TV today is indisputably - for lack of a better word - dull.
It's not that the leaps and bounds in diversity haven't made for miles better watching in shows such as Orange Is The New Black or How To Get Away With Murder - but everything available freely to us is very give or take. The chasm of territory left untouched by TV writers is gaping and all the while only getting bigger. As we all drown in reality TV, Channel 5 documentaries or even yet another American mob drama, I can't help but feel most writers are taking the easy way out. It almost feels like they're being offered a free ticket to anywhere in the world; anywhere in the universe, to do anything they please - and they're taking a standard coach to Skegness Butlins for the weekend.
Enter Black Mirror - the most clever show on our screens since The Twilight Zone. Straight from the brain of champion cynicist Charlie Brooker, Black Mirror is the speculative dystopian fiction series specially made for nihilists. Provocative and unsettling, each episode douses viewers in a new world of dire possibility that as regular viewers, we aren't used to seeing on our screens. It's uncomfortable in the way that Requiem For A Dream is - far too real and yet simultaneously surreal. To have such a tangible taste of what could be our reality in such a short time span is both tantalizing and deeply terrifying. Could we change our own fate if we predict it is coming?
Knowing human nature, would we?
The show presents technology and relationships as altered beyond repair as a result of each other. This makes for incredibly harrowing viewing in a world where a selfie can make or break you and screenshots are currency. Take White Christmas, the most recent episode of the show. This centres around the premise of an implant that can block people in real life, turning them into blurry, shadow-like figures. With surprising new technology being developed every day, it really does make even the most staunch tech user wary of possible future advances and their repercussions if abused. That premise alone would be enough to spin a whole new show from; yet Brooker condenses each notion down to a single episode, leaving his audience reeling in every single possibility or consequence that could come as a result.
Another example of this is the severely overlooked Be Right Back. Be Right Back follows the concept of cloning - in this case, the cloning of a young woman's deceased partner. Using his social media posts and private messages, a realistic profile of him could be brought to life. Although rather scary in theory, following the story of Martha (Hayley Atwell) and her emotions in real time makes for a deliciously provocative taste of what the future of cloning could lead to and how humans would most probably struggle to cope with such change.
A seductively sinister dystopiafest perfect for summer binging, Black Mirror should definitely be top of your watchlist - especially with a new series to be premiered on Netflix relatively soon. Really.
RECOMMENDED EPISODE: White Bear (S2, E2)
A seductively sinister dystopiafest perfect for summer binging, Black Mirror should definitely be top of your watchlist - especially with a new series to be premiered on Netflix relatively soon. Really.
RECOMMENDED EPISODE: White Bear (S2, E2)
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