#BLACK MIRROR BANDERSNATCH (2018)

[abs0luteb4stard]

W ⵄ T C H I N G

[chillingcinemachronicles]

the Best Sci-Fi Movies on Netflix Right Now

Embark on an interstellar journey where the boundaries of reality dissolve, and imagination takes flight. Brace yourself for a warp-speed adventure through the cosmos with our curated selection of mind-bending science fiction wonders!

5. Annihilation (2018)

EW grade: A- (read the review)

Director: Alex Garland

Talent: Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny

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In the swamplands of Florida there sits a forcefield that formed after a meteor hit the area. Separated from regular life by a kaleidoscopic shell whose circumference continues to expand, The Shimmer, as it’s called, has claimed the lives of every man who has gone inside — except one. Biologist Lena (Natalie Portman) lost her husband Kane (Oscar Isaac) after he was presumably killed during a military operation, but when Kane returns home with his memory gone and his health failing, Lena looks for answers.

She then joins an all-female research team consisting of a physicist, a geologist, a paramedic, and a psychologist, all of whom volunteer to enter The Shimmer in what amounts to a suicide mission. While inside, the women find a gorgeous world that defies nature — but the mutations taking place within threaten to destroy the women, their team, and eventually, the world.

4. Anon (2018)

EW grade: (read the review)

Director: Andrew Niccol

Cast: Clive Owen, Amanda Seyfried, Colm Feore, Mark O’Brien,

Privacy and anonymity are luxuries afforded to no one in the 2018 British-American sci-fi thriller Anon. Clive Owen stars as Detective Sal Frieland, a troubled cop operating in a dystopia where the entire populace is implanted with an ocular device intended to record and track the movements of the people around them. The government’s transparency methods ensure that all criminal activity is caught on tape — but when a mysterious woman with no digital footprint (Amanda Seyfried) crosses paths with Sal, he realizes she might have a connection with a series of unsolved murders he’s investigating. Director Andrew Niccol tells EW “I always wanted to do a movie about privacy and the fact that there was never a war for privacy, because we already lost — we gave away our privacy without a fight, all for convenience.

3. Bird Box (2018)

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Susanne Bier

Cast: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich, Danielle Macdonald, Sarah Paulson, Machine Gun Kelly

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Sight becomes a handicap in Bird Box, a post-apocalyptic thriller where the enemy must go unseen, or else. Sandra Bullock stars as Malorie Hayes, a woman responsible for transporting two young children down a river while wearing blindfolds, a strategy intended to help the survivors avoid seeing the entities that attacked Earth five years earlier, and who cause those who look upon them to commit suicide. Jumping between their present journey and the past events that led Malorie and the children to this point, director Susanne Bier leans into the tension of the unknown and relies on her talented but eclectic cast to do the rest. Released the same year as A Quiet Place, and possessing a somewhat similar premise, Bird Box received less attention when it first premiered, but this sci-fi horror film is a great option for fans of both genres.

2. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018)

Director: David Slade

Cast: Fionn Whitehead, Will Poulter, Craig Parkinson, Tallulah Rose Haddon, Catriona Knox

As it turns out, the only thing missing from the British anthology series, Black Mirror, was options. In Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, the TV show gets a movie makeover, but with a twist: The film was shot in the style of a “choose your own adventure” novel, and viewers are able to customize their viewing experience through their scene selections. Centered around a young programmer named Stefan (Fionn Whitehead), Bandersnatch follows Stefan’s journey in developing a video game for a famous gaming company, a journey that puts Stefan under a great deal of mental and emotional stress, and results in one of ten main endings. Black Mirror is beloved for its eldritch and tech-focused content, and Bandersnatch keeps that tone alive, using the main storyline to explore themes like free will and mind control, even as the viewers’ choices drive the story forward.

Don’t Look Up (2021)

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Adam McKay

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Jonah Hill, Meryl Streep, Timothee Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Cate Blanchett, Mark Rylance, Melanie Lynskey, Chris Evans

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As a comet sets its sights on Earth and prepares to wipe out human civilization, two astronomers (Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) rush to warn the world of the impending collision — only to discover the world doesn’t really care. “Based on events that haven’t happened yet,” as the film’s trailer states, Don’t Look Up is a sci-fi satire that skewers climate deniers and government inaction in the face of scientific evidence pointing to looming catastrophe. Directed by Adam McKay (Vice, The Big Short), and featuring everyone in Hollywood from Jonah Hill and Meryl Streep to Timothee Chalamet and Ariana Grande, Don’t Look Up offers great jokes and fun cameos, but be warned: it’s not exactly light fare. Still, as far as sci-fi comedies go, this one is worth a watch — just don’t think too deeply about the implications of the film’s ending.

[screenpalettes]

Black Mirror “Bandersnatch” (2018)

[mmtys]

Interactive TV as Play

“Watching television can be watching and identifying with other people at play, whether in fiction or in real life-and, after all, one can turn it off or on, which makes it like play and not like real life. Viewers can control their involvement just as if the ‘play’ belongs to them, as in ‘playing’ with the channels” (Sutton-Smith 299).

Immediately thought of Black Mirror Bandersnatch. If you haven't watched (played?) it, this gives insight into the Black Mirror interactive story. Kind of like the R.L. Stine Goosebumps books, but on Netflix. I remember this show being a big deal when it came out in 2018 because while the choose your own adventure concept isn’t new, it was new to TV. A quick search of Netflix shows there are more interactive shows, but they look more targeted at a much younger audience. Bandersnatch is rated TV-MA.

[marjanefan]

Mazey Day and The Stakeout...

Exploring the different audience reactions to Black Mirror episode Mazey Day and Inside No.9 The Stakeout.

Spoilers ahead for both Mazey day and The Stakeout.

As a fan of both Black Mirror and Inside No.9 it has been interesting to see the reaction within the Black Mirror fan community to series 6 of the series. Charlie Brooker has brought new elements into the series, which to say the least have caused debate. In particular the episode Mazey Day has come in for particular criticism. But some fans also say that Series 6 of Black Mirror can be compared to Inside no.9 , particularly for it use of horror. So I am going to look at Mazey Day and an Inside No.9 episode it has been compared to ‘The Stakeout’.

Please note this is not me pitting one series against another! They are both excellent shows with their own merits. I am just looking at how each episode treats it's supernatural subject matter and how this impacts the audience reaction.

Mazey Day has a rating of just 5.3 on IMDb based on 24k  viewer ratings (the lowest for any  Black Mirror episode)  whereas The Stakeout has a rating of  7.7 based on 1.1k  viewer ratings with 8 out of 9 user reviews being highly positive. This audience reaction is borne out by the discussions of these two episodes on the Black Mirror and Inside No.9 Subreddits and Youtube reviews.  In some fan reviews (particularly on the Black Mirror subreddit), Mazey Day is compared to Inside No.9 and The Stakeout in particular because of its use of a supernatural creature.

