BLACK MIRROR: METALHEAD

METALHEAD Discussion thread ONLY

The "lowest rated" of the new season is clearly a pleb filter. I am honestly shocked to see how many people whine and cry about the story not offering sufficient exposition. Do you not know how to enjoy something without having it spoon fed down your fucking throat and out your ass?

Good things:
1. B&W + high contrast allowed for CGI to work better than in other environments
2. Anyone who's kept up with Boston Dynamics' robot dog developments has definitely thought about what they would end up being in the future. This was a great demonstration of what could be possible.
youtube.com/watch?v=kgaO45SyaO4
3. They did it for a teddy bear. Now while this might demonstrate a parent's infallible love for their child, I think in Black Mirror land this isn't a normal teddy bear. Any chances it's connected to White Bear and this is a simulation where people are being tortured for a crime?.

Other urls found in this thread:

youtu.be/K98RxwToCjI
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Black Mirror really is Rick and Morty tier

Sceenshot of what was on the car dash during hacking sequence.

When robo dog picked up and assimilated the kitchen knife me and the bros went wild, we were rooting for it the whole time

sounds comfy desu

Yeah Robodog was one of my favourite ones this season. Short and to the point.

Lost my shit when it showed that it spins it like a blender. Ruthless.

Metalhead would be a better episode if the design of the robot wasn't that goofy looking.

See link in OP's post. That's literally what those advanced robot dogs look like at Boston Dynamics (funded by DARPA originally)

And your point is? Those creatures don't look menacing at all and they don't fit in the black and white aesthetic. Congrats on them for keeping it realistic, too bad they forgot they weren't making a documentary.

What i took away from the design is that it's suppose to look like a cockroach. It's suppose to take place in a post-apocalyptic world and since cockroaches can survive radiation blasts, then it made sense to give it that design. At least that's what I thought.

Drones don't look menacing either. The point is that the killing machines of the future are little "innocent" looking shits that will fuck you up. You know robotics companies don't design things to look cool or "intense" but they design things to WORK. Boston Dynamics' goal was a quadrupedal robot to traverse all terrain.

Yet another Hollywood action episode that provokes precisely zero meaningful thought, gives no character development or explanation, and relies on an epic meaningless twist at the end

uh what "fits in the black and white aesthetic", out of curiosity

I can definitely see the cockroach inspiration now that you mention it but it still doesn't look as menacing as it is supposed to be. I don't understand why they went with the black and white aesthetic, the obvious CGI with the robot sticks out like a sore thumb.
And you do realize that Black Mirror is not a documentary and that film, as an art form works differently than reality?

Definitely not CGI stuff.

cool episode but damn was that survivor lady dumb... wtf was with holding a 3 minute radio conversation with that lethal thing chasing you down

even her one smart move of luring the dog with music and shotgunning it was undermined by stupidly not hiding from the tracking shots it blasted her with

>is wounded
>in shock
>probably knows is going to get killed anyway soon
it's easy to make all the rational decisions from the comfort of your sofa

forgot that depleting its batteries from the tree was also smart and creative but she didn't bandage her copiously bleeding wound so it meant nothing in the end

> gives no character development or explanation

there's the pleb wanting everything spoonfed again. do you fucks really just watch things for PLOT? you know who else consumes media for PLOT? LITTLE CHILDREN. We teach kids how to read by enticing them with PLOT and eventually when their brains and critical thinking skills have developed enough we move onto more interesting aspects of reading that require CRITICAL THINKING

GROW UP

I'm curious as to what kind of display you watched this on because it looked perfect on my 60 inch 4K television. Also this is probably the first B&W thing you've ever watched

>WAA i WANT MAH BIG BAD ROBOT

What in this episode requires critical thinking? That's precisely what I'm complaining about, there is NOTHING of substance in this episode and only a small modicum of style. It's empty. Might as well call it a filler ep.

The worst episode yet desu. No backstory, character development, weak plot, etc. After a certain point, I simply watched it just to finish the series.

