Season 4 Episode 1, USS Callister:
The first two seasons of Black Mirror are extremely bleak; all the episodes have what I would consider to be tragic endings. During season three this started to change and by season four the entire tone of the show has shifted to become much more positive. The very first episode of season four is a clear example of this. It’s a fun romp of an adventure that moves back and forth between the real world and a computer simulation that’s a clear homage to old episodes of Star Trek. The technology that powers this simulation is very similar to the one used in San Junipero and thus equally unrealistic but that doesn’t matter because the episode is so entertaining.
Season 4 Episode 2, Arkangel:
The episode starts with a young girl wandering away from the playground while her mother isn’t paying attention. The mother eventually finds the girl but to prevent something like that from happening again, she lets a doctor install a small tracking chip underneath her daughters skin. So far so good but then it turns out that the chip isn’t just for tracking. It also allows the mom to hijack her daughter’s sense so she can see through her eyes and hear through her ears. She’s even able to turn on a sort of censorship algorithm that blurs anything disturbing. This system works well as long as the girl is little but as she grows older it limits her freedom to such a degree that it starts to hinder her development. When the mother then turns the system off, the girl overcompensates by getting into worse and worse trouble.
As you can probably guess by now, the only realistic part of this tech is the GPS tracking, everything else is too far fetched. That said, this episode works really well as a cautionary tale about parents invading their children’s privacy in an effort to keep them safe. The thing is, the story could have worked just as well with an existing technology such as a spy program in the daughter’s cell phone. That unrealistic brain chip just detracts from the story unnecessarily.
Season 4 Episode 3, Crocodile:
Here we have an episode that revolves around something as mundane as insurance. An insurance agent is investigating an accident involving s pizza delivery robot using a sort of memory viewing machine. During her investigation she stumbles on something she shouldn’t have seen which gets her in trouble… The memory viewing technology seems similar to the one in The Entire History of You so of course I think it’s too far fetched to exist in the near future. What this episode does well however, is that people can’t simply project their memories on any screen, the have to be hooked up to a little machine, and the memories are shown as blurry, incoherent snippets of video. This makes the whole thing far more realistic. The story itself is a variant of a crime investigation drama and as we already know, the makers of Black Mirror are pretty competent at making those. This