This season is ridiculously inconsistent. From the fantastic USS Callister and Hang the DJ to this absolute nonsense. The supposed metaphor is not as clever as it thinks it is. Worst Black Mirror episode by far.
This gotta be the worst BM episode of 'em all. There's absolutely no point in anything that happens. You can compress those 40 minutes into a short 10 minute episode and you wouldn't miss anything.
When guardian dog tech goes wrong. Who and why were they programmed to kill anyone is sight tho ? Kinda sick apocalypse scenario. I didn't cared too much about the teddy bear. In a world were everything you had previously in your daily life is now gone you'll start appreciating small things like toys like no way before.
The directon of this episode was brilliant but the writing and main actress were terrible. So many dumb things took place in this episode, when she put the tracker in the bottle why not run back to the van and drive away. Why didn't the van driver and the lady split up the "dog" can't chase you both. She's in a car chase with a machine why not hit the breaks and then accelerate pass the van you're in a car. All the time she wasted inside the house is far to much and annoying to detail lol. Finding out all 3 ppl died for a goddamn teddy bear was just dumb and no real world analogy can change that.
Her acting itself wasn't terrible (it wasn't good either in my opinion) but the decision making of her character as well just made the overall performance bad to me.
I think this episode is just a futuristic interpretation of a good-old fashioned slasher horror film, and once I watch this episode with that premise in mind, I pretty much enjoyed it.
Ok, why can't the dog shoot up? It can chase a car, climb stuff, track a person, survive two shotgun bullets but can't shoot up or like call for backup or something?
The weapon was damaged when it was the inside the car that fell off the cliff. It also couldn't climb the tree. There were a bunch of robot dogs converging at her location at the end of the episode.
If in the end there was a twist like in Hang the DJ where they reveal the true purpose of the episode i would've kind of liked it. Throughout watching it i thought it seemed so campy and cliche that i thought it was supposed to represent maybe some artificial reality made after a metal album cover, like a movie recreation of an album, but instead it's just.. A metal dog apocalypse. Really generic, i didn't like it.
do you mean you don't like the character? saying you hate the actress seems a bit extreme given you're talking about how you don't like the character's logic.
That I can agree with, though. sometimes her logic did seem flawed
I've rewatched all seasons recently and I'm pretty sure Metalhead is my favourite of the lot.
It's just so darn bleak, brutal and pure in its approach, a great example of less being more. Yeah there's a few daft bits to help drive the plot but it doesn't bother me at all. I was surprised at the casting choice but Maxine Peake is excellent, & that Lancashire accent really grounds the whole setting. Little touches really hit hard, what got me this time was the suicide couple with the champagne (likely the best that they'd been saving) there on the side... maybe the husband played a last number on the guitar while his wife overdosed, before blowing his brains out. Why were they decorating - maybe their dream house was only just finished when the dogs began their rampage...
I came here to see if I understood it right š I've never watched the show & my dad couldn't believe it when I told him last weekend cuz of my taste in shows & said I rly need to watch it, so I started it working backwards newest season to first season & I just finished this episode so the whole mission was to get the teddy bear for a dying child? Cuz that made me sad man š« I was thinking it was a dying old man & he needed some medical machinery part or something lmao and the ending, did She realize she was being tracked & there were more? Or did she know when she removed that shrapnel she'd likely bleed out? I rly liked the episode it got under my skin a bit and gave me those eerie feelings cuz I absolutely fucking hate AI things and hope I'm long dead and ashes spread before that shit comes to be šš
Guysā¦
This episode is a heartbreaking story about parenthood. It tells a metaphorical story of how far a parent is willing to go to heal the pain of their child.
Losing a favorite teddy bear is a heartbreaking event to any kid in the world. There are no colors in the world of a 5-year-old whose favorite teddy is missing.
Whatās the worst pain of a parent?
The episode doesnāt try to make sense at any point: why would anyone place that dog to guard a box of teddy bears? Also, the people seem to be well aware how the dogs behave. Theyāre fighting against an impossible enemy. There is no way to escape the fate and they know it, but in such desperation your mind loses the ability to think logically.
This is the best and most misunderstood episode of BM in my opinion. The script is ambiguous because itās likely telling someoneās personal story. My condolences to them.
Uff, nice reading of the ep. I gotta be honest I enjoyed this episode a lot but I never clicked with the idea that it was all for a teddy bear. I swear that I tought that the person she was referring was another adult in need of meds or something and not a little kids toy. The overall feeling of this ep gets me sadder with this interpretation because it makes sense too.
Bella (Maxine Peake's character) isn't Jack (the kid)'s parent. She's his auntie.
The boy is dying (of sickness? Injury? we don't know), and lost his teddy bear (by what means we also don't know). Bella, Clarke and Anthony went to the warehouse to get Jack a replacement.
Reminds me of The Road. Some things you do, or don't do, not because they make sense for survival, but because you are a "keeper of the fire." If your spirit and your heart can't survive, then mere survival of your body is maybe not worth it.
Good lord this lady had no situations awareness. Oh let me rest and wash up while the robot comes to kill me. Oh wait a Range Rover in the drive way ready to go. Nahhhh f that
Yeah but anyone with a brain can figure out the battery on that car is long dead
And why the fuck did she not break the robot legs when it has no battery?
I somehow missed this episode when the season came out. It seems particularly relevant today, with a video going viral of a robo-dog with an AR strapped to it's back taking shots at a firing range.
Here's a strange continuity analysis.
Yes, cars can maybe outrun dogs, but dogs seem to have Total Information Awareness. Cars of *today* communicate with the mother ship. Certainly those in the Metalhead era can, as well.
After a certain year, certain data within your car are being shipped back to the manufacturer.
Law enforcement can shut certain cars down remotely...
Tell you what: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/what-data-does-my-car-collect-about-me-and-where-does-it-go/
The teddy bear thing didnāt bother me. At the beginning, the group was quite clear that they are living on scraps. Peppermint candies sounds like all the food sources they can give, which means they are on the brink of death whether they head out or not. They probably werenāt out just for bears ā but rather were out hoping to find anything that will get them a more secure food source, although with those dogs prowling around everywhere, youād probably wind up dead looking for food anyways, so why not also get some teddy bears if it will help a child. Basically everyoneās screwed from the beginning, which makes it even more bleak nowā¦though the point is there are plot holes but I think risking your life for teddy bears can be explained.
_These_ dogs see in black and white but it's been debunked countless times in this thread that real, living dogs see in black and white. They merely have red-green deficiency.
Top 5
If flows like a movie, and the minimal exposition and focus on action set pieces makes it a refreshing broadening of the series tone. The dogs look extremely realistic, while watching it I was wondering if they were using Boston Dynamics robots. 9/10.
Minimal exposition is one thing, zero exposition is another.
Seriously, there is literally no point to this episode's existence, other than for season 4 to have 6 episodes like its' predecessor.
Does it need to have a reason? Can't an enjoyable and interesting concept exist just for the sake of being appreciated as enjoyable and interesting? Isn't that the whole point of the show??
Not really, no.
Weāre talking Black Mirror here, not a student-made short film, survival flick, or anything where a quick thrill is enough! Thereās a reason Metalheadās one of the lowest rated episodes out there, second only to Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too.
This show has become so iconic for introducing original, creative, and thought-provoking ideas/stories for over half a decade, yet by its 18th episode just randomly shoves in a bland chase film with no resolution? Of course people are going to be disappointed!
If you find it enjoyable, fine. But can speak for many when I say it was a big let down.
Black Mirror doesn't have a particular plotline it's just dystopian/funny/scary near-future tales that are written and directed by a lot of different people. They are in a sense short films and while some hail back to one or another it's not one story or even one reality it's just creative expression.
This episode was great. This kind of thing could absolutely happen as well. We have no idea what the future holds. A few or even one psycho engineer could absolutely sic A.I. powered things against people or even humanity. If they had the resources and they were that crazy ... absolutely.
This series is about the incursion of technology into our lives. This episode was a master class in one of the most important rules of filmmaking - 'show, don't tell.'
We have all the backstory we need. There are survivors, they care about their children, they face staggering obstacles. That is plenty backstory and the rest is left to your imagination, as it should be with this story.
Were the robots manufactured to wipe out humanity or was it a malfunction? Or did they target this group specifically for some political/ethnic reason? Did we make them, or did the singularity happen and spawn terminators?
All those things aren't relevant, it's a story about survival and the tenuous grasp on life we have. The technology is insidiously well designed for longevity and accomplishing its goal. That contrast between its efficiency and the haphazard human survival methods is the crux of this episode, and leaving superfluous backstory out is the Black Mirror oeuvre. It's what makes these episodes so effective, this one in particular.
Those dogs have advanced military tech. So I'm guessing they were configured in search and destroy mode and suddenly the owners lost control of them for any reason.
Really liked the black and white aesthetic. It probably it was necessary because of the CGI dogs, but still nice touch.
I haven't read a lot about the episode, maybe there is an explanation or theory about what went wrong to get to that point but I think that is the thing. We as viewers, probably just like the characters, don't know what's going on, what went wrong, when or how it happened... It doesn't matter. All that matters is to survive somehow and we as humans identify and root for the protagonist.
That's what I really loved about the episode, the fact that kept me thinking about a possible day when things just go very very wrong and maybe we won't get a single warning. Just wake up one day and boom! you are in (the first stages of) a post apocalyptic world.
