Metalhead

How on earth is this rated so low?! It's one of my favorite episodes of action television ever. The antagonist is beautifully animated and believably unstoppable. And the black and white gives it a lovely gritty texture. Anyone who has watched a Boston dynamics video will be terrified.

I don't really understand the poor reviews about this Black Mirror episode.

I see that for many this is not the most elaborated, with a complex production, a lot of effects or stuff like that and in my opinion this is exactly the point.

This is something made with little money and lots of imagination and talent, and this is exactly where the beauty of this little film stays.

You haver a few characters going to do something which looks not too difficult, which is to go to a warehouse which looks not very well watched or protected from thieves and, well, these guys look like they are going to enter the premises and take something with them with a van which looks like someone left there.

I'm not going to spoil anything or say anything to compromise it.

I say that this is the start and it looks like something very straightforward and simple, right?

Well, not so fast, you keep watching and something which looks quick, easy and simple turns into something completely different, and then is when the story starts to be fantastic, and you put yourself in the characters' shoes and, wow, just wow. Don't mind people giving poor rates to this film.

This is what a good film should be, something which keeps you grabbing your armchair on the verge of screaming and all made with a very limited budget but with a lot of imagination.

Watch this. You are not to be dissapointed, but your fingernails will if you are prone to bite them.

FANTASTIC.

Don't listen to the complainers here - this episode is worth watching. Like USS Callister it does feel different to most Black Mirror episodes, but that shouldn't be seen as a bad thing. The black and white cinematography is well suited to this episode which has a feeling reminiscent of The Road - both post-apocalyptic with no mention of what the 'apocalypse' was, both tightly focused on one or two characters. The episode isn't a neat package but again, this is Black Mirror we're talking about - expecting a clear lesson or meaning out of it is to misunderstand the point of the show. We don't know the details of what led to this apparently post-apocalyptic world, but that doesn't matter. That isn't the focus of the episode. Maxine Peake's almost solo performance as Bella is excellent, and what she was looking for or why is never really relevant. What is relevant is her fear and determination. We know nothing about her, but we feel the tension and desperation. While some episodes of Black Mirror feel like I only observe the characters, with Metalhead I was there with Bella in the desolate unknown countryside, invested in her plight.

Among the best so far for my taste, even in black and white. It could be some kind of a PREDATOR scheme where a group of people are tracked down by an Alien machine. The link with the new technology is different from the other episodes, which remained in a more domestic matter. Here, it is more science fiction, and action oriented, with a lone survivor fighting against the "robot" who killed all his - or her mates. It is short, compared to the other episodes, but tense, gripping and very well directed by David Blade, who gave us HARD CANDY and 30 DAYS OF NIGHT before being totally dedicated to TV industry.

I've never before ever felt so divided about an episode of Black Mirror, I either love them or I don't. Metalhead is for my part the weakest offering of a strong fifth series, but it gains my imagination for its sheer originality, indeed it feels like a stand alone episode from the show, there is nothing really to compare it to. If I were to sum it up in one word it would be bleak, it's bleak from start to finish, it's clinical, sharp, dark, indeed to only soft and cosy thing we get to see are the teddy bears in the final shot. It has a vintage horror feel to it, I think it benefited from its black and white shooting, adds to the overall bleak theme. It's almost like they took a snapshot from a movie, keeping only the action packed ending, we get no explanation, no solution, just the core action. Charlie Brooker invites us into a post apocalyptic world, but allows us to invent for ourselves the cause, was it the AI, or something else? I felt uncomfortable from beginning to end, possibly one of the scariest Black Mirror episodes to date, it's not one I'd visit frequently, but it was certainly a powerful watch. Maxine Peake is outstanding, the emotions she packed into it were brilliant. I think it's an episode that for those that didn't like on first watch, they're sure to want to give it another try. It is certainly thought provoking.