A frequent false impression about “Black Mirror” is that the present’s predominant thesis is not any extra nuanced than “cellphone dangerous.” And positive, some episodes seemingly fall into that entice — see season 5’s “Smithereens,” an episode that is mainly a really lengthy “do not textual content and drive” PSA — however for essentially the most half, the present would not accept a message so easy. The issue is nearly at all times the folks, not the tech. The reminiscence-enhancing expertise in “Crocodile,” for example, looks as if a transparent web constructive on society, simply because the VR actuality recreation in “USS Callister” positive looks as if a enjoyable time, if not for Robert Daly ruining it.
The “Black Mirror” creator, Charlie Brooker, has been fairly clear about this in his interviews over time. “The villain is rarely expertise,” he said in a 2014 interview, “And I at all times discover it actually fairly boring. If I am watching a sci-fi movie and there is just like the evil genius is gonna, ‘ha, ha, ha, I am gonna launch this factor, it is gonna enslave everybody.’ I can not actually relate to that. However I can relate to a man who will get obsessive about a gadget, after which it step by step ruins his life. So [the show is] extra apprehensive than it’s making an attempt to warn anybody.”
This perspective is seen within the title of the present itself, which does not check with expertise however to what it seems to be like when expertise’s turned off and all that is left is your self, staring again at you. “When a display is off, it seems to be like a black mirror as a result of any TV, any LCD, any iPhone, any iPad, one thing like that,” Brooker mentioned. “If you happen to simply stare at it, it seems to be like a black mirror, and there is one thing chilly and horrifying about that.”
‘Black Mirror’ is in regards to the current, not the longer term
One other false impression about “Black Mirror” is that the present is attempting to “predict the longer term” in any significant means. Every time information comes out about some jail making its inmates experience electricity-generating bikes, or at any time when these robot dogs from Boston Dynamics make the information once more, folks speak (typically jokingly, typically not) about Charlie Brooker being some form of oracle. However Brooker was by no means considering attempting to get the longer term proper; he was targeted on taking the issues of the fashionable day and exploring them to their logical conclusions. It is an strategy he borrowed from a earlier anthology TV collection, “The Twilight Zone.” As he defined in that very same 2014 interview:
“You have a look at ‘The Twilight Zone,’ it is all speaking about communism, psychology, house journey, all this stuff which have been up to date considerations on the time. And that is type of how that knowledgeable that aspect of Black Mirror, the form of technological focus or backdrop to a variety of the tales. However having mentioned that, ‘The Nationwide Anthem’ is not a very technological story. It is nearly a scarcity of perceived management in as we speak’s world.”
You may see the altering considerations of the instances mirrored in how “Black Mirror” has advanced over time. The sooner seasons appeared extra involved about social media, particularly, and the way in which it encourages in any other case good folks to participate in mass cyberbullying campaigns with out even realizing it. (“The Nationwide Anthem,” “White Bear,” “Shut Up and Dance,” and “Hated within the Nation” are all mainly about this.) However because the collection has gone on, it is grow to be more and more involved with synthetic intelligence. “Joan is Terrible,” “Lodge Reverie,” and “Plaything” are fascinated by the thought of expertise taking over a lifetime of its personal, creating supposedly actual human connections via a bunch of ones and zeroes.
What rising societal concern will “Black Mirror” grow to be fascinated by within the subsequent few seasons? I, for one, am very nervous to seek out out.