Mazey Day is ostensibly about the paparazzi pursuing a troubled young starlet in 2000’s Los Angeles. It is revealed this starlet is a werewolf. The Stakeout appears to be a police procedural for most of its run time only in the last five minutes to be revealed to be about a vampire.

The two episodes were compared in this thread on the Inside no.9 subreddit so thank you  to Siielle Siielle for inspiring this post!

‘Mazey Day’ versus ‘The Stakeout’ : insideno9 (reddit.com)

Here are some fan reviews from Youtube which I refer to and which discuss Mazey Day

Harry’s Moving Castle

Black Mirror Analysis | Mazey Day (youtube.com)

BrainPilot

Why MAZEY DAY Is The Worst Episode Of BLACK MIRROR (youtube.com)

Unleash the Ghouls

BLACK MIRROR | Mazey Day (2023) Season 6 Episode 4 Recap & Honest Review (youtube.com)

There are also several reviews on Youtube asking ‘what was that? (quite literally using these words!) about the episode.

Why such different reactions to the two episodes? (For example Unleash the Ghouls loves The Stakeout – 19 minutes in)

Please forgive my simplification of both Black Mirror and Inside No.9 but wanted to put the two episodes in the context of the shows and their histories.

The context

Both Black Mirror and Inside No.9 are modern anthology shows which began in the UK in the 2010’s. The creator and show runner of Black Mirror Charlie Brooker and writers of Inside no.9 Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith have spoken of how they were inspired by earlier anthology shows like the Twilight Zone, Tales of the Unexpected and Hammer House of Horror which all three men would have watched on UK TV growing up in the 1970s/early 1980s. Both shows have similar inspirations and have run for similar lengths of time.

Black Mirror began in 2011 on Channel 4 in the UK. After two series and a wonderfully dark Christmas special it was taken up by Netflix with series three being released in late 2016. Series 4 followed in late 2017 with special episode Bandersnatch being released in late 2018 and series 5 being released in early 2019. After being taken up by Netflix Black Mirror became one of its flagship shows internationally.

Black Mirror is know for being an anthology show which explores the impact of new technologies on modern life (including personal relationships, politics , mortality, notions of justice, how we interact with others) on a day to day basis). It has won acclaim and a large fan base for how it has done this.  This has been led it being known jokingly as the ‘technology bad’ show. Such is the impact of the show that the phrase ‘just like a Black Mirror episode’ has entered public parlance.

But with a large fan base comes greater expectations and more fans to critique.

Mazey Day is the fourth episode of the sixth series of Black Mirror which was released on Netflix in Summer 2023. It is written by Charlie Brooker himself.  There had been four years between series 5 and 6 of the show for a variety of reasons. Brooker has spoken in recent interviews that he wanted to move beyond Black Mirror as being about the flaws in technology and to explore the flaws in humanity more generally.

Four of the Five episodes of series Six are set in the past or relate to the past. ‘ Loch Henry’ while set in the present day concerns our current obsession with true crime content on platforms like erm Netflix! (a terrible secret is also revealed via analogue material that is being digitized showing that human nature has always found a way to record its worse side). ‘Beyond the Sea’ is set in 1969 and while it does concern a specific form of technology which exists only within the show (the droids) it references the space race of the late 1960s (particularly the moon landings),  late 1960s films such as ‘2001: a space odyssey’ and ‘Solaris’ (and their explorations of the human condition) and the Manson murders. The final episode ‘Denon79’ (set in the year of a key election in UK politics which we are still dealing with the implications of) is a straight up horror episode and called a Red Mirror episode, setting it apart from the rest of the episodes of the series.

‘Mazey Day’ is not the first horror themed episode of ‘Black Mirror’. The series 3 episode ‘Playtest’ used the haunted house trope to explore the life and psychology of the central character. However this was still framed through the device of a computer game and gaming technology. But the audience would not have been expecting a straight up horror episode which seemingly did not involve a specific form of technology along the lines of ‘Mazey Day’

It is worth point out Brooker had written the excellent series ‘Dead Set’ (broadcast 2009) before Black Mirror which used a Zombie apocalypse and Zombie tropes to explore the impact of reality TV contest shows (specifically Big Brother) on society. Like ‘Mazey Day’  ‘Dead Set’ had a young female central character. So it was not unprecedented for Brooker to use Horror tropes for social commentary.

Inside No.9 began broadcasting on BBC Two in early 2014. It has remained with the BBC and the ninth and final series is currently being filmed. It has built up a loyal fanbase both in the UK and internationally. Each series consists of six half hour episodes set in a specific location and usually with a small cast. Every episode is written by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, both of whom have appeared in almost every episode. Thay are known for mixing horror and comedy in The League of Gentlemen  (co written with Mark Gatiss and Jeremy Dyson)and and Psychoville the two previous shows they have written and starred in. The series is known for using different narrative devices (such as telling the story backwards, as an audio commentary, via CCTV, via split screen ) to tell the story. It is also known for having clever twists which completely recontextualise what the audience has just seen and the true nature of story that they have watched.

‘The Stakeout’ was the sixth and final episode of Series Five of Inside no.9.  It was broadcast in March 2020. The series had established across the first four series that the final episode of the series is horror themed and usually involves some sort of supernatural entity. So while surprising, the audience would not have found it out of place that Varney turned out to be a vampire.

It is worth noting every episode of Inside No.9 is around 30 minutes in length because ofits broadcast slot. Pemberton and Shearsmith therefore know they have a certain amount of time to tell the narrative and have honed their writing skills to be able to do this effectively.  The Netflix episodes of Black Mirror have no set length.   

Charlie Brooker has spoken in at least two interviews of his love for Inside No.9 and his respect for Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith. Reece Shearsmith tweeted how much he enjoyed series 6 of Black Mirror and in a recent interview with the Scarred for Life podcast revealed he and Charlie Brooker met for lunch where they discussed the issues of writing an anthology shows (Shearsmith joked it was like a support group).

So lets compare the two episodes

The opening

The opening of Mazey Day begins in 2006 with Bo (Zazie Beetz), a young woman who works as a Paparazzi photographer in Los Angeles taking photos of actor Justin Camley leaving a motel with another man after a tryst. The publication of these photos lead to his suicide. Bo then witnesses her Paparazzi colleagues hound and throw misogynistic abuse at Sydney Alberti  (a figure based on female celebrities like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan) as she arrives at an event. These two incidents lead Bo to give up her profession as a paparazzi. The whole sequence is six minutes long and establishes us in the world Bo and Mazzy Day exist in. However it is hard for the viewer to feel any emotional investment in Bo and what may happen to her from this opening. She may walk away from her colleagues after they hound Sydney Alberti but we get no real sense of an inner struggle.

In The Stakeout we open with a continuous shot that ends showing us the character of SPC Varney (apparently) dead on the back seat of a police car narrating from beyond the grave.  The audience want to know the back story of how he ended up in this situation. This opening creates a sense of foreboding in the audience as they watch events upfold. It grabs the audience’s attention and invests us in the fate of the characters in a way the opening of Mazey Day does not.

The Set Up

Mazey Day and The Stakeout both revolve around characters trying to solve a mystery.