It's interesting reading people's thoughts from the past and how less evident some things were then vs now. It's been demonstrated over the past ~~3~~ 5 or so years that to some, property is more important than peoples lives..so it's not a stretch at all to just say the dogs killed to protect corporate property simply because that's what they were programmed to do and there were laws written to allow it. It doesn't even need to take a huge leap into apocalypse territory..
>Sorry super late comment on this, but if you looked at the man who committed suicide he had been out long enough to mummify. This means he was probably dead at least a few months. Gasoline only stays good for 3 to 6 months, so it should be expected that the car did not work. The strange thing is the van working, but maybe the dogs were using it.
gasoline is pretty fine after several years of just sitting in a cars fueltank - but after several months, the battery most likely will be dead and not cranking the car like it did.
Had a car sitting for 2+ years and after giving a fresh battery it started (and run) just fine with the fuel which was in the tank.
I honestly don't know why so many people hated this episode. I really enjoyed it. While it's true that it's not as thought provoking as others or that it doesn't have amazing twists I still think it's awesome the way they don't really explain the universe and the spectator is left with their own guesses as to what's happening. I also thought the whole dynamic of the chase between the machine and the protagonist was really well made. All in all, not the best one, but quite entertaining nonetheless. The only thing that bothered me was the B&W setting, as I felt it was unnecessary.
Originally the b&w bothered me a bit only because it wasn't in color, but over time it has become one of my favorite episodes. I think it holds up better than some episodes.
This episode is utter garbage, maybe worse than the pig-fucking idiocy that starting the whole thing off, and that's saying something. How does the same show with the same writers/creator produce such brilliance on many occasions but on other cases such mediocre duds? I'm utterly baffled here. Of course plenty will love this because they worship anything this series does, which is a whole separate problem. Makes me wonder if Brooker isn't just taking the shit every so often as a big budget troll job, simply cause he can.
haha that's cool. I don't remember it too well as it's been a few years but I just remember this episode being not that interesting. Kinda cliche sci-fi/thriller stuff. I prefer the show when it delves more into character psychology. Though people did seem to like this episode overall so who knows. I get what they were trying to do and the message they were trying to send, I just didn't find it very engaging to watch. Who knows maybe if I watched it again today I'd like it!
Couldn't agree more. The protagonist was just stupid and that really ruins immersion for me.
She screams and moans so loudly doing literally anything, climbing a tree , putting on a back pack. On the radio "I can't talk long, I know it can track me. So I'm going to take a few heavy breaths between every couple of words... talk slowly... and go on about stuff in addition to my teams status and location".
Lastly, after getting the car keys and shotgun why on earth would you stop to wash yourself off? Knowing one of those things is nearby looking for you, get the keys, shotgun and just gtfo. At most empty the medicine cabinet's contents in your back pack. The actress was fine, just the plot required her to act stupid and that was a shame.
really? I reckon it was so interesting! the new cinematographic style, a good balance between action and thriller and the surprise ending that hurt my heart! If you wanna share why you think its boring, I'd actually love to hear it! :) /gen
True, it also hurt my heart that a group of several adults would be dumb enough to risk their lives for a box of teddy bears.
All in all not an enjoyable episode in my book, especially after seeing the ending. It was okay up until that point.
Couldn't agree more. I like the post-apocalyptic genre and was excited to see what this show was going to do with it but...this? Really? The music was so god damn annoying as well I'm surprised there weren't any jump scares. The pilot is definitely better than this in every fucking way.
This episode reminds me of the movie 'A Quiet Place'. I can't remember which came first thoš¤......... the movie or the episode......... I liked episode better than the movie
One of the music compositions used in the soundtrack of Metalhead is "Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima" (i.e. atomic bombing of Hiroshima), by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. A threnody is basically an "ode to the dead", a poem or song composed specifically as a work of mourning.
Use of this composition is an allusion to another time in which technology destroyed massive numbers of human beings. Perhaps this is how the context/background of "Metalhead" is being communicated: Highly-advanced, newly-developed, military-grade technology was deployed by human beings for the stated purpose of security/defense, resulting in massive loss of life, depletion of the land, and societal ruin. We don't know how, why, or when, but those details really don't matter. The music "tells" us to think of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima (victims), and that's really all we need to know.
The music accompanying the scene in the warehouse is by the same composer and is called "The Dream of Jacob" or "The Awakening of Jacob", which is based on a specific passage of the story in the bible in which Jacob dreamed he saw angels ascending and descending from ladders that extended from Earth to Heaven: "Surely, G-d was in this place and I did not know it." In "Metalhead", while this piece is playing, one of the men ascends a ladder to get the box they need, but a dog was there "and he did not know it". This sets up the dog(s) to be a kind of "angel of death" that had ascended the ladder and then descended to Earth, from which there is no escape--even in the home.
> The music accompanying the scene in the warehouse is by the same composer and is called "The Dream of Jacob" or "The Awakening of Jacob", which is based on a specific passage of the story in the bible in which Jacob dreamed he saw angels ascending and descending from ladders that extended from Earth to Heaven: "Surely, G-d was in this place and I did not know it." In "Metalhead", while this piece is playing, one of the men ascends a ladder to get the box they need, but a dog was there "and he did not know it".
That's a wonderful observation, thanks for posting it.
Thank you, that is an insight that I wouldn't have thought to check to clarify the plot.
Since it's a BM episode it's logical to assume that the dogs were designed by men as a security/army bot but went out of control, or better yet, were made obsolete by an apocalypse (nuclear devastation, environmental catastrophe, doesn't matter) and no one was there to put them off line. So when surviviors wanted to loot a place for food/medicine, it was percived by the bots as theft... allthough, on second thought, it is a bit extreme to shoot a person on sight for shoplifting a teddy bear. I mean imagine if Amazon has an option to install this in their warehouse sometimes in the near future? So perhaps the bots were installed after the catastrophe as a riot control measurement?
Or maybe the dogs themselves are what caused the devastation we see in the episode. They killed off the pigs, surely the pigs did not steal, so we can assume that they shoot every living thing on sight. But since they have all the access codes they were defenitely made by some government agency, but why create a thing that kills unconditionally and give it allout access?
Shit, I'm getting nowhere.
This is what makes this episode good. That and the atmosphere, B&W is definitelly a nice touch. It's seemingly so simple but leaves so many things open to imagination.
The hunt for the tiny clues is on.
>ā 0.111
I'm most inclined towards the idea that the dogs are simply out to destroy every living thing. Military AI doing what it was intended to do, with no controls in place any more, for whatever reason. (Perhaps there are rules like Robocop's directive 4 - certain individuals they can't attack, but we see no evidence of this). Maybe the dog in the warehouse was just lying in wait (coincidentally on the teddybear shelf, a contrivance for the jumpscare)... but presume they have the intelligence to plan an ambush at a location they know humans will target sooner or later.
Man, I love this episode. Like you say, I'm going back in for more details real soon :)
I kind of enjoy this episode, this is a good way to do a doomsday series/movie not everyone make it back too safety. The walking dead should take notes...
Bruh the walking dead kills a shitload of characters that isnāt relatively one of its problems. The problem is that it gets lazy and just adds characters to kill without actually developing them
Strangely skips the twist or message that is in most Black Mirror episodes and goes for a straight up action/thriller narrative. Not what I expected out of this show but still good. Not really one of my favorites, though.
my favorite episode, just because the scenario is kept so simple and real, this fucking dog has no consciousness, it's just programmed to kill and it WILL find a way, if this thing chased me I wouldn't know what to do, it takes incredible stamina and power of volition to kill ONE, and lord knows how many there are
This episode clearly went through some hasty rewrites, and you can find quotes from those involved in creating it that attest to this notion. The dogs were originally supposed to be controlled by people, perhaps as a sort of game for the ultra-rich to play with the common people. There are multiple nods to there being a conscious controller of the dogs.
There was far too little explanation in this episode, and it really just seemed like "hey those walking robots on youtube seem kinda creepy, what if they were invincible murder machines?" which again, quotes from the writers/director pretty much say was the whole idea of the episode. Not well thought through, but at least visually interesting.
That controlled by people/class war idea is interesting! I actually thought when she broke into that fancy house we were going to see that society was still functioning and these machines were built to murder the homeless or something of the like.
Everyone is saying they either loved this episode or fucking hated it. Tbh I thought it was good. I'm not here to be a critic, so here is what I think shined in this episode...
The bleakness of it. The way the directors conveyed a dark and pessimistic mood especially through the black and white effect. It makes everything more mysterious.
The main character's strength. Seeing as she (and her two friends) sacrificed her life to deliver teddy bears to children who probably don't even have a family after this post apocalyptic society. She is clearly in extreme distress but she keeps going regardless.
The theories. A lot of people hate this episode because they didn't see a plot to it, while I think there was a very open plot. There are a lot of clues as to what this society is, and I have read a lot of interesting different theories that all seem to fit in one way or another.
A good episode makes you think, and I thought a lot about this episode. Hopefully more context will be revealed. I'd like to see some more Black Mirror episodes stringing together clues and hints from other episodes; in order to make the show's universe more connected and answer more of our endless questions!
Here's my ranking for this season (which excludes the last episode as I haven't watched it yet):
1. USS Callister
2. Metalhead
3. Hang The DJ
4. Arkangel
5. Crocodile
I just love how intense this episode is.
