Black Mirror is brilliant. The way it’s creative technology and hopeless situations push the plot to a twist and a haunting ending makes each episode a rollercoaster-like experience. Going into each episode you never know what to expect and by the end you always seem to experience emotions you had not anticipated feeling. I think the reason Black Mirror gets under people’s skin the way it does is because nothing that happens on the show seems out of the realm of possibility. If you told someone 50 years ago that today there are phones with facial recognition and electronic boxes that you can verbally ask to turn off lights and change the temperature in your house, they would think you were insane. Technology and the speed at which it advances is truly frightening – it has changed everything. Politics, education, personal relationships, and more; we have joined in a holy union with technology and depend on it, for better or for worse. In my opinion, this Netflix series has latched onto that little voice in our heads that wonders “How far is too far?” Is it too far when we start getting targeted ads? Is it too far when certain information is hidden or shown to us based on our geographical location or political beliefs? What is too far, and who gets to decide that? Each episode of Black Mirror explores technology that most can agree has crossed a line and reveals the terrifying truth that once that line is crossed, there is no going back.
1. ) “Crocodile”
In this episode, there is a technology called the “Recaller” that allows people to look into another person’s memory. A woman with a dark past happens to witness an accident and is soon paid a visit by an insurance investigator who informs her that she legally must submit her memories. As a mother and wife, the main character is willing to go pretty far to protect the secrets from her past.
2. ) “White Christmas”
This episode contains a couple different examples of corrupt technology. It begins with a man telling a story to another man about a club he used to be a part of, where men would take turns going out to pick up women. The rest of the club would see through the eyes of the man and be able to give him tips. Now, this is pretty skeevy but you do feel a bit of sympathy as the demise of the club is rather grim. The next story he tells is of a service that is essentially Alexa on steroids. A small part of you is extracted and becomes a sort of AI assistant. A major concept to understand when watching the series is that when digital “copies” of a human are made, they are conscious and feel like they are a real person; he real you might be happy to be woken up in the morning to music and to always have your schedule organized but the AI you is basically a slave. This segues into the listener becoming the story teller. He explains that his pregnant girlfriend had “blocked” him. In this world, blocking someone goes further than you not being able to see their Instagram posts; they become a gray figure you cannot see or hear and you appear to them the same way. The block also transfers to any offspring and the man is pushed to the edge as he desperately tries to see his daughter. This one has a twist you don’t want to miss.
3.) “Shut Up and Dance”
This was the first episode I ever watched and it sparked my interest in the show. A young kid is unknowingly filmed through his computer while he is masturbating and is told by an anonymous caller that if he doesn’t follow the tasks demanded of him, the video will be leaked. He participates with other people who are being blackmailed for a variety of reasons by the same unknown entity. The tasks grow stranger and harder to complete as the show progresses and the climax changes your entire outlook on everything you had seen up to that point.
4.) “Men Against Fire”
This episode is about soldiers who are hunting down “roaches”: monster-like beings who are said to be harmful to society. The soldiers are controlled by technology even to the point that they are rewarded for successful hunts by receiving sexy dreams. On one particular hunt, everything changes for one man when he discovers the truth about what the soldiers are really doing and how far the people who control his brain are willing to go to get them to do it.
5.) “Black Museum”
Similarly to “White Christmas”, this episode consists of some storytelling that creates sort of mini episodes within the larger episode. A woman stops in the middle of nowhere and needs to charge her car. She has some time to kill so she decides to check out a museum that is close by. This museum contains objects that have gruesome stories behind them. The first object that is introduced is a hairnet that when used, allows someone to feel everything the person who wears the hairnet feels. A doctor gets the implant to be able to use this device and he begins to help patients at a much quicker rate. That is until he experiences the feeling of someone dying, which changes everything. The next object is a toy monkey. When a woman tragically dies in a car accident, her partner agrees to having her consciousness put into his head in order for her to be with her son. This creates a wide variety of issues that lead to the woman being stuck in the now illegal toy monkey. The final and main attraction is a man on death row being electrocuted. It is a digital copy of him, but as I said before these AI are conscious, creating a rather sadistic attraction. This is my all time favorite episode due to the amount of story lines and the ending being one of the few satisfying endings in this series.
It is hard to pick my top 5 favorite episodes in the series because truly they all are amazing. If you aren’t a fan of scary shows, there are quite a few episodes you can still enjoy such as “Nosedive”, “Hang The DJ”,”Fifteen Million Merits”, “San Junipero”, “Striking Vipers” or “Rachel Jack and Ashely Too”. It is unclear if Netflix is going to film another season of Black Mirror. All we can do now is keep our fingers crossed and wait to see what they have in store for us.