In Mazey Day , we see  the titular Mazey filming on set in the Czech republic. One night she takes magic mushrooms and hits what she thinks is an animal while driving under the influence. She later discovers she actually hit a man with her car and we are given news reports of her on set behaviour deteriorating to the point she is fired and send back to Los Angeles. She promptly disappears from public view. At the same time, we see Bo struggle financially in a low paid Barista job to the point she is behind with the rent and is having to steal her flatmates food. When her colleague Hector informs her there is a $30,000 reward for a photo of Mazey Day she cannot resist the challenge of getting this photo. So the set up for ‘Mazey Day’ is that Bo wants to discover where Mazey Day is and hopefully get a photo and discover why Mazey went into hiding.

In The Stakeout, the story is split over three nights. On the first night we meet PC Thompson and his new partner SPC Varney. We discover Thompson found his previous partner Dobson brutally murdered a month before. It is revealed on the second night he is apparently intent on discovering the truth about Dobson’s death and he is staking out the graveyard Dobson is buried in. The audience wants to find out what happened to Dobson, if the truth about his death will come out and where Varney’s apparent death fits into this. On the third night the truth is revealed. So The Stakeput is carefully structured to allow for character and story development.

As an amusing aside both Mazey Day and The Stakeout feature characters who get upset by the smell of garlic but for different reasons! But where in one episode it is a moment of humour which shows the situation of the central character, in The Stakeout it is a hint of what is actually going on.

The characters and Dialogue

Both BrainPilot and Unleash the Ghouls both note that Mazey Day is one of the shortest ever Black Mirror episodes and could have done with being longer.  This would have allowed more exploration of the characters and the world they inhabit and built up tension in the plot.

They also both comment on Bo’s character arc being contradictory. She goes back on her initial decision to turn on back on her profession as a paparazzi just as soon as her friend Hector reveals there is a big financial reward for anyone who gets Mazzy’s photo.  We have a couple of comic scenes where Bo has to deal with her annoying flatmate and his request for rent. We see her work as a Barista, a job with even less dignity than a Paparazzi. But beyond this we do not get much more of an explanation of her decision to try and get a photo of Mazey.

We don’t find out anything really about Mazzy other than she has issues with drug use, likes the band Muse and the noodles from a particular restaurant. We have occasional scenes over the episode which show her struggle with what has happened to her but we don’t get any real insight into her as a person.

Perhaps the issue is that this is an episode about the voyeurism and dehumanisation of what the paparazzi do and of the public’s appetite for their stolen images. In effect Bo has no other role than to be an observer/Voyeur and Mazzy no other role than to be observed. Both try to escape these roles before finally falling back into them.  

Brooker made an interesting choice to make the central paparazzi a young woman and have her played by an African American actress. Bo works in a highly competitive and aggressive male profession. She has had to become tough herself to do the job (she shows tenacity and resourcefulness in tracking down and getting photos and can haggle to try and get a good price for them)  But It is telling Bo chooses to  leave her life a as paparazzi after seeing the hounding of Syndey Alberti and the misogynistic abuse her colleagues use to provoke her.

 There are a couple of tantalising moments where Bo and Mazey interact. When Mazey is finally found, Bo reacts with horror at seeing Mazey chained up and urges her colleagues to unchain her.  She is the only character who shows Mazey any compassion. In the final exchange between Bo and Mazey , they are two sides of the same coin and there is a moment a possible moment of connection (I will come back to this). It would have been good if this had been developed. One thing that is interesting to note is that while Bo is reduced to stealing food from her flatmate due to her financial situation, Mazey has her weekly treat of noodles from a particular restaurant paid for by the producer whose house she is sheltering in (although to be fair she tries to pay for them herself).  Does the resentment of the lifestyle that Mazey and others enjoy feed into people’s desire for unflattering gossip and images of them?

Zazie Beetz gives a strong performance as Bo and Clara Rugaard does a good job conveying Mazey’s struggle as she deals with the fallout from the hit and run.

The Stakeout centres on the relationship between Thompson and Varney and how it develops over three nights. We get to see the extent that Thompson has been traumatised by Dobson’s death and how he is unable to process his feelings beyond a desire to uncover the truth about his killing. We see Varney attempt  to bond with him and get him to open up (of course this is for nefarious reasons!). We see them play word games and an amusing scene where Thompson starts eating a curry much to Varney’s disgus . This indicates an important plot point and we later see Varney get rid of the curry the following night behind Thompson’s back This shows the attention to detail Pemberton and Shearsmith pay to their scripts and how seemingly small details are important and how they follow through on the clues they seed.

We get invested in both Thompson and Varney. We enjoy their banter. We come to see how traumatised Thompson is and feel for him.  We fear for them when they are in danger on the second night.

The audience is led to see Thompson as the character whose motivations are ambiguous and possibly treacherous. Why does he lie to Varney? What is he actually up to? The audience is skillfully misdirected away from Varney being the actual villain.

 The episode in part archives this through being dialogue heavy. The episode was written by Pemberton and Shearsmith as a replacement for one that was deemed too expensive to film. Therefore they knew that dialogue would have to carry the story. There is necessary exposition but also playful banter which helps us as an audience relate to both Thompson and Varney. The dialogue between them feels authentic.  

The full script of the episode was published along with the scripts for all episodes of Series 4-6 of Inside No.9 in 2022. The original script is considerably longer. But the episode lost nothing by not including this dialogue. If anything it kept the focus on the plot and characters more focused.

It also helps that Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith are both highly gifted actors and good friends in real life. Their natural chemistry as friends helps inform the relationship between Thompson and Varney.

The Chase….

In ‘Mazey Day. Bo manages to track down Mazey to a film producers house (through bribing the woman who delivered her noodle take out). When Mazey gets taken to a retreat, Bo follows her in her car until Mazey’s bodyguards trick her into pulling in at a dinner and puncturing her tires. Now stranded Bo has to call Hector (who has a motorbike) for assistance. They find the retreat but have been followed by Whitty and Duke who had been tracking Hector.  They eventually find a way into the retreat.  While we see Bo’s frustration at these events she doesn’t give up on trying to get a photo. But it is hard to feel invested in this quest as none of the characters are likable and their end goal is ethically beyond questionable.

After establishing Thompson and Varney as characters and showing the dynamic between then on the first night of the story, we find out on night two that Thompson is staking out the cemetery as Dobson is buried there (his grave has also been vandalised) when he was supposed to be keeping a drug dealer under surveillance. Why did he hide this from Varney? Thompson and Varney are then told to intercept and monitor the drug dealer leading to a frantic car run. This injects action into a dialogue heavy episode, .  Having arrived at the location of the drug deal, Thompson heads off to apprehend those involved. He and Varney continue to discuss Dobson’s death via police radio and we eventually hear shots. Varney heads off to save Thompson. We leave night two on a cliffhanger where we do not know if either character has survived. This helps create tension within the episode and keep the audience interest.

Seeding the Reveal

There are clues in the dialogue of both episodes as to the direction they are going in.

