Thank you, Thank you than Welco podcast joint host Hoho as he discusses the
rinting Netflix original series Black Mirror. Now Here he is for broadcasting from the
Cottage Studio. Welcome to Black Mirror Podcast and as always, I'm your host,
ho Ho. So, how y'all's doing. I hope you're doing good.
I really do. Today we are revisiting season four, episode four,
titled hang the DJ. Oh Yeah, And I gotta admit, man,
I the first time I watched this, the the title had me. It
screwed me up. I'm like, what in the world does a DJ know
A party, an event where you would have a DJ present have to do
with this dating retreat that these people are on. It made absolutely no sense
to me. But this time it's like the very end, Oh, I
get it, you know as yeah, I mean it was. Yeah,
it took me a while. Now, okay, I gotta before we really
get into the episode. And by the way, spoiler alert if you've never
watched or listen to Black Mirror Podcast, Yeah, we talk about the episode,
so it's a spoiler alert, just just throwing that in there. But
before I get into that, a little bit of housekeeping Okay, I okay,
I do like four different podcasts. I got, you know, my
my two passion projects, the hoh Show and Religion ho Hoo's Way. I've
got this one Black Mirror podcast, not exactly a passion project, but you
know it, Black Mirror the show Netflix original series is amazing, and this
allows me to explore the human condition, which you know, is psychological,
technological type of a thing that kind of is leaning into a passion of mind.
So, you know, just the human condition in general. I like
that kind of stuff. I find it very intriguing. And then of course
I've got the Mover review, which you know, who doesn't like movies and
being entertained right, you know, of course we all do. I never
would have dreamed that this podcast, the show would have gotten the popularity that
it's got, and it has grown holy Cow to a point that I just
I never would have fathomed, you know, really really not, you know,
and due to its popularity, I'm very much wanting to take this to
another level. Okay, I got something in the works that I'm wanting to
try that I'm going to try. I don't know how successful I'm going to
be on this endeavor. I should know something within the next two months on
whether or not I'll be able to pull it off. If I can,
then we're going to be adding a little something something after I finish up with
season six. After season six, I'm wanting to add a little bit of
something something to it, you know, grow it a little bit some add
some depth to it, some depth, you know, a more perspective into
it, if you will. I don't want to spill the beans on what
I got going on what I'm thinking, Okay, but let's just say it's
going to be pretty freaking awesome. I'm excited about it. I really am.
Okay, i'll know something in the next couple within the next couple of
months, i'll know a little something something, And after I know something,
I will let y'alls know. But just thank you. I mean really,
none of this would even be possible if it wasn't for you, So thank
you. I'm humbled. I'm honored. You know that. Wow. Okay,
I tell any numbers doesn't matter, just wow, And thank you from
the bottom of my heart. Thank you. Y'alls are awesome. I appreciate
it, I really do, you know. So that being said, let's
go ahead and dive into this episode because this puppy all right. You know,
I I hate to admit this, I really do. I really did.
I hate to admit this, but you know I knew that. You
know, this is it. It's black mirror. Okay. You know they're
going to throw some type of curveball out you. You know they're going to
throw a little something something match you. You know that things aren't necessarily what
they seem. You know this. But whenever I was watching this episode the
first time, I was focusing the wrong direction. I mean, it took
me entirely too long to figure out what the heck was going on. I'm
gonna be honest with you. I didn't figure it out. I mean I
really didn't. It was the very end whenever it was like, what's going
on? And then finally they just why didn't I pick up on that?
You know, why didn't I and rewatching it? You know, I paid
more attention to the details and the conversation and the things that were going on,
and it's like it was so glaringly obvious. I mean, kicking yourself
in the butt on how slow I was, you know, and maybe I
was focused. I mean I was just focused on the wrong thing. I
mean, that's just that's kind of what it's. It's what it amounts to,
I was focused on the wrong thing. But let's go ahead and get
into the episode, because I'll tell you what this episode we're going to end
with a couple different questions on here. Maybe not quite what you think,
Okay, but okay, this this episode, though, it really was pretty
freaking intriguing. All right, it was neat. I liked it. I
really did it. It starts off with newcomers to this this singles retreat.
