I clicked up USS Callister because of what I read in this thread. It was entertaining, but not very interesting.

First off, there's the obvious: Uploading someone's DNA would not give you their memories. But hey, it's sci-fi, so I'll just give it a pass on making sense and enjoy the entertainment value.

Secondly, narrative-wise, I felt that it was incomplete without revisiting the inter-office relationships at the end to see how they changed. The whole hook of the show was the duality of the two worlds. But that didn't extend to any sort of conclusion.

Clearly havent played assassins creed

You seem to have missed the point of that episode tbh...

That isn't really correct.. the people outside of the game aren't going to be impacted at all.. Why would they? They aren't experiencing what their digital copies go through..

Do you not know what the fi means in sci-fi....?

For example, one of the high points of the ep was the comparison for how he asked the intern for the latte in the real world vs how he ordered that guy to get him a latte on the virtual ship

This comparison of the two worlds was what gave the story some depth

The fact that the episode ended on a death(?) of the central character means that we didn't get to see how all his virtual experiences changed the way he treated those coworkers

The all-too-obvious endings would be either: a happy ending (he learns from his experiences, deletes the program, takes some of his assertive captain persona into the real world and asks Nanette out) OR he gets punished for his sins by getting sucked deeper into his fantasy and his coworkers treat him even worse

Since this is the kind of show that shouldn't play by the rules, I expected something more surprising. Instead, we got nothing at all. An ambiguous death, we have no idea what Nanette thought about the stuff she was asked to steal.

This post was edited by Kayeto on Sep 18 2018 08:57am

^ This....

Everyone talked about that episode as if it was some masterpiece and it wasn't. It was entertaining and well done up until the ending, where they dropped The ball hard. Again, the punishment didn't fit the crime and they went with The idotic mass appeal "kill the creepy guy" for mistreating his property, versus having him learn a lesson and better mankind.

It was a terrible ending and unfortunately that's what most black mirror episodes amount to. A good thought that could have been excellent if they didn't limp dick the endings.

S2- ep 4 white Christmas
S3- ep 1 nosedive
S4- ep 4 hang the Dj
S3- ep 3 shut up and dance
S3- ep 6 hates in the nation

He didn't die. He got stuck in a void alone. Needing to live forever (or until he dies, or until someone saves him) alone in the pod. Similar to the season 1 episode where they trapped ai for 1000 years alone

The comparison of the two worlds isn't important, how the main character specifically acts in them is what matters/what is interesting. The duality of his character, how he is willing to act knowing he is the highest authority vs when he isn't. Seeing how he changes in the real world (or how the world changed around him as you put it for whatever reason) isn't important.

He acted poorly, unknowingly created sentient ai, and got punished for being a dictator.

Edit: I don't think the ending was good. I also don't think the ending you wanted would have been good. TBH I think it is in the bottom 5 of worst episodes. I think it skated by purely off of being a star trek parody. Nothing about it was good imo.

Edit 2: if they ended it by having the crew suicide and MC just remake them and start from scratch again I think the episode would have been serviceable.

This post was edited by Blah58 on Sep 18 2018 06:44pm

I didn't say he died, just that they left his fate ambiguous. Will the landlord eventually check on him and unhook his device to disconnect him from the game?



I kinda agree with that. So if they are going to have an hour long story, let's see what effect that whole journey has on how the main character acts in his two worlds. Otherwise what's the point of the whole journey we just saw?



I didn't describe the ending I wanted. All I said was I expected something surprising. My expectations were raised due to this thread, so I didn't think they'd settle for either of the all-too-obvious examples I mentioned.

This post was edited by Kayeto on Sep 18 2018 07:32pm

That's why I think



Would have been the proper ending.

No black mirror episode really has a positive message. Look at how in the cycling episode the person trying to rise up and start a revolution abandons it to become another cog but at a higher rung (can anyone say Kaepernick).

So I think doing something like restarting the cycle to show how crappy humanity can be and how hard it is to change that aspect would have been the best ending I can personally think if tbh.