Charlie Brooker says the Black Mirror “flavor” is like a box of chocolates, and they’re all dark chocolates. We explore some of the show’s Easter Eggs, as well as how the episodes share a common tone and worldview. DISCLAIMER: We don’t discuss every single Black Mirror Easter Egg here.
Correction: The episode “White Christmas” was incorrectly identified as S3E7, when it should be S2E4. The episode aired as a Christmas special in 2014 following the release of Season 2 on Channel 4.
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Transcript provided by Youtube:
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every installment of black mirror
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unfolds in a world unto itself
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each self-contained story presents its
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own slanted reality so when we think of
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black mirror we think of something
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unified as if all these separate glass
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mirror worlds connect into the same
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galaxy as creator Charlie Brooker said
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at a Baptist screening in 2016 in New
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York they’re all in the same
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psychological universe black mirror has
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a quote flavor he said it’s a box of
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chocolates and they are all dark
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chocolates there are all stories in
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which we do fling you into a pit of
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despair and then piss on you because
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people seem to like that on a literal
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level the black mirror stories also have
00:47
many overlapping details that suggest
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some or all episodes could be to some
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degree in a shared universe the
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creator’s like to have fun with Easter
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eggs and call-outs between episodes
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many of the Easter eggs are planted via
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a ukn a made-up TV news channel that
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dominates news coverage throughout the
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black mirror galaxy it’s not only the
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primary news source for black year
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residents and viewers who needed dose of
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explanation or exposition but it’s also
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the primary place to look for hidden
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references to other episodes so in shut
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up and dance season 3 episode 3 qkn
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reports on the divorce of the prime
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minister from the very first episode
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he’s the one who had a humiliate himself
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with the pig in white Christmas season 3
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episode 7 it reports that victorious
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Colleen the child murderer from season 2
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episode 2 has had her appeal rejected
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the same shot includes a report that the
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MP Lea Munroe from the Waldo moment
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claims his twitter got half life in the
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Waldo loom in season 2 episode 3 this
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headline has been seen before on the UK
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n news ticker in calais episodes the
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national anthem this could be a subtle
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cue to imagine Waldo and the national
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anthem happening simultaneously in the
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same world since they’re both
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politically focused episodes that warn
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about relevant social trends they
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naturally align and it’s worth noting
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perhaps that both are eerily close to
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our own little
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landscape and even that he took part in
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a bizarre initiation ceremony for a
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dining club involving a pig a genuinely
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thought that’s too big a coincidence
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that can’t be a coincidence therefore
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reality must be some kind of computer
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simulation designed to mess with my head
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whereas the National Anthem shows
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politicians at the mercy of public
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attention and media has been Waldo shows
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the rise of a trump-like cartoon that
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disrupts the status quo a first steaming
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of funny phenomenon the fast growing
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into a very serious display of corporate
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power Bobby he’s quite handsome isn’t he
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I was hoping he’d knock me up want to
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see how it panned out I never attacked
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him on his look and believe me there’s
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plenty of subject matter right there
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white bear the story of the Jayanti
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justice turning into mass entertainment
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also receives references throughout
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Black Mirror if it’s interesting Wiley
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forensics the run of a kick and it’s
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another one the critiques are current
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world’s media in a close to home fashion
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as the series goes on UK an is a near
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ubiquitous voice appearing in almost
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every episode of season 3 in nosedive in
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3 episode 1 we get another update on
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that errant prime minister we’ve been
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thrown out of the zoo again according to
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his social update lazy also runs into
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fans of an HBO Moon Western called Sea
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of Tranquility which is what the SFX guy
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is working on before he’s called on to
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manufacture fake footage to save Calvin
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embarrassment no won an Emmy for his
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effects work on that HBO Moon Western
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thing be tranquillity yeah you won’t
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find that another striking repetition is
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the song anyone who knows what love is
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it first featured in season 1 episode 2
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15 million merits an x-factor or
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American Idol inspired dystopia where
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people either have to
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themselves to fame on the show hotshot
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or spend their lives on stationary bikes
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harassed by the mandatory watching a
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bath
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new from race beef the haunting song a
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brief moment of humanity in the episode
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shows up again in karaoke and white
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Christmas and it’s sung in manic
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inspires me jack both hotshot and winner
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Abbie appear again in the Waldo moment
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and white Christmas we also see some
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technologies that resemble each other
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the Zi is the augmented reality devices
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implanted in eyes in white Christmas
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Fair a striking resemblance to the grain
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the ear implants that record everything
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from the entire history of you the VI
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seemed to be an improvement on the
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grains which Chris suggests that white
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Christmas
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takes place later in the same universe
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as the entire history of you still while
