*This review contains spoilers*
Recently the fifth season of Charlie Brooker’s series Black Mirror came out. A series that I always watch with great pleasure and after the interesting Bandersnatch a couple of months ago, I was waiting patiently for a whole new season. With only three episodes, that may not be much, but if you include the three mini episodes that will still appear on YouTube, there is something else you can sink your teeth in into as a Black Mirror fan. The first episode is Striking Vipers. And unfortunately it is a disappointing start.
The story revolves around Danny (Anthony Mackie), who has been playing fighting game Striking Vipers with his good friend Karl (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) since his teenage years. It is years later and the two speak less to each other. Danny has his family and Karl still seems the eternal bachelor. During Danny’s birthday Karl gives him the latest version of Striking Vipers, which comes with a special virtual reality “dot” that you stick to the side of your head and can take you to an extremely realistic world. The two friends start playing the game, both with their favorite characters (a male and female fighter), but because everything feels so real the two end up very close together, they start to enjoy each other with passion. Although Danny initially decides that this can no longer go on, they decide to continue it and Danny’s marriage starts to suffer.
The concept of this episode is a simple one: if your best friend had a female body, would you take it a step further? Here it is worked out within a virtual world. The problem, however, is that it actually does not go beyond that, making this episode feel incredibly long. In addition, you never get the feeling of a strong connection between the two, such as the characters in San Junipero from season 3 did. As a result, a kiss in the real world towards the end, the fight that they have afterwards and the ultimate solution never feels like something that you care about. There is nothing wrong with the actors, but because the quality of Black Mirror is always high you are waiting for the dark side of the story that does not actually happen. There is not enough left to keep your attention. Hopefully the second episode is better.
[score4]
I get what you’re saying and am yet to watch them all…. but I really do think this series took a massive downswing once it left the UK. ALL those episodes were brilliant. As soon as I started the new US version I honestly couldn’t finish some episodes, especially that one with Bryce Dallas howard or whatever her name is. A cool stories let down by some hollywood elements that ticked me off.
Only my opinion tho obviously 🙂