[steve_b]

Have you seen White Bear? It's one of the most terrifying and thought provoking things I've ever seen. Sure you could probably find elements of that episode in other shows/films, but that's probably true of everything.

Honest question: what are you watching that makes Black Mirror trite and obvious by comparison?

[jdeee]

2nd this request, what are the names of 2 or 3 shows that aren't "trite"?

[darawk]

Well, I suppose the difference between this show and say Game of Thrones, or Breaking Bad or something (two shows that I have enjoyed) is that they don't think they're teaching me something philosophical. At least, not overtly. Black Mirror is extremely overt and heavy handed in its moralizing.

I guess it feels sort of condescending, but from a place of ignorance. It's ok to repeat trite cliches and tropes culled from the latest medium articles on futurism, but if you're going to do that, weave it into a compelling narrative, don't try to appropriate those simple ideas and claim them as your own. And that's sort of the vibe I get from Black Mirror - that its writers think really highly of their insight into the interplay of technology and culture, but I find that insight to be pretty shallow. And i'd be tolerant of that shallowness of it was a more background element of a more compelling story (say, The Matrix), but Black Mirror feels to me like it takes it self undeservedly seriously, if that makes sense.

I realize the foregoing was sort of rambling, but it's a little hard to articulate exactly why it rubs me the wrong way. I certainly enjoy plenty of things that could be said to be trite, shallow, or even stupid. But I feel like those things know their place and Black Mirror doesn't.

[eppeltert]

Go read some classic scifi, PKD did the capitalist dystopia pretty well (and amusing) for example.