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the writers like to make connection for
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chris says he doesn’t like to hold to
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that religiously because he feels it
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would limit what they could do so now
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let’s talk about the black mirror flavor
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if they’re all set in separate universes
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what is it that identifies an episode as
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last year or in the black mirror galaxy
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we’re dropped into a situation that’s
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not immediately explained the episodes
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generally don’t fall all over themselves
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to give us exposition who want is people
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who are you know them they wait for the
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facts of the universe to be revealed
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gradually through events often what we
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gather in the opening minutes is far
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from the whole picture as they attempt
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to be a twist or major reveal in the
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later minutes of the show
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usually the show is set in the future or
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an alternate world involving some
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advanced technology that’s central to
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the story so these characteristics
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alignment with sci-fi but the setting
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doesn’t immediately appear to be light
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years away from our world they look like
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our world but with a slight twist or
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flange that over the course of the
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episodes grows larger at the same time
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the alternate world reflects and
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magnifies some real element of ours
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nosedive shows that the world in which
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our current climate of social media
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obsession escalates until all of society
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is engulfed in the pressure to maintain
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high social scores online for one open
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I’m on to four sorry Cass Tenley simply
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from stars please there’s also an
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element of work or dystopia as Brooker
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says it’s dark chocolate at first the
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world seemed promising or intriguing but
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they expose their dark underbelly
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like the title suggests is a mirror of
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our society but a black one it holds up
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a reflection of how the path we’re
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currently heading on could lead to
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misery and dystopia fastest cars and
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double damage please remove yourself on
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the airport immediately as we begin
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watching an episode we find it changed
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with foreboding we are waiting for the
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shoe to drop we almost come to expect
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the twist and we know it won’t be good
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but what exactly that twist is and its
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moral light catches side surprise thus
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our intellectual suspense keeps us
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wanting more what if those rates really
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target the people in the list everyone
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you took part the message common to all
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black mirrors is more or less beware
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let’s think about all this a little more
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carefully and look before leaving we
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should examine the snap choices we make
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in the name of progress without thinking
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through the long-term consequences
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Bryce Dallas Howard the star of
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nosedives spoke about that episode in
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relation to the terms intelligence
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invented by Michael Crichton in the
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Jurassic Park novel she describes the
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intelligence this way they see the
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immediate situation they think narrowly
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and they call it being focused they
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don’t see this around they don’t see the
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consequences this concept applies to
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most black mirror episodes and they’re
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critiquing a realized mentality that
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most of us are familiar with we
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immediately begin using our cool new
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technologies so we don’t think about the
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lasting effect after a time suddenly the
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black mirror characters find themselves
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in transformed world that they don’t
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feel they agreed to yet step by step our
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small choices as a society bring us to
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these very places Howard said she hopes
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people take away from those guys quote a
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healthy dose of fear regarding these new
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technologies Black Mirror feels like a
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collection of cautionary tale designed
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to heighten our awareness about how
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short steps from our current world could
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lead to a drastically different reality
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and one that we might not like very much
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usually lasts for what like an hour when
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they leave it going price of progress I
09:01
suppose even if they’re all different
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each episode might be described as a
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thought experiment designed around a
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clever what is it speaks to something
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very close to us the anthology series is
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a rare and challenging format to pull
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off in a visual medium almost all TV
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relies largely on our emotional
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investment in recurring characters we
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care what happens to them week to week
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Black Mirror gives us no recurring
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characters it asks the viewer to come to
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each episodes lined every installment is
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like a mini movie it has a beginning
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middle and end and a catharsis rather
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than the unending plot of most
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television according to broker one of
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the pleasures of doing this kind of in
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Sala Jizo of standalone worlds
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if the power it gives to each director
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every episodes director gets to create a
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whole new world Brooker compares the
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series to a short story collection which
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now that it’s on Netflix where viewers
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can watch in any order is a quote short
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story collection being delivered into
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the magic cupboard of your house like
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with a box of chocolates he says you
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never know what you’re going to get
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Oh
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you
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This post was previously published on Youtube.
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