In Mazey Day we see the Paparazzi characters compared to and behave like dogs on a number of occasions. Bo is called an animal by Justin Camley and later calls Hector a ‘dog’ when he turns up at the coffee shop she works in. We see the paparazzi members behave like a wolf pack when they photograph Sydney Alberti and Whitty and Duke dig under the fence around the retreat Mazey is receiving treatment at like a pair of dogs.

We see Mazey in a trashed room in the house she is staying in (which she must have trashed in her wolf form)  Dr Babich tells Mazey that she needs to concentrate on getting through this night, and the next’  The characters discuss the fact Dr Babic is known for his unconventional practices and interest in the supernatural  at several points..

I quite like Mazey’s trippy flashbacks to the hit and run which hint something even more darker was afoot.

However Varney’s vampirism is better seeded in The Stakeout.  Over three nights Varney talks about eating meat once a month, being ‘dead to the world’ during day light hours and being ‘Too long in the tooth ‘ to be a proper Police Constable amongst other things. He is repulsed by the garlic heavy Chicken Tikka Masala Thompson offers him, doesn’t want to cross a river and always knocks before entering the police car. Varney refers to these clues to his true nature at the end of the episode, Even the name Varney is a clue as it is inspired by character from Victorian fiction who was a vampire. The title of the episode itself is a clue.

Both episodes soundtracks include a clue at to where the story is heading, In Mazey Day we hear the track ‘Supermassive Black Hole’ over Mazey’s mushroom trip , when  she has her hit and run accident and later when she has flashbacks to the accident and receiving the injury that turned her into a werewolf. This song was used in the Twilight Saga films which were popular in the late 2000s. These films of course featured werewolves (it may also be a nod to the fact that Mazey Day owes something to Kirsten Stewart who was the female lead in these films). The Stakeout features a haunting and atmospheric string score from Christian Henson. Henson who has composed the score for every Inside No.9 episode revealed that the score was deliberately created to sound Eastern European to give a clue as to the vampire storyline

The Reveal- The Horror!

In Mazey Day the reveal happens around 30 minutes into a 42 minute episode – ie the last quarter

In Mazey Day Bo, Hector, Whitty and Duke break into the retreat centre Mazey is staying in and find her chained to a bed. Horrified Bo urges the others to help free her but they just photograph Mazey. Mazey pleads to be left alone (get the xxxx away from me”) which as it turns out is not a demand for privacy but to warn them they are in danger. Bo successfully frees Mazey to Mazey’s horror.  Mazey then transforms into a werewolf. We see ‘Mazey’ kill Whitty.  Bo, Hector and Duke escape. Hector steals Dukes camera while he tries to escape the compound rather than helping him, leaving him to be killed by ‘Mazey.’  He does this because of the value of the photographs Duke has taken. I have to say having watched again this makes it very hard to feel anything when Hector meets his fate a few minutes later. Bo and Hector run for their lives to the dinner which Bo had visited earlier in the episode. They try to persuade Clay (a police officer) and the others in the dinner and try to create a  barricade but are not taken seriously. Clay merely asks Bo to calm down and when Bo tries to grab his gun in order to deal with ‘Mazey’ he physically subdues her. As noted before Bo is African American- is this   a nod to the issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement about police treatment of African Americans? ‘Mazey’ however breaks in and kills everyone in the dinner bar Bo who has wisely taken cover. When Clay is killed Bo isable to get his gun and shoot ‘Mazey’ turning her back into a human. Mazey has been seriously injured but not dead.

 For me the final sequence happens so fast and is so frantically shot I find it hard to engage with. I note that at least one reviewer said the sequence delivers carnage but little else. It is hard to feel either sympathy or a sense of just desserts at the fate of the characters as events go so quickly or we don’t know the characters.

The reveal that Varney is a vampire comes around 26 minutes in (bear in mind the episode is 30 minutes long so is late in the episode.

It is the third and final night of the story. Having revealed that both Thompson and Varney had survived the previous nights drug bust we see them discuss the events of  previous night. Varney has finally won Thompson’s respect. Varney confronts Thompson about his investigation into Dobson’s death which leads to an argument. After Varney persuades Thompson he is on his side, they share a joke before the mood is broken by a loud noise outside. Varney goes to investigate. A traumatised Thompson thinks he sees Dobson. Varney then gets in the back seat of the car.

Having set up earlier that Thompson and Varney enjoy discussing ‘Top Five Tropes of’, Varney gives five tropes of vampires which he has shown over the previous three nights (can’t enter without being invited in, repulsed by garlic, unable to cross running water, sleep during the day, have no reflection) showing how the revelation that he is a vampire has been carefully foreshadowed throughout the episode, giving the viewer a satisfying payoff or at least letting them know the clues were there all along as to Varney’s true nature. They have also given an excuse for him to give exposition which does not feel forced or  clunky.

Varney then attacks Thompson and feeds on him. We see this reflected in the car mirror where we see Thompson and a pulsating wound on his neck but not Varney. Reece Shearsmith complimented Gulliem Morales for this shot. We then see Varney feed on Thompson for 17 seconds, an unusually long time.  In Mark Salisbury’s book about the making of the series Steve Pemberton explained that ‘Because you withheld all your vampirism, you want to make the most of it when it comes’. So the vampire reveal bring something original to the portrayal of vampirism.

It is no accident that Gulliem Morales who directed ‘The Stakeout’ shares Pemberton and Shearsmith’s love of the horror genre. He uses cinematography (the episode looks beautiful) and Christian Henson’s score to create an atmosphere of mystery and creeping dread.

The Ending

Mazey asks Bo to ‘shoot me’. Bo hands Mazey the gun and takes the camera from Hector’s dead body and points her camera at Mazey. Fans have commended the double meaning of Mazey’s request to ‘shoot me’ (with the gun or camera?) and Bo’s reaction. Does Bo hand Mazey the gun to allow her the agency of taking her fate into her own hands or to avoid the responsibility for her death? Does she get the camera as an act of revenge for Hector’s death, to enable her to get a payday that will free her from this job or even as an act of witness to Mazey’s fate? Or were they both fulfilling the roles assigned to them to their conclusions? I like that we do not see the final moment of Mazey’s life. Finally the voyeurism ends.

Bo fulfils some of the horror trope of being ‘The final girl’ or only survivor (usually a young woman)- the last character left alive at the end of the story who confronts the killer. She at least shows some compassion and questions the profession she is in. But what path will she take going forward? She will still probably profit from Mazey’s pain

In The Stakeout we see the pain and resignation in the dying Thompson’s face when he sees the now Vampire Dobson approach him to feed on him. We also see Varney assume the position on the backseat we first saw him in at the episodes beginning. We hear his opening monologue again but this time the meaning has been completely transformed.  This gives the audience a rewarding payoff of understanding what Varney was actually telling us at the beginning.

The end of The Stakeout leaves the viewer with the necessary sense of Catharsis (Fear and Pity) that good horror should.

