Black Mirror : pointlessly divisive negative endings…

pointlessly divisive negative endings…

Seeing a trend in this show I expect will continue. Sometimes they COULD redeem the main character, but at the end the choose not to, just to be "against the grain" or whatever.

*** SPOILERS SPOILERS ***

The one with the cartoon talking guy, the ending leaves him in skid row, INSTEAD of him rising up and doing something to regain his life. Seems they do this a lot, maybe every episode.

That's fine, it's their show and all, but it would have been really easy to hit a home run by making SOME of the characters come out on top once. I haven't watched them all yet - maybe some did.

Still a great show, well done, just kinda POINTLESSLY negative at the ends.

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

Did you not read the overall Netflix headline of the show, in general?..... What you just described is exactly what they tell you the show is.

You 'expect it to continue'? Ummm yeah. That IS the show. They told you that.

This would be like saying, 'i'd like Grey's Anatomy more without all the human drama set against the backdrop of a hospital'.

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

Actually did not read anything about it. Which is why it was so fun to jump in cold, and experience. Just felt like the endings could be better - just my opinion and wanted to sound off.

I know this show is not for everyone - but it could be, if they ended them different. The social commentary would be intact, setup some GOOD resolutions, and it would appeal to more. Now, it is niche social horror, reaching 5% of the people, but it could be globally reaching 30%+ with nicer endings. Reason is, no one likes going to bed with downer, negtive, world sucks thoughts.

Show's not helping anyone (not that it HAS TO, I know) by showing a pile of dog dung, then now showing how it can be cleaned up. If it worked solutions into it, it could be twice what it is now.

Again, just some guy's opinion.

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

*facepalm

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

Depends on how you define redemption

I think the characters in nosedive and entire history of you get redemption just to name a couple

"Sure, we'll help you, just sit down and wait for Detective LIKE-I-GIVE-A-DAMN!" ~Chief Wiggum

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

I'm curious, what did you see as the redemption in Nosedive? I thought it was interesting, like what they OP said, that Black Mirror chose to let the main character completely spiral all the way down, and end the episode at her lowest point with no sign of hope. I felt awful for her and assumed we were supposed to.

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

just watched nosedive. the redemption was HINTED at in the final scenes... those people reverted to bringing up their repressed passions - albeit negative - and JUST STARTED to heal as they yelled jabs at each other. It was POSITIVE, but was a start at fixing the global problem.

the old lady on the truck WAS cured and had a great life. The show COULD have shown our girl six months later, driving a truck, looking all messy and singing to the radio, with her crappy old FLIP PHONE closed on the seat. The just stop the shows minutes too early. :)

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

I don't see forthright negative expression as a good thing at all. In the name of "honesty," people can say awful things, and this action is often praised as a form of liberation, but to me that's as bad as people owning slaves and then being praised for overcoming the fear of whipping their slaves. Honesty is good, overcoming fear is good, but if we don't consider at whose expense it comes, then we have no moral compass beyond the animalistic.

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

The point of the ending of Nosedive was that they were finally free to say whatever they wanted with no consequences. They didn't hate each other, they weren't insulting each other out of spite. They were exercising this new-found freedom in a fun and harmless way. If we as onlookers judge their insults as offensive and inappropriate, we are just as bad as everybody else in their society, giving people we don't even know a bad rating just because of how they look or because they seem to be in a bad mood.

I guess it's like if for your whole life you had a condition where the slightest bruise could kill you, and you lived your life in constant fear of minor injuries. If you were suddenly cured of that condition, you might, for a time, intentionally self-harm just because for the first time in your life you could get away with it.

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

Respectfully, you missed the point. They weren't trying to get you to feel good about what these two were yelling at each other. They were trying to get you to feel good that these two felt free enough to say those things, without fear.

If you re-watch, it's clear they're not really mad at each other. They're both experiencing relief. Watch their faces.

"Personally I hope they make all the gods black and change it from Valhalla to Valholla!"

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

It has nothing to do with pointlessly making happy endings.

You realize life doesn't always end happy right? Surely you're aware of that.

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

This is deep and I like this question because it shows exactly where the problem lies:

People have been programmed to beleive there IS NO happy ending for so long, a real happy ending seems fictional.

True, in SOME peoples cases, things get bad, get worse and they die.
For many, MANY others (the ones that DON'T make the news because they are not as voyeristically interesting as train wrecks), life has it's ups and downs, but YOU CAN make it better, even if that is just changing your perspective of who and where you are.

By CHOOSING to surround oneself in UNhappy endings, on purpose, one is defining their reality's base line: "life doesn't always end happy". We are what we eat, you know?

To be honest, my life is really great since I ditched "negativity", it is difficult for me to watch a show like this. This is becuase of how *I* have programmed MY life: less to zero negativity.

You are welcomed to say life doesn't ALWAYS end happy, but I will continue to push that it can be what we choose to make of it. :)

Pertaining to THIS show, every episode I watched could have a redeeming, happy ending if they tacked on 5 more minutes, without changing a thing. It's like they cut it short. I do get, and it is an enjoyable show overall.

