I loved Playtest. I see people list it on their bottom 5 and just don't get it.

Such as?

I agree with you. When the AI copy is so advanced it can feel pain, experience terror, etc., I don't think the ethical issues are very complex or need much deliberation.

I was gonna mention that to explain my point so uh, hmmm.

Finally got around to watching all these. Definitely felt like a drop off overall as a season with a lot of repetition of previous episodes.

1. Hang the DJ was clearly the best. Amazing episode which seems to get better and better the more I think about it. Agree with the person that posted it had shades of San Junipero but it did everything so incredibly well and the AI simulations was timely as well; BM at it's best.

2. Arkangel probably second but there was a huge dropoff between 1st and 2nd, it was just a pretty decent idea delivered well.

3. Crocodile - Did anybody else laugh their ass off at this? I found it absolutely hilarious that this random chick just started hugging people to death and then went on a kill streak out of nowhere, when she looked at the kid at the end I was struggling to breathe. I actually can't remember a time I've laughed more at something recently so it kind of gets to 3rd as a comedy, whether intentional or not I don't know.

4. Black Museum - I liked a lot of this when watching, the initial stories were great. The wrap up that pulled everything together just didnt work for me though, especially when she decides to explain everything to the audience for a couple of minutes. Also I feel like the guy becoming a pantomime villain and then getting his comeuppance just didn't have any impact. After immediately watching I had this as second but it seems to be dropping further and further the more I think about it.

5. USS Callister - Probably now in a trio of episodes along with Men Against Fire and Metalhead that are actually at the 'not good' level. The plot constructs were awful, so much was ripped from other episodes like Shut up and Dance, and the last 15 minutes were probably the dumbest scenes in Black Mirror history. The sad thing was I actually felt like it had a huge amount of potential and if they had wanted Meth Damon to get ****ed over there were so many easy and good ways to do it by psychological manipulation, so I just don't know why they went in to ******ville like they did. (I should probably point out I have never watched Star Trek, but I am familiar with it and have seen one of the new movies, so perhaps this effects the rating)

6. Metalhead - This was so boring honestly I probably need to re-watch it. Like what was it even, one of those cute robot dogs running around in black and white? I laughed a bit but like Crocodile I'm not even convinced it was supposed to be funny.

Um... They weren't people with different amount of experience in the system though right? Like that was shown at the end of the episodes

I wonder if this episode had multiple interpretations.

My larger question about Hang The DJ

How often can two people using this app possibly be that perfect of a match? Like what are the odds?

What is the mechanism for identifying matches? Is it only the super rare 99.8%
Or if two sims revolt in 65% of simulations, will it give you a sub-optimal match, because frankly it's incredible to get that much

This is bizarre. I feel like the guy that wrote that didn't understand the episode at all.

Or maybe I didn't understand it lol.

Agree with this. The pain doctor if extended would almost certainly have been at least the second best episode of the season.

Also if the 99.8% is determined by the results of the simulation, why are they able to discuss the 99.8% within the simulation?

My full rankings (a few changes from last time with re-watches etc):

1. The National Anthem
2. Fifteen Million Merits
3. White Christmas
4. Hang the DJ (I’m in love with this episode right now so finding it hard to objectively rank)
5. San Junipero
6. Hated in the Nation (How on earth is this not in my top 5…)
7. Entire History of You
8. The Waldo Moment
9. Nosedive
10. White Bear
11. Be Right Back
12. Arkangel
13. Crocodile
14. Black Museum
15. Playtest
16. Shut Up and Dance
17. USS Callister
18. Men Against Fire
19. Metalhead

She is being chased by a single dog for the entire show and then it turns out that there are many in the plot reveal. Where are all these dogs for the remainder of the episode, particularly when the heroine is treed overnight?

Why is there a dog behind a box of teddy bears in the midst of a massive warehouse that apparently contains no other dogs? Seems silly.

When we first meet the dog, it ejects trackers that hit the guy on the ladder in the face, but then we see one hit the girl in the leg when she’s ten feet down and blocked by the shelf. The angle seems impossible.

I still liked it, but it doesn’t really hold up under scrutiny.

I liked that they truncated the stories in Black Museum. A full episode of the doctor wouldve been a drag.
The teddy bear story couldve been stretched out, but I think we got the gist.

where are the dogs?
theyre existing elsewhere. they clearly dont cohabitate. theyre probably strategically situated across the land

Interestingly the original version of Metalhead had someone in a room controlling the dogs by remote control

The dogs show up where there is the metal tracking devices. She had it removed, so the only dog tracking her to the tree is the one already aware of her presence and could follow footsteps or or some other indicator of her presence.

But the only thing that falls apart about this theory is why there are dogs at the site of the car crash over the cliff or the van crash, since neither of those sites had the metal pieces in them, only the guy in the warehouse, the water bottle, and the lady. Unless the dogs communicate with each other and tell them the location of people. But again, then why not at the tree.

Hmm good point. Maybe they don't run in parallel and what we're watching is the last simulation. If that succeeds then the pairing will hit 998 rebellions.

Really enjoyed most of them, esp Callister. Thought that was pretty brilliant. Hang the DJ was also particularly well done. Was meh on Crocodile and Museum, and really wasn't into Metalhead. All in all, solid season.

One thing about Hang the DJ, is it always based on "rebellions" or do they sometimes test for other things? I mean there's a lot of people who by nature would love to run away/rage against the system/etc and some that would prefer a more mundane love story. I know it's a bit lame to point out, but it's also a bit ridiculous that in order for two people to be matches they have to decide to drop everything and run away together.

Maybe it was based on their personality, and for people with different experiences and personalities they have simulations where they have to ultimately choose something else?

Hang the DJ was good but not really getting how some people loved it so much and are ranking it in the top 5.

That ruins the entirety of the concept. And concept is all this episode really has going for it.

My impression is that the simulation would look for some particular trigger that indicates the two are a good match. In the case of these two, it's that they were willing to rebel. Maybe with two different people, it would be that they agree to have a baby, or share bank accounts, or who knows what. Once that trigger is successfully hit in 99.8%, the two are deemed to be a match because the algorithm has boiled your personality down to "once you can find someone who will do this with you, you're a match".

Same. I can see how it is the favorite of some % of people, but was really surprised by the overwhelming amount of people here having it as #1.

Heh I think I'm the only one to have gone quite that far that I've seen, and I've admitted I'm struggling to rank it right now.

This is valid as 997/999 obviously would round up to 998. If they don't run in parallel though:

1. Why would the other couples that are there at the end be looking around as if they have basically just arrived too? I mean I guess this could be explained by having time run differently for the simulations before climbing the ladder and after.

2. On a lesser note, the timing of their escape is kind of meaningless as part of the cool thing about the episode is the implication they are the last pair to escape as they do it just before the ultimate is picked.

guys the simulations werent "real," it was simply putting an interesting storyline form to an algorithm

it is completely different from the other episodes in which copied human consciousnesses exist

Sounds like initially the concept was going to be more related to drones.

From Brooker's EW Interview:

http://ew.com/tv/2017/12/29/black-mi...ead-interview/