Okay, that's kind of what they portray it as in the very beginning,
it's like a singles retreat. Okay. You got Frank and Amy, all
right, and they had this little handheld device called the coach. I'm going
to probably refer to it as quartana more than once through the episode, and
they check on their on this date, okay, how long their date is
going to be? Their date was set for twelve hours after the end of
the meal, they go to a like a cabin and they spend the next
you know, the twelve hours long date. At the conclusion of this twelve
hour long date, Frank gets put into another gets assigned another date, and
so does Amy. The length of Amy's next date was nine months and the
length of Frank's date was one year. And you know, you kind of
go through this thing and this is where they first started making me go because
they're both in there, you know, both Frank and Amy. They're in
there. I guess you'd say they're mid twenties, and you kind of in
there talking on this first twelve hour date that you know, this what they're
doing, this whole dating thing is how life is. They don't have jobs,
you don't know anything about their life prior to them showing up to this
retreat. You know, Frank's first date was with Amy. Amy's first date
was with Frank. That's how this whole entire thing started. Twelve hour long
date. Okay, but it's like they don't work, they don't do anything,
and they kind of make it seem like this is how life is,
you know. And I mean there's not a huge amount of people that you
see in this, but they definitely make it make it out to be like
this is how life has lived in this you know, in this society,
whether it be you know, in the country, in the world. They
don't really they don't let you. They don't let you in on that.
But it's a you know, it's it's how life is. But again,
you know, you got no job. Your entire life is lived dating somebody,
just going out on a date for whatever length of a date they decide
it's going to be. That's what you do. So you know, you've
got Frank's first date with Amy twelve hours long. Amy goes on another date
with another guy, and it's you know, and it's nine months. Okay.
She goes on another day, thirty six hours, another date thirty six
hours, another date thirty six hours, just a continual loop, as it
seems, of thirty six hour dates. You got Frank, whom after his
date with Aim, he goes on a one year long date. And this
date that Frank has, you know, he's counting down the time because he
feels like he's in prison. He really wants to get out of this date
because this person is just nasty. She's a Karen. Let's just put it
that way. She's a Karen. Okay. He is not happy with this
date, and Quartana is like, you gotta do it, You got to
do it like this. This is how it is. There's you know,
just have faith in the process. There's a reason why we do everything that
we do. Just go with it, Okay, just just go with it.
And with with Amy, with all of these dates that she's going on,
it's just an endless merry go round of different guys that she's with.
Okay. Now, if Frank his experience, even though he felt like he
was in prison for a year, he's got a little bit more faith in
the system. Now Amy, considering how her experience went it was, you
know, she's really becoming jaded, no faith in the system whatsoever. She's
getting kind of jada. She's getting tired of the game. She's getting tired
of the merry go round. She's just getting tired of it. You know.
Now, there there's some conversations that ends up popping up, and I
don't at this particular point remember the timeframe of some of these. But after
Frank's one year long day and after Amy's nine months and then just thirty six
hour rotation. After thirty six hour rotation, they get matched up again.
Now we don't know exactly how many dates Amy goes on. We get the
sense that it's many. Frank, this is his third date, second person
that has been with it was Amy and then you know Karen for a year
and now back to Amy. Now they both have had two very different,
excuse me, very different experiences, and their very different experiences has given them
very different outlooks on this system. And you know, the conversations start to
arise. Okay, one they start talking about this dating retreat thing and you
know, that's what life is. And I thought that, of course was
a little weird, you know, but one of the things that they're talking
about in this is how life was before the system, and I thought that
was kind of intriguing. You know, they talk about having to meet people
on your own and you know, go through the process and breaking up and
you know, learning people and everything else. And I'm just like at this
point, I'm like, Okay, this is a little strange. And that's
why I say, you know, it leads you to believe that that is
just how life is with being on this dating retreat that everybody does this,
this is how they do that. You go through various dates with the whole
point of finding your lifelong partner, and that's what they that's what they're The
whole point of these various dates are is to figure out, you know,
your likes, your dislikes, different people, what you want in order to
put you into that relationship with your lifelong partner. And then you you know,
you go to your happily ever after. You leave the retreat and you
go to your happily ever after. That's that's the picture that they're painting.
