History YMMV / BlackMirrorStrikingVipers

* HilariousInHindsight: Ludi Lin playing a fighting game character in this as he would later be cast as Liu Kang in ''Film/MortalKombat2021''.

[[center:[-[['''Striking Vipers''']]-] -- [-[[YMMV/BlackMirrorSmithereens Smithereens]]-] -- [-[[YMMV/BlackMirrorRachelJackAndAshleyToo Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too]]-]]]

[[center:[-[[YMMV/BlackMirrorStrikingVipers Striking Vipers]]-] -- [-[[YMMV/BlackMirrorSmithereens Smithereens]]-] -- [-[[YMMV/BlackMirrorRachelJackAndAshleyToo Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too]]-]]]

[[center:[-[[YMMV/BlackMirrorStrikingVipers Striking Vipers]]-] -- [-[[YMMV/Smithereens Smithereens]]-] -- [ [[YMMV/RachelJackAndAshleyToo Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too]]-]]]

[[center:[-'''Series Four'''-]]]
[[center:[-[[YMMV/BlackMirrorStrikingVipers Striking Vipers]]-] -- [-[[YMMV/Smithereens Smithereens]]-] -- [-[[YMMV/RachelJackAndAshleyToo Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too]]-]]]

* HoYay: The core of the episode, given that it follows two male friends engaging in sex through virtual avatars, albeit one is inhabiting a female body. Despite them seemingly separating themselves from their characters, Danny still reacts as if Karl said it when [[spoiler: 'Roxette' says that 'she' loves him.]]
** This only intensifies later in the episode with Karl admitting that [[spoiler:he only enjoys sex as Roxette if it's with Danny-playing-as-Lance.]]
** Their entire affair is more than a little suspect, especially on Karl's side – while Danny can at least (likely) claim to being physically attracted to Roxette, Karl-as-Roxette is having sex with Lance, a male character, being controlled by Danny, a man.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: There is a lot to unpack regarding Danny and Karl's dynamic and whether they're really bisexual or at least ''heteroflexible'' in a IfItsYouItsOkay kind of way.
* CrossesTheLineTwice: The table conversation between Danny and Karl. Karl desperately tries to convince Danny to continue having virtual sex with him because he can't feel anything close to what he has with Danny from any of the other players he hooked up with. He admits he went as far as to have a go at with an avatar of the ''[[BestialityIsDepraved polar bear character]]'' but ''still'' couldn't feel anything.

* JustHereForGodzilla: A lot of viewers only showed up because this one one of Nicole Beharie's first major roles after being pushed out of ''Series/SleepyHollow'' and being subsequently blacklisted.

** The above discussion also gets mildly undermined by the subplot involving Theo, Danny's wife, who is increasingly sexually unfulfilled in their marriage, which culminates in [[spoiler: her being allowed to have random hook ups once a year the same time Danny is with Karl.]] The arrangement seemingly equates Danny and Theo's situation and thus reduces Danny's attraction to Karl (and vice versa) to them just needing something ''new'' and ''different''.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Danny can come off as a self-centered jerk in a lot of ways. He cheats on his loving and loyal wife, the mother of his children, mostly because he finds his life boring, as opposed to communicating this to her and trying to find a solution with her. With said cheating, he also strings along his best friend Karl, who, unlike him, doesn't have a family or a steady relationship and lives alone in his apartment. In Karl's case, it could be argued that having sex with Danny in the video game is the best thing he can get to a meaningful connection to another person, while for Danny, it's more of a distraction from his mundane everyday life that is only hurting everyone else around him, including his family.
** Theo kind skips between this and UnintentionallySympathetic. While her fractured marriage is pretty hard to watch, you're onboard (or just neutral with it), hearing her confront Karl while saying what most scummy cheating housewives justify their cheating (not that she was wrong in this case, but still) can be pretty irritating and throw people off.

* HilariousInHindsight: Ludi Lin playing a fighting game character in this as he would later be cast as Liu Kang in the reboot movie adaption of ''Franchise/MortalKombat''.

* HoYay: Arguably the core of the episode, given that it follows two male friends engaging in sex through virtual avatars, albeit one is inhabiting a female body. Despite them seemingly separating themselves from their characters, Danny still reacts as if Karl said it when [[spoiler: 'Roxette' says that 'she' loves him.]]

** Their entire affair is more than a little suspect, especially on Karl's side - while Danny can at least (likely) claim to being physically attracted to Roxette, Karl-as-Roxette is having sex with Lance, a male character, being controlled by Danny, a man.

** There are a lot of genuinely interesting philosophical questions about the nature of sexuality, sexual attraction, romance, and gender performance here that get teased and touched upon without getting fully explored, to the detriment of the episode. This is mostly because the episode is filmed to focus on the salaciousness and drama of the situation itself, therefore the audience is focused on how these characters act and react to the behavior of each other. However, in doing so, it fails in providing a deeper exploration of Karl and Danny's mental and emotional reaction ''to their own behavior'',and thus keeps the audience from fully understanding if anything other than "the sex feels good" is motivating either character. This general frustration is discussed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxKRoCvX2yc in this critique]] of the entire fifth series.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: The table conversation between Danny and Karl. Karl desperately tries to convince Danny to continue having virtual sex with him because he can’t feel anything close to what he has with Danny from any of the other players he hooked up with. He goes as far as to say he fucked an avatar of the ''[[BestialityIsDepraved polar bear character]]'' but ''still'' couldn’t feel anything.
* EsotericHappyEnding: The episode ends with [[spoiler: Danny and his wife making a compromise where once a year he gets to have sex with Karl-as-Roxette in ''Striking Vipers'' while she gets to meet other men at bars. They basically solve their marriage problems by ''not'' solving them (finding a way to keep things exciting together) and Karl is apparently supposed to be okay playing second fiddle to Danny's wife and only getting to interact with him once a year in a video game rather than finding a proper relationship where he's prioritized]]. Hooray?