The Real Horror and final thoughts

Mazey becoming a werewolf can be said to be a metaphor for her  guilt over killing someone in a hit and run and her struggle with drugs. But it is also a metaphor for how she is ‘monstered ‘ by the press and paparazzi. She is literally dehumanised and othered.

Sarah Ditum’s excellent recent book ‘Toxic’ looks at the culture of the 2000s and specifically the treatment of young female stars such as Britney Spears, Paris Hilton (Sydney Alberti is basically Paris Hilton in all but name), Amy Winehouse and Lindsay Lohan. She illustrates how the treatment of these young female stars helped create modern online culture such as Youtube (which was created in direct response to ‘nipplegate), influencers and gossip sites.

So Brooker really says quite pertinent and perceptive in covering the topic of the treatment of young female celebrities in the 2000s in a series which explores how modern technology is impacting society. This helped create the world he is commenting on. It was canny in a series of this show which looks backward to ask how we got here.  Mazey Day turning out to be a werewolf is supposed to be a commentary on online celebrity culture and how it treats young women.

But why does it not land better? We see the paparazzi figures as the predators throughout the episode. We did not expect Mazey to turn out to be an even greater predator. Perhaps this means the point of the episode gets muddled.

One scene I want to note is early in the episode. We see Bo listening to music via an mp3 player which were relatively new at the time (she comments on its smallness and calls it a toy). However, she is listening to it while preparing food, rather than listening to music on a radio or stereo system which would have been more usual. It creates an image of new technology cutting someone off from others rather than connecting them. Bo probably uses an mp3 player so not to annoy her hilariously passive aggressive flatmate and possibly cut herself off from the reality of having to deal with him (during this scene he complains about the smell of her cooking).  

I certainly think there are things to recommend in Mazey Day. As some fans have said it would have been interesting to see how it would have been received if it had been put under the ‘Red Mirror’ banner like Demon 79 was.  

Perhaps it is a good question to ask if Mazey day works both as a werewolf story and as a story about the culture of the 2000s. Does it bring anything new to the werewolf genre? It is an enjoyable and novel entry in the genre at least.

But it is commendable that Brooker is willing to try something new with Black Mirror and try and tell different stories.

 I wrote a previous blog on The Stakeout and argued it explored issues in modern masculinity, male mental health, and how men relate (or fail to relate) each other. Varney on one level symbolises Thompsons deep need for connection with other men. He also represents his fear of getting older and feelings of irrelevancy. But he also represents his undealt with trauma and grief over Dobson’s death.  This blog is available here.

But in the end The Stakeout works well as a vampire story in its own right and uses the tropes associated with vampires in a new and interesting way.  But It also works well as a stand alone story and a character study. It remains one of my most rewatched episodes not just of Inside no.9 but any TV show.

[joeyclaire]

oooh whats your black mirror timeline?

for the ones i’ve watched:

bandersnatch, 1984 (in time for princess susannah to be 5)

the national anthem, late 2011 (in time for susannah to be in her early 30s)

the waldo moment, mid 2014

shut up and dance, late 2015 (in time for kenny to be a waldo supporter, callow to get divorced, for victoria to be on trial)

bandersnatch timeskip, mid 2018 (in time for callow to still be in office, for the ADIs to be first released)

hated in the nation, early 2020s (in time for blue to have worked on the rannoch case, in time for the military to “announce” mass)

white bear, mid 2020s (in time for the case to still be getting attention during hitn, in time for victoria to still be on trial)

men against fire, mid 2020s (hyper realistic simulations exist but are exclusive to things like the military)

playtest, mid 2020s (hyper realistic simulations exist but are somewhat exclusive)

nosedive, mid 2020s (i imagine the culture there is exclusive to their part of the world)

uss callister, late 2020s (high tech simulations are now wildly accessible to the general public, in time for daly to name planets after the white bear case)

arkangel, late 2020s (sarah is a tusk stan but she could just be into older music, in time for arkangel to have been made by the same military as men against fire, in time for waldo to still be popular)

the waldo moment timeskip, late 2020s

nosedive, 2030s

san junipero, 2030s (in time for yorkie and kelly to be reliving their golden years of the 1980s)

metalhead, The Future

fifteen million merits, The Future (post apocalyptic, specifically after the world is rebuilt after metalhead)

[nintendo-killed-atari]

stefan but it’s based on the color palette from this post: https://www.tumblr.com/screenpalettes/714131587754786817/black-mirror-bandersnatch-2018?source=share

[p4xman]

Hey, do you think there’s one reality?

Because people think there’s one reality, But there’s loads of them all snaking off like roots. And what we do on one path effects what happens on other paths. Time is a construct. People think you can’t go back and change things but you can. That’s what flashbacks are. They’re invitations to go back and make different choices. When you make a decision you think it’s you doing it but it’s not. It’s the spirit out there that’s connected to our world that decides what we do. And we just have to go along for the ride. Mirrors let you move through time. The government monitors people. They pay people to pretend to be your relatives and they put drugs in your food and they film you. There’s messages in every game. Like Pacman. Do you know what pac stands for? PAC. Program and control. He’s program and control man. The whole thing’s a metaphor. He think’s he’s got free will but really, he’s trapped in a maze. In a system. All he can do is consume. He’s pursued by demons… that are probably just in his own head. And even if he does manage to escape by slipping out one side of the maze, what happens? He comes right back in the other side. People think it’s a happy game. It’s not a happy game it’s a fucking nightmare world and the worst thing is it’s real and we’re living in it.

hey are you bandersnatch because Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is a 2018 interactive film in the science fiction anthology series Black Mirror. It was written by series creator Charlie Brooker and directed by David Slade. The film premiered on Netflix on 28 December 2018, its release date only officially announced the day before. Netflix did not confirm the interactive nature of Bandersnatch until its release, though there was much media speculation. In Bandersnatch, viewers make decisions for the main character, the young programmer Stefan Butler (Fionn Whitehead), who is adapting a fantasy gamebook into a video game in 1984. Other characters include Mohan Thakur (Asim Chaudhry) and Colin Ritman (Will Poulter), who work at a video game company; Stefan's father, Peter (Craig Parkinson); and Stefan's therapist, Dr. Haynes (Alice Lowe). A postmodernist work with free will as a central theme, the film was named after a real video game planned for release by Imagine Software in 1984, the game in turn named after the bandersnatch, a creature of Lewis Carroll's creation. Brooker and executive producer Annabel Jones were approached by Netflix about making an interactive film in May 2017, during which time Netflix had several such projects for children underway. Difficulty in writing the highly non-linear script led to Netflix's creation of a bespoke program called Branch Manager; the unique nature of the content required adaptations in the platform's use of cache memory. Bandersnatch was originally to be part of Black Mirror's fifth series, but its lengthy production led to its release as a standalone film, delaying the fifth series to June 2019. Critical reception was mixed, with a positive response to the technical design of the film but criticism of the story's characterisation. There was mixed commentary about the narrative and the extent to which viewer choices affected the story. The film received average rankings in critics' lists of Black Mirror instalments by quality, but garnered numerous awards and nominations, winning two Primetime Emmy Awards. A lawsuit filed by Chooseco over the film's use of the term "choose-your-own-adventure" was filed in January 2019 and settled in November 2020.

