic...I don't remember which I was talking about specifically in that post, but this time around I don't really remember too many...so either I didn't notice them this time around, I misunderstood something the first time or a combination of the two.

The show has a lot of good ideas and executes most of them quite well. The majority of the characters are interesting...but the interesting ones could be even better with some better writing in areas and the ditching of (in my opinion) unnecessary characters.

With the large main cast things do get pretty busy and some characters get lost in the shuffle for episodes at a time...most notably my favorite, and the best character with the most potential, Peter.

Nathan is another character that could have used more time than he got. He's such a conflicted character throughout the show and that dynamic could have provided for some very interesting exploration into the character.

Sylar is developed well in the time he has, but a little more would have been nice...but not too much.

If I had it my way, the whole Nikki/DL/Micha story line would be completely done away with. This would open very valuable time to further explore the character of Peter, his relationship with Nathan, Nathan himself, add a little to the Sylar character and perhaps some of the other story lines that could use a little buffer here and there.

But...what we got is still very good in my opinion. I don't really want to delve into any details as the story has so many criss-crossing paths for its characters and reveals that I might inadvertently spoil something


The acting is pretty good all around for the main characters...that I like

Milo Ventimiglia and Zachary Quinto are definitely my two favorites. They don't get very much screen time together unfortunately
But when they do, it's very good

Larter, whatever DL's name is and whatever Micha's name is (didn't care enough to look it up ) are definitely the weakest of the main cast...on top of the fact that the characters aren't really needed


Now, I didn't title the review Heroes: Season One, because as far as I am concerned, there ARE no more seasons. I read lots of hate for the rest of the seasons before originally watching this one and read ahead on the details...and didn't like what I read and decided to stop at the end of this season. The season finale serves as a very good series finale by having just about everything wrapped up by the time it is finished.

So, for me, Heroes is a 23 episode 'mini'-series

Rating - 4.25/5

I remember enjoying this show fine and dandy. Wasn't interested enough to buy it, and like you, I never did catch up on the later seasons (which I heard sucked anyway).

Now you make me want to see it again.

[Al_The_Strange]

Next greatest blind-buy: "Spice and Wolf" Season 1.

There's something kinky about seeing a young woman with fox ears and a long fluffy tail.

Regardless, for an anime, there's very little action to this series. Toward the end of the season, you'll see some thrilling chases and fights, but 90% of the show is more like a drama with plentiful amounts of cute and goofy comedy. Fan service is not all that blatant (even though the foxxy lady appears totally nude in some scenes...but they never drew her in completely, so they show nothing, keeping it within a TV-14 level).

What really matters (and the key reason why I bought this show) is the story and the characters. The story may not be very high on conflict, but it does an excellent job of presenting an interesting myth, and drawing strong paralells between sheep (common people) and wolves (merchants). It may even go on to present paralells with the Adam and Eve story (shown more blatantly in the end credit visuals, but reinforced with various references to apples, and the above wolf-vs-sheep theme). What really keep it interesting, though, are the characters. Even when there is no action or strong story, it's surprisingly amusing and interesting to watch the two main characters interact. Aside from being somewhat fun to watch, they show decent development.

The show looks slick, with good-looking animation quality. Textures are good, and all the production designs look fantastic (and appear to replicate the medieval setting accurately). Movements are not the best, but get the job done. I was happy with the English voice-acting (didn't watch the original Japanese). Music is lovely.

4/5 (entertainment: 3.5/5, story: 4.5/5, show: 4/5)

The Blu-Ray looks and sounds darn near perfect!

PQ: 5/5, AQ: 5/5

[menaceuk]

Breaking bad: Season 3 - 9.5/10

Loved every freaking second of it.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by menaceuk

breaking bad: Season 3 - 9.5/10

Loved every freaking second of it.

[menaceuk]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Started season 4 also ( Episode 4) and am loving the not Knowing and tension between characters.

Looks to be shaping up as another awesome season

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by menaceuk

Started season 4 also ( Episode 4) and am loving the not Knowing and tension between characters.

Looks to be shaping up as another awesome season

I have to wait for the Blu-ray. Enjoy.

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

I remember enjoying this show fine and dandy. Wasn't interested enough to buy it, and like you, I never did catch up on the later seasons (which I heard sucked anyway).

Now you make me want to see it again.

Peer pressure

I didn't expect it to go to my $15 price limit I set, so when it actually hit that I kind of debated on it a bit...but I'm glad I decided to get it.

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by menaceuk

Started season 4 also ( Episode 4) and am loving the not Knowing and tension between characters.

Looks to be shaping up as another awesome season

The finale will blow half your face off

Seriously, watch the last 5 episodes in two part, the first 3 together, and then the final 2 together, you'll get the ultimate impact

[menaceuk]

Originally Posted by Foggy

The finale will blow half your face off

Seriously, watch the last 5 episodes in two part, the first 3 together, and then the final 2 together, you'll get the ultimate impact

Considering the time of year and the fact I have no work now till January I should hopefully see all 5 back to back. Need to get them watched before Christmas eve.

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by menaceuk

Considering the time of year and the fact I have no work now till January I should hopefully see all 5 back to back. Need to get them watched before Christmas eve.

No leave a gap between episode 13 and 14, the cliffhanger at the end of 13 is owssum

[fadenschnute]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Black Mirror: The Entire History of You

[Show spoiler]The Black Mirror trilogy (I guess that applies) concludes with the entire history of you...YES YOU!

Ok, maybe it isn't about you, but what happens in the final part could easily apply to all of us if this sort of thing happened to us.

