armeela sanborn yessimah
Kerrie Gingrich
When the trailer for Netflix's Tall Girldropped, I received no less than five texts from friends saying: "Hey! It's you!" And they were not wrong. I stand at 6-foot-2 (and a half!), having reached 6-feet by the time I was 13 years old. A lot of my childhood experiences mirror those of title character Jodi, the 6-foot-1 "tall girl" played by Dance Moms alum Ava Michelle. I can easily recall the bullying (although Tall Girl's repeated "How's the weather up there?" is mild compared to actual insults of vicious teens), the lack of clothing options, being shorter than maybe three boys in my grade. These are all real inconveniences adolescent tall girls face. But, predictably, as soon as the trailer dropped, people took to Twitter to criticize the film's message, labeling it as problematic for its supposed portrayal of a tall, white girl being the victim.
My body has been the subject of unwarranted comments from strangers for as long as I can remember. This reached a pinnacle when I worked in retail and received comments about my body at least once a day. Why do people think other people's bodies are grounds for reflecting personal insecurities and prejudices? I have my own emotions and insecurities to sort out, I do not need to take on the burden of veiled backhanded "compliments" while in the middle of eating dinner or grocery shopping.
For years now, I have compiled a list of things I have been asked and told hundreds of times, as well as some out-of-pocket one-off comments. These usually get answered with a fake laugh and a number of scripted responses. Here they are, below.
Even if you're an avid viewer of the Netflix series, you may still have a lot of unanswered questions from Black Mirror swirling in your head. To be fair, that's basically the whole point of the show: it's a science fiction trip into a speculative future. Other shows like Black Mirror try to do the same. As is inevitable these days, there are myriad fan theories about Black Mirror mysteries thanks to just how bizarre and mind-blowing the series is. It's so trippy, in fact, that it's leaking into other shows, sparking a theory that Black Mirror and Riverdale exist in the same universe, thanks to an Easter egg from one of Black Mirror's best episodes popping up in an episode of CW's Riverdale.
In short, Black Mirror is enigmatic, but after its fourth season, a broader narrative is starting to coalesce; with that comes some clarity and so many theories. While many of those place the show in the universe of other movies/shows (or vice versa), many are self-contained, as well, and a lot are brilliant.
These are some of the best Black Mirror fan theories that are sure to break your brain, or maybe repair the damage that the show has caused. Vote up the ones that are the most convincing, no matter how much of a trip they might be.
Redditor thisisforscienceonly is not alone in believing Dr. Dawson to be the real murderer of the weather girl (as the comments make clear), but the user's theory on what is going on withing Season 4's "Black Museum" episode is presented well:
or B) it's from Douglas Hodge, the museum director's perspective, so the whole timeline could be a bit faulty on his part. Maybe the self mutilation, then kidnapping of weather girl happened, and finally murder of the homeless man, but of course Hodge wouldn't have known all of this, so that's why the story is portrayed differently.
"15 Million Merits" is the source of much debate within the Black Mirror universe, one that many are coming to see as a shared universe with a specific timeline (just not in the order the episodes are presented). Kally-0 believes "15 MM" is a reality within the universe (not a show or work of fiction within the universe as some believe). Here's the Redditor's breakdown:
My theory is that 15 MM is contemporary with the 'Nosedive' era, but the people in it are the British working classes and/or underclasses. I propose that 15 MM actually takes place in a futuristic form of a Victorian workhouse, where the unemployed are used as a cheap, renewable power source in exchange for shelter and food. Of course this is a depressing system, so the use of 'merits' and reality TV shows like 'Hot Shots' are used as a way to give these working classes false hope of escaping to a better life."
Redditor BlackHolePizza, like many others, believes Black Mirror takes place in a single universe, but notes a couple exceptions, namely, that the episodes "15 Million Merits" and "Men Against Fire" are actually shows within said universe:
And in 'Black Museum,' we see someone reading '15 Million Merits' as a graphic novel. We know 'Hot Shots' and 'Wraith Babes' exist in the Black Mirror universe (given the references to them in 'Crocodile' and other episodes), and '15 Million Merits' is probably some writer's 'Black Mirror' take on it."
Miranda Katz of Wired makes a cogent, meticulous argument explaining the soul of Black Mirror: it's a show about the inevitable singularity, the point of no return when artificial intelligence becomes so it advanced it dictates the course of events forever after. She points to a scene in "Playtest" that shows Sonja has a book on the singularity. Spider-webbing from there she speculates what the show as a whole is driving toward:
This is not an uncommon theory, but 2localboi does an uncommonly good job of explaining it. This Redditor lays out the events of six episodes explaining how they chronologically relate to one another in this order: "The National Anthem," "The Waldo Moment," "White Bear," "Entire History Of You," "Be Right Back," "15 Million Merits." What's more, the theory suggests that all the events in the series are related to Waldo's rise to power, his totalitarian government, and the subsequent effects on humanity with centuries'-long ramifications.