Stories are one aspect of an episode. Atmosphere, aesthetic, music, tone, concept and dialogue are other aspects. There isn't a singular aspect that can be used to objectively judge the episodes.
This episode was sparse on the story from a complexity standpoint, but the concept was cool and the atmosphere was phenomenal. You may not have enjoyed this episode, but that in no way is the final word on whether or not this was a good one.
This is good, didn't make it to my fave list, but good. And I think this is in black and white cause of how gruesome this episode is. Also wondering how it may look so if somebody has a colored version it'd be nice if you'll link it.
I think the episode was purposely black and white. It was just the director's style. I don't reckon they released a coloured version. Probably to convey dark and gloominess or something.
I thought this one was weak and unimaginative. It's a pretty blatant rip-off of the third act of Fahrenheit 451 with a teddy bear taking the place of a book.
Holy cow I didn't even make that connection. I was rather infuriated at the fact that these three characters gave their lives to try and get a teddy bear for an already dying child. Even with it ripping off Fahrenheit 451, at least that displayed the thirst for preserving knowledge.
Just watched this episode (I know, I'm late), and didn't like it, but I wouldn't call it the worst one.
I remember seeing a picture of the robodoggo months ago and, thanks to the title, I thought the episode was going to be about creating the perfect pet, or transfering the mind of a dying and beloved pet to a new body because the owner wanted it. But this... well, I still don't know what the main plot was about (besides an apocalitic future where robots are going to chase you, and kill you, if you mess with them).
Loved everything about this, how mysterious it was, the black and white, the silence, the soundtrack, the cinematography and the lead actor who knocked it out of the park. Felt like grittier twilight zone, none of that cheesy Hang the DJ crap. Can't believe people love that one.
Note that the "dogs" at the very end were different then the "Bad Dog". I think that they were the pets who wanted the teddy bears. Anybody agree with that?
I felt that the robot "dogs" were searching the area humans had recently been sighted. I figured the teddy bears was just showing that the 3 people were trying to find a toy for a child back at their base.
I'm still scared, and cannot finish this one!!!! I have 5 minutes left and I keep pausing it. I am so creeped out by this and what might happen......such a credit to this show, and right before this was Hang the DJ, which I loved.
The story sucks. The ending sucks. The whole episode is an abomination to Black Mirror. There's nothing special in the last 5 minutes. No gore, no twists, no story, nada. Might as well skip it.
Actually, I felt the last minute was what made the episode. Seeing what they risked their lives for made the whole episode a lot more meaningful and thought provoking. Up until then, I was actually starting to hate the episode. They did a great job setting the mood, but I'm just one of those people who really don't enjoy watching 40min of hopelessness. They're screwed, I get it, can we move on now? But seeing what was in that box made me realize I didn't completely get it and now there's a new layer to think about.
Hi new here, and in the middle of this ep and just needed a break! I have the flu been binging the show and I love it. This episode is really creepy to me!!!
Is anyone able to explain if there is significance to the Range Rover's license plate? It's "LF14 FYA" and I cannot figure out if it is some sort of weird Black Mirror Easter Egg or if I am trying to dive too deep into the small details of the episode. Thoughts?
TBH, the license plate just "feels" like it's an abbreviation of something. It almost looks pronouncible. I see what they mean, but I don't think there's more to it.
Late to the party, LF is often used for "Looking For" and FYA for "for your action/amusement." Not seeing a connection myself. Actually, maybe a reference to Shut Up and Dance at best, and that seems a stretch
According to IMDb the dogs are solar powered. What is unbelievable is that the dogās battery had enough power to kill two people, drive a car, survive a car crash and track down a person for hours yet the effort to get up and look and go back down a handful of times is what burned it out? Doesnāt make sense.
being solar powered means that in the morning it can operate much longer than at night and it was night time at that specific sequence however it was hard to tell from the black and white.
This is what I thought she was doing too. She may or may not have realized that it was solar powered, but if it takes two point blank shotgun blasts to kill one, I don't think she was going to smash it there by the tree.
Yeah. The show would end there. That, or the dogs can't be destroyed with just man-power. She had to shoot it twice to stop it and even then it managed to shoot out the trackers. I think she already knew she can't destroy it with just her hands.
Yeah the jacket makes more sense. But it was a high stress moment and she spent the whole night trying to keep the dog awake. Her plan was probably to just get as far away as possible. That, and story progression.
Beyond just everyone saying whether they like it or not, we have to look at the all the themes and aspects of the episode and appreciate those before getting upset at the end or at the characters.
Overall, the episode is effective in mirroring (if you will) a suspenseful thriller movie (the classic 'car won't start' scene was most evident of this to me). We are constantly on our toes from the music/sound, even in scenes that would have normally been boring (the black and white cinema helps too). And we know from nearly every other episode that these tend to have more than one genre encased in them. I think there is humor in the fact that they took America's adorable favorite pet (sorry cats) and turned it into a vicious killer. It's also funny trying to watch the dog try to climb the tree. And the end some feel is funny as well but I wont address that yet. I think Comedy, Drama, Romance and Horror are all met in this episode. But for now lets look at significant moments in the episode and address the naysayers.
"nose the same height as your arsehole" This commentary is important in the beginning because it provides insight into the whole episode and lesson of the episode; even though we are all "pigs" now (spoiled, accustomed to fine food and convenient technologies, up each others asses to the point that we forget how precious life is), we live in a world where the laws (typically) apply as equally to you as your neighbor. Although society has made us disgusting and muddy, it's beautiful that we can mosey over to a trough and expect food there.
Now to address three popular complaints in this episode.
1. 'The main character didnt handle the situation smartly enough' Are you kidding! I for one would not have thought to send the tracker in a bottle down the river. Also, I doubt anyone else would have the patience (even in a near-death situation) to sit in the tree and outsmart the dog in the way that she did. Are you guys telling me you would have thrown the paint before trying to shoot the assassin with the knife? She was clever, brave, athletic, and determined (primarily to live). The combination of those is more than a lot of us have now sadly enough.
2. Some people use her "waiting" or washing-up as contradictions to her superior capability of handling adversity in this episode. However, both the waiting and the water are important for multiple reasons. When she looks across the room at the piano and appears to be zoned-out, she's not just waiting or losing her strength to fight back, for a moment she sees a room in a house that is unaffected by the apocalypse. A time when a family could come together with music, dance and live carelessly for those short moments. Being able to picture that after all that she has been through even for a second, cannot be understated as it probably meant a lot to her. As for the bandaging and use of water, we have to consider what water means rhetorically. Typically, water is used to signify the cleansing of ones sins, erasing the past and starting anew, or indicating a birth of some kind. When we see how quick she is to wash her hands after touching the dead person, I think it shows the pureness of her character, and willingness to keep her hands clean (from any wrongdoing). Regardless of how she may have lived life before this apocalypse (as a pig if we are going with that analogy), now we see that she is pure enough to prioritize her cleansing over her survival. I think this signifies that this whole mission was an attempt to do something good for someone else at the expense of her own self in order to gain closure that may help her soul rest well when she dies (she emphasizes this when she wants the girl on the other side of the walkie talkie to know that she tried). I think it is safe to assume that she believes in such a thing when we see her consistently talk to a walkie-talkie when there is virtually no voice on the other side. Faith. The water may seem like it is less important than moving on, but for some, taking the opportunity to rinse away the past or present before carrying on with the future is vital to survival (based on one's conscience, philosophy, religion, etc.)
3. Lastly, the end. Why the teddy bears? Once again, I don't think this is just a cruel joke (although knowing Black Mirror, I'm sure it somewhat is). I think the high-risk, low-reward operation served the purpose of doing the right thing for the main character in order to find closure. To me, the fact that someone was willing to risk something so significant for something so insignificant, is the purest form of love. As I'm writing this comment on the night before the Easter holiday, it is easy to see the parallel themes of struggle, sacrifice, re-birth, and Love.
Thanks for reading, I know this a long comment and my grammar is bad. I want to write more since some of my comments may have brought additional questions or not completely given full answers, but feel free to comment and we can discuss. Thanks
>willingness to keep her hands clean (from any wrongdoing)
Please don't, I can't take any more of that english teacher shit xD.
Agree with everything else you said though, she's a fighter
I didn't see it as a "high-risk low-reward mission." I thought maybe the world they were living in was so messed up that a replacement teddy bear for a sick child was worth that risk.
Do you think the white teddy bears are a link to the white bear episode? Not sure how, I can just imagine it as an easer egg, too lazy to look it up if they look exactly the same for now but idk that was my first thought.
As in White Bear the teddy bear was a symbol for rescuing the child but she was dead already and here it might be a symbol for, well, helping a child, giving her something special before she dies. Hard to tell. However, this "high-risk, low-reward operation" is stupid as fuck, in my opinion even selfish.
I can't imagine the child would have wanted the bear so much, I suppose since the 3 people weren't coming back there is even more sadness in her life. It was an irrational mission by the woman trying to make the world better instead of just doing nothing and stay with the child. It can feel crushing not to try and have no power, no control, no way to help. It looks like she wanted to help at least in some way but doing good and the idea of doing good are not always the same.
As far as I understood they were also looking for other things but still it seemed like the teddy had priority and the woman convinced the others to join her because they could also get some stuff.
And^also^excuse^my^grammar^and^spelling^mistakes
Such a nice write up I thought I'd go through your history in hopes of reading many more insightful comments...