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

You're totally missing the point then

If you want every episode you watch to have a happy ending so you can pretend everything is roses, go watch something else.

There is thing called reality, and avoiding negative endings to life requires being aware that such endings are possible. If you want to plug your ears and yell la la la to be happy, so right ahead, but I'd rather consider thought provoking ideas than be blissfully ignorant.

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

referring back to my answer about the real problem... why on Earth do "WE CHOOSE" to consume visual entertainment as a form of negative reinforcement? If I wanted to SEE negativity, I'd watch the news. Or jsut look at the real world for all its negative problems and unhappy endings. Why are we CHOOSING to watch "entertainment", "escapeism", or to put it another way: something unrealistic to take us away from all the bad crap in the world... that takes us right back to all the negativity? Are we jsut rats in seeking more $#!Tpiles?

It's not about ignoring life, plugging ears etc... it is, about what are we choosing for "Entertainment": the action of providing or being provided with amusement or enjoyment.

Isn't being amused or enjoying "misery" sort of a backwords mental condition causing a lot of issues in the world today? Like, say, people that ENJOY watching videos of beheadings? Wouldn't we say they need to get some mental health help to get straitened out?

I don't exactly relate a common TV SHOW to represent real life, real world, it is JUST a show. Kinda fun when are poking fun at everything that exists now, showing cautionary tales of how bad it COULD get, but just as easy to show solutions as well. Anyone can't point out the pot holes... who's man enough to step in and fill it? :)

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

I mean... these are cautionary tales. These are "this is a possible future if we keep up the way we're going." The fact that none of them is really all that far-fetched ought to give a clue about that. They're meant to make you consider your values, examine your morals and habits, and wrestle with complex questions. It's not just supposed to be mindless entertainment. There are plenty of shows for that. "Why don't they have happy endings?" is just a question I don't even understand in this context. The goal of the show is totally at odds with a formulaic happy ending. Leaving a viewer feeling unsettled and distressed forces them to do the things listed above: think about how they are or could be contributing to the development of the realities depicted in the show.

Never settle with words what you can accomplish with a flamethrower.

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

The only forced unhappy endings I would say are White Christmas and Playtest.

White Christmas because of what happened to Hamm's character. He got blocked from everybody AFTER he helped he police.

Playtest because of what happened to the character. It really wasn't needed. As much as I liked the episode, the ending felt forced for shock factor. I guess it worked in the sense you expected them to do a double layer trick, but then it ended up being he was just dead. A nice bait and switch, but still felt forced.

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

I'm curious how you would have ended White Christmas. Given the world painted to us, that ending seemed to me to be the most plausible, a natural outcome of the ideas presented in the story, and taking it to the logical next level. To me it seems that releasing Hamm's character unscathed would have detracted from the message of the episode. So I'm genuinely curious what you think could have worked better.

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

I know you were talking to the other guy, but I'd like to chime in.

In many ways, White Christmas could have spun to a positive: the guy did his part to help with the crime solution, for a pardon or whatever? Seems like they lied to him (cant remember). Either way, they could have docked his income instead of blocking everyone. The other guy is just screwed having a double homicide on him. Ok, that is not positive for him, but a crime is a crime.

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

I had the exact same thoughts as the OP... Like where's the happy ending? But to be honest its a nice change of pace to have unhappy endings. Im sick of the rebels winning in Star Wars etc, I want to see the bad guys win for a change and the good guy get knocked into the gutter. Because that's real life.

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

You're projecting your own bad ideas onto the show


just to be "against the grain" or whatever.


Ok.

http://violentdelights.freeforums.net/ - W E S T W O R L D Community

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

The show is about the dangers of technology. It would do a pretty crap job if it always had a happy ending, that would be like a road safety campaign stating that 100% of people involved in car accidents survive.

I love how you assume it's just trying to "go against the grain" as though we Brits care about childish crap like that, we're just big enough boys and girls to know you don't always get happy endings in life.

Schindler's List is the only US movie about the holocaust and it ends with 100 people being saved. Maybe someone should make a movie about the 11 million people that were gassed and left in piles to rot or would that be too "edgy"?



Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived. -Isaac Asimov

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…


Schindler's List is the only US movie about the holocaust and it ends with 100 people being saved.


Well, the movie IS about that.

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

So, did you see all episodes? I think you'll be pleased with one.

Also, Nosedive could count as a happy ending in a way. The one with the robot didn't seem so negative, more like ambiguous or something.

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

Watched them all, and thoroughly enjoyed all except the 1st one. I understand the point of the negative endings and the cautionary tales and all that, but feel it COULD reach even a larger audience if it did the happy endings. The negative endings do work for this... there are many ways to make an entertaining program, and a very good reason that movies don't test well with audiences with unhappy endings. Happy endings equal money.

Anyway, this is the best "series" I have seen in a long, LONG time. I quit watching TV when it went all stupid reality and mindlessness, but really enjoyed this.

Re: pointlessly divisive negative endings…

Because that is how the world works. On an individual basis, nobody will be the winner in the end.
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