The episode list for the American drama television series Early Edition. The show premiered in the United States on CBS on September 28, 1996. A total of 90 episodes were produced over the course of the show's four seasons, with the last original episode airing in the United States on May 27, 2000.
After being kicked out of his house by his wife, Marcia, stockbroker Gary Hobson is forced to move into a hotel room. There, he starts to receive a mysterious newspaper that is delivered to his door with a yellow cat. At first Gary does not think anything of it, but after a while, he realizes that it is tomorrow's edition of the Chicago Sun-Times. This gives Gary the opportunity to use the Paper for his own gain or to use it to help people. The first case of helping someone was winning $15,000 by betting on horse races, knowing the outcome, then giving it to his blind friend Marissa so she can buy a guide dog. Then Gary knew that a bank robbery would occur, but when he tried to warn the police, they scoffed. Then Marissa went to the bank to try to foil the robbery, and Gary noticed that the paper's headlined of the robbery death toll had changed from 9 to 10. Fearing that Marissa was the new casualty, Gary rushes to the bank. Ultimately he stops the robbery by talking to the robber and after accepting his destiny, plans to send him a winning lottery ticket to help his financial troubles.
As rampant traffic jams prevent him from getting to the airport to stop a plane destined to crash, Gary tries to save a 6-year-old girl (Mae Whitman) hit by a car by getting her the necessary attention at the hospital. However, he soon learns that he can't get to the airport without failing to save the girl. He ends up deciding to save the girl. After she is saved, Gary is shocked to learn that the girl's father was supposed to be the pilot of the doomed plane. However, since Gary was able to save her, the father was contacted just before takeoff, causing the flight to be canceled so he could rush to the hospital. As a result, the plane didn't crash.
While searching for answers about the Paper, Gary investigates at the Chicago Sun-Times office building and becomes involved with one of the paper's reporters, Meredith Carson, who is suspicious of his apparent knowledge of a certain story. Gary has to prevent her from discovering the fact that he receives tomorrow's edition of the paper.
Gary tries to stop a popular basketball player with a life-threatening heart condition from risking his life on the court and dying. While this is happening, Marissa runs into an old flame. Chuck tries to keep his brand-new sports car out of peril.
A woman plans to abandon her baby and take her own life, so Gary attempts to reunite her with her parents, which fails and he starts running out of time to help her. Meanwhile, Chuck uses the Paper to get a date with an attractive woman, Lenore, with whom he shared a taxi.
The Paper reveals that a young boy, Tommy Porter, will accidentally shoot his older brother, Bryce Porter, with a handgun. However, Gary's actions to prevent this led to the Paper changing to the children's mother, Nikki Porter, being murdered by her abusive ex, Kurt Porter. Gary stops the attack and Kurt is arrested, but Tommy out of fear hides in his treehouse with a gun and nearly shoots Bryce. Gary, reading this in the Paper, pulls him out of the way just in time and convinces Tommy to give him the gun. Seeing one of his sons nearly die shocks Kurt and he seems to come to his senses.
Gary meets an ex-cop who believes that he is Bat Masterson. The ex-cop sets out to find the person who killed his former partner. Gary helps him solve the case and he starts to put his life back together.
Gary is chosen to serve as a juror in the trial of a man accused of stealing money from his company and is unsuccessful in trying to avoid serving and is even elected foreperson. Gary is suspicious as the man, Phil, acts strangely and is not sure of his guilt. While Gary originally votes guilty, as he is about to read the verdict, the Cat delivers the Paper to him in the courtroom and he learns that Phil's wife holds the key to proving him innocent, causing him to change his vote to not guilty. As the judge sequesters the jury as a result, Gary sends Chuck to talk to Phil's wife who agrees to talk to Gary, but nobody else. With the help of Chuck, Gary escapes and meets up with the wife, but their plan is found out when one of the other jurors, Linda, sneaks in to see Gary and finds Chuck. Phil's wife reveals that Phil had learned of the embezzling scheme while at work and began investigating it. His boss, the head of the company, Prosky was stealing profits from himself and framed Phil for it and has been making threats against his family. She is unwilling to testify and reveals that the only other person who would have, Gus, is too scared after being beaten up at the beginning of the trial before Gary saved him. When Gary returns with this information, he learns that his deception was discovered and is kicked off the jury. After learning that Phil will kill himself, Gary and Chuck track down Gus and convince him to testify. They arrive as the jury is about to declare a guilty verdict and while the judge initially refuses to even hear from Gus, after seeing how scared he is of Prosky, he listens to Gary. While the judge refuses to allow Gus to testify, he declares a mistrial instead and asks the courts to arrange for Gary to never be called for jury duty again. At the end, Prosky is tried for his crimes and found guilty and Gary's fellow juror Linda drags him off for a drink.