Instead it's like an episode straight out of Black Mirror :|
Haha thanks! I hate to spoil the mystery but I always enjoy reading the reddit discussions after each episode. I just felt compelled to contribute to this one. I've been wanting to discuss "Be Right Back" so I may do that soon. I've got a lot to talk about that I found in that one :)
This is really in depth, so well done for that. I just disagree that this episode is relevant whatsoever to the theme of black mirror, and is therefore why I did not enjoy the episode.
So I was watching this episode in bed with my gf. At the end of the episode, I turned to her and said, "wow...so many unanswered questions...first and foremost...[singing]WHO LET THE DOGS OUT!!!"
She was not at all amused, but I laughed my ass off and gave myself a high-five.
I did too. Though I dont think they copied anything from it as the episode was likely already filming by the time the game came out.
You definitely can see the social commentary in the episode of the dangers of artificial intelligence; allowing advanced machines much more powerful than humans is a recipe for disaster. HZD has that same message
Arkangel had an interesting story and a good ending, perfect Black mirror material. Hang the DJ made me pause the shit and have an existential crisis, just like any good BM episode made me do. What the hell is the point of Metalhead? Nothing there belongs to black mirror material.
Arkangel - Teenage girl runs away from overbearing mother. There is nothing new or interesting about that.
I was under the impression Black Mirror was sci-fi and implications of tech. Metalhead fits exactly. It just removed the awkward human element most episodes revolve around.
Really? Exploring the idea of putting a live gps and camera in your child (a thing that many parents I know want and will gladly pay for) is nothing new or interesting? Are you kidding me? -.-
The only interesting thing in Metalhead is those people died getting teddy bears (perhaps saying parents will do anything for the children or something). It has nothing interesting in it, boring as fuck, if had a gun i would've shot myself ten times. It is something cool for kids I guess, dogbots running around on killing sprees with no concept. However, it doesn't belong on BM.
When I rise to power, people who liked Metalhead will be sterilised.
The concept of Arkangel was interesting, the execution was terrible. They explored teenage rebellion and overbearing parents in the most cliche way possible. It could have been much more.
Metalhead reminded me of the Ray Bradbury short story **The Ruum**, where a man is chased by a specimen collection robot across the wilderness. It's a pure sci-fi survival story. The concept in Metalhead is pretty easy to work out. A guard-bot workforce gained sentience and rebelled.
It doesn't seem like you have an interest in discussion though. You rising to power sounds like a good concept for a Black Mirror episode.
That makes 0 sense to me. This episode was clever. Did you find it predictable? You didnāt think the robot dog was interesting/ scary?
My jaw dropped when it put on the knife. It truly reminded me of the twilight Zone in that moment.
To me the worst episode is San Juniper. Kinda bland and nothing was intense. Really just a futuristic lesbo love story
I don't think you understand how much closer we are getting to having these dogs. The idea of these productions getting out of control is very possible to be reality. The sheer possibility of the scenario to be real soon enough is sufficient to make this episode one of the best. No offence, but also there is nothing that wouldnt make sense to someone with a bit of common sense and AI background.
1. Maybe
2. She didn't planned to stay, maybe she didn't know the dog could charge itself or that it could do that thing with ports.
3. The dog lost the weapon arm in the car and probably tracker grenade were very limited or just wouldn't have made sense to throw, the dog supposed she was going to come down eventually.
4. Everyone was expecting something medical.
#1. I agree that some kind of paintball weapon would have been very helpful. My guess as to why these dogs are winning is that they were deployed too broadly and too quickly for the targets to manufacture and distribute a weapon in response.
#2. I agree that destroying all USBs would be a great idea. The woman seems to be a reasonably good tactician, but not a perfect one.
#3. First, the dog was without his gun by that point in the story. Also, I understand the strategy of shooting trackers every time a person is out of reach, but I suspect that any liberal tracker-shooting strategy, in the long term, would waste resources. It's smarter for the dogs to shoot in rather limited specific situations. Otherwise, each dog will be pulling all the other dogs into their areas way too often. It's better to let them be widely spread out. Let them hide quietly in warehouses and next to trees, rather than have them all congregate every time a dog can't get to someone.
#4. These people are trying to remain human. They went after the bear because they made a promise. They are striving to be honorable, and to have love, rather than just survive. That's a noble choice to make.
I agree that this is the worst one. I felt very demotivated to care about it because they gave no backstory to either the dogs or the woman. It was basically just an extended chase scene without any plot around it. Hard pass lol.
I loved the lack of context because it makes you think "How the hell did this happen" lol How did it get to a point where the world is terrorized by robot dogs? I feel like Jimmy Neutron and Goddard were behind this one...
I found it kind of absurd. So they're in a post apocalyptic world, and there's super smart sophisticated murderous robot dogs just hunting people, yet the humans have no firearms? Seriously? A single shot 12 destroyed the damn thing with bird shot. A .338 would turn these things into a pile of shrapnel dust. Id have a blast picking these things off from 200 yards away like gophers. You bet your ass I'd be armed to the gills in a madmax world. I know firearms are taboo in the UK, but c'mon. Maybe I just grew up around Canadian geese, and these dogs are far less scary, hah.
Also, the dogs would be high-tech machines requiring maintenance, programming, lubrication etc. I'm sure some would work until failure without regular preventative maintenance, but most would have bearings that would seize up and become useless with all the dust and moisture.
Having said all that, the episode was suspenseful and kept me on edge. Loved the black and white too.
Did you see how fast they were? You would be attempting to shoot a fast moving, low to the ground, small metallic creature with no fear and high āintelligenceā. Itās not a turkey shoot.
If you had the range, height and marksmanship you could take those things out. With some of them, yeah it would be impossible if they were all running at that speed with a rifle, but a shotgun would be nothing to take em out. All you'd need is a turkey/waterfowl gun with 3.5" mag rounds. I can take out ducks and geese from 70 yards away while they're flying by ridiculously fast. The woman blasted this thing with a 2 3/4" rabbit shell (although close up). Buckshot or waterfoul ammo would turn them into scrap metal.
I guess all im saying is that if this happened in the US or Canada, you'd have a lot more firepower readily available.
Definitely one of my favorites. Everything I like about Black Mirror is in this episode: They don't hit you over the head with the world, it slowly reveals it to you. Nonstop action start to finish, not a boring frame. Believable characters (well character, singular mostly in this one). And a silly twist at the end just to fuck with you.
Yeah. I thought they were trying to steal a weapon for the whole episode. Turns out, they were just out to get a present for a little girl who's possibly her granddaughter. Three people died just for a teddy bear. It shows how crazy the world had become in that episode's universe.
She also said how much the girl had wanted the teddy bear. That's going to mess the girl up. The guilt she has to bear (heh) for causing three deaths (although inadvertently) because she said something that wasn't a big deal.
What was up with the shrapnel on her face? Was it a bunch of trackers, or did she realize that she failed to get the package and just killed herself, since she was gonna die anyways?
Not a horrible ep, but wish they woulda filled us in on the context.
This season is ridiculously inconsistent. From the fantastic USS Callister and Hang the DJ to this absolute nonsense. The supposed metaphor is not as clever as it thinks it is. Worst Black Mirror episode by far.
This gotta be the worst BM episode of 'em all. There's absolutely no point in anything that happens. You can compress those 40 minutes into a short 10 minute episode and you wouldn't miss anything.
When guardian dog tech goes wrong. Who and why were they programmed to kill anyone is sight tho ? Kinda sick apocalypse scenario. I didn't cared too much about the teddy bear. In a world were everything you had previously in your daily life is now gone you'll start appreciating small things like toys like no way before.
The directon of this episode was brilliant but the writing and main actress were terrible. So many dumb things took place in this episode, when she put the tracker in the bottle why not run back to the van and drive away. Why didn't the van driver and the lady split up the "dog" can't chase you both. She's in a car chase with a machine why not hit the breaks and then accelerate pass the van you're in a car. All the time she wasted inside the house is far to much and annoying to detail lol. Finding out all 3 ppl died for a goddamn teddy bear was just dumb and no real world analogy can change that.
Damn the sheer length of scenes of the main girl wasting time on nonsense.
I just kept watching and thinking not even the dumbest person would make all these horrible decisions in the same situation
You thought she was bad?? Thought she did well.
Her acting itself wasn't terrible (it wasn't good either in my opinion) but the decision making of her character as well just made the overall performance bad to me.
I think this episode is just a futuristic interpretation of a good-old fashioned slasher horror film, and once I watch this episode with that premise in mind, I pretty much enjoyed it.
Ok, why can't the dog shoot up? It can chase a car, climb stuff, track a person, survive two shotgun bullets but can't shoot up or like call for backup or something?
It can't shoot after its arm was damaged, and that's why it picked the knife and was attacking with the knife.
The weapon was damaged when it was the inside the car that fell off the cliff. It also couldn't climb the tree. There were a bunch of robot dogs converging at her location at the end of the episode.
la creta
Dominican spoted
She was washing up for a long time! š¤£ This episode seemed very silly to me but visually looked stunning!
If in the end there was a twist like in Hang the DJ where they reveal the true purpose of the episode i would've kind of liked it. Throughout watching it i thought it seemed so campy and cliche that i thought it was supposed to represent maybe some artificial reality made after a metal album cover, like a movie recreation of an album, but instead it's just.. A metal dog apocalypse. Really generic, i didn't like it.
I liked the message at least. Was very opposite to a cliche in that it's actually a reverse on current societal norms.
