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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   2489 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for April 10, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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On this topic, what Black Mirror episodes would theMotte recommend? I love the idea of the series, and at least a few episodes I watched were great - I'll see whether I can find them again - but so much is way too poisoned by the writer's contemporary politics to really be the incisive commentary on possible futures as it was intended. Orange Man Bad IN SPACE !, basically.

My longtime favorite is 15 Million Merits for being a particularly effective allegory about media consumption, celebrity culture, reality TV, corporate monetization of everything, and now it seems to have inadvertently predicted the future of doomscrolling short form videos and AI slop.

Nosedive is well-executed and still relevant.

Playtest is the most viscerally horrifying and genuinely dark episode in my opinion. With the possible exception of the one immediately after that, Shut up and Dance, which is honestly so grim its surprising they aired it.

Damn. Basically just watch season 3. The fourth episode is a bit of a palate cleanser and while I find it overall underwhelming a LOT Of people loved it.

I couldn't keep watching Black Mirror as I became convinced that its production team actually has a visceral dislike, even at times contempt, for humanity, and I don't need my own misanthropic tendencies given any more fuel (misanthropy eventually logically ends up in self-hatred.) But it is at times really well-made, and if I had to recommend one episode it would be "Be Right Back." We're not quite to the world of the episode yet but we're barrelling toward it. Hayley Atwell, Domhnall Gleeson.

I had high hopes given the premise and the buzz but the only Black Mirror episodes I enjoyed were 'Striking Vipers' and 'Hang the DJ'. The rest were too boring or dumb.

It's probably my fault.

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