This is probably one of my favourite episodes of "Black Mirror". I don't get people complaining about every episode and every new season, that it's not "Black Mirror" anymore, that it all went downhill and so on. In the other seasons there were good and bad episodes. I don't like S01E01, so what? Some people liked episodes, that I think are stupid and a waste of time. But now people just like to complain. If you look this show just to get a shocking ending or plot twist, then maybe you're watching it for the wrong reasons. A plot twist alone won't make something bad turn to something great, but an interesting idea as a whole will make you think. And in this episode the idea is pretty damn good. It's a question everyone has asked himself- where do we draw the line? Where is the border between being honest and a liar, a good person or a bad one, a cheater or whatever? Is our body the one thing that defines us in this life or is it our spirit? What would we do, if we had access to such a virtual reality as shown in this episode? Would you still be a moral 100% straight person loyal to your principles or would you just try everything out, because you're curious and it's only a game? In the end, the things most people would want to do in secret would be violence and sex, because it's in our nature. Did you ever have dreams similar to what happened in this episode? Where you were someone else and interacted in your dream with someone you know, but that person also looked different. Maybe you had awkward sex in you dreams with who knows whom? And maybe it was good in the dream, but when you woke up, you felt ashamed. So why is that? I think that all people are nasty and dirty from the inside, we all have our turn ons and fantasies, that we won't even confess to ourselves and especially not to others. So when we see someone else doing it, we have to judge it and hate it, because accepting it would mean that we've been wrong, our world view is wrong and our morals are questionable. People disliking this episode is similar to hetero guys not wanting to ever see one single gay movie, because that would probably make them gay or something. But lesbian stuff is ok, that's cool. Just this episode takes it a little bit further and confuses you- so it makes even more people uncomfortable, including some gays. I also don't get people saying things like- this is unrealistic, this would never happen? If these guys were gay, this wouldn't happen..if they are straight, they wouldn't behave like that, and so on. How would you know? Did you experience everything in life, that is possible to experience? Maybe we know that cats hunt down birds, but there were also some cases of a cat adopting young ducklings. This episode is what being human is about- experiencing all sorts of love and closeness to other people, an escape from the real world, curiosity and acceptance.
Review of Striking Vipers