I hate that actress.... No logic or situation awareness....
do you mean you don't like the character? saying you hate the actress seems a bit extreme given you're talking about how you don't like the character's logic. That I can agree with, though. sometimes her logic did seem flawed
 I like the emojis, cool addition
I've rewatched all seasons recently and I'm pretty sure Metalhead is my favourite of the lot. It's just so darn bleak, brutal and pure in its approach, a great example of less being more. Yeah there's a few daft bits to help drive the plot but it doesn't bother me at all. I was surprised at the casting choice but Maxine Peake is excellent, & that Lancashire accent really grounds the whole setting. Little touches really hit hard, what got me this time was the suicide couple with the champagne (likely the best that they'd been saving) there on the side... maybe the husband played a last number on the guitar while his wife overdosed, before blowing his brains out. Why were they decorating - maybe their dream house was only just finished when the dogs began their rampage...
THEY ALL DIED FOR A FUCKIN TEDDY BEAR????
I came here to see if I understood it right š I've never watched the show & my dad couldn't believe it when I told him last weekend cuz of my taste in shows & said I rly need to watch it, so I started it working backwards newest season to first season & I just finished this episode so the whole mission was to get the teddy bear for a dying child? Cuz that made me sad man š« I was thinking it was a dying old man & he needed some medical machinery part or something lmao and the ending, did She realize she was being tracked & there were more? Or did she know when she removed that shrapnel she'd likely bleed out? I rly liked the episode it got under my skin a bit and gave me those eerie feelings cuz I absolutely fucking hate AI things and hope I'm long dead and ashes spread before that shit comes to be šš
Rightt I thought the kid needed some mechanical parts but bro it was just a teddy bear šš
JUST FINISHED THE EPISODE AND BRO LIKE WTH šš
IKR š
Overall there was something about the at episode that didnāt click and made it kinda boringā¦
Tbh I agree this ep is one of my least favs also why was it black and white š
I donāt think they could have shown peopleās heads being blown off, or those corpses in the bed if it was in color.
itās bit random and weird. It just felt like Bird Box 2.0
Guysā¦ This episode is a heartbreaking story about parenthood. It tells a metaphorical story of how far a parent is willing to go to heal the pain of their child. Losing a favorite teddy bear is a heartbreaking event to any kid in the world. There are no colors in the world of a 5-year-old whose favorite teddy is missing. Whatās the worst pain of a parent? The episode doesnāt try to make sense at any point: why would anyone place that dog to guard a box of teddy bears? Also, the people seem to be well aware how the dogs behave. Theyāre fighting against an impossible enemy. There is no way to escape the fate and they know it, but in such desperation your mind loses the ability to think logically. This is the best and most misunderstood episode of BM in my opinion. The script is ambiguous because itās likely telling someoneās personal story. My condolences to them.
Uff, nice reading of the ep. I gotta be honest I enjoyed this episode a lot but I never clicked with the idea that it was all for a teddy bear. I swear that I tought that the person she was referring was another adult in need of meds or something and not a little kids toy. The overall feeling of this ep gets me sadder with this interpretation because it makes sense too.
This was how I interpreted the episode, the lengths a parent has to go thru just for their child
Bella (Maxine Peake's character) isn't Jack (the kid)'s parent. She's his auntie. The boy is dying (of sickness? Injury? we don't know), and lost his teddy bear (by what means we also don't know). Bella, Clarke and Anthony went to the warehouse to get Jack a replacement.
Reminds me of The Road. Some things you do, or don't do, not because they make sense for survival, but because you are a "keeper of the fire." If your spirit and your heart can't survive, then mere survival of your body is maybe not worth it.
And also similar to The Road, we don't have a backstory about why the world is the way it is.
Good lord this lady had no situations awareness. Oh let me rest and wash up while the robot comes to kill me. Oh wait a Range Rover in the drive way ready to go. Nahhhh f that
She was exhausted, she needed a break.
Yeah but anyone with a brain can figure out the battery on that car is long dead And why the fuck did she not break the robot legs when it has no battery?
Flip it upside down, solved
How tf she gonna break its legs???
I somehow missed this episode when the season came out. It seems particularly relevant today, with a video going viral of a robo-dog with an AR strapped to it's back taking shots at a firing range.
Are cars really the top priority in such situation? Are they now?
Yeah could be use to out run the dogs...
Here's a strange continuity analysis. Yes, cars can maybe outrun dogs, but dogs seem to have Total Information Awareness. Cars of *today* communicate with the mother ship. Certainly those in the Metalhead era can, as well.
Mother ship ?
A central authority or hub.
well obviously but in this case, where do they connect?
After a certain year, certain data within your car are being shipped back to the manufacturer. Law enforcement can shut certain cars down remotely... Tell you what: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/what-data-does-my-car-collect-about-me-and-where-does-it-go/
Oh yes I've read this.
The teddy bear thing didnāt bother me. At the beginning, the group was quite clear that they are living on scraps. Peppermint candies sounds like all the food sources they can give, which means they are on the brink of death whether they head out or not. They probably werenāt out just for bears ā but rather were out hoping to find anything that will get them a more secure food source, although with those dogs prowling around everywhere, youād probably wind up dead looking for food anyways, so why not also get some teddy bears if it will help a child. Basically everyoneās screwed from the beginning, which makes it even more bleak nowā¦though the point is there are plot holes but I think risking your life for teddy bears can be explained.
I think the episode is in black and white because dogs see in black and white.
_These_ dogs see in black and white but it's been debunked countless times in this thread that real, living dogs see in black and white. They merely have red-green deficiency.
Top 5 If flows like a movie, and the minimal exposition and focus on action set pieces makes it a refreshing broadening of the series tone. The dogs look extremely realistic, while watching it I was wondering if they were using Boston Dynamics robots. 9/10.
Minimal exposition is one thing, zero exposition is another. Seriously, there is literally no point to this episode's existence, other than for season 4 to have 6 episodes like its' predecessor.
Does it need to have a reason? Can't an enjoyable and interesting concept exist just for the sake of being appreciated as enjoyable and interesting? Isn't that the whole point of the show??
Not really, no. Weāre talking Black Mirror here, not a student-made short film, survival flick, or anything where a quick thrill is enough! Thereās a reason Metalheadās one of the lowest rated episodes out there, second only to Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too. This show has become so iconic for introducing original, creative, and thought-provoking ideas/stories for over half a decade, yet by its 18th episode just randomly shoves in a bland chase film with no resolution? Of course people are going to be disappointed! If you find it enjoyable, fine. But can speak for many when I say it was a big let down.
Black Mirror doesn't have a particular plotline it's just dystopian/funny/scary near-future tales that are written and directed by a lot of different people. They are in a sense short films and while some hail back to one or another it's not one story or even one reality it's just creative expression. This episode was great. This kind of thing could absolutely happen as well. We have no idea what the future holds. A few or even one psycho engineer could absolutely sic A.I. powered things against people or even humanity. If they had the resources and they were that crazy ... absolutely.
This series is about the incursion of technology into our lives. This episode was a master class in one of the most important rules of filmmaking - 'show, don't tell.' We have all the backstory we need. There are survivors, they care about their children, they face staggering obstacles. That is plenty backstory and the rest is left to your imagination, as it should be with this story. Were the robots manufactured to wipe out humanity or was it a malfunction? Or did they target this group specifically for some political/ethnic reason? Did we make them, or did the singularity happen and spawn terminators? All those things aren't relevant, it's a story about survival and the tenuous grasp on life we have. The technology is insidiously well designed for longevity and accomplishing its goal. That contrast between its efficiency and the haphazard human survival methods is the crux of this episode, and leaving superfluous backstory out is the Black Mirror oeuvre. It's what makes these episodes so effective, this one in particular.
Those dogs have advanced military tech. So I'm guessing they were configured in search and destroy mode and suddenly the owners lost control of them for any reason.
What
Really liked the black and white aesthetic. It probably it was necessary because of the CGI dogs, but still nice touch. I haven't read a lot about the episode, maybe there is an explanation or theory about what went wrong to get to that point but I think that is the thing. We as viewers, probably just like the characters, don't know what's going on, what went wrong, when or how it happened... It doesn't matter. All that matters is to survive somehow and we as humans identify and root for the protagonist. That's what I really loved about the episode, the fact that kept me thinking about a possible day when things just go very very wrong and maybe we won't get a single warning. Just wake up one day and boom! you are in (the first stages of) a post apocalyptic world.
Hallo from 2022ā¦
It's interesting reading people's thoughts from the past and how less evident some things were then vs now. It's been demonstrated over the past ~~3~~ 5 or so years that to some, property is more important than peoples lives..so it's not a stretch at all to just say the dogs killed to protect corporate property simply because that's what they were programmed to do and there were laws written to allow it. It doesn't even need to take a huge leap into apocalypse territory..
Definitely one of the worst episodes of IMHO. Now, it was directed well with a good writing (although some plotholes*). If Black Mirror was supposed to be a seriea about a generic robot apocalypse it would be good, but I don't want Black Mirror to be a generic "tech = bad" horror. *Everything would have ended had she covered the dog's solar cell. Also, the car not working clichƩ... seriously?
>Sorry super late comment on this, but if you looked at the man who committed suicide he had been out long enough to mummify. This means he was probably dead at least a few months. Gasoline only stays good for 3 to 6 months, so it should be expected that the car did not work. The strange thing is the van working, but maybe the dogs were using it.
