For as ubiquitous as technology has become in our lives, the implications of our social media and smartphone habits have yet to inspire really great dystopian commentary on television. Sure, HBO’s Silicon Valley makes tech obsessions the butt of its jokes, but for the most part TV writers haven’t delved far enough into the complicated effects our reliance on gadgets and online networks are having on our lives and our relationships — until now.
Luckily for those of us who aren’t totally oblivious to this paradigm shift, a British mini-series is finally available in the States to anyone with a Netflix account — and it’s so good it’ll scare the hell out of you as you cling to the edge of your seat. It’s called Black Mirror, as in “the one you'll find on every wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the cold, shiny screen of a TV, a monitor, a smartphone," as explained by show creator Charlie Brookerin The Guardian.
Each hour-long episode is a scarily realistic, cautionary tale about the darker sides of our addiction to technology, and Black Mirror might be the first series to truly explore the pitfalls of our digital world. The episodes, of which there are three to a season for a total of two seasons so far, stand alone yet are connected in their creepy visions of the near future, much in the same way The Twilight Zone's skeptical visions of the modern world came through its myriad narratives.
To get a sense of the show, check out an unofficial trailer here.
Black Mirror essentially draws popular technological conceptions to their logical extremes, extremes that frighteningly don’t seem all that far off. In one episode, people are able to record and review everything they see — something we’re clearly on our way toward achieving via Google Glass and GoPros — causing their obsessions with their pasts to override their present relationships. In another episode, society has been reduced to a real-life Facebook, with likes and points in lieu of currency.
“The [episodes] are all about the way we live now – and the way we might be living in 10 minutes' time if we're clumsy," explained Brooker.
All six episodes are definitely worth watching, and there’s a 90-minute Christmas special with John Hamm coming out in the UK on December 16th. But a word of warning; you might not want to marathon through these. The truths in Black Mirror can get draining, and each episode is darker than the last. Although this show is technically a satire, it isn’t funny as much as it is horrifying, and painfully accurate in enough ways to make you sit back and contemplate where our tech-obsessed society is headed.
Black Mirror is one show you won’t want to be texting through.
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