Black Mirror is bad, we know this, but the episode white bear is quite the let down. It just got me thinking "what if the entire episode was the post credits sequence?" It's almost like an extended world building/documentary exercise but I'm enchanted with the idea that you could develop the "this is a themepark about tormenting killers, rapists, you name it" angle with a more tense theme of "retributive justice and our leering fascination with torturing socially deemed unpersons is fucked, actually" slowly making itself more apparent.
In the episode proper we're supposed to align ourselves with the anguish that the spectacle woman has faced over and over. it's then revealed that she has killed a child which is so objectionable that it's supposed to create a dissonance where you're set up for the reveal that she's going through her hellish punishment of reliving the torture she put on the girl in her last day of life. And honestly whatever! I already knew the ending going in so it's lost on me somewhat, but like, this only leaves you with the theme of "Creating a woman you can torture truecrime style" a very short amount of time! I get it's supposed to be a "how did the world come to this" moment that you're left on, but it's also that's a far more interesting concept!
Unfortunately the writers of the bad show Black Mirror (we know this) would probably be unlikely to pull it off, given their idea for dystopias devolved into "What if a comedian's vtuber created the police state" or whatever the next season. Or maybe it was the same season, I don't care.