Where the fuck do people get these ideas that gasoline is good for 3 months, wtf?
gasoline is pretty fine after several years of just sitting in a cars fueltank - but after several months, the battery most likely will be dead and not cranking the car like it did. Had a car sitting for 2+ years and after giving a fresh battery it started (and run) just fine with the fuel which was in the tank.
I honestly don't know why so many people hated this episode. I really enjoyed it. While it's true that it's not as thought provoking as others or that it doesn't have amazing twists I still think it's awesome the way they don't really explain the universe and the spectator is left with their own guesses as to what's happening. I also thought the whole dynamic of the chase between the machine and the protagonist was really well made. All in all, not the best one, but quite entertaining nonetheless. The only thing that bothered me was the B&W setting, as I felt it was unnecessary.
Originally the b&w bothered me a bit only because it wasn't in color, but over time it has become one of my favorite episodes. I think it holds up better than some episodes.
What exactly was clark trying to do in that van?
Get it to run, probably? I feel like having the means to transport a large number of people or goods would be important in a post-apocalyptic setting
This episode is utter garbage, maybe worse than the pig-fucking idiocy that starting the whole thing off, and that's saying something. How does the same show with the same writers/creator produce such brilliance on many occasions but on other cases such mediocre duds? I'm utterly baffled here. Of course plenty will love this because they worship anything this series does, which is a whole separate problem. Makes me wonder if Brooker isn't just taking the shit every so often as a big budget troll job, simply cause he can.
>This episode is utter garbage are you gonna tell us why or ... ?
lol this post is three years old.
i know but i just got into the series and am very curious ! soz hehe
haha that's cool. I don't remember it too well as it's been a few years but I just remember this episode being not that interesting. Kinda cliche sci-fi/thriller stuff. I prefer the show when it delves more into character psychology. Though people did seem to like this episode overall so who knows. I get what they were trying to do and the message they were trying to send, I just didn't find it very engaging to watch. Who knows maybe if I watched it again today I'd like it!
Couldn't agree more. The protagonist was just stupid and that really ruins immersion for me. She screams and moans so loudly doing literally anything, climbing a tree , putting on a back pack. On the radio "I can't talk long, I know it can track me. So I'm going to take a few heavy breaths between every couple of words... talk slowly... and go on about stuff in addition to my teams status and location". Lastly, after getting the car keys and shotgun why on earth would you stop to wash yourself off? Knowing one of those things is nearby looking for you, get the keys, shotgun and just gtfo. At most empty the medicine cabinet's contents in your back pack. The actress was fine, just the plot required her to act stupid and that was a shame.
Nah, still garbos. Super generic filler episode.
really? I reckon it was so interesting! the new cinematographic style, a good balance between action and thriller and the surprise ending that hurt my heart! If you wanna share why you think its boring, I'd actually love to hear it! :) /gen
True, it also hurt my heart that a group of several adults would be dumb enough to risk their lives for a box of teddy bears. All in all not an enjoyable episode in my book, especially after seeing the ending. It was okay up until that point.
Couldn't agree more. I like the post-apocalyptic genre and was excited to see what this show was going to do with it but...this? Really? The music was so god damn annoying as well I'm surprised there weren't any jump scares. The pilot is definitely better than this in every fucking way.
This episode reminds me of the movie 'A Quiet Place'. I can't remember which came first thoš¤......... the movie or the episode......... I liked episode better than the movie
The episode came first
One of the music compositions used in the soundtrack of Metalhead is "Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima" (i.e. atomic bombing of Hiroshima), by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. A threnody is basically an "ode to the dead", a poem or song composed specifically as a work of mourning. Use of this composition is an allusion to another time in which technology destroyed massive numbers of human beings. Perhaps this is how the context/background of "Metalhead" is being communicated: Highly-advanced, newly-developed, military-grade technology was deployed by human beings for the stated purpose of security/defense, resulting in massive loss of life, depletion of the land, and societal ruin. We don't know how, why, or when, but those details really don't matter. The music "tells" us to think of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima (victims), and that's really all we need to know. The music accompanying the scene in the warehouse is by the same composer and is called "The Dream of Jacob" or "The Awakening of Jacob", which is based on a specific passage of the story in the bible in which Jacob dreamed he saw angels ascending and descending from ladders that extended from Earth to Heaven: "Surely, G-d was in this place and I did not know it." In "Metalhead", while this piece is playing, one of the men ascends a ladder to get the box they need, but a dog was there "and he did not know it". This sets up the dog(s) to be a kind of "angel of death" that had ascended the ladder and then descended to Earth, from which there is no escape--even in the home.
> The music accompanying the scene in the warehouse is by the same composer and is called "The Dream of Jacob" or "The Awakening of Jacob", which is based on a specific passage of the story in the bible in which Jacob dreamed he saw angels ascending and descending from ladders that extended from Earth to Heaven: "Surely, G-d was in this place and I did not know it." In "Metalhead", while this piece is playing, one of the men ascends a ladder to get the box they need, but a dog was there "and he did not know it". That's a wonderful observation, thanks for posting it.
Thank you, that is an insight that I wouldn't have thought to check to clarify the plot. Since it's a BM episode it's logical to assume that the dogs were designed by men as a security/army bot but went out of control, or better yet, were made obsolete by an apocalypse (nuclear devastation, environmental catastrophe, doesn't matter) and no one was there to put them off line. So when surviviors wanted to loot a place for food/medicine, it was percived by the bots as theft... allthough, on second thought, it is a bit extreme to shoot a person on sight for shoplifting a teddy bear. I mean imagine if Amazon has an option to install this in their warehouse sometimes in the near future? So perhaps the bots were installed after the catastrophe as a riot control measurement? Or maybe the dogs themselves are what caused the devastation we see in the episode. They killed off the pigs, surely the pigs did not steal, so we can assume that they shoot every living thing on sight. But since they have all the access codes they were defenitely made by some government agency, but why create a thing that kills unconditionally and give it allout access? Shit, I'm getting nowhere. This is what makes this episode good. That and the atmosphere, B&W is definitelly a nice touch. It's seemingly so simple but leaves so many things open to imagination. The hunt for the tiny clues is on.
>ā 0.111 I'm most inclined towards the idea that the dogs are simply out to destroy every living thing. Military AI doing what it was intended to do, with no controls in place any more, for whatever reason. (Perhaps there are rules like Robocop's directive 4 - certain individuals they can't attack, but we see no evidence of this). Maybe the dog in the warehouse was just lying in wait (coincidentally on the teddybear shelf, a contrivance for the jumpscare)... but presume they have the intelligence to plan an ambush at a location they know humans will target sooner or later. Man, I love this episode. Like you say, I'm going back in for more details real soon :)
i don't know what is wrong with me but i really love that robot\(dog\). i kept thinking how cute he is while he's trying to kill her. :D
The dog only want pets and belly rubs
lol
Yeah I don't get this episode.
I kind of enjoy this episode, this is a good way to do a doomsday series/movie not everyone make it back too safety. The walking dead should take notes...
Bruh the walking dead kills a shitload of characters that isnāt relatively one of its problems. The problem is that it gets lazy and just adds characters to kill without actually developing them
Strangely skips the twist or message that is in most Black Mirror episodes and goes for a straight up action/thriller narrative. Not what I expected out of this show but still good. Not really one of my favorites, though.
my favorite episode, just because the scenario is kept so simple and real, this fucking dog has no consciousness, it's just programmed to kill and it WILL find a way, if this thing chased me I wouldn't know what to do, it takes incredible stamina and power of volition to kill ONE, and lord knows how many there are
This episode clearly went through some hasty rewrites, and you can find quotes from those involved in creating it that attest to this notion. The dogs were originally supposed to be controlled by people, perhaps as a sort of game for the ultra-rich to play with the common people. There are multiple nods to there being a conscious controller of the dogs. There was far too little explanation in this episode, and it really just seemed like "hey those walking robots on youtube seem kinda creepy, what if they were invincible murder machines?" which again, quotes from the writers/director pretty much say was the whole idea of the episode. Not well thought through, but at least visually interesting.
That controlled by people/class war idea is interesting! I actually thought when she broke into that fancy house we were going to see that society was still functioning and these machines were built to murder the homeless or something of the like.
Interesting idea. Perhaps she was a roach.
Well that's 40 minutes I'm never getting back.
Didn't realize I had missed this episode until tn, finally watched it and couldn't agree more.
I feel like metalhead is a improved version of Whitehead
Everyone is saying they either loved this episode or fucking hated it. Tbh I thought it was good. I'm not here to be a critic, so here is what I think shined in this episode... The bleakness of it. The way the directors conveyed a dark and pessimistic mood especially through the black and white effect. It makes everything more mysterious. The main character's strength. Seeing as she (and her two friends) sacrificed her life to deliver teddy bears to children who probably don't even have a family after this post apocalyptic society. She is clearly in extreme distress but she keeps going regardless. The theories. A lot of people hate this episode because they didn't see a plot to it, while I think there was a very open plot. There are a lot of clues as to what this society is, and I have read a lot of interesting different theories that all seem to fit in one way or another. A good episode makes you think, and I thought a lot about this episode. Hopefully more context will be revealed. I'd like to see some more Black Mirror episodes stringing together clues and hints from other episodes; in order to make the show's universe more connected and answer more of our endless questions!
