USS Callister

USS Callister is biting commentary on 'reboot-culture', gaming, internet trolls and nostalgia as a whole. This episode is almost like a loot-crate for sci-fi fans who grew up on this stuff (show runner Charlie Brooker did); you can see callbacks to things like the original Star Trek (obviously), the 2009 film reboot, Battlefield Earth, The Matrix, Toy Story, Interstellar, and even Guardians of the Galaxy (at least certain images did that for me). It evokes all these classics while telling a memorable tale in this anthology series masterpiece, showing how 'playing-master' over your subjects, even digital ones, is not necessarily a good thing.

For me, this episode is probably the season-best alongside Black Museum and Hang the DJ. Black Mirror is innovative television at its best.

This one isn't really made to make you think and question your life. It's just an extremely entertaining, well made piece of television. It's very good.

If you're not a techie, you will thoroughly enjoy this episode. Whether or not certain aspects of the show are technically possibly is not what I watch Black Mirror for. I watch it to immerse myself in a different reality that has real, human components to it. This episode had it all and the acting was superb, especially from Jesse Plemons. Jesse is one of those underrated actors who is just so believable in any role he plays. Super talented. Anyway, the story was great, tension kept building throughout and there was a highly satisfying ending. What more could you ask for?! Oh yeah, there's that accuracy problem regarding firewalls, DNA replication, etc. that everyone is complaining about. Who the heck cares?! It's fiction people! I wanted to watch this again as soon as it was over. Super episode!!

The best thing about "Black Mirror" is the originality of the story ideas. "USS Callister" is certainly original! The only real problem is the premise, though very original, is utterly ridiculous. My advice is just suspend your disbelief and go with it!

The show is about a very passive-aggressive man, Robert Daly. Although he's extremely shy and easily pushed around at work, he's developed an ultra-bizarre way of exacting revenge and feeling all-powerful. He's designed a huge multiplayer game but is apparently so brilliant that he's able to create exact copies of his hated co-workers and he torments them in this alternate reality. Here, Daly is the captain of a space ship (VERY MUCH like "Star Trek") and is these co-workers don't do EXACTLY what he wants, he tortures them. Eventually, a new co-worker is recreated in this world...and she's determined to defeat him even though he seems to hold all the cards.

Just ignore the voices in your brain that say "you can't do THAT" and the like. Of course you can't...and it's a fantasy show. So sit back and enjoy...though the show is occasionally tough to watch because Daley is indeed a sadist.

I'm beginning to think that Black Mirror fans are one of those audiences that are impossible to entirely please (similar to Star Wars or Star Trek fans). Some of the "criticisms" I'm reading are people that don't seem to understand what creative license is, and are nitpicking the episode for not being 100% realistic. This is far and away one of the best episodes of the entire series. The story is perfectly paced and consistently engaging. The characters are all well-acted and compelling. The technical aspects of the episode are perfect; terrific visual style, direction, set design, etc. Jesse Plemmons delivers an absolutely golden performance making this an unforgettable episode. There is little not to like here.