EASTER EGGS, TECHNOLOGY AND BADASS WOMEN: HERE’S WHAT BLACK MIRROR SEASON 4 HAD IN STORE FOR US
USS CALLISTER
Story: Nanette discovers that her boss clones people he doesn’t like and traps and tortures them in a hellish version of a video game he helped create.
Tech point: This is a continuation of the idea of “cookies” or cloned consciousness we saw in Season 2 episode White Christmas, except the clones are more human-like, with real ambitions, emotions and intelligence. They can outsmart their creator and even their “real” selves.
What we liked: The ending of White Christmas had presented an ethical dilemma — is it okay to trick or torture clones in ways that would never be acceptable for human beings, because they are not actual human beings? USS Callister gives a very clear answer: no.
The episode also undercuts the toxic masculinity that thrives in fandoms where female characters are viewed as objects for the male protagonist to toy with. It’s a tribute to the Star Trek series and its fandom, but doesn’t hesitate to criticise it. And that Aaron Paul cameo was a bonus!
What we didn’t like: The real Nanette’s ninja act — when she literally broke into Robert Daly’s house at the command of her clone counterpart — was a little hard to swallow, but we’ll let it pass.
Verdict: Definitely one of our favourite episodes.
CROCODILE
Story: Award-winning architect Mia Nolan’s past comes back to haunt her when she is at the peak of her personal and professional life.
Tech point: A memory-device that is used to corroborate witness testimonies.
What we liked: The slow descent of the protagonist from someone who tries to be good to someone who is an absolute monster. Andrea Riseborough’s portrayal of Mia is top-notch. We also loved how the arc of a non-white character, Shazia (Kiran Sonia Sawar), had nothing to do with her ethnicity but who she was as a person, and how good she was at her job. This is the kind of diverse representation, devoid of tokenism and racial caricatures, we need on TV.
What we didn’t like: The horrifying violence. The murder of a baby — what a macabre thing to portray!
Verdict: Hands down favourite episode of the season.
HANG THE DJ
Story: Lovers Amy and Frank find out what happens when you know you have met your soulmate, but the dating app convinces you that your relationship has an expiry date.
Tech point: A cloud-based, simulation-dependent version of Tinder, in which clones of participants are paired up to see how often they might come together to defeat a system bent on keeping them apart, thus deciding their compatibility with each other.
What we liked: The extremely wholesome ending. The chemistry between Amy and Frank was on point.
What we didn’t like: The episode was clearly meant to recall the Season 3 masterpiece San Junipero, but did so a bit too obviously. The pastel colour palette, the ’80s vibe and even the conflicts between the characters were too much of a throwback to ignore.
Verdict: A nice episode, but let’s face it, nothing can match up to San Junipero.
ARKANGEL
Story: Marie invests in a device that allows her to track daughter Sara’s every movement, including everything she is seeing and her emotional responses to them.
Tech point: Classic Black Mirror territory with a technology intended to be helpful that ends up having sinister effects.
What we liked: Director Jodie Foster does an excellent job of portraying parenthood and adolescence. It’s hard enough to know where the lines between privacy, protection and control lie in parent-child relationships, even without an omniscient, omnipresent gadget in your brain. It is an episode any child from a family with a lot of rules and very few freedoms will identify with.
What we didn’t like: Well, the ending provides no resolution. But it does show us the impact of our actions.
Verdict: Almost as good as The Entire History of You, even if not quite as emotionally powerful.
METALHEAD
Story: Bella and her accomplices breach an empty warehouse only to discover a kind of robot hound inside that kills her companions and chases her relentlessly across the barren, deserted wild.
Tech point: The episode is based on the real-life story of BigDog, a robotic dog that was created in 2005 by the firm Boston Dynamics. Director David Slade explores how they can be weaponised and put to more sinister use.
What we liked: The incredible cinematography! The first Black Mirror episode to be filmed in black and white; its sleek look and sweeping drone shots over vast landscapes are definitely some of the best we’ve seen in the series so far.
What we didn’t like: The complete lack of a backstory. Metalhead is a very abrupt episode, beginning and ending with equal suddenness. Is it a post-apocalyptic wasteland, or an out-of-the-way Scottish town in the industrial belt that is a war zone between ‘them’ (the viewer has no idea who ‘they’ are) and the people of the area? What’s at stake with Bella rebelling against ‘them’ is unclear, making the episode feel more gimmicky than a real story of resistance.
Verdict: Our least favourite episode.
BLACK MUSEUM
Story: A young girl stops for a gas refill in a deserted area of America and comes across a sinister “Black Museum”, operated by an equally odd man.
Tech point: Black Museum shows us the person who had initially developed the idea of extracting a copy of one’s consciousness from one’s mind: the Machiavellian Rolo Haynes.
What we liked: A black woman avenging her father’s exploitation. The title of the episode is a pun; it refers to the fact that every artefact in Haynes’s museum has a dark past, as well as to the main draw of the exhibit, which is a commodification of a black man’s pain for the profit of Haynes. It’s very topical and emotionally resonant.
What we didn’t like: The violence was a little too gratuitous even by Black Mirror standards. We “watched” a lot of the episode with our eyes closed.
Verdict: What an ending! The triumph of a resourceful woman over her father’s torturer was the perfect conclusion to the season.
Which is your favourite episode from Black Mirror Season 4?
Tell t2@abp.int2@abp.in