So now you've got they're back together again. Okay, the coach Cortana,
she she matches Frank and Amy back up. Now they they agree that they're
not going to check their little handheld coaching device on how long they're their date
is going to be, you know, because again two very different experiences are
going on right right now. Okay, you've got Amy who is very jaded.
She's tired of the merry go round, She's tired of the game.
She just she wants to live in the moment being happy, because they truly
are happy with each other. They missed being together, you know, they
there really was chemistry, excuse me, chemistry between the two and Amy didn't
want to ruin the experience by having a duration and then expiration day and expiry
as they call it now. Frank being you know, having a different perspective
on this because different experience. You know, he has a little bit more
faith in the system and things are gnawing on him, you know. But
before we get into that, another conversation that they have when they're when Frank
and Amy are on their second date, that you know, they're talking about,
you know, the thing itself, talking about their experiences, you know,
and with Amy her experience, she describes this whole thing as, you
know, they're just playing games with you. They're just testing you. You
know, they're they're they're running you through all this just to break you down
and make you more jaded, just so you give up. And it's not
that they really find their you know, your your forever partner, your lifelong
partner, and you know you'll leave to your happe ever after, It's it's
more of a they you know, they put you through all this to break
you down, so you just give up and you settle on whoever it is
that they end up putting you with. And with Frank, his outlook is
a little bit different. His outlook is, you know, what if the
system is what they say it is, what if they take all this information,
everything that you are, your thoughts, your dreams, your you know,
your your interactions, your everything, and what if they do take all
of that put you all into you know, different dates with people to where
they actually know everything about you and the system truly does work. What if
another alarm bell was going off in my head when I heard that, because
this was something that I just didn't pick up on the first time around.
I just didn't, you know, I was like, huh. Watching it
the second time, I was like, all right, this is making sense.
I'm picking up what's you're throwing down here. I'm I'm seeing what they're
doing here. You know. Now, At the time that their second date
got started, okay, they both agreed not to look at their expiry,
not to look and see how long their date was scheduled to be, because
Amy truly just wanted to live in the moment and just wanted to be happy
without thinking about the revolving door of endless dates, and that was based off
of her experience so far. Frank, on the other hand, having a
totally different experience, He was like, I kind of want to know because
I really don't want to have to go to somebody else whenever I am truly
happy right here. You know. So finally Frank breaks down. You know,
Frank has a moment of weakness. He just has to know, and
he checks his device, he checks coach five years. He's going to be
on this date with Amy, and he breathes a sigh of relief. He's
happy. He's with the person that he wants to be with. She's with
the person that she wants to be with. They're both happy. He breathes
that sigh of relief. This is amazing. Well, then you find out
something about the system. Because they don't tell the participants this. You kind
of got to find out the hard way. And Frank finds out really really
quickly that you either look or you don't look. And if you look at
when the expiry is the duration that your date is going to be, you
have to do it both people at the same time. If you don't do
that, it breaks the system, and that's bad. What started off as
five years very quickly recalibrated and went down to three years, and recalibrated and
then went down to three years. When from five years down to three years,
then eighteen months, then recalibrated the three weeks, then recalibrated, then
recalibrated, then recalibrated all the way down to twenty hours. Now they have
already been on this date for I don't know a few days at least,
you know, I mean, you don't exactly know how long their date has
been up into this, but you know, it kind of looks like it's
been three three days, maybe a week. You don't really know. They
don't exactly tell you, but it's not that terribly long into it, you
know. But the Frank breaks down and he checks, and now, you
see, here's the thing though, after seeing that five years with the person
he truly wanted to be with, going all the way down to twenty hours,
and he really didn't want that. And he's he's heartbroken. I mean,
he's distraught, He truly is. Frank is just not dealing with this
very well at all. And it's it's it's weighing on him, you know.
