Stellar and nuanced recap, Brian. Thank you!

Gotta agree: the handling on this particular segment was terrible, and as much as I’m certain the hosts intended it to be a step forward for women working in the sex industry, the fact that they tried to shut Yuzuki down on several occasions (and “you sure talk a lot” is just the polite way of saying “women are…

I wasn’t convinced by episode 1, but after this one, I’m on board. The battle sequences were amazing (damn, who knew Cyril could be so badass). But the biggest laugh I got was from a gag that has been done countless time, but the delivery WAS amazing.

The was a second Arrested Development reference as Archer asked Mother if she would show themher bird dance

I think of Barry the same way I think of Cyril in these dream seasons. He’s an exaggerated projection of Archer’s perception of him. With Cyril, his occasional rival, Archer gets to imagine him as a perpetually inept and jealous loser who he can abuse. With Barry, a legitimate antagonist completely of Archer’s own…

Also - I can’t be bothered to check the broadcast dates but I’m very sure that Community did it first and WAY better with Meow Meow Beans.

Especially watching Metalhead and seeing that the US military is working with Boston Dynamics to build exactly those kind of weaponized robodogs. Or that the society he envisioned in Nosedive is seriously being tested out right now in China: https://www.wired.com/story/age-of-social-credit/  Yeah, he does have some…

Nosedive scores high because it is so resonant with current events. It stretched its premise a little far IMHO, and failed in one fundamental way for a Black Mirror episode. Normally they try to show the upside of a technology at the beginning before showing the downside. But right from the start most people were…

Why is Metalhead so bad?  To me it’s basically a perfectly executed horror film.

Rewatching that episode in October 2016 made me think that perhaps we should keep Brooker away from writing because he’s clearly got some sort of way of parsing out what’s to come. I mean who would’ve ever called the PM and a pig thing...

“Black Museum” was the least entertaining episode, for my money, and one of only a few I would call outright disappointing. The callbacks to previous episodes sapped it of originality and made it feel like the show’s creators were basking in their own success. It was strangely... smug.

In light of Trump and Brexit, The Waldo Moment turned out to be pretty prophetic and thus should rank higher. Hang the DJ is just White Christmas (which also should not be ranked as highly) and San Junipero mixed together. Nosedive is definitely not better than 15 million merits, Entire History of You, and etc.…

I understand that people don’t like National Anthem because it makes them uncomfortable but that’s exactly the point. That’s why it is such an amazing episode. I’ve never watched something that made me think, “They’re not going to do this” to “Are they really going to do this?” to “Holy Shit! They’re doing this!” I…

I feel like “The National Anthem” should rate higher. As a statement of intent for what was then a brand new series, it’s jawdropping: the dramatic equivalent of walking into a bar and immediately punching the biggest guy there. And then it actually pulls it off.

Totally agree. It seems as if the author thought the twist was “turns out those people were bad and you shouldn’t sympathize with them.” That’s very much the opposite of what they were going for.

I think it’s ironic in retrospect that Shut Up and Dance is about people scared about having their lives ruined by the release of damaging video of them, and the episode was released just before the guy who said “grab ‘em by the pussy” was elected president.

I don’t comment here any more, but if I did I would entirely agree with this assessment. Shut Up And Dance is absolutely fucking amazing. It is absolutely not misery for the lolz, and it’s this level of criticism that’s the primary reason I’m not here any more.

Switch it with Nosedive, which has very little to recommend it after you see its basic premise a few minutes in.

Shut Up and Dance was fucking excellent. Nothing more to add.

Jumpin’ jack flash, White Bear is a good ten spots too low on this list.