I just saw...

[MacGuffin]

Black Mirror. The UK people are probably far more familiar with this show.

I have only seen the first three episodes. There are two seasons/series so far, three episodes each (much like Sherlock, another fave). It's an anthology show, so none of them really connect to each other. They are mostly sci-fi set in alternate or near future reality. It's... let someone else explain:

...just then, an IM window popped up: an editor asking which episode of Black Mirror was my favorite. I hit pause, grateful for the interruption. It was only then that I realized I had been crying.

Black Mirror gets you like that: First you're giggling, then you're sobbing. It's the rare show that unsettles just as much as it entertains. It rejects easy descriptors, but a first step might be calling it a Twilight Zone for the Information Age; the episodes are all stand-alone, but themes and ideas wriggle between them like the Stuxnet virus. There are ransom demands that hinge on humiliation instead of money, brain implants that turn memories into media files. The world of Black Mirror is very much our own, just fast-forwarded: The phones are thinner, the interfaces smoother, the temptations greater. Instead of cheerleading the glorious future, the show picks at the accumulating scabs we'd rather ignore: That the same gadgets that keep us from ever feeling alone also guarantee we never have to leave the house. That "favorite" has become a verb, and a meaningless one at that. That we now like things without liking them, know people without meeting them. That we give away every part of ourselves and call it sharing.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...e-black-mirror

If you do decide to watch them, don't read spoilers. They want to mess with your head.

So far: Highly Recommended.

[Mxx]

I think I watched all episodes of Black Mirror during a bout of insomnia. If dark social commentary is your cup of tea (and it is mine), then you'll likely enjoy elements - if not the entirety - of each episode.

[Polemarch]

I'm in the midst of Black Mirror right now. Watched episodes one and two of season one earlier this week. Episode one was solid, but episode two was exceptional.

[MacGuffin]

I'm in the midst of Black Mirror right now. Watched episodes one and two of season one earlier this week. Episode one was solid, but episode two was exceptional.

Episode three is even better.

Tip: don't watch it with your SO/gf/wife.

[MacGuffin]

Anyone watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? I finally caught up.

[JollyBard]

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Cliché hollywood crap. American symbolism. Action scenes for the sake of action scenes. Scenes that could have been reduced by thirty minutes if not for the redundant videogame style plot twists. Bland characters. Tauriel, who was the only female character, was a caricature of feminity, with no personality of her own. Everything was too fast, there was a shot every 2 seconds, and no moment of rest. At the same time, it felt like nothing was happening.

Maybe I should have seen it in 3D and in english.

[Hephaestus]

Most of those complaints are problems with the source material. Curious that Tolkien put in American symbolism though.

Also, for all it's cliches, it might be worth noting that Tolkien made those cliches. Therefore, anything based on Tolkien can't help but be cliche.

...for the amusing contrast.

[JollyBard]

Most of those complaints are problems with the source material.

Tauriel wasn't in the original Hobbit. There weren't lengthy videogamey battles either. I enjoyed the book.
Plus, the LotR film trilogy was awesome.

[Hephaestus]

Tauriel wasn't in the original, but Tolkien's stories have very very few females in them, and those that are have little to no personality--much like most of his other characters. There's more lore than story and more world than character. To me, those laments are trickling down from weaknesses in the original material.

I took more offense at the floating on a river of molten metal in a barrow than I did the rest of things. They added stuff in an attempt to tie it in more tightly with LotR, and try to maintain their brand integrity. I'm not saying they were the best decisions, but I think sticking straight to the book wouldn't have gone better.

[JollyBard]

I took more offense at the floating on a river of molten metal in a barrow than I did the rest of things.

This is exactly the kind of thing that turned me off. Seriously, that whole scene in the dragon's lair was just so much useless filler...
I've got nothing against changing the story a bit, adding stuff to tie in with LotR, but the whole pace of the movie was awful.

​Bombur using a barrel as power-armor.