Just what I expected

Expected more

As Good As It Gets

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

This was a good episode. Enjoyable, liked the main character, and it's well shot. A little devoid of emotion though.

Definitely one of my favourite episodes. The idea is brilliant and played so well. I don't understand anybody not liking this one. If you like any of the following episodes you will love this.Nosedive White Christmas The Entire history of you Black museum Playtest White bear

After death you will float the universe forever & forever & & &

The return of Black Mirror was greatly hyped of course, and as one who has watched since that first famous episode, I was happy to see Brooker doing well, even if it cost us Screenwipe 2017 due to his workload. The first episode starts out within an episode of a Star Trek clone of sorts but then jumps to the real world where we find the 'captain' is also the CTO of an online virtual gaming company. The USS Callister is his personal offline version of that game, where he has characters based on people he knows in the real world.In the spirit of the show, there is an element of the real word within this episode. Specifically the idea of people within online games using them as a place to vent frustrations and limitations within the real world. This is me being a bit generous though, because that link to the real that would make it chilling is a bit weaker here, Instead we are held within the detail of the plot - the characters inside the game and their efforts to escape. In this way it is a perfectly fine episode with some drama, urgency, comedy, and a conclusion. Perfectly fine - but not more. What limits it is that the smartness is not there to the degree I'd like. The plot holes in the writing are distracting in their presence. I'm not picking some small technical detail but rather the way things happen (like the fate of the main character) don't have any base, and seem just like good things to happen which were written backwards. Speaking of the writing, I do think the lack of real link to the real world of today hurts it; I am kind in my link to online trolling because there is not that impact to something we know - which is the type of commentary that I followed in Brooker when he wrote in the Guardian, and in other BM episodes.The production standards are high, and the cast is impressive (with Fargo and Breaking Bad written large across several of them, as well as many other well-known faces). It is a perfectly fine episode, with plenty to make it entertaining, but the writing doesn't manage to find that Black Mirror gut-punch or connection that it has so often managed to do. It is disappointing from that standpoint, but still fine as a piece of television.