You are just remembering them too fondly.

I actually rewatched them just to compare this season's episodes better and rank them properly. This season actually stood out very well. Better than most of the previous 7 episodes.

My rankings are a few posts above.

I think the episodes lacked the subtlety of previous seasons. They made the season with an American audience with mind.

I agree with James. I think White Christmas skewed our expectations a bit.

Was White Christmas really that good again?

I remember Be Right Back, White Bear & The National Anthem, The Entire History of You more fondly.

But yea this season hasn't been poor in comparison really. Everything has been better than Fifteen Million Merits and The Waldo Moment. Still one more episode for me to go in the latest season

I highly recommend re-watching White Christmas, White Bear, and The Entire History of You.

Some of your opinions will change (like WB which doesn't hold up well at all on a rewatch) and others will get reaffirmed (like WC being so good).

Yes, I think M99 got it right.

It just lacked something new, it wasn't that original for me as it was before, even though production levels raised a bit.

Rewatching in this aspect, is useless. It's about the feeling it gave me the first time, and I was more impressed with the earlier work.

But we're just being spoiled here. It is still a must watch.

I think the issue is that they moved from 42 min episodes to 60 min ones because Netflix. Before the episodes felt more compact, whereas now the exposition explaining the idea takes too long, making the episodes drag a bit, which makes them less powerful.

Like if you take San Junipero it takes 30 minutes for them to stop teasing with the midnight thing and get them to the premise of the episode, it could have been much quicker. Or in the last episode they could have skipped all the PM scenes and done it at 80 minutes instead of 90, which is still crazy long.

Just finished the last episode. Great season again overall I would say. The last two episode won it over for me. My ratings for Black Mirror episodes always seem to be quite the other way around from you guys on here. Anyway, these are my ratings:

Shut Up and Dance: 9.4
Hated in the Nation: 8.9
Men Against Fire: 8.7
Nosedive: 8.7
Playtest: 8.5
San Junipero: 8.2

Gotta say the most impressive thing was the cinematography. They always have the tone right in terms of location, colour schemes and music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ELQ6u_5YYM

December 29th. GOAT birthday present.

First episode was awesome. 2nd episode was only good.

Will finish it this weekend.

Jimmi Simpson

What a legend

Finished it this morning.

Order of my favorites - USS McCallister, Black Museum, Hang the DJ, Metalheads, Arkangel, Crocodile.

That mom in Arkangel

Probably the most wack character in the series

I see helicopter parents like this way more than I ever thought I would. They're nuts.

McLewis wrote:I see helicopter parents like this way more than I ever thought I would. They're nuts.

That episode really stuck with me tbh. Mainly because it was so realistic.

Watched 1,2 and 4 now. Don’t know if I’ll watch 3 and 5

Just finished watching this. Best season by far. Usually in every season we get 1/3 average, 1/3 GOAT and 1/3 bad, but this time around only one of them was bad (crocodile) while the rest were somewhere between good and great. They also had a much better handle on pacing than on season 3, for instance the first episode was the longest one but breezed past me.

I have only seen a few shows be so consistently good for four seasons and this is one of them. Hats off to the writer or writers, producers and directors.

Just binge watched the four seasons in like a week, brilliant brilliant show.

The last episode is my favourite, not only because of the great writing and stories but because it confirmed something I had suspected since S1: all the episodes take place in the same universe.

Now on to the wait for the next season...

urbaNRoots wrote:I have only seen a few shows be so consistently good for four seasons and this is one of them. Hats off to the writer or writers, producers and directors.

Just binge watched the four seasons in like a week, brilliant brilliant show.

The last episode is my favourite, not only because of the great writing and stories but because it confirmed something I had suspected since S1: all the episodes take place in the same universe.

Now on to the wait for the next season...

I don't know if they take place in the same universe as much as they're just references for hardcore watchers. Easter eggs really. If they were in the same universe it would create a ridiculous amount of plot holes and overall confusion I think.

They hinted that it was all connected by the name of the hospital and brain transfer etc. but I have hard time seeing how all these episodes could've taken place in the same universe.

Would be a crazy as f... episode if they decided to go all out on all the tech they've used in the same ep.

Finally watched it. Loved USS Callister and Hang The DJ. Amazing eps, the others were okay to meh. Thought Black Museum was building up to something mindblowing but it ended up being an okayish episode. I think Charlie Brooker is running out of ideas, how many episodes have we had of digital consciousness? Black Museum did sort of feel like a series finale.

And what I said of episodes lacking subtlety because of netflix and casual audience, I thought it was even more apparent this season.

hang the dj:

Up to episode 3 so far, and I think Arkangel and Crocodile were better than USS Callister

Ooof you're in the minority on that one, brah.

They're 2 of the worst-liked episodes of the season. I especially found Crocodile completely laughable.

Yeah agreed that Crocodile kinda sucked (compared to the rest) but Arkangel was a great episode imo. I'm not a parent but that episode still got me.

But yes USS Callister was the best out of the three without a doubt.

The sci-fi element in Callister was dope and genius. However I didn't like the final third of the episode. Found the leading girl quite annoying sometimes

Have only watched two of the six so far (I've always gone through Black Mirror extremely slowly, I personally prefer it that way as opposed to binging the small amount of episodes they give us).

I'll give my take when I've watched all of them, but so far I've seen Hang the DJ and Black Museum. Both were fantastic. I thought Hang the DJ in particular was amazing, the fact that they had Sigur Ros compose music for that episode was incredible and made it so much more enjoyable. I've been waiting ages for Sigur Ros to make an appearance in Black Mirror.

Black Mirror's music choice is underrated imo, simply because the rest of the show is so well done. However, it's worth mentioning that they always get the music spot on. "Heaven is a Place on Earth" from San Junipero was brilliant, even better (perhaps the pinnacle?) is "Exit Music (For a Film)" by Radiohead for the ending of Shut up and Dance. The specifically composed "Exit" from Sigur Ros put me in bliss watching the climax of Hang the DJ.

Hang the DJ goes among my favorites of Black Mirror. Not because I thought the writing was any more quality than any other episode (it wasn't, to be honest, and definitely worse than some episodes), but the acting was lovely (the main actor and actress had great chemistry), the story was lovely, I've gone on about the music, and it was just a beautiful episode. It's still a tier under Be Right Back, though--which I think is, so far, the best of the series.

Wait CB. You love Be Right Back just as much as I did?

I swear it doesn't get enough praise all the time.

And why don't you watch the episodes in the order Netflix gives you?

Black Mirror doesn't go in order so it doesn't matter what order I watch it in, and I just watched ones that I could with my gf based on where she was in the series. So I watched the 4th one with her when she came to it, then the last one. Haven't seen any since then though.