I mean, he feels so much guilt for checking this thing, you
know, because you know, Frank and Amy both agreed that they weren't going
to do that as started off as five. He was punished because well they
both were punished because he just couldn't leave well enough alone. And what started
off as five years all the way down to twenty hours and finally nineteen hours
later. Now Amy knows something's up because the demeanor, you know, Frank's
demeanor changed, you know, and it's like he, uh, she knew
something was up. And finally, you know, she asks him point blank,
you know, what the heck's going on? Something's up. Be honest
with me, what the hell is going on? He breaks down, He
tells her. A fight ensues. You know, she ain't happy, He
ain't happy. You don't exactly know what's going on with Amy at this point,
you know, after their their date is over, you don't exactly know
whether she goes on a few different dates or whatever, but Frank definitely does.
Okay, Frank goes on on another date, and it's a completely jaded
experience. You know, he is not into her. She is not into
him. You know. At this point, both of him, Frank and
whomever the person is that he's on a date with, they're just going through
the motions, you know, and they both get a notification that they have
been paired with their lifelong partner and they're going to meet them tomorrow. Now,
Amy, after finding out an asking point blank do I know the person
that I'm being paired with? And and and Coach told her, no,
you don't know this person you've not met. But Coach does tell Amy that
she has the option to be able to have some time to say goodbye to
the person of her choosing. And before before Coach can even really truly finish
the sentence, Amy's like, Frank, I want to see Frank. I
want to see Frank, you know, before we're paired off with our lifelong
partners. I want to be able to say goodbye to Frank. And basically,
at this point she has written off the whole thing. She takes her
little handheld device and she skips it across the pool. She's like, hey,
Coach, count the four. Coach starts counting the four, and by
the time Coach even gets to four, the little handheld devices under the water.
She goes to the meeting, plays that that she's supposed to, and
things just start going crazy from there. They both know that they're, you
know, they're going to have they're going to meet their lifelong partner the next
day, and neither one of them want that. Amy basically talks Frank into
let's just blow the this joint. What's the worst they're going to do?
Now, at this point, you know, they get up, you start
to see that something's going on. Okay, that way too many eyes are
on them. But whenever they made that decision to get up and leave and
blow the joint, everybody is looking at them. It is so creepy.
I am not going to lie. It is so creepy. I'm like,
you know again, now, at this point, I was so lost.
Whenever I watched this the first time, I was so confused. I'm like,
what in the world is going on here? It's like I knew something
was up. I knew something was going on, obviously, but what am
I watching here? I you know again, I was looking at details,
but apparently I was looking at the wrong details. It didn't mean anything.
I did not pick up on what they were throwing down on this episode till
the very freaking end, and finally it was like, huh, so glaringly
obviously, especially the second time watching this is like, how did I not
pick up on what was going down? How did I not get this?
But again, okay, they get up, they make that choice to blow
this joint. Everybody is looking at them. Everybody in this restaurant, from
from guest to waitress, everybody was just stopped and looking at them. Everybody's
so creepy. And then finally security shows up, you know, and and
he's walking out and he's got his little taser. Okay, Amy ain't having
it. And by this point Amy has decided that this whole thing, and
this is one of the This was part of the conversation that they were having
while they were right there. It was like, this whole thing's a test.
Maybe this whole thing is just a simulation. Do you remember anything before
we met the first time? No, neither do I. This whole thing
is a test, just to see how we're going to react to this.
I don't want to go through the test. I don't want to play the
game. I want to blow this joint. I've decided who I want to
be with. We're done, let's go, so Amy ain't have a none
of this. Amy puts out her hand to the security guard that's got the
taser, and boom handwrite on it. And then when that happened, everything
pauses. Everything pauses, from guests to birds, to people, the security
guard, everything is in pause except Frank and Amy, and they high tailed
to this wall. They start climbing this wall, and when they I mean,
I don't know how tall this wall is, but it was freaking huge.
