MovieChat Forums > Black Mirror (2011) Discussion > Playtest could've been great... a case o...

Playtest could've been great... a case of trying too hard?

posted 8 years ago by assumedkilla
12 replies | jump to latest

It was probably my favorite episode of the show (I've seen every episode to this point), but the phone call twist was overkill and makes the show feels a bit pointless, since the main character loses every single time. They tried to be too clever - the episode ending with him walking into his house would've been great and no, I don't always want a happy ending in movies/shows, but the main character losing or getting in trouble every time gets old too.

I had a similar problem with White Christmas, Jon Hamm's punishment was completely random and overkill, but this episode had way more potential and almost nailed it. I think they have a problem with endings in general, Nosedive was also great, but her turning crazy and pretty violent at the end killed it a little bit too. She could've been justifiably angry at the wedding without seeming like a crazy/violent homeless woman with a knife about to stab people.

I heard the showrunner on NPR a few days ago doing an interview and he said he needed to remind himself to not always do a twist ending... I agree, keep reminding yourself that and don't try so hard to be clever or "beat" Twilight Zone.

I never saved anything for the swim back.

[–] Meven_Stoffat 8 years ago

Except in Nosedive, that was exactly the point. It's a futuristic twist on the traditional concept of how the constant need to be perfect (or close to it) drives one to instead be completely insane. Her turning into a maniac and pulling the knife was a clear indicator of how broken she was. Then we get a comedown from the intensity by watching her and the guy in the cell across from each other fire insults at each other. It's as cathartic for them as it is for us. It's a perfect ending.

My real problem with Playtest is it was going way too far with the whole Inception-style Game Within a Game thing.

"I really like f--king my cat."

[–] assumedkilla 8 years ago

Having 3 or 4 fakeouts in a row felt overkill and like an unintentional parody. I felt like the underlining theme of Nosedive was anger, hidden anger, not craziness. I would've liked an anger/hatred fueled rant at the wedding and she still could've gotten arrested. I understood and like the scene with her and the guy yelling at each other. It just felt like she lost the moral high-ground when she started to threaten people and picked up the knife - not to mention yelling "I always loved you" after she called out her BS.

I never saved anything for the swim back.

[–] Movie_Guy79 8 years ago

I disliked the ending in "men against fire". I get that he had his MASS rebooted, but standing at an old house imagining an old gf was kind of a letdown.

[–] assumedkilla 8 years ago

I haven't gotten to that episode. I'm okay with twists, just not 3 or 4 in a row though.

I never saved anything for the swim back.

[–] Julie_De 8 years ago

I didnt see them as twists, i just thought his brain kept wanting to get out of the game and it couldnt get out. But it seems like in the real world, this was all instantaneous, even though it seemed like a long time in his dream/VR state.

[–] tb-sch 8 years ago

In hindsight maybe it would have been more interesting to hint at him getting home being unreal, but then just leaving it open whether it is another of his fears. Frying his brain as the result of him having to use his phone is a funny dark humoured twist, but I don't think it was necessary.

[–] GuyNCognito 8 years ago

So... You wanted the ending of inception all over again?

Grant discovered raptor eggs in Jurassic Park

[–] tb-sch 8 years ago

Because Inception is the only movie with an open ending you have ever seen?

[–] GuyNCognito 8 years ago

Dude. The ending you described was Incption to a tee, open or not.

Grant discovered raptor eggs in Jurassic Park

[–] vlad-b-sch 8 years ago

I don't get why you think a non happy ending makes the episode pointless. Watching something, anything in general, doesn't need to be pleasant to be rewarding.
No problem at all with the twists. The episode is terrifying and escalates very well to that, the end is just the cherry on top and leaves a very frustrating sensation.
Frustrating by the way seems to be a big theme for all the series. This show doesn't see the future of new technologies with good eyes, is quite nihilistic. If at this point you didn't realize it yet I don't get why you keep watching the show. I can't remember a single episode where the protagonist "wins".

[–] assumedkilla 8 years ago

I don't get why you think a non happy ending makes the episode pointless. Watching something, anything in general, doesn't need to be pleasant to be rewarding.
No problem at all with the twists. The episode is terrifying and escalates very well to that, the end is just the cherry on top and leaves a very frustrating sensation.
Frustrating by the way seems to be a big theme for all the series. This show doesn't see the future of new technologies with good eyes, is quite nihilistic. If at this point you didn't realize it yet I don't get why you keep watching the show. I can't remember a single episode where the protagonist "wins".

I never said I wanted a happy ending or that's why this episode annoyed me - I literally said that in the original post, I'm not sure why some people choose to ignore things. The twist was lame and awful because it meant half the episode didn't really happen. I've never been a fan of twists that result in "all of that was a hallucination/fake".

My point about main characters wasn't me always wanting a happy ending, it's about the story being less predictable. If the at the start of every episode I know the protagonist is going to die, go to jail, or something else horrible on that level then it becomes stale and less interesting to me. Thinking the protagonist at least has a shot against tough odds (No Country for Old Men), even if they fail, is a pretty basic part of storytelling.

The episode ending with him ironically forgetting his name and everything else like his dad did would've been better than the ending we actually got. At least then the cool/great scenes in the creepy house actually happened. Like I said in the title, it felt like they were trying way too hard.

I never saved anything for the swim back.

[–] Musashi_MijaBloto 8 years ago

The problem with this episode is very poor acting from the lead actor:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2085059/board/thread/262582492

Particularly when he sees one of the monsters it is so overdone and artificial acting - totally unbelievable.