Black Mirror: Eulogy
April 10, 2025 11:53 AM - Season 7, Episode 5 - Subscribe
An isolated man is introduced to a groundbreaking system that allows its users to literally step inside old photographs - stirring powerful emotions in the process.
Wow.
Such a beautiful, devastating story, and told so simply. What an amazing way to explore memories.
posted by ishmael at 7:05 PM on April 11
Such a beautiful, devastating story, and told so simply. What an amazing way to explore memories.
posted by ishmael at 7:05 PM on April 11
This is an interesting reversal of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Instead of going to a service like Lacuna Inc, he naturally repressed and distorted memories to fit the narrative he had constructed as a wronged and abandoned lover. But the Eulogy construct helped him to see through those distortions, with a lot of guidance, allowing him to see the truth of his own behavior and restore the sweetness of their love.
posted by miss-lapin at 1:31 PM on April 12 [2 favorites]
posted by miss-lapin at 1:31 PM on April 12 [2 favorites]
I really dug the "3D" set-recreations of the old photos, especially with the defaced faces.
posted by porpoise at 6:02 PM on April 12 [3 favorites]
posted by porpoise at 6:02 PM on April 12 [3 favorites]
I loved the sets w/ like, the polygonal clothes.
posted by fleacircus at 4:28 PM on April 16 [4 favorites]
posted by fleacircus at 4:28 PM on April 16 [4 favorites]
Beautiful
posted by Salvor Hardin at 7:28 AM on April 17
posted by Salvor Hardin at 7:28 AM on April 17
Man, this might be my favorite.
Great effects, great storytelling. Such uncharacteristic restraint.
Best use of the Temple Nubbin™ so far.
It feels almost accidental that he was willing to go as far as to receive the kit and unpack it. He started out so reluctantly… and then in for a penny, in for a pound, perhaps… but he sensed somehow that he needed this, as painful as it was. I wonder if he'd ever told it to anyone. He unloaded on a digital avatar even before he knew who it was.
In the face of all of that regret and internal torment and self-hatred… imagine taking out that cassette tape and playing it. Not just playing it for the Nubbin or FedExing the damn thing… but standing there in that hallway and allowing the music to make the repairs to your own memory that you can't make to all the photos you defaced.
Restoring his memory of her face and showing up in person to her funeral are the only apologies that are left for him to make, and each of them must've been excruciating. But could you do otherwise? After closing yourself off from that pain for so much of your life, wouldn't you finally let yourself feel all the things you'd been trying not to feel?
So glad we got Paul Giamatti for this one.
posted by savetheclocktower at 9:18 PM on April 23 [2 favorites]
Great effects, great storytelling. Such uncharacteristic restraint.
Best use of the Temple Nubbin™ so far.
It feels almost accidental that he was willing to go as far as to receive the kit and unpack it. He started out so reluctantly… and then in for a penny, in for a pound, perhaps… but he sensed somehow that he needed this, as painful as it was. I wonder if he'd ever told it to anyone. He unloaded on a digital avatar even before he knew who it was.
In the face of all of that regret and internal torment and self-hatred… imagine taking out that cassette tape and playing it. Not just playing it for the Nubbin or FedExing the damn thing… but standing there in that hallway and allowing the music to make the repairs to your own memory that you can't make to all the photos you defaced.
Restoring his memory of her face and showing up in person to her funeral are the only apologies that are left for him to make, and each of them must've been excruciating. But could you do otherwise? After closing yourself off from that pain for so much of your life, wouldn't you finally let yourself feel all the things you'd been trying not to feel?
So glad we got Paul Giamatti for this one.
posted by savetheclocktower at 9:18 PM on April 23 [2 favorites]
well that is just a good old fashioned tragedy is what that is
posted by Sperry Topsider at 8:06 PM on April 24
posted by Sperry Topsider at 8:06 PM on April 24
also 10,000 points to patsy ferran for much more than holding her own against paul giamatti’s tour de force performance. the scene where she breaks from her disinterested guide pose by telling him off &mdash: why didn’t you let her play the cello?! — was utterly perfect. i look forward to seeing everything she’s in for the rest of her career.
additionally: the guide version of patsy ferran’s character — what was her name? let me run off to imdb to check — holy shit, she was named kelly?!? well that is not a name to be used lightly in the context of a black mirror episode — seemed to indicate more than a little bit of disgust for how she exists as an instrumentalized assistant for the meatspace non-nubbin original of herself, and i would kill — i’d kill you, yes, you, you reading this right now, i would kill you in particular — for an episode that’s focused on getting non-nubbin kelly to see nubbin kelly as a person, and then the two of them hashing out an arrangement wherein non-nubbin kelly helps nubbin kelly live the non-instrumentalized life she deserves, to live as an end unto herself rather than simply a means to accomplish non-nubbin kelly’s ends.
posted by Sperry Topsider at 3:15 PM on April 26 [1 favorite]
additionally: the guide version of patsy ferran’s character — what was her name? let me run off to imdb to check — holy shit, she was named kelly?!? well that is not a name to be used lightly in the context of a black mirror episode — seemed to indicate more than a little bit of disgust for how she exists as an instrumentalized assistant for the meatspace non-nubbin original of herself, and i would kill — i’d kill you, yes, you, you reading this right now, i would kill you in particular — for an episode that’s focused on getting non-nubbin kelly to see nubbin kelly as a person, and then the two of them hashing out an arrangement wherein non-nubbin kelly helps nubbin kelly live the non-instrumentalized life she deserves, to live as an end unto herself rather than simply a means to accomplish non-nubbin kelly’s ends.
posted by Sperry Topsider at 3:15 PM on April 26 [1 favorite]
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posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:06 PM on April 10 [3 favorites]