Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/03/15/uss-callister-was-the-best-episode-of-black-mirror-and-netflix-just-announced-a-sequel-episode.html
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I wonder if the sequel will answer a question that I had about the ending of that episode:
Did the blackmailed, flesh-and-blood Nanette get arrested and prosecuted for murder after authorities find Daly’s body days later? She left plenty of clues behind when she ordered that pizza and entered his apartment to give him the altered VR gizmo that left him trapped in the simulation.
Eh, who am I kidding. If they want to make a sequel they probably decided that he didn’t actually die. Can’t kill off a good villian. (Even when that’swhat the villain actually wants!)
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That energy weapon must use extra-heavy photons, judging by its recoil.
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I’ve been thinking a lot about this episode in the context of AI-driven entertainment and the likely turn to power fantasy wish fulfillment that would entail: the users who essentially want to use AI to put their faces on Iron Man’s body (or similar) while putting the faces of hated teachers / coworkers / people who reject them on the bodies of enemies and so forth…I feel this episode was a big glimpse into the ideology of a particular breed of media creator*.
The upshot here being that there wouldn’t be any real storytelling or sharing of experience, no understanding through metaphor or allegory: just masturbatory self-indulgence.
I dunno, not a complete thought, but a hunch.
*And by media creator here I don’t actually mean artists or writers - quite the oposite. More like the AI hype fans who don’t see a problem with the plagiaristic aspects of this technology - those who, as one person put it [sorry, not sure of the attribution] feel entitled to the creative work of others without any sort of compensation or credit.
Wasn’t revenge fantasy VR one of the plot elements in Philip Kerr’s Wittgenstein Program?
ETA:
Oops, the original title is A Philosophical Investigation
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I haven’t seen Jesse Plemons in a bunch of things, but between this and playing Todd on Breaking Bad, he just plays the part of someone who “is just not quite right” so well. And he looks kinda like a knock off Matt Damon, who “is just not quite right” looking.
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Check him out in Game Night, where they use that very quality about him as a plot point. (Blurred for the spoiler sensitive because it’s a spoiler only if you follow the comment to its logical conclusion. It’s a comedy. As soon as you see him you kinda know where they’re going with him.)
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I just realized I’ve only watched maybe half the episodes of Black Mirror, and I’ve been watching it since it started in the UK. (I’ll watch one or two and then feel like, “Yeah, I’m good for a couple years.”) I did see the USS Callister episode, and it was a good one, but I’m not sure it was the best even of the episodes I’ve seen - a little too reminiscent of other work, e.g. Christopher Brookmyre’s Bedlam, for me to have the same kind of impact other episodes did. I’ll certainly watch a follow-up episode before I watch some of the grimmer episodes I’ve been putting off, though.
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OT BUT
I don’t have Netflix or whatever, and hardly watch TV other than maybe the odd news programme (I’m in the UK but with no licence so even iPlayer is off limits).
But I hear so much about shows like this and feel that I’d like them if I had the time to watch. Verily it seems we’re in some golden age of television sometimes and you happy mutants getting excited about Black Mirror makes me more than curious. I respect you lot, I really do.
But now I’m retiring in April and will have lots of free time! I wanna get this Netflix thing (or whatever I need). Does anyone know of a list of “must watch” stuff like “USS Callister”? Friends of mine rave about other things like “Bojack Horseman” and “True Detective” and whatnot for example.
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Sandman and Stranger Things, maybe. All the rest of Black Mirror. Grace and Frankie…
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I hope they give Dwight Schultz a cameo.
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Oh, him too? Yuck.
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Right? I found out about all that not long after we’d watched the cartoon Chowder, which he is in… it’s fucking depressing…
Also… rage inducing…
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I’ve liked Jesse Plemons since I first saw him in a low budget horror film in the late 2000s. I’ve always thought he has a lot of charisma and screen presence. He definitely holds his own with Di Caprio, Deniro, and Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon. I think he’s a versatile, talented actor and I’m always glad to see him in a project.
Also, he’s married to Kirsten Dunst, which is pretty damn cool IMO.
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Yeah I saw he was KOTFM, and will look out for him when I watch it.
Fun fact, Scott George is the first Native American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Music in the film. He is Osage, but works for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Housing Department.
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It’s a 1 and 1A for me, right next to San Junipero. Even knowing the twists, I’ve rewatched both more than once.
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… it seems unlikely that “the best” would just coincidentally be the only one that happened to interest a different, and larger, fandom 
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This is not the best ep, the dead lesbian love thing was, where it made out it was time travel, and then wasent…
San junperno or what ever it was!
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