bastienfrancois Reviews

Black Mirror: Hang the DJ (2017) Season 4, Episode 4

Enjoyable. But NOT Black Mirror!

[9/10 · 20 January 2018]

A great episode. But it would have earned a 10/10 if it were a separate movie, or part of another series. Watch out for spoilers, because I am going to pitch what I think would have been the right Black Mirror way to end the episode on:

We see two people fall in love together to an extent where they want to overthrow the system and community they live in, just to escape and live happily ever after together. In the end we see that this behavior is in some way 'rewarded' as it contributes to a dating app match score, and we see the real life versions meeting each other for the first time in a club. They smile at each other instantly, and one can only assume that they will end up together.

What are my problems with this? It is a happy ending that does not confront the viewer. What if the episodes plays out as it did, but the two characters do not see many versions of themselves out of the dome and it turns out that only a handful of them rebelled to the system, because the others decided to run from outside the dome after meeting their 'true partner'. This would result in a low match score, and we would have seen the real life versions turn their backs to each other, while we just witnessed an incredibly happy ending between the same two individuals in the digital environment.

Why is this better in my opinion? Because this is what Black Mirror used to be. This ending would have given me a reason to discuss the accuracy of algorithms and custom AI processes in personal profiling with friends, family and everyone else who watched this. Because Black Mirror did not do that, everyone just watches this episode. Everyone will smile in awe, and everyone will just keep on binging the rest of the season because they were not confronted with a black mirror.

When there is a match, there are, as we have seen in this episode, many possible other partners that we pass by, which may have been the truer one.

Black Mirror (2011– )

Creative. Unique. Fresh. (a while back)

[9/10 · 20 January 2018]

Black Mirror, for me, went through a different phase each season. I will use these phases as building blocks to review the series as a whole.

Start-up: At this point, the series was new, wild, very confronting and, unfortunately, completely unknown to the outside (read: non-BBC) world. Everything was right. The creator had an idea and he made it happen on the small screen. In my opinion, the best episodes were created in this season for just that reason. While underrated, the brilliance caused the series to earn a second season.

Growth: This is when I picked up on the series because it got better and more reviews overall. I really enjoyed every episode except the very first one and I could only hope for more brilliance from the creators. The writing was excellent and the concept was still incredibly cool and unique.

Maturity: The series achieved its peak with the White Christmas episode. The show got a broader fanbase and Netflix decided to throw money into the concept to scale it up to six episodes a season. This was the moment I, and with me probably many more, got very excited for the future of the series. However, the new episodes were still enjoyable but every fan knew this was not the rebellious and brilliant series it used to be. It lost its touch with its core, which mostly showed in the unusually happy episode San Junipero. Don't get me wrong, that episode was brilliant, but not as 'Black Mirror' as the striking episodes in the beginning (like Five Million Merits) used to be.

Decline: I watched the fourth season right when it came out, and I let it sink in for a few months before I wanted to write this review. There was not a single episode that got me on the edge of my seat, and there was not a single episode that really got me thinking. What I loved about Black Mirror was the challenge it gave us to look differently at (all our behavior with) technology. However, this season, more than ever, let the good guys win, had inexplicable and unreasonable plots (instead of technology, it were the people causing bad events) or it was outright not 'black' at all (Hang The DJ, which I will review separately because of its wasted potential).

For me, Black Mirror has ended. It was great as long as it lasted. But every great concept like this was great because it was what it was at the time: a niche. A niche talking to a specific audience that wants to be challenged. When Netflix wants to produce more episodes in a shorter time window, it comes at a cost. The cost of the niche that I valued so much at the beginning of the series. So right now, it is time to find a new niche series to enjoy.

Daylight (2013)

One of the better Dutch movies

[8/10 · 6 December 2013]

When my brother suggested this movie to me, I actually didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I expected, since it was a movie my brother suggested and it was a Dutch movie. Those are two facts that cause me to doubt the quality of a film. But 'Daglicht' really amazed me.

From the beginning until the end of the movie I was completely sucked into it. The story was interesting at all times. Like every movie in this genre or every single episode of CSI, you think you have an idea what the clue will be. In this movie the direction is very clear, you know who was involved, but the finale was beyond my imagination and left me with my mouth wide open.

There were also some negative aspects of the movie, but I don't want to give any spoilers in this review because I want to give people the opportunity to judge the movie beforehand before they spend two hours of their lives watching it. For that reason, I will keep it vague by telling that there were some aspects and characters in the movie that really annoyed me and that there were still some questions unanswered at the end.

To close this review I want to mention the most positive thing of the movie; the cast. The children playing in the movie, the main character and (most of all) Ray were played magnificently. Usually I never judge the acting since it is always sufficient to me, but this is the first movie where I really noticed the difference between 'acting and acting'.

I give this movie an 8/10 because it is definitely better than the average Hollywood film I have seen in 2013!