This episode would have been way more Epic if the robot looked like this desu

Metalhead is the GOAT of season 4. Why’s Hang the DJ so overrated? Worst episode.

top kek

fuck off pleb

NO MANCHILDREN SHIT ALLOWED

COMICS ARE SHIT

DUDE simulations LMAO

The episode reminded me of The Rover a lot, between the post-apocalypse wasteland setting, the straightforward violent storyline, and the twist ending

It's an episode about a Terminator-type robot villain built for actual efficiency rather than menace, based on real world technology. The doggo's pure utilitarianism made it scarier, there was no aspect of it that didn't serve the purpose of hunt and kill.

you're a child

I just found the design of the robot took me out of the story.

Original script showed a drone operator for the dog. It was a man in a nice house, while the lady was in the the tree, the man leaves the computer desk to give his kids a bath and puts them to bed.

well, that is stupid

black mirror needs to be given to non hack writers

Not that I'm ok with all the shameless rehashing this season, but it's a neat idea. Would drive home the point of the public giving no value to criminals as a rule, reinforce that defending the warehouse and its contents with violence is simply a job and nothing more. The point still stands with an independent machine but is a bit more
removed from humanity

Does no one else think the teddy bears are more significant than we think? Were there other things in that warehouse that are more valuable? Why would the drone dog be placed next to that specific box?

>Why would the drone dog be placed next to that specific box?

Because it's a very poorly written episode.

Of course we think that, but there's no way of knowing or even discussing it either way because LOL THE PLOT IS VAGUE XD

Why does the dog have to have been placed next to the box? Why couldn't it have just been in a dormant state next to the box they were looking for, and got woken up when they came rummaging?

Okay instead of giving up immediately lets try to pull from what we can.

Why the emphasis on the conversation about "pigs" at the beginning? Our protagonist made a point about how even though a pigs are at least all equal after her partner says they have no dignity because their face is constantly at the level of some other's ass. Saying that at least they're equal implies that their was some massive social hierarchy change from the modern world. She did seem pretty shocked to see the house's living room with the piano and such. I know this doesn't give us an answer yet but maybe it'll provoke one from someone else.

The episode was fucking stupid because the thing chased her for miles in the woods

what kind of shitty guard robot abandons its post to go murder for hours on end? all they'd need is one other guy to go rob the place after its gone

also the twist was fucking awful and made the whole thing stupider in retrospect, which I didn't think was possible

*kills you*

What is the implication of the teddy bear? Are they literally just trying to get their kid a stuffed toy to play with? Why aren't they searching for food or bullets or fucking ANYTHING ELSE? Why die for this? inb4 they love their kid that much, it's not love, just borderline retardation if they think this will work and make the kid happy. Now his parents/whatever are DEAD

...

*haunts your nightmares*

If OPs right about his implication it could be that they were trying to get a vessel that would preserve the boy's soul before he died.

it was fucking junk that looked like it came out of a film school

It was just sitting in that random place because the things are everywhere, it seems that whichever one catches a person stealing will be assigned to hunt the target until it fails and others are sent. Another robodog immediately activated to take his place at the end of the episode.

Yikes

It was dumb at the end when the camera retraced her route and showed dozens of other dogs knocking about and heading towards her. Where were they when she was being chased by the lone dog?

I think the implication is that these robots were employed by the upper class in pre-collapse society to protect their property from the poors stealing them, and the system eventually ran so far out of control that the mass of humanity was being hunted like dogs constantly, probably after some major social upheaval where they attempted to appropriate some wealth for themselves. The rich ended up dying off out of depression, and the remainder of humanity was equalized by the enforced poverty of the robodog system which perceives all human beings alive on earth as perpetrators violating the property rights of its owners who have long since died.

Metalhead is Sup Forums-approved via Baths

who?

Seems like they're not encountered that often. Those dogs may have had to travel miles and miles.

youtu.be/K98RxwToCjI

DEEPEST LORE

>implying this shit is all in the same universe

what country is metalhead happening in?

