BY JOHN CARTER JR
Black Mirror has been the representation of the genre that properties like the Twilight Zone have given birth to. Since its debut in 2011, it is given us many different storylines and worlds to explore. Often with a dystopian and technological theme for us, the viewers, to analyze. These dystopian themes and technological advances give us a set of rules in terms of what to anticipate throughout the viewing of each episode, and even in the end of many Black Mirror episodes, we find ourselves wondering how we came to a completely different/surprising conclusion.
The phrase “turning an idea on its head” is often used to describe many different works that don’t truly or accurately convey the expression, but I assure you Black Mirror definitely turns a good portion of these concepts on their head. The challenge of creating new concepts and storylines for every new episode, which each feeling like a fully imagined short film, is an expression of the talent of the individual writers, directors, actors, and staff working on these pieces.
The most recent installment in the Black Mirror franchise was a “pick your own adventure” style Netflix one-shot called Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. The one-shot features a game developer who is eager to create content for a new company and working alongside a hero of sorts in the game development world. There are many impactful choices that this protagonist has to choose to make it throughout the episode, from picking a preferred cereal to deciding as to whether or not to kill his own father. It is a very dark edition to the franchise but eventually becomes very existential when it comes to the protagonist believing that he is being influenced by an outside force.
This becomes apparent during many of the endings and routes for the viewer to take. Yes, there are multiple endings for this episode which make for an interesting combination of storylines to be analyzed by the viewer. Netflix’s attempt at an interactive medium is definitely an impressive one, and gives us hope for what they could potentially do with this type of medium in the future. This attempt is way more user-friendly and more comfortable than the ones made before. We can see this when comparing it to the “Choose Their Fate” Concept in Final Destination 3 for example.
Honestly, I anticipated Black Mirror season 5 to happen much earlier this year. So to see nothing happen for the series after Black Mirror: Bandersnatch was a bit disappointing. There was definitely anticipation building as to when the next installment would be and when it would be announced. It was very exciting to see that it was announced and quickly added on June 5th to Netflix’s catalog of Summer releases. It was also announced that there would be three new additions to the library of Black Mirror episodes. We got an idea of the concepts from the trailers that accompanied the announcement. They look to be intriguing but have some familiar aspects (this was to be expected). Let’s take a quick look at the things we can notice in these preview trailers.
Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too
This episode features a character or two portrayed by none other than Miley Cyrus. In the trailer we see Cyrus speaking through a robotic version and human version of her assumed character, Ashley. It is unknown whether or not her human character is speaking through the robot version of her character or if Ashley 2.0 is simply am artificial intelligence. This AI concept has been seen before in other iterations of Black Mirror, but it will be interesting to see what purpose this character serves and whether or not both the human and potential AI will have a conflict with each other. We also note that Ashley seems to be of the celebrity status, so maybe Ashley 2.0 is simply a toy version of her original persona.
Striking Vipers
This episode features Anthony Mackie as who we can presume to be the protagonist. It is apparent that he and his wife are trying to create a baby together. It also seems that relationship troubles will be the topic of the episode. His potential infidelity in his relationship, his wife becomes suspicious of his actions. This is made misleading throughout the trailer as there are moments where he assures his wife he is not doing anything but will later see him sneakily active on his cell phone. The interesting thing about this episode of Black Mirror is the potential for a reference to the first season of Black Mirror, the episode titled The Entire History of You, In that, an object that looks similar to the memory implant from that episode makes an appearance in this trailer.
Smithereens
This episode seems to have the least apparent plot details given in the trailer but gives us a few themes that allow us to come to a few understandings about what this episode could potentially be about. Simply put the amount of information we are given concerning the plot is summed up with, a taxi driver picks up a man and then points a gun at him in some sort of freak frenzy. Then we have some commentary concerning people’s obsessions with their devices and being on them all the time. The thematic idea may be a very timely one, given people are more consumed with their technological devices and social media than they ever have before. This could make for a more exciting episode in that out of all the trailers it seems to be the most intense.
Black Mirror has been a series that is often highly anticipated by Netflix patrons. Its social commentary and creative dystopian ideas are often something of a major delight to its viewers and will hopefully continue to be so with this new season. There has been criticism of recent installments in the series for being repetitive and lackluster but there are definitely more gems than there is coal in this series. What are you hoping to see from this season and which episode are you most excited to see? Maybe we’ll see more crossovers from previous episodes like we have been seeing in the past few seasons. Only time will tell and look forward to our coverage of the release Black Mirror Season 5, currently streaming on Netflix.