I watched the first 3 episodes of S3 last night, and as soon as I saw the headline for this story, I thought of Nosedive.

Watching Nosedive, I thought how close to it we were already, it's just that we're measuring people in terms of Followers or Likes. This path started I think when we prioritised Google Analytics numbers over the positive effects you create within your audience: clicks, traffic, unique visitors all seem to count more in 2016 than loyalty and shared values that dominated publishing for the prior 100 years or more.

In the age of "personal brand" it makes sense to me that we're going to end up with "personal metrics" and we're just seeing the tip of the iceberg.

At the end of Nosedive I decided if that was the future of my society, I'd stay being me and suffer the consequences. I'd rather be happy in my own skin that be popular, and if I lived in a society that turned popularity into a measure of personal worth, I'd quite happy to be a dissident within it.

I watched it last night and was struck by how much impact had been lost by Netflix transition. OK they were clearly going for humour, but even with bigger production, and good acting the longer running time diluted it so much. We didn't need the star rating explained every 2 mins for the first 20.

Though I think it was that one that's based on a Charlie Brooker story, rather than written by.

I actually paused after to decide if I was going to bother with the rest at all. 2nd episode (as far as I've got) was much better.

I just finished the third and have liked all three but agree with you completely. The original runs packed far more punch than what I've seen so far.

Strike that, the fourth episode is amazing and as good as any made previously.

My first impression and suspicion is that it has been Americanised. British humour tends to be more grating and grotesque than what's considered acceptable in the US, and the outlook is bleaker. So far I've watched the first three episodes. The first even has some sort of happy ending. The second episode looks just like a bleak prequel to Inception, rather predictable. The third is maybe the most faithful to the original spirit. There seems to to be a slow transition from American to British in the three episodes, so curious to watch the others.

It started like that, but I quite liked San Junipero and Hated in the Nation. The latter was on a similar par to White Christmas, in my opinion.

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia used this concept as a plotline, and managed to treat it with more subtlety. Granted, it's a comedy, so the tone was wildly different.

Which episode?

The Gang Group Dates

My favorite aspect of this episode is that the main character's drastic decline in quality and ease of life that coincided with her declining rating are the exact same experiences someone with poor credit or a rap sheet would experience right this second. The rating systems, lists and records we use as a metric for access and worth are draconian as it is. Crowd sourcing it just makes it glaringly obvious with a tight feedback loop.

Just the title of this post reminds me of the anime Psycho-Pass

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho-Pass

First thing that comes to mind for me whenever Sesame Credit is brought up.

I just finished watching it myself, after having seen it mentioned in your comment. I found it profoundly heavy-handed, and, unlike pretty much every other episode of the series I've seen so far, I didn't enjoy it at all.

I really disliked this season. It's too sanitized, not anywhere as visceral or cringe-inducing as the previous ones. Hell the first episode actually had a happy ending instead of a deeply depressing one; the endings in Black Mirror always had that appeal in that they always uneeringly hammered in that there's no escaping, there are no happy endings and it can only get worse.

It just felt too "plasticky", that conclusions about the worlds displayed were being forced on me, instead of giving some room for thought.

It was my favorite season. I probably won't watch Episodes 1 or 6 again, but I thought the middle ones were consistently great. The one with "roaches" I seemed like it had excellent warning value as we enter the world of augmented reality.

Not trying to start an argument over matters of taste, just interesting to see how opinions differ! It does seem like in season 3 -- aside from the episode everyone is talking about in relevant to this thread -- they run with more of the "sci fi premise" approach, as opposed to making you feel like this is a just around the corner, as some of the first seasons did.

Came here to mention exactly this. The 1st world isn't far off something similar (instagram/twitter followers represents power and popularity)

Same here, they are doing some very interesting design fiction stuff on this show.... Not always recommend to watch before bed though :)

watched the first three episodes - still can't sleep (its 4am).

After finishing the season today, they've really stepped up their game, it seems, from the previous seasons.

Exactly. I give you 5

2. Wasn't a meaningful encounter.

:D Ha!