[yujiehuang110720]

Blog Post 7: Blurring Boundaries: Film and TV Adopting Game-like Narratives, Games Embracing Cinematic Narratives?

In this article,  I will introduce the concept of game-like narratives in films and TV shows and cinematic narratives in games. I will also discuss my views on these two increasingly popular trends through specific examples.

Game-Like Narratives in Films/TV Drama

Henry Jenkins (2006) said that different media forms, both new and old, influence and merge with each other. This process isn’t just about one medium giving another new features but represents a cultural shift. Consumers (the audience) are encouraged to find connections between media content and interact with it, making them part of the experience.

Many films and TV shows now challenge traditional storytelling by adding interactive elements, similar to games. These allow audiences to make choices that affect the plot. One notable example is Netflix’s Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. In this interactive movie, viewers choose what the protagonist does, which changes both the plotline and the ending. This adds more possibilities to the protagonist’s background and development. It also increases audience immersion by letting them think about how to get the best outcome for the protagonist.

Interestingly, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch creates a sense of irony: while the protagonist seems to control his life, it’s actually the audience making decisions. And while the audience feels in control, the endings are in fact determined by Netflix beforehand. After the release of this piece, many people believed that interactive storytelling could be the future of the film and TV industry.

BLACK MIRROR: Bandersnatch Trailer (2018) Netflix

Cinematic Narratives in Games

The concept of cinematic games isn’t entirely new. In earlier gaming eras, many games already had a strong cinematic vibe. They featured lots of cutscenes with movie-like quality and storytelling structures inspired by films. However, it is hard to define what makes a game “cinematic.” For example, to what degree a game uses visual techniques from films or how much interactivity it retains for players. With better technology, games now showcase more creative freedom. High-quality graphics and grand narratives have become something that players greatly enjoy.

Janet Murray (1997) was optimistic about new forms of media inspiring people, similar to how Shakespeare’s plays impacted society in their time (and even now). She emphasized that interactivity in storytelling is crucial and that games are excellent platforms for telling stories. Player interaction increases emotional engagement and curiosity about the plot.

However, not everyone agrees. Some, including me, believe films and games are fundamentally different (as they should be), with limits on how much they can merge with each other. For example, in Bandersnatch, no matter how many choices are given, the number of endings is fixed. A well-crafted ending often defines a film’s depth or levitates the entire storyline, but in interactive movies, maintaining the quality of all endings is difficult. This limitation just makes viewers replay the movie repeatedly, which disrupts the flow of the story.

In addition, interactive films still need to stick to the format of “a movie,” typically lasting around 90 minutes. Unless viewers start over and make new choices, they can’t explore different outcomes. This method interrupts the audience’s ability to enjoy a complete story. A good film should let viewers analyze the story and visuals continuously without interruption.

Conclusion

As a movie lover, I prefer cohesive, well-developed stories and strong character arcs rather than having the format dictate the narrative. Similarly, for games, it’s not just about impressive visuals or vast worlds. Player experience and choices remain vital. Overusing cinematic techniques in games can feel superficial if it doesn’t enhance gameplay.

In conclusion, blending media formats is a creative challenge worth exploring. However, creators should also respect audience expectations for each medium’s storytelling style. From my perspective, balancing these elements is crucial for the future of storytelling.

Sources:

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. JSTOR. NYU Press.

‌Murray, J.H. (1997). Hamlet on the Holodeck: The future of narrative in Cyberspace. Cambridge Mit-Pr.

‌KinoCheck International (2018). BLACK MIRROR: Bandersnatch Trailer (2018) Netflix. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wnRi3Sclm8.  [Accessed 25 Nov. 2024].

[tobyarcherlvl6]

Bibliography & Reference List

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Reynolds, M. (2018). The inside story of Bandersnatch, the weirdest Black Mirror tale yet. Wired. [online]. Available from: https://www.wired.com/story/bandersnatch-black-mirror-episode-explained/ [Accessed 1 April 2024].

Talbert, D. (2023). Odds of Getting Published - WordsRated. [online]. Available from: https://wordsrated.com/odds-of-getting-published-statistics/. [Accessed 1 April 2024].

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Cafasso, J. (2018). What Is Emotional Exhaustion and How Do You Fix It? | Healthline. [online]. Available from: https://www.healthline.com/health/emotional-exhaustion. [Accessed 7 March 2024].

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Dice, D, D. (2019). The Psychology of Why We Love Role Playing Games. | Medium. [online]. Available from: https://medium.com/@d3ballads/the-psychology-of-why-we-love-role-playing-games-29e9ae45efe4. [Accessed 6 March 2024].

Dounia, R, L. (2023). AI tools paint a blurry picture of our current reality – so what do these biases mean for our future?. [online]. Available from: https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/linda-dounia-rebeiz-ai-bias-technology-creative-industry-art-011123. [Accessed 11 April 2024].

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[brookston]

Holidays 12.28

Holidays

BiCreators Day

Brobdingnagian Proboscis Day

Call a Friend Day

Congress Foundation Day (India)

Cross Day (Ireland)

Dysemas Day (Northhamptonshire, UK)

Eat a Vegetarian Day

Els Enfarinats (Flour Fight; Ibi & Valencia, Spain)

Endangered Species Act Day

End-of-Year Days (EU)

Fourth Day of Christmas

Gone-ta-Pott Day [every 28th]

Holiday Breather Day

International Cinema Day

Kashmiri Homestead Day

King Taskin Memorial Day (Thailand)

Kullubi (Ethiopia)

Manure Day (French Republic)

National Call a Friend Day

National Card Playing Day

National Download Day

National Short Film Day

National Stan Lee Day

National Tim Day

Pledge of Allegiance Day

Proclamation Day (South Australia)

Republic Day (South Sudan)

Return a Gift for Cold Hard Cash Day

Shaheed Sabha (Punjab, India)

Stanley Races begin (Falkland Islands)

Take a Drive and Enjoy the Christmas Lights Day

Throw Away Your Subliminal Motivation Tapes Today Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Chocolate Yule Log Day (UK)

National Box of Chocolates Day

National Chocolate Candy Day

National Eat Chocolate Day

4th & Last Thursday in December

National Betty Day [4th Thursday]

Independence Days

Iowa Statehood Day (#29; 1846)

Lundenwic (Declared; 2013) [unrecognized]

Mexico (Date Recognized, 1821)

Republic of Ut Pace (Declared; 2018) [unrecognized]

Yusienia (Declared; 2020) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Abel (Coptic Church)

Bruma IV (Pagan)

Caterina Volpicelli (Christian; Saint)

Childermas (a.k.a. Feast of the Holy Innocents; Christian)

Day of the Holy Innocents (Spain)

Excelsior Day (Pastafarian)

Feast of Fools, Day 3 (Holy Innocent's Day)

