Black Mirror

I know that its been briefly mentioned in the channel 4 thread, but I can't believe that this hadn't been commentated on as of yet.

Black mirror aired on Sunday, in the words of channel it's a 'suspenseful, satirical three-part mini-series that taps into collective unease about our modern world' penned by Charlie Brooker. Some are saying it's a satirical comedy drama, more of a disturbed drama in my eyes.

Brooker does brilliant writing that conveys the modern society very well, and creates a fictional story the like of which could be reality.

The first episode 'The National Anthem' focussed widely on the media and how they would report an incident, in this case the Princess being kidnapped after a ransome video had been posted to YouTube, and people were reporting it on Facebook & twitter, but whilst a press ban was in place.
It was an interesting premise, and with a fictional news network set up. UKN had coverage fronted by the daybreak thread's favourite Helen Fospero, and nice graphics.

Also the trail for next weeks episode aired directly after the programme, and ended with the wording "next Sunday at 9:30, after the x factor". Has any other broadcaster ever advertised using another networks programme as a benchmark for times?

Is the drama a well written piece, is it unnecessary, is it controversial, or was it lacking something?

EDIT: I haven't gone into too much detail, just in case people haven't watched it yet.

It's not really remembered at all, but during the ITV hearts era, they experimented with the idea of saying "After EastEnders" at the end of the 7:30 episode of Coronation Street on a Monday. It didn't last very long, but caused quite a stir on here, particularly as we'd been given a heads up by an insider that something weird was going to happen at the end of Corrie.

I believe they did that only once.

I saw a promo on Sky earlier this year that advertised a programme 'after Britain's Got Talent' with no mention of times whatsoever.

IIRC if say C4 are advertising on ITV1 there not allowed to mention the time the programme is on are they? I'm sure that's the case anyway.

Well I think that is still the rule although the advertising rules have been relaxed a lot over the last few years.

Either way its slightly irrelevant as the promotions we are talking about were on their original channels and mentioned other channels programmes.

Yes, if a channel is running a paid for advert on another channel they don't mention the time. Although whether this is a rule, a convention or just a gentlemen's agreement I don't know

Black Mirror was great, the premise behind it was very simple but also just so 'dark' and bizarre. Only someone like Brooker or Chris Morris could have come up with that, but as far fetched as it was, it was actually quite plausible.

And I think that's the scary side of it all. Whether it was te way it was written & produced, or a very accurate portrait of modern society, I could see something on that scale happening, especially after recent events au h as the Clarkson strike comments.

Thought the attention to detail was especially good, from the UK media being given a D-Notice while the rest of the world's news channels were carrying the story, to little things like the mention of the Guardian running a live blog. Although I'm sure in a real newsroom, no journo would be that surprised about being asked to update the obit VT in that situation, it'd be standard practice I'm sure.

They were blink-and-miss-em moments, but the tweets (opinionated and glib) and YouTube comments (spiteful and mentioning "false flags") that appeared on screen were spot on, too.

It wasn't she was surprised it needed doing, but that she was demeaned by being asked to do it. It's not the most popular of jobs to do in a newsroom, especially when everyone else was getting the interesting stuff to do!

I haven't yet seen Black Mirror, but from what I've read on here I can see how mentioning The X Factor could be seen as in context - perhaps more of a 'dig' at the fact that today's top news story on the radio or top 'trend' on social networks is quite likely to be about a reality game show or its contestants, than a genuine reminder for viewers to turn over after The X Factor. Do the two programmes really appeal to the same demographic?

The other example about Corrie and EastEnders is quite different - I believe there is either a gentleman's agreement not to schedule flagship soaps against each other, or maybe just an understanding that many viewers watch both programmes and to schedule them at the same time would damage ratings. Effectively, ITV was promoting EastEnders by mentioning it, but anyone who watched it would have switched over anyway, so this served as more of a reminder to switch back when it finished. For that reason, mentioning the rival soap or channel in this context probably made sense, despite the unorthadox nature of such an announcement.

The next episode is about a talent show, hence the mention and the scheduling!

Dark satire set in a future reality where everyone is confined to a life of physical drudgery - unless they can impress the judges of a popular talent show The Radio Times

Interestingly it's co-written by Konnie Huq (Charlie Brooker's wife) who of course knows a bit about The X Factor.