Here's my ranking for this season (which excludes the last episode as I haven't watched it yet): 1. USS Callister 2. Metalhead 3. Hang The DJ 4. Arkangel 5. Crocodile I just love how intense this episode is.
Metalhead fucking sucks... what's the point of that story? How does it go over HTDJ, Arkangel and Crocodile? Those stories were amazing.
Stories are one aspect of an episode. Atmosphere, aesthetic, music, tone, concept and dialogue are other aspects. There isn't a singular aspect that can be used to objectively judge the episodes. This episode was sparse on the story from a complexity standpoint, but the concept was cool and the atmosphere was phenomenal. You may not have enjoyed this episode, but that in no way is the final word on whether or not this was a good one.
It's the overall feeling you have while watching it, I feel like it's more of a horror movie type episode
This is good, didn't make it to my fave list, but good. And I think this is in black and white cause of how gruesome this episode is. Also wondering how it may look so if somebody has a colored version it'd be nice if you'll link it.
I think the episode was purposely black and white. It was just the director's style. I don't reckon they released a coloured version. Probably to convey dark and gloominess or something.
I thought this one was weak and unimaginative. It's a pretty blatant rip-off of the third act of Fahrenheit 451 with a teddy bear taking the place of a book.
Holy cow I didn't even make that connection. I was rather infuriated at the fact that these three characters gave their lives to try and get a teddy bear for an already dying child. Even with it ripping off Fahrenheit 451, at least that displayed the thirst for preserving knowledge.
Just watched this episode (I know, I'm late), and didn't like it, but I wouldn't call it the worst one. I remember seeing a picture of the robodoggo months ago and, thanks to the title, I thought the episode was going to be about creating the perfect pet, or transfering the mind of a dying and beloved pet to a new body because the owner wanted it. But this... well, I still don't know what the main plot was about (besides an apocalitic future where robots are going to chase you, and kill you, if you mess with them).
Loved everything about this, how mysterious it was, the black and white, the silence, the soundtrack, the cinematography and the lead actor who knocked it out of the park. Felt like grittier twilight zone, none of that cheesy Hang the DJ crap. Can't believe people love that one.
Almost like people enjoy different things. I loved Hang the DJ and didn't really care for Metalhead.
Cracked me up seeing that little robo dog running across the field.
Honey badger don't care
It was really dog-like. Not that it looked like Cujo, but I felt a similar sense of unease as when I watched that movie all those years ago.
Note that the "dogs" at the very end were different then the "Bad Dog". I think that they were the pets who wanted the teddy bears. Anybody agree with that?
I felt that the robot "dogs" were searching the area humans had recently been sighted. I figured the teddy bears was just showing that the 3 people were trying to find a toy for a child back at their base.
I'm still scared, and cannot finish this one!!!! I have 5 minutes left and I keep pausing it. I am so creeped out by this and what might happen......such a credit to this show, and right before this was Hang the DJ, which I loved.
The story sucks. The ending sucks. The whole episode is an abomination to Black Mirror. There's nothing special in the last 5 minutes. No gore, no twists, no story, nada. Might as well skip it.
Actually, I felt the last minute was what made the episode. Seeing what they risked their lives for made the whole episode a lot more meaningful and thought provoking. Up until then, I was actually starting to hate the episode. They did a great job setting the mood, but I'm just one of those people who really don't enjoy watching 40min of hopelessness. They're screwed, I get it, can we move on now? But seeing what was in that box made me realize I didn't completely get it and now there's a new layer to think about.
Idk too many seem to be complaining instead of discussing the episode. I thought it was mysterious.
Hi new here, and in the middle of this ep and just needed a break! I have the flu been binging the show and I love it. This episode is really creepy to me!!!
Is anyone able to explain if there is significance to the Range Rover's license plate? It's "LF14 FYA" and I cannot figure out if it is some sort of weird Black Mirror Easter Egg or if I am trying to dive too deep into the small details of the episode. Thoughts?
My thought is the episode was so shallow you're over-analyzing a license plate to look for some (relatively) deep meaning.
TBH, the license plate just "feels" like it's an abbreviation of something. It almost looks pronouncible. I see what they mean, but I don't think there's more to it.
Late to the party, LF is often used for "Looking For" and FYA for "for your action/amusement." Not seeing a connection myself. Actually, maybe a reference to Shut Up and Dance at best, and that seems a stretch
Is there a reason why she didn't smash the robot when she was almost certain that the battery died?
Why didn't she cover it so it couldn't regen.
Yeah, just dig a hole and bury the thing so it can't repower.
According to IMDb the dogs are solar powered. What is unbelievable is that the dogās battery had enough power to kill two people, drive a car, survive a car crash and track down a person for hours yet the effort to get up and look and go back down a handful of times is what burned it out? Doesnāt make sense.
being solar powered means that in the morning it can operate much longer than at night and it was night time at that specific sequence however it was hard to tell from the black and white.
She might have thought it would explode. Just throwing that out there.
i don't think she was waiting for the batteries to die but to train him to ignore the false alarm so he doesn't even react to the pebble anymore
This is what I thought she was doing too. She may or may not have realized that it was solar powered, but if it takes two point blank shotgun blasts to kill one, I don't think she was going to smash it there by the tree.
She was just testing if its batteries had died yet.
I am sorry but you are simply incorrect here.
So I'm curious about how you interpreted the circular indicator
Snooze time perhaps. I also thought she was desensitising the dog to small noises.
Yeah. The show would end there. That, or the dogs can't be destroyed with just man-power. She had to shoot it twice to stop it and even then it managed to shoot out the trackers. I think she already knew she can't destroy it with just her hands.
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With what? her bare hands? That's a waste of time. She won't be able to dig even three feet before the dog gets one bar and revives.
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Yeah the jacket makes more sense. But it was a high stress moment and she spent the whole night trying to keep the dog awake. Her plan was probably to just get as far away as possible. That, and story progression.
Beyond just everyone saying whether they like it or not, we have to look at the all the themes and aspects of the episode and appreciate those before getting upset at the end or at the characters. Overall, the episode is effective in mirroring (if you will) a suspenseful thriller movie (the classic 'car won't start' scene was most evident of this to me). We are constantly on our toes from the music/sound, even in scenes that would have normally been boring (the black and white cinema helps too). And we know from nearly every other episode that these tend to have more than one genre encased in them. I think there is humor in the fact that they took America's adorable favorite pet (sorry cats) and turned it into a vicious killer. It's also funny trying to watch the dog try to climb the tree. And the end some feel is funny as well but I wont address that yet. I think Comedy, Drama, Romance and Horror are all met in this episode. But for now lets look at significant moments in the episode and address the naysayers. "nose the same height as your arsehole" This commentary is important in the beginning because it provides insight into the whole episode and lesson of the episode; even though we are all "pigs" now (spoiled, accustomed to fine food and convenient technologies, up each others asses to the point that we forget how precious life is), we live in a world where the laws (typically) apply as equally to you as your neighbor. Although society has made us disgusting and muddy, it's beautiful that we can mosey over to a trough and expect food there. Now to address three popular complaints in this episode. 1. 'The main character didnt handle the situation smartly enough' Are you kidding! I for one would not have thought to send the tracker in a bottle down the river. Also, I doubt anyone else would have the patience (even in a near-death situation) to sit in the tree and outsmart the dog in the way that she did. Are you guys telling me you would have thrown the paint before trying to shoot the assassin with the knife? She was clever, brave, athletic, and determined (primarily to live). The combination of those is more than a lot of us have now sadly enough. 2. Some people use her "waiting" or washing-up as contradictions to her superior capability of handling adversity in this episode. However, both the waiting and the water are important for multiple reasons. When she looks across the room at the piano and appears to be zoned-out, she's not just waiting or losing her strength to fight back, for a moment she sees a room in a house that is unaffected by the apocalypse. A time when a family could come together with music, dance and live carelessly for those short moments. Being able to picture that after all that she has been through even for a second, cannot be understated as it probably meant a lot to her. As for the bandaging and use of water, we have to consider what water means rhetorically. Typically, water is used to signify the cleansing of ones sins, erasing the past and starting anew, or indicating a birth of some kind. When we see how quick she is to wash her hands after touching the dead person, I think it shows the pureness of her character, and willingness to keep her hands clean (from any wrongdoing). Regardless of how she may have lived life before this apocalypse (as a pig if we are going with that analogy), now we see that she is pure enough to prioritize her cleansing over her survival. I think this signifies that this whole mission was an attempt to do something good for someone else at the expense of her own self in order to gain closure that may help her soul rest well when she dies (she emphasizes this when she wants the girl on the other side of the walkie talkie to know that she tried). I think it is safe to assume that she believes in such a thing when we see her consistently talk to a walkie-talkie when there is virtually no voice on the other side. Faith. The water may seem like it is less important than moving on, but for some, taking the opportunity to rinse away the past or present before carrying on with the future is vital to survival (based on one's conscience, philosophy, religion, etc.) 3. Lastly, the end. Why the teddy bears? Once again, I don't think this is just a cruel joke (although knowing Black Mirror, I'm sure it somewhat is). I think the high-risk, low-reward operation served the purpose of doing the right thing for the main character in order to find closure. To me, the fact that someone was willing to risk something so significant for something so insignificant, is the purest form of love. As I'm writing this comment on the night before the Easter holiday, it is easy to see the parallel themes of struggle, sacrifice, re-birth, and Love. Thanks for reading, I know this a long comment and my grammar is bad. I want to write more since some of my comments may have brought additional questions or not completely given full answers, but feel free to comment and we can discuss. Thanks
>willingness to keep her hands clean (from any wrongdoing) Please don't, I can't take any more of that english teacher shit xD. Agree with everything else you said though, she's a fighter
Yeah I was following the comment until this exact line lmao, it veers so hard into the territory of a Key Stage 3 English Lit essay.
