Black Mirror: USS Callister

[Scififan]

"My favourite Twilight Zone is the one where a nuclear bomb goes off." Sums up BM to me.

They're gonna need to be way more specific about it.

I think it was the "The Last Pallbearer".

[Scififan]

Correction: One More Pallbearer.

[Darmani]

Correction: One More Pallbearer.

I think it's a broad mockery. Many tz episodes have a bomb go off talking about it as an intellectual experience is basic b word or dunning Kruger or galaxy brain of the mediocre est of order

[TGLS]

basic b word

[sandangel]

I read a lot of Ask A Manager, which frequently deals with issues related to small businesses, and Daly fits a lot of traits for someone who was suited to one role, got moved to another they're not suited for, and instead of leaving or going back to their previous role, gets passive aggressive and spiteful about tiny things and becomes this toxic drain that everyone knows is a problem, but either can't or won't address in a meaningful way.

Nanette mentions how Daly is an amazing coder, but he's currently CTO, which requires a very different set of skills, and it's obvious he's not doing well in that role. Logically, he should leave for another coder job elsewhere, but he can't.

This game, this project, it's his baby, his dream, he can't leave it behind, so he stays where he's miserable and unliked. So he uses the game as an emotional outlet for his stress. Except, like him, it turns toxic. It's not about having fun anymore, he makes it into a juvenile fantasy where he gets back at his coworkers without risking his position, without losing his job and the game. This way at least, no one can say for certain why they don't like him, so no one can get rid of him.

He's still a pile of toxic waste disguised as a person, but there's a logic to how it works, even if I'm making some leaps in my logic.

[Nealithi]

I read a lot of Ask A Manager, which frequently deals with issues related to small businesses, and Daly fits a lot of traits for someone who was suited to one role, got moved to another they're not suited for, and instead of leaving or going back to their previous role, gets passive aggressive and spiteful about tiny things and becomes this toxic drain that everyone knows is a problem, but either can't or won't address in a meaningful way.

Nanette mentions how Daly is an amazing coder, but he's currently CTO, which requires a very different set of skills, and it's obvious he's not doing well in that role. Logically, he should leave for another coder job elsewhere, but he can't.

This game, this project, it's his baby, his dream, he can't leave it behind, so he stays where he's miserable and unliked. So he uses the game as an emotional outlet for his stress. Except, like him, it turns toxic. It's not about having fun anymore, he makes it into a juvenile fantasy where he gets back at his coworkers without risking his position, without losing his job and the game. This way at least, no one can say for certain why they don't like him, so no one can get rid of him.

He's still a pile of toxic waste disguised as a person, but there's a logic to how it works, even if I'm making some leaps in my logic.

Just a thought. But he coded what he loved. He is at a company where he should be making mad money. Now logically explain why he should step down and go somewhere else for less and working on a different project? Those would be the bars on his cell. This should be his baby. But some how it isn't.

[Fixer]

Just a thought. But he coded what he loved. He is at a company where he should be making mad money. Now logically explain why he should step down and go somewhere else for less and working on a different project? Those would be the bars on his cell. This should be his baby. But some how it isn't.

The company is partially his. He set it up with Walton at the start, but it's clear that Walton is in the domineering position. As he discusses the name of the company "Callister" when he talks to the new girl who's in love with his code at the beginning he says its one of the few things that Walton allowed him.

So, It's Robert Daly's passion project that Walton has effectively taken over.

It's probably put best when Walton gives his final words at the end.

"I was thinking I should say... sorry.
You created Infinity. You're a fucking genius. I exploited that.
I treated you like a golden goose and got fat on the profits, figuratively speaking.
And I was thinking I should have appreciated you more, you know?
I should have treated you better.

Yeah, yeah, I was thinking I should say all that. But you threw my son out of an airlock, so fuck you to death."

Daly's not some problem employee they brought on. He's one of the company's founding partners and the reason for it's existence. Then he's isolated from everyone socially and has no real authority due to his complete lack of people skills with what looks like textbook depression from the amount of unfinished fizzy drink bottles and take-out cartons in his apartment.

This is a guy that needs to be sinking his wealth into massive amounts of therapy, instead his coping mechanism acting out an unhealthy torture filled revenge fantasy on sentient AI replications of his co-workers.

So, by chance the guy with mental illness and stunted emotional growth bullied by his peers turned out to be an asshole. Just makes me think of the time Frank Dreban was celebrating his 1000th drug dealer kill. The last three he backed over with his car. Fortunately they turned out to be drug dealers.

That's something that Black Mirror has done before though. They put a character into what would normally be an empathisable state and then reveal them to be a monster. Something that makes you regret having sympathy for a character earlier.

[Hero_Of_Shadows]

This is me overthinking this again, I get why Walton is the dominant one inside the company and why they can't fire Daly but if Daly is so famous that other people start gushing about how they love his code why doesn't another company try to poach him ?

Genius engineers get convinced to change their companies all the time, it wouldn't be that hard in theory to do other companies must exist that want to do the same thing, that would offer him the opportunity to start from scratch (something programmers really really want to do) plus they could offer him a nicer work environment.

In a way I understand why Daly is CTO despite being horrible at the role, he wants to not be overruled any anybody else.

[sandangel]

This is me overthinking this again, I get why Walton is the dominant one inside the company and why they can't fire Daly but if Daly is so famous that other people start gushing about how they love his code why doesn't another company try to poach him ?

Genius engineers get convinced to change their companies all the time, it wouldn't be that hard in theory to do other companies must exist that want to do the same thing, that would offer him the opportunity to start from scratch (something programmers really really want to do) plus they could offer him a nicer work environment.

In a way I understand why Daly is CTO despite being horrible at the role, he wants to not be overruled any anybody else.

He won't/can't leave because he's too attached to this project, it's his dream, and letting go means letting someone ruin that dream. He's convinced he's the only one here who "understands" what Space Fleet/Infinity is about, that everyone else is out to ruin it. We can tell he's wrong, but he's too deep in his fantasy to realize it.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

"what if yoochewb could downvote YOU?!@@!"
Black Mirror: Scifi for effin hacks