Feast of the Holy Innocents (a.k.a. Childermas; Christian)

Félix Vallotton (Artology)

Fool’s Day (Dis de los Inocentes; Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela)

Inocentes (Mexican December Fool’s Day)

Kwanzaa, Day 3: Ujima (Collective Work & Responsibility)

Lamarck (Positivist; Saint)

Mike ’The Bike’ Hailwood Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Only 4 Pasta-eating Days Left This Year Day (Pastafarian)

Simon the Athonite (Christian; Saint)

Theodorus, Abbot of Tabenna (Christian; Saint)

Twelve Holy Days #3 (Gemini, the hands; Esoteric Christianity)

Twelvetide, Day #4; Feast of the Holy Innocents (a.k.a. the Twelve Days of Christmas or Christmastide) [until 1.5]

The Whispering Log (Muppetism)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Bairns' Day (Unluckiest Day of the Year; Scotland)

Dyzymas (Medieval Unlucky Day; Bad Day to Start Anything)

The Sexiest Day of All the Days (in Ted Lasso)

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 60 of 60)

Unluckiest Day of the Year

Premieres

Black Hawk Down (Film; 2001)

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (TV Special; 2018)

Bright Eyes (Film; 1934)

Cyrano de Bergerac (Play; 1897)

The Deep Six or It’s Tough to Fathom (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S6, Ep. 331; 1964)

1st Commercial Film Screening (Lumber Brothers; 1895)

Gold Diggers of 1937 (Film; 1936)

The Gulag Archipelago, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Book; 1973)

I Am Sam (Film; 2001)

Match Point (Film; 2005)

Mother, by John Lennon (Song; 1970)

The New Delhi-Cateseen or Judgment at Bloombergs (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S6, Ep. 332; 1964)

On the Town (Broadway Musical; 1944)

Poor Richard’s Almanack, by Benjamin Franklin (Magazine; 1732)

Portrait in Jazz, by Bill Evans (Album recorded; 1959)

Saint Joan, by George Bernard Shaw (Play; 1923)

To Beep or Not to Beep (WB MM Cartoon; 1963)

Treatise of Sexual Alchemy, by Samael Aun Weor (Spiritual Book; 1953)

Where the Boys Are (Film; 1960)

Today’s Name Days

Donna, Mattea, Unschuldige Kinder (Austria)

Mladen, Nevenka (Croatia)

Bohumila (Czech Republic)

Piia, Piiu (Estonia)

Piia (Finland)

Gaspard (France)

John, Unschuldige Kinder (Germany)

Domna, Mygdonios, Theofili (Greece)

Kamilla (Hungary)

Donna, Dorma, Innocenti Martiri (Italy)

Inga, Ivita, Jonatans, Mierins (Latvia)

Ema, Kamilė, Kantvilas, Vaidilutė (Lithuania)

Une, Unn, Unni (Norway)

Antoni, Dobrowiest, Emma, Godzisław, Teofila (Poland)

Ivana, Ivona (Slovakia)

Abel (Spain)

Benjamin (Sweden)

Aspen, Caspar, Gaspar, Innocent, Jasper, Kasper, Woodrow, Woody (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 362 of 2024; 3 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of week 52 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Beth (Birch) [Day 3 of 28]

Chinese: Month 12 (Jia-Zi), Day 16 (Geng-Shen)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 16 Teveth 5784

Islamic: 15 Jumada II 1445

J Cal: 2 Fest; Twosday [2 of 5]

Julian: 15 December 2023

Moon: 97%: Warning Gibbous

Positivist: 26 Bichat (13th Month) [Lamarck]

Runic Half Month: Eihwaz or Eoh (Yew Tree) [Day 3 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 8 of 89)

Zodiac: Capricorn (Day 7 of 31)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 12.28

Holidays

BiCreators Day

Brobdingnagian Proboscis Day

Call a Friend Day

Congress Foundation Day (India)

Cross Day (Ireland)

Dysemas Day (Northhamptonshire, UK)

Eat a Vegetarian Day

Els Enfarinats (Flour Fight; Ibi & Valencia, Spain)

Endangered Species Act Day

End-of-Year Days (EU)

Fourth Day of Christmas

Gone-ta-Pott Day [every 28th]

Holiday Breather Day

International Cinema Day

Kashmiri Homestead Day

King Taskin Memorial Day (Thailand)

Kullubi (Ethiopia)

Manure Day (French Republic)

National Call a Friend Day

National Card Playing Day

National Download Day

National Short Film Day

National Stan Lee Day

National Tim Day

Pledge of Allegiance Day

Proclamation Day (South Australia)

Republic Day (South Sudan)

Return a Gift for Cold Hard Cash Day

Shaheed Sabha (Punjab, India)

Stanley Races begin (Falkland Islands)

Take a Drive and Enjoy the Christmas Lights Day

Throw Away Your Subliminal Motivation Tapes Today Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Chocolate Yule Log Day (UK)

National Box of Chocolates Day

National Chocolate Candy Day

National Eat Chocolate Day

4th & Last Thursday in December

National Betty Day [4th Thursday]

Independence Days

Iowa Statehood Day (#29; 1846)

Lundenwic (Declared; 2013) [unrecognized]

Mexico (Date Recognized, 1821)

Republic of Ut Pace (Declared; 2018) [unrecognized]

Yusienia (Declared; 2020) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Abel (Coptic Church)

Bruma IV (Pagan)

Caterina Volpicelli (Christian; Saint)

Childermas (a.k.a. Feast of the Holy Innocents; Christian)

Day of the Holy Innocents (Spain)

Excelsior Day (Pastafarian)

Feast of Fools, Day 3 (Holy Innocent's Day)

Feast of the Holy Innocents (a.k.a. Childermas; Christian)

Félix Vallotton (Artology)

Fool’s Day (Dis de los Inocentes; Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela)

Inocentes (Mexican December Fool’s Day)

Kwanzaa, Day 3: Ujima (Collective Work & Responsibility)

Lamarck (Positivist; Saint)

Mike ’The Bike’ Hailwood Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Only 4 Pasta-eating Days Left This Year Day (Pastafarian)

Simon the Athonite (Christian; Saint)

Theodorus, Abbot of Tabenna (Christian; Saint)

Twelve Holy Days #3 (Gemini, the hands; Esoteric Christianity)

Twelvetide, Day #4; Feast of the Holy Innocents (a.k.a. the Twelve Days of Christmas or Christmastide) [until 1.5]

The Whispering Log (Muppetism)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Bairns' Day (Unluckiest Day of the Year; Scotland)

Dyzymas (Medieval Unlucky Day; Bad Day to Start Anything)

The Sexiest Day of All the Days (in Ted Lasso)

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 60 of 60)

Unluckiest Day of the Year

Premieres

Black Hawk Down (Film; 2001)

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (TV Special; 2018)

Bright Eyes (Film; 1934)

Cyrano de Bergerac (Play; 1897)

The Deep Six or It’s Tough to Fathom (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S6, Ep. 331; 1964)