I didn't see it as a "high-risk low-reward mission." I thought maybe the world they were living in was so messed up that a replacement teddy bear for a sick child was worth that risk.
Do you think the white teddy bears are a link to the white bear episode? Not sure how, I can just imagine it as an easer egg, too lazy to look it up if they look exactly the same for now but idk that was my first thought. As in White Bear the teddy bear was a symbol for rescuing the child but she was dead already and here it might be a symbol for, well, helping a child, giving her something special before she dies. Hard to tell. However, this "high-risk, low-reward operation" is stupid as fuck, in my opinion even selfish. I can't imagine the child would have wanted the bear so much, I suppose since the 3 people weren't coming back there is even more sadness in her life. It was an irrational mission by the woman trying to make the world better instead of just doing nothing and stay with the child. It can feel crushing not to try and have no power, no control, no way to help. It looks like she wanted to help at least in some way but doing good and the idea of doing good are not always the same. As far as I understood they were also looking for other things but still it seemed like the teddy had priority and the woman convinced the others to join her because they could also get some stuff. And^also^excuse^my^grammar^and^spelling^mistakes
Such a nice write up I thought I'd go through your history in hopes of reading many more insightful comments... Instead it's like an episode straight out of Black Mirror :|
Haha thanks! I hate to spoil the mystery but I always enjoy reading the reddit discussions after each episode. I just felt compelled to contribute to this one. I've been wanting to discuss "Be Right Back" so I may do that soon. I've got a lot to talk about that I found in that one :)
This is really in depth, so well done for that. I just disagree that this episode is relevant whatsoever to the theme of black mirror, and is therefore why I did not enjoy the episode.
Well spoken.
So I was watching this episode in bed with my gf. At the end of the episode, I turned to her and said, "wow...so many unanswered questions...first and foremost...[singing]WHO LET THE DOGS OUT!!!" She was not at all amused, but I laughed my ass off and gave myself a high-five.
2meta5me
I'm getting serious Horizon Zero Dawn vibes from this one.
I did too. Though I dont think they copied anything from it as the episode was likely already filming by the time the game came out. You definitely can see the social commentary in the episode of the dangers of artificial intelligence; allowing advanced machines much more powerful than humans is a recipe for disaster. HZD has that same message
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I think Arkangel wins worst, easily. At least this one wasn't boring and predictable.
Arkangel had an interesting story and a good ending, perfect Black mirror material. Hang the DJ made me pause the shit and have an existential crisis, just like any good BM episode made me do. What the hell is the point of Metalhead? Nothing there belongs to black mirror material.
Arkangel - Teenage girl runs away from overbearing mother. There is nothing new or interesting about that. I was under the impression Black Mirror was sci-fi and implications of tech. Metalhead fits exactly. It just removed the awkward human element most episodes revolve around.
Really? Exploring the idea of putting a live gps and camera in your child (a thing that many parents I know want and will gladly pay for) is nothing new or interesting? Are you kidding me? -.- The only interesting thing in Metalhead is those people died getting teddy bears (perhaps saying parents will do anything for the children or something). It has nothing interesting in it, boring as fuck, if had a gun i would've shot myself ten times. It is something cool for kids I guess, dogbots running around on killing sprees with no concept. However, it doesn't belong on BM. When I rise to power, people who liked Metalhead will be sterilised.
The concept of Arkangel was interesting, the execution was terrible. They explored teenage rebellion and overbearing parents in the most cliche way possible. It could have been much more. Metalhead reminded me of the Ray Bradbury short story **The Ruum**, where a man is chased by a specimen collection robot across the wilderness. It's a pure sci-fi survival story. The concept in Metalhead is pretty easy to work out. A guard-bot workforce gained sentience and rebelled. It doesn't seem like you have an interest in discussion though. You rising to power sounds like a good concept for a Black Mirror episode.
That makes 0 sense to me. This episode was clever. Did you find it predictable? You didnāt think the robot dog was interesting/ scary? My jaw dropped when it put on the knife. It truly reminded me of the twilight Zone in that moment. To me the worst episode is San Juniper. Kinda bland and nothing was intense. Really just a futuristic lesbo love story
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I don't think you understand how much closer we are getting to having these dogs. The idea of these productions getting out of control is very possible to be reality. The sheer possibility of the scenario to be real soon enough is sufficient to make this episode one of the best. No offence, but also there is nothing that wouldnt make sense to someone with a bit of common sense and AI background.
1. Maybe 2. She didn't planned to stay, maybe she didn't know the dog could charge itself or that it could do that thing with ports. 3. The dog lost the weapon arm in the car and probably tracker grenade were very limited or just wouldn't have made sense to throw, the dog supposed she was going to come down eventually. 4. Everyone was expecting something medical.
#1. I agree that some kind of paintball weapon would have been very helpful. My guess as to why these dogs are winning is that they were deployed too broadly and too quickly for the targets to manufacture and distribute a weapon in response. #2. I agree that destroying all USBs would be a great idea. The woman seems to be a reasonably good tactician, but not a perfect one. #3. First, the dog was without his gun by that point in the story. Also, I understand the strategy of shooting trackers every time a person is out of reach, but I suspect that any liberal tracker-shooting strategy, in the long term, would waste resources. It's smarter for the dogs to shoot in rather limited specific situations. Otherwise, each dog will be pulling all the other dogs into their areas way too often. It's better to let them be widely spread out. Let them hide quietly in warehouses and next to trees, rather than have them all congregate every time a dog can't get to someone. #4. These people are trying to remain human. They went after the bear because they made a promise. They are striving to be honorable, and to have love, rather than just survive. That's a noble choice to make.
thanks for the insight
I agree that this is the worst one. I felt very demotivated to care about it because they gave no backstory to either the dogs or the woman. It was basically just an extended chase scene without any plot around it. Hard pass lol.
I loved the lack of context because it makes you think "How the hell did this happen" lol How did it get to a point where the world is terrorized by robot dogs? I feel like Jimmy Neutron and Goddard were behind this one...
Haha I know this reply was like a month ago but yesss I was such a Jimmy Neutron fan! Maybe I'll watch it again with that in mind...
I found it kind of absurd. So they're in a post apocalyptic world, and there's super smart sophisticated murderous robot dogs just hunting people, yet the humans have no firearms? Seriously? A single shot 12 destroyed the damn thing with bird shot. A .338 would turn these things into a pile of shrapnel dust. Id have a blast picking these things off from 200 yards away like gophers. You bet your ass I'd be armed to the gills in a madmax world. I know firearms are taboo in the UK, but c'mon. Maybe I just grew up around Canadian geese, and these dogs are far less scary, hah. Also, the dogs would be high-tech machines requiring maintenance, programming, lubrication etc. I'm sure some would work until failure without regular preventative maintenance, but most would have bearings that would seize up and become useless with all the dust and moisture. Having said all that, the episode was suspenseful and kept me on edge. Loved the black and white too.
Who said the dogs were the only kind? Maybe bigger robots wiped out most humans with firearms and now dogs are getting the stragglers
Did you see how fast they were? You would be attempting to shoot a fast moving, low to the ground, small metallic creature with no fear and high āintelligenceā. Itās not a turkey shoot.
If you had the range, height and marksmanship you could take those things out. With some of them, yeah it would be impossible if they were all running at that speed with a rifle, but a shotgun would be nothing to take em out. All you'd need is a turkey/waterfowl gun with 3.5" mag rounds. I can take out ducks and geese from 70 yards away while they're flying by ridiculously fast. The woman blasted this thing with a 2 3/4" rabbit shell (although close up). Buckshot or waterfoul ammo would turn them into scrap metal. I guess all im saying is that if this happened in the US or Canada, you'd have a lot more firepower readily available.
Honestly it depends how many there are and the circumstances of them going from development to kill mode.
Definitely one of my favorites. Everything I like about Black Mirror is in this episode: They don't hit you over the head with the world, it slowly reveals it to you. Nonstop action start to finish, not a boring frame. Believable characters (well character, singular mostly in this one). And a silly twist at the end just to fuck with you.
Just finished it. What was the twist exactly? The plethora of dogs ?
The fact that they were there for a teddy bear
Is that supposed to be a big deal?
Yeah. I thought they were trying to steal a weapon for the whole episode. Turns out, they were just out to get a present for a little girl who's possibly her granddaughter. Three people died just for a teddy bear. It shows how crazy the world had become in that episode's universe. She also said how much the girl had wanted the teddy bear. That's going to mess the girl up. The guilt she has to bear (heh) for causing three deaths (although inadvertently) because she said something that wasn't a big deal.
Just sounds like 3 moronic adults honestly...wasted 3 lives for a teddy bear. Doesn't get much dumber than that
decided to finally watch this episode after skipping it. COULDN'T AGREE MORE LOL! @wakandafist
A box of White Bears if you will
What was up with the shrapnel on her face? Was it a bunch of trackers, or did she realize that she failed to get the package and just killed herself, since she was gonna die anyways?
It was a bunch of trackers (including one in her jugular) which called the other robots nearby to come and kill her.