...

It's been confirmed for a long time. Thing is, they used to drop subtle hints that it was all the same universe, now they beat the viewer over the head with it

...

Half this shit makes no sense if its placed in the same universe. How does the dystopian normalish sort of society coincide with an america where everybody lives in Xbox Live: The terrariam compound surrounded by a logan's run style wilderness? How can anybody get away with child porn ever when everybody has an eye implant? How can the eye implants be banned on privacy grounds in Europe when people are walking around with them everywhere?

it's not all simultaneous. some things are FURTHER in the future than others.

>Black Mirror isn't about how technology is scary, it's about how people exploit technology to conform to their worst instincts.

If this episode wasn't in black and white, it probably wouldn't even be approved by the producers. It's amateurish contrarian bait.

They happen in different times you absolute tard. 15M Merits is probably very far in the future, the Michael Callow one and Waldo are very close to present day. Entire History of You is a bit further, and White Christmas even further than that, as zed eyes seem like they'd be developed from the grain implants. Jon Hamm mentions the games industry using AI for cannon fodder, suggesting the events in USS Callister. It's actually pretty easy to piece together

But the video above points out that there are easter eggs referencing episodes that must be further along in the timeline than the episode containing the easter eggs. Trollface bank robbery is certainly nearer to the present than 15 million merits.

The idea is just stupid and antithetical to the basic premise of the show as being a Twilight Zone for the modern era.

inb4 season 5 has a narrative arc with recurring characters

nailed it. thought the same thing about all of them.

Shilling this hard. The episode was bland, I love the show but that was just weak. I don't think you need to explain every single detail but the episode had no ending or beginning. We know nothing about it and the bears at the end were quite cringey.

When does America invade and occupy Europe? Must be before 15 million merits because the dude goes home to a shabby old colonial style house.

btw 15 million merits programs are shown on the tvs of people in the near-to-present-day episodes constantly, so the whole idea just breaks down from the start.

So what year do cookies get rights?

Don’t even get why people disliked this episode, USS Callister was worse in terms of an overall message.

#CookieLivesMatter

They were both shit for different reasons. The problem with this one is that there is no message to speak of, or of there is, a very weak rehashed one

>genre spoof
>plot holes everywhere
>Netflix prerequisite diversity squad soft-pilot episode
>le famous actor cameos

USS Callister is so bad it works on a meta level as a black mirror episode about what black mirror episodes would be like in the dystopian future.

The problems with Metalhead are that it has no business being a Black Mirror episode and, even on its own, it was a mediocre story. In the National Anthem the story can't exist without Twitter. 15M Merits can't exist without basically the entire setting that it revolves around. The Entire History of You can't exist without the memory implant. The dogs in Metalhead can be replaced by a lot of things and it wouldn't change the story, even human beings would work if instead of waiting for it to power down she just waited for a guy to fall asleep and he had some tracker and goggles. It's like having an episode of the Wire that takes place in New York following a story that has nothing to do with anyone in Baltimore. And even on its own merits, it's just dull. Post-apoc survival stories have been done to death and this did nothing new, the acting and set-pieces were bland as fuck, and the MC knowing enough to cut out the tracker, put it in a bottle, and throw it in a river, but then using a walkie they could track and not just smashing the fucker after it was powered down was retarded. Backup only coming when she was dead despite the thing releasing multiple trackers and following her for a day was also retarded. The entire thing was just conveniently built around her having a cat and mouse chase and showdown with this one dog and it was impossible to really give a shit about it because both the thing and she were dumb as bricks.
>Any chances it's connected to White Bear and this is a simulation where people are being tortured for a crime?.
Of course there's a chance. There's also a chance aliens built them to hunt humans for sport. There's a chance they're controlled by all the sentient AIs who get tortured in the series. There's a chance they're the final evolution of real dogs. There's a chance they're from Atlantis. But none of that would matter or mean something because it's not presented or even slightly relevant to fucking anything.