The episode is set in the near future where we all have pieces of technology which allows people to access all of their memories and view them in an iPod like way. They can go back and re-evaluate in detail, or re-live happy memories. As you can guess in this we don't focus on the positives of the memory bank, and we get to see the negatives of having a Tivo box in your mind.

The biggest fear I had of The Entire History Of You was the fact that after having two episodes focusing on the modern implications of media and it's effect it can have in the UK (or anywhere as a matter of fact), and a future world dominated by media, stepping down for a personal story seemed a bit underwhelming, and ultimately it is. I personally feel like this was supposed to be the middle piece of the trilogy (since they would then have a chronological order) but the ties between The 15 Million Merits and The X-Factor where just too much to pass up on.

There is nothing wrong with the story given in this one, it's a smart story about spotting clues to allude a dark secret, and how this technology can fuel speculation. It makes you question what you're seeing for the most part as one of the side characters brings up that memories can be distorted by what you want to see or leading questions, which is probably the strongest element of the episode as a whole. The weakest problem of the story is that it's poo-pooing a piece of technology that simply doesn't exist, if this was a stand alone piece of work, this would be a great piece of science fiction, but in 15 Million Merits, you see a world that has been built and exaggerated upon what we see and have nowadays, while this simply gives us the point that a form of technology can be misused, kinda already knew this Black Mirror.

Another minor gripe I have with this is that we are given a small hint at what this tech has done for the world, we see an early scene where two security camera look through the timeline of the main character before he boards a plane to spot hints at terrorism, which is a nice nod, and would of made for a bit more space for the story. And I felt like the whole piece was a bit rushed and crushed together, there are moments where the story itself feels claustrophobic and very brash things happen with little build to them, it could of done with an added part like 15 Million Merits.

However, looking at the review I just wrote, and the amounts of times I said the previous episode did so and so better. Taking this piece by it's own accounts, The Entire History Of You is damn good.

The first scene is very well done and has strong implications for the rest of the episode, a lot of the episode makes you want to go back a re-look and see if the memory pill can be trusted, and a lot of the twists and turns are fantastic, with a lot of attention to detail being applied to the direction

The acting is the best out of all the three episodes (all of which are phenomenally acted), and like I said the idea is smart and unique. There is some disturbing content, as with all the episodes, but here it's at it's strangest, and most horrific. I was going to say that some of the content here feels a bit forcefully disturbing and unnecessary, but the end has a reveal that adds a little bit of integrity of the sexual content.

The Entire History Of You is a character study, whether you wanted that or not. It, ideally, wasn't the climax I was hoping for, and I came away disappointed, however, this had more to do with it's placement in the series over it's actual quality. Taken on it's own measures, it's still the weakest of the 3 parts, which only speaks wonders for the quality of the rest of the series and not degrading this episode in particular. The Entire History Of You is still a fantastic piece of television in a series that only offered it.

9/10

Black Mirror as a whole

The ideal of a black mirror is a blank TV screen that reflects ourselves on to the screen, so Black Mirror contains 3 self contained storylines that reflect on our own society, 3 dark, adult fables about the media and it's constant grasp over us. It's some what ironic, and if wasn't handled well enough, could of boarded hypocritical, that a TV show is telling us that TV is bad. But luckily enough, Black Mirror is shaped with such care that it's pointing the finger at individuals that cause bad things to happen. Internet teasing and general curiosity in The National Anthem and the audiences constant thirst for cheap escapism in 15 Million Merits, it's telling us what media has, or will become in years, instead of ignoring the good that can come out of the Media.

Like I've said many times in this review, the order you should watch them is:

1. The National Anthem
2. The Entire History Of You
3. The Fifteen Million Merits

Because this is the gradual progression of contemporary media coverage, to a future dominated by media, this way you can see a tangible link between the three episodes, although each stands by it's own merits. It also leaves the best episode to last.

The National Anthem is probably the most shocking. It's got some nasty content (although there is a lack of the on screen "you know whating") but the most shocking thing is the believability of the events, as far fetched as the episode seems to get, the conclusion feels like a believable outcome if such an event really happened. Through all the episodes, the shock factor comes more from the thought provoking element of "Could this happen".

Like I also already said here, The Entire History Of You is the weakest out of the three, it's a human story about a sci-fi world you want to know more about. But, while I'm complaining about what we get, it's always good to get a piece of television that makes you want to see more about it's reality.

15 Million Merits is the strongest and best out of the three, which is strange, because like The Entire History Of You, it's a human story set in a futuristic world, but unlike The Entire History Of You, it's completely detached from a reality we see ourselves in. It's set in a glossy dystopian universe, where we learn about the world through the interactions of characters in the place they live in. 15 Million Merits is also the longest, but most balanced out of the three, it features comedy, romance and a lot of drama, along with some thriller tension. The National Anthem is a straight up thriller with black laces of comedy, and The Entire History Of You is a straight up dark drama, completely devoid of comedy.

The final thought about Black Mirror is that when, and if, it hits the US, makes sure you watch it as soon as it airs, as you will be missing one of the most impressive and ambitious pieces of television of 2011/2012.

9.5/10

Thank you for reviewing Black Mirror. I hadn't heard of it before, although I loved Brooker's Dead Set. The concept sounds really interesting and thought-provoking, I'll definitely pick up the DVD when it comes out in January.

[menaceuk]

Originally Posted by Foggy

No leave a gap between episode 13 and 14, the cliffhanger at the end of 13 is owssum

I'll try.