1st Commercial Film Screening (Lumber Brothers; 1895)

Gold Diggers of 1937 (Film; 1936)

The Gulag Archipelago, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Book; 1973)

I Am Sam (Film; 2001)

Match Point (Film; 2005)

Mother, by John Lennon (Song; 1970)

The New Delhi-Cateseen or Judgment at Bloombergs (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S6, Ep. 332; 1964)

On the Town (Broadway Musical; 1944)

Poor Richard’s Almanack, by Benjamin Franklin (Magazine; 1732)

Portrait in Jazz, by Bill Evans (Album recorded; 1959)

Saint Joan, by George Bernard Shaw (Play; 1923)

To Beep or Not to Beep (WB MM Cartoon; 1963)

Treatise of Sexual Alchemy, by Samael Aun Weor (Spiritual Book; 1953)

Where the Boys Are (Film; 1960)

Today’s Name Days

Donna, Mattea, Unschuldige Kinder (Austria)

Mladen, Nevenka (Croatia)

Bohumila (Czech Republic)

Piia, Piiu (Estonia)

Piia (Finland)

Gaspard (France)

John, Unschuldige Kinder (Germany)

Domna, Mygdonios, Theofili (Greece)

Kamilla (Hungary)

Donna, Dorma, Innocenti Martiri (Italy)

Inga, Ivita, Jonatans, Mierins (Latvia)

Ema, Kamilė, Kantvilas, Vaidilutė (Lithuania)

Une, Unn, Unni (Norway)

Antoni, Dobrowiest, Emma, Godzisław, Teofila (Poland)

Ivana, Ivona (Slovakia)

Abel (Spain)

Benjamin (Sweden)

Aspen, Caspar, Gaspar, Innocent, Jasper, Kasper, Woodrow, Woody (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 362 of 2024; 3 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of week 52 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Beth (Birch) [Day 3 of 28]

Chinese: Month 12 (Jia-Zi), Day 16 (Geng-Shen)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 16 Teveth 5784

Islamic: 15 Jumada II 1445

J Cal: 2 Fest; Twosday [2 of 5]

Julian: 15 December 2023

Moon: 97%: Warning Gibbous

Positivist: 26 Bichat (13th Month) [Lamarck]

Runic Half Month: Eihwaz or Eoh (Yew Tree) [Day 3 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 8 of 89)

Zodiac: Capricorn (Day 7 of 31)

[wikiuntamed]

On this day in Wikipedia: Thursday, 28th December

Welcome, მოგესალმებით (mogesalmebit), benvenuto, fáilte 🤗 What does @Wikipedia say about 28th December through the years 🏛️📜🗓️?

28th December 2021 🗓️ : Death - John Madden John Madden, American football Hall of Fame coach and commentator (b. 1936) "John Earl Madden (April 10, 1936 – December 28, 2021) was an American football coach and sports commentator in the National Football League (NFL). He served as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders from 1969 to 1978, who he led to eight playoff appearances, seven division titles, seven AFL/AFC..."

Image by Unknown authorUnknown author

28th December 2018 🗓️ : Event - Netflix Netflix released Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, its first interactive content for adults. "Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple languages.Launched on January 16, 2007, nearly a decade after..."

28th December 2013 🗓️ : Death - Halton Arp Halton Arp, American-German astronomer and critic (b. 1927) "Halton Christian "Chip" Arp (March 21, 1927 – December 28, 2013) was an American astronomer. He was known for his 1966 Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, which (it was later theorized) catalogues many examples of interacting and merging galaxies, though Arp disputed the idea, claiming apparent..."

Image licensed under CC BY 2.5? by The original uploader was Reuben at English Wikipedia.

28th December 1973 🗓️ : Event - United States The United States Endangered Species Act is signed into law by President Richard Nixon. "The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, and nine Minor Outlying Islands. It includes 326 Indian reservations. The..."

Image by U.S. Department of State

28th December 1922 🗓️ : Birth - Stan Lee Stan Lee, American publisher, producer, and actor (d. 2018) "Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Comics which would later become Marvel Comics. He was the primary creative leader for two..."

Image licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0? by Gage Skidmore

28th December 1818 🗓️ : Birth - Carl Remigius Fresenius Carl Remigius Fresenius, German chemist and academic (d. 1897) "Carl Remigius Fresenius (28 December 1818 – 11 June 1897), was a German chemist, known for his studies in analytical chemistry. ..."

Image by Unidentified photographer

28th December 🗓️ : Holiday - Christian feast day: Abel (Coptic Church) "In the biblical Book of Genesis, Cain and Abel are the first two sons of Adam and Eve. Cain, the firstborn, was a farmer, and his brother Abel was a shepherd. The brothers made sacrifices to God, but God favored Abel's sacrifice instead of Cain's. Cain then murdered Abel, whereupon God punished Cain..."

Image by Peter Paul Rubens

[mogwai-movie-house]

The Best of Black Mirror

Every episode of the world-conquering sci-fi anthology series, ranked and rated high-to-low:

The Entire History of You (2011) ★★★★★★★★★☆

Nosedive (2016) ★★★★★★★★★☆

The National Anthem (2011) ★★★★★★★★★☆

Shut Up and Dance (2016) ★★★★★★★★★☆

White Christmas (2014) ★★★★★★★★★☆

Bandersnatch (2018) (game version) ★★★★★★★★★☆

Hang the DJ (2017) ★★★★★★★★½☆

Hated in the Nation (2016) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

San Junipero (2016) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Be Right Back (2013) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Metalhead (2017) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Arkangel (2017) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Men Against Fire (2016) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Crocodile (2017) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Fifteen Million Merits (2011) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Black Museum (2017) ★★★★★★★½☆☆

Playtest (2016) ★★★★★★★½☆☆

Beyond the Sea (2023) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Loch Henry (2023) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

White Bear (2013) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

USS Callister (2017) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Striking Vipers (2019) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Joan Is Awful (2023) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

The Waldo Moment (2013) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Smithereens (2019) ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

Mazey Day (2023) ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too (2019) ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

Demon 79 (2023) ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

[victor1990hugo]

Eu estava bem empolgado para assistir a este filme... Mais ainda por essa nova dimensão aonde eu iria decidir caminhos do filme... Tudo começa muito animador... E tomar as decisões a cerca dos rumos do personagem na história trás consigo um desejo de continuar a viver tudo aquilo... Mas, eis que quando a opção não é a aceitável para aquele caminho... Volta a mesma cena para seguir por outro caminho, forçando a optar pela outra opção e assim vai-se seguindo... Quando começou essa repetição de momentos já vistos... Eu deixei seguir sem apertar mais opção nenhuma, pois a história já estava entediada e não seguindo a lugar nenhum... Acabou que terminou e fiquei sem compreender a real intensão da história confusão ali apresentada... Enfim, acabou para nunca mais... Sem desejo algum de seguir por outros caminhos, pois a história base não empolga depois do início... FIM. 🙌😩🙌

Filme: Black Mirror - Bandersnatch (2018) 🫤🎬🤔