Having caught up with the last episode of the latest series of Black Mirror, I was amused to learn that Nine Inch Nails were jumping on the marketing bandwagon, after an episode where a (real life) Pop Princess was repurposing a couple of their songs: Head like a hole! I’m on a roll! Riding so… Continue reading Black Mirror
Tag: speculative fiction
Ask and ye shall receive…
It’s almost as if they heard me: trailers for the three episodes of the forthcoming series of Black Mirror are out. So, not much sign of a turn towards the upbeat so far. I live in hope…
Black Mirror trailer
The trailer for Black Mirror season 5 seems mainly to exist to remind us that having access to some of Netflix’s money allows the show to cast bigger names and keep the standard of special effects up to scratch: no attempt to let us in on what any of the stories are about. Charlie Brooker… Continue reading Black Mirror trailer
40 years of Aliens
Just before 20th Century Fox was swallowed up by Disney, they celebrated the 40th anniversary of one of their own greatest franchises with six Alien 40th Anniversary Short Films. I doubt the Xenomorphs are going to be showing up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe any time soon, but that’s OK: they’ve done a fine job… Continue reading 40 years of Aliens
The OA reviewed
A couple of weeks ago I finally got round to watching the first season of Netflix’s The OA. I was well aware that it got a mixed-but-respectful response from reviewers at the time, and I’d always had in on my list of shows to catch up with some day. I’ve since enjoyed various reviews of… Continue reading The OA reviewed
Discovering more Discovery
When Netflix started screening season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery to the rest of the world I was aware that CBS had produced a number of shorts in the same setting and featuring characters from the show under the title Short Treks, but the word was that no UK service had picked them up so… Continue reading Discovering more Discovery
“What do you mean you’re not willing to electrocute your cat? It’s a cat! It would do the same to you in an instant!”
John Scalzi shares a story of an encounter with Automated Customer Service in the not too distant future: Thank you for calling the customer service line of Vacuubot, purveyors of America’s finest automated vacuum cleaners! In order to more efficiently handle call volume, we rely on automated responses. To continue in English, press one. Para… Continue reading “What do you mean you’re not willing to electrocute your cat? It’s a cat! It would do the same to you in an instant!”
The First
I suspect that Channel 4 might be a little disappointed that their screening of The First doesn’t seem to have captured the public’s imagination. I’d seen a couple of reviews after the first episode that tended to lean heavily on the “Sean Penn’s show fails to lift off” line, which is about the angle you’d… Continue reading The First
STET
STET is a breathtakingly good story by Sarah Gailey, told as much in the footnotes as the body text, about the implications of letting Artificial Intelligence loose on the public roads. Which is more chilling? 10 – Read: ‘Murder’. It was murder, the car had a choice, you can’t choose to kill someone and call… Continue reading STET
AROOGA-THUMP
I realise this is not the right time of year for posting this, but I came across this yesterday and the notion of Javier Grillo-Marxuach bringing The Middleman and the Doctor together was just too delicious to keep to myself just because it’s not Xmas again just yet: […] By the time The Middleman fired… Continue reading AROOGA-THUMP