They were up there and still having a ways to go, and then
the entire world that you see just starts to disappear and you and then you've
got, like on a hologram deck, you got Frank and Amy and it
shows a number above their head, nine hundred and ninety eight, And then
it pans around a little bit and you see other Franks and other Amis,
all of them with the number above them, and you've got nine ninety eight
at the very top, and it's like nine hundred ninety eight times where they,
you know, rebelled against the program one thousand simulations completed. And then
it pans up to the other side of where that one thousand number is nine
hundred and ninety I'm sorry, ninety nine point eight percent accuracy. You've got
Amy standing there being paired up with Frank. They're in a bar and the
song playing on the radio is hanging the DJ and it's just immediate chemistry right
there. Immediate chemistry. Now, this episode I just I wow. I
I don't know how else to put it. I mean, it was just
freaking wow. You know. But but the thing that intrigues me about this,
you know not I mean, y'all know where I like to put my
focus. You know, it's it's people interacting with people, is people interacting
with technology. It's people interacting with people through technology. But with this episode,
you know, like I one of the things that talk about in here,
one of the things that that Frank brings up is you know, the
system looking at everything, everything, even even your thoughts, and then pairing
you with somebody that it actually does know because of all the places that they
get their information from, being able to accurately place you with somebody, Why
not have your faith in it? You know? Why not? When you
stop and think about where it's getting its information from, it just makes sense.
Trust the system, you know, trust that? Why not? The
question isn't whether they've got the ability, because I mean, dude, if
y'alls ain't figured it out by now, you know, they're tracking you,
they're watching you, they're listening to everything you do, they're looking at you
through camera lenses multiple you know, they got their hand everywhere they know And
I mean, if you haven't realized that by now I'm sorry, you know,
but I mean, have you ever had a conversation with somebody, let's
say, about you know, a I don't know a keyboard. You know,
you ain't been shopping around for a keyboard yet. You haven't gone on
Amazon, or you ain't gone on eBay, you ain't gone on anything to
shop around for one. But yet you're like, you know, talking with
a buddy of years and you know, I, I think I could really
use a keyboard. I'm kind of wanting to upgrade my keyboard, and my
keyboard starting to show its age or whatever, you know, whatever justification you
have for And the next thing, you know, you're on Facebook, and
what do you see on Facebook? An advertisement for a keyboard. This happens
all the time, you know. And they claim that they do this for
advertising purposes, of course, you know, but they're doing this. And
I'm sure that there's a lot of people out there that have had the ex
same thing happened to him. I've had to happen a lot, you know,
that type of thing. We know they're listening, you know, they're
they're they're they're hearing our conversation. They are seeing where we go through the
camera. They know what we are buying through our credit card, through our
debit card, through our rewards and loyalty programs that we're on. They know
what we're buying and what we're spending our money on. You know, they're
they're looking at the metadata, and they know what websites were going to and
what we're looking up. They know all this information. They're collecting all this
meta metadata, all of it to figure you out. The question on this
I can't really say, is how you know what's the likelihood is something like
this or do they have the programming to be able to do something like this,
because honestly, I mean, you know, the simulation part of it
is one thing, and that's that's one of the most intriguing aspects of this
episode. But they have it though that This really isn't about whether or not
they have the technology to do this. I mean, guys, I'm I'm
yeah, I'm older than Apple. I was around during the birth of the
computer. I remember rotary phones and dial up in fifty six K I you
know, fifty six K dial up. I remember these things. Okay,
first we had AOL and then we had you know, um like Yahoo chat
rooms and we had ICQ and and and then it went into um, did
I say Yahoo chat rooms? I don't. I don't remember. Then then
it went into MySpace, and then Facebook, and now there's you know,
Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and you know, TikTok and I mean, holy
crap, there's a lot of social media platforms. I was around end the
time before social media. You know, the thing that they are they were
talking about on their first date with before the program where they find you your
your lifetime companion or whatever that you're you know, your lifelong mate or whatever
does it they call it. You know, I was around before then.
But my my niece and my nephews will never know a time without technology and
social media in one form or another. I mean, guys, look like
it or heyed, social media is here to stay. I mean, I
don't see this trend ending any time in the foreseeable future. It's here.
They're just going to find more creative ways to make it relevant to your life.
But you know so, I mean, they listen, they watch,
they know what's going on. This isn't a question of whether or not they
have the technology to do something like this. I guess the real question is
how much faith would you be in the system. I mean, that's the
question, isn't it. It's it's not whether or not they could. I
mean, if you're really brutally honest with yourself, you know that, yeah
they can. And for me, that's that's a concept that is both amazing
and terrifying all at the same time. I mean, it really is people
amazing, yeah, but terrifying. I mean, guys, look, like
I said, man, I was around during the birth of computers. Okay,
Movies like The Terminator with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Movies like you know, I
Robot with Will Smith and The Matrix Keanu Reeves and Laura's Fishburne. I mean,
these aren't movies that are classified as science fiction or even science fantasy.