* HoYay: Arguably the core of the episode, given that it follows two male friends engaging in sex through virtual avatars. Despite them seemingly separating themselves from their characters, Danny still reacts as if Karl said it when [[spoiler: 'Roxette' says that 'she' loves him.]]
** This only intensifies later in the episode with Karl admitting that [[spoiler: he only enjoys sex as Roxette if it's with Danny-playing-as-Lance.]]
** Their entire affair is more than a little suspect, especially on Karl's side - while Danny can at least (likely) claim to being physically attracted to Roxette, Karl-as-Roxette is having sex with Lance, a male character, and Danny, a man.

** "I fucked a polar bear and I still couldn’t get you out of my mind!"

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Danny can come off as a self-centered jerk in a lot of ways. He cheats on his loving and loyal wife and mother of his children mostly because he finds his life boring, as opposed to communicating this to her and trying to find a solution with her. With said cheating, he also strings along his best friend Karl, who, unlike him, doesn't have a family or a steady relationship and lives alone in his apartment. In Karl's case, it could be argued that having sex with Danny in the video game is the best thing he can get to a meaningful connection to another person, while for Danny, it's more of a distraction from his mundane everyday life with no real emotions there.

* EsotericHappyEnding: The episode ends with [[spoiler: Danny and his wife making a compromise; once a year he gets to have sex with Karl-as-Roxette in ''Striking Vipers'' while she gets to meet other men at bars. They basically solve their marriage problems by ''not'' solving them (eg. finding a way to keep things exciting together) and Karl is apparently supposed to be okay playing second fiddle to Danny's wife and only getting to interact with him once a year in a video game rather than finding a proper relationship where he's prioritized]]. Hooray?
* HilariousInHindsight: Ludi Lin playing a fighting game character in this as he would later be cast as Liu Kang in the reboot movie adaption of Franchise/MortalKombat.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: There is a lot of genuinely interesting philosophical questions about the nature of sexuality, sexual attraction, romance, and gender performance here that get teased and touched upon without getting fully explored, to the detriment of the episode. This is mostly because the episode is filmed to focus on the salaciousness and drama of the situation itself, therefore the audience is focused on how these characters act and react to the behavior of each other. However, in doing so, it fails in providing a deeper exploration of Karl and Danny's mental and emotional reaction ''to their own behavior'',and thus keeps the audience from fully understanding if anything other than "the sex feels good" is motivating either character. This general frustration is discussed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxKRoCvX2yc in this critique]] of the entire fifth series.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Danny can come off as a self-centered jerk to some viewers. He cheats on his loving and loyal wife, who is also the mother of his child (and later [[spoiler: gets pregnant with their second child]]) mostly because he finds his life boring. You know, as opposed to explaining this to her and trying to find a solution with her. With said cheating, he also strings along his best friend, who unlike him doesn't have a family or a steady relationship, living alone in his apartment. In Karl's case, it could be argued that having sex with Danny in the video game is the best thing he can get to a meaningful connection to another person, while for Danny it's more of a distraction from his everyday life with no real emotions there.

** The above discussion also gets mildly undermined by the subplot involving Theo, Danny's wife, who is increasingly sexually unfulfilled in their marriage, which culminates in [[spoiler: her being allowed to have random hook ups once a year the same time Danny is with Karl.]] The arrangement seemingly equates Danny and Theo's situation and thus reduces Danny's attraction to Karl (and vice versa) to them just needing something ''new'' and ''different''.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: There is a lot of genuinely interesting philosophical questions about the nature of sexuality, sexual attraction, romance, gender performance here that get teased and touched upon without getting fully explored, to the detriment of the episode. This is mostly because the episode is filmed to focus on the salaciousness and drama of the situation itself, therefore the audience is focused on how these characters act and react to the behavior of each other. However, in doing so, it fails in providing a deeper exploration of Karl and Danny's mental and emotional reaction ''to their own behavior'',and thus keeps the audience from fully understanding if anything other than "the sex feels good" is motivating either character. This frustration is discussed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxKRoCvX2yc in this critique]] of the entire fifth series.
** The above discussion also gets mildly undermined by the subplot involving Theo, Danny's wife, who is increasingly sexually unfulfilled in their marriage, which culminates in her being allowed to have random hook ups once a year the same time Danny is with Karl. The arrangement seemingly equates Danny and Theo's situation and thus reduces Danny's attraction to Karl (and vice versa) to them just needing something ''new'' and ''different''.

** "No homo."

* HilariousInHindsight: Ludi Lin playing a fighting game character in this as he would later be cast as Liu Kang in the reboot movie adaption of MortalKombat.

** "I fucked a polar bear and I still couldn’t get you out of my mind!"