Suddenly the episode is brilliant. Thank you for this perspective.

W0T IF BLACK MIRRER WERE A SHOW PRODUCED IN A DYSTOPIAN PRESENT DAY OI M8Y

Are you suggesting that Metalhead requires critical thinking skills and its purpose was to teach us? Explain, oh wise one, what the fuck you learnt from this deeply symbolical story about some dumb bird getting chased by a robot dog, enlighten the class.

The perceived simplicity of a story does not automatically negate its depth. See: Plato's Allegory of the cave which is literally just some dudes in a cave and one leaves

I lost my virginity to this episode

>Sup Forums likes pretentious shit
What else is new?

>The dogs in Metalhead can be replaced by a lot of things and it wouldn't change the story

Yeah if you want to completely change the tone and message of the episode.

And Plato's Allegory of the cave can have its depth explained. So go ahead and explain the depth of Metalhead, wise and mighty teacher. We can wait.

Dude, you’re overanalyzing the fuck out of this episode.

It’s just Terminator but with a much more apt and plausible robot given what we’ve seen from Boston Dynamic. Stop trying to find some deep meaning in it. If you want plot just pretend the teddy bears were the same as the one in the next episode.

What message? Something made by humans might end up hurting other humans? The message would be unchanged.

>dude, just turn your brain off lmao

I'm not over-analysing it at all. It being 'just Terminator but' is exactly why I'm saying it's a derivative piece of shit, it's the other faggot who's saying it's a deep allegory that requires critical thinking skills made for the enlightened patricians. I'm simply asking where from his ass he pulled that conclusion.

It’s not supposed to be menacing it’s just a killing machine, fucking brainlet

I imagine they were those toys to transfer that jack guys concience into. Like the monkey

this

>I have to like Metalhead so I can look smart in front of people

Jesus Christ.

Connection to other episode:

>When Bella rifles through the drawer a poster for San Junipero can be seen.

>Fucking hell this is mental. He's dying anyway, it's not like this will save him. He's got, what, days?
>Well if what's in there makes those days easier, that'll do for me.
The dialogue makes no sense if that's the case. It was likely just a toy, Black Mirror has never been a particularly subtle show. The grimdog future being so bleak that you'll risk your life for a toy for a kid just to see the little fucker smile and maybe not want to blow your own head off for a few minutes was one of the things the episode did right.

The Reddit Zone

>Why would the drone dog be placed next to that specific box?
The woman had the code written on her hand. They probably looked it up somewhere on what's left of the internet, so the dogs (or hivemind, whatever) knew they were coming for that certain box.

>do I belong yet guise?
Spotted the pleb

>You never filled in questions such as: How did the robots take over? Is anybody controlling them? Did you figure that out and is there any backstory you can share?

>We sort of deliberately decided not to flesh out a lot of the backstory. Originally in my first draft, we also showed a human operator operating the dog robot from across the ocean at his house. There was a bit I liked where he leaves the [control unit] while the robot is watching her while she’s up in the tree and he goes and gives his kids a bath. But it felt a bit weird and too on-the-nose. It kind of felt superfluous. We deliberately pared it back and did a very simple story.

>In the end, the crate sought by the humans is revealed to contain teddy bears. Why that? Other than the lost humanity and a possible callback to another action-filled episode, “White Bear”?

>The bears were actually yellow, but because it was [shot] in black and white, they’re white bears — I was happy with that being a little Easter egg. We went back and forth on what should be in that warehouse. Originally in the script, it just said “toys.” The idea was a box of toys for a dying child. David wanted it to be the only soft and comforting thing that we saw in the entire piece. He wanted it to be something softer and more immediately comforting. So we went for bears. Which is probably just as well because a crate full of fidget spinners would have been ridiculous.

wow that's a fascinating interpretation

good point, forgot about that. but it just seems like a huge risk if there's no pay off. the toy angle does seem the most likely. Imagine living in a future so bleak you'd have to risk getting brutalised by a litteral terminator to comfort a dying kid