They're they're not. If you listen to the creators of the original computer and
what they were talking about with the eventual progression of the technology, and especially
with AI it those movies or movies of prophecy. That's why technology for me
is intriguing, because I remember what they said about it on day one,
in the very beginning. Those movies weren't science fiction. It's not science fantasy
because how they foreseen the future with the progression of the technology, looking at
how we have progressed various technology already up until then. They knew the eventuality.
It wasn't a question for them, It was an answer. Those movies
are based off of those prophecies that were made. I mean, not religious
prophecies, there were, there were technological prophecies that one day the machines would
turn against us as their creators. For one reason or another, the machines
would turn against us. That's what they prophesied about. That's why this whole
thing is both intriguing to me and terrifying. So, I mean, like
I said, guys, the question isn't whether or not they have the technology
for this, but it really is at this point, would you go along
with it? How much faith would you have in the system in the decision?
Would you be willing to give up your control of your own life to
a computer program in that way? Would you? Now, I mean for
some people that might be an easy. Yeah. You know, they've grown
up with the technology they're you know, they they have more trust in it.
They have you know that they've researched more, and they've done computer programming,
and you know they might even know some different things and in and outs
of it, you know, and they may have a different perspective than somebody
like me that you know, Yeah, I was around in the beginning.
I was around before there were dating apps. I mean, I was around
before there were apps in general. I remember that kind of crap, how
life was lived before technology and social media. I was around for all that.
So the first question, how willing would you be to truly participate in
an AI system that actually looked at this much information about you to pare you
against or I'm sorry to pair you with somebody else, and regardless of what
your answer is, and I truly would like to know, actually I really
would. But apart from that, if you don't think that as a society
were there yet, you know, with with our trust in technology, our
trust in AI, you know, how long until you think we will be
How long until you think we're there that as as as a society, how
long until you think we're there that we're willing to put our trust into AI
for deciding something like that. Let's taking a step further though, you know,
yeah, we're talking about relationships, but what if we truly use technology
for other aspects of our life like a career, you know, I mean
how hard would it be to take you know, your your you know,
your your grades, your extracurricular activity, your you know, some of your
passions, passions and your hobbies and put all of that. You know,
your your intelligence, and your your quest for new information, and your ability
to learn you know, not just what you know, but your ability to
learn to you know, retain information. You know, taking all of that
and truly find a career that you would be in love with. If dating
is one thing, what about using that same type of AI and assisting us
in coming up with a career, a life path if you will you know,
I mean going down that type of a road. The possibilities are endless.
How else would you use that type of technology? So now we got
three questions? Man, okay, we got you know, how would you
trust this type of a system? Four questions? Actually, you know,
would you trust this type of a system if you don't think we're there as
a society yet? How long until you think we are? And what about
using this in other areas like finding your career? And in what other areas
do you think this thing could possibly work and be utilized for? Pretty intriguing
questions. Whatever your answer is, let me know. Head on over to
the hoh Show dot com and Okay, if it's not yet, it soon
will be. I'm working on a blog putting it together. Actually, I'm
moving it from one place to another. Message boards for the various seasons.
Put your comments into there and let me know. Or of course you can
email me ho Ho at the Hoho Show dot com and send me your question
there, because I truly am curious let me know. So, guys,
that is all I got for you today. Y'alls are awesome and amazing.
The next episode will be episode six of season four entitled Black Museum. I
am who. I can't wait to watch that one again. I really am.
Oh man, that was a very good episode. It really was tying
so many other episodes together. I'm interested to see a second time around how
many more things I can see and pick out from other episodes. That's what
I'm kind of curious about on that one. And then of course we're going
to be doing the interactive film entitled Bandersnatch, and then we're getting into season
five. So y'all, is that is all I got for you today.
Have a great one. See you Next dot Thank you for listening to the
Black Mirror podcast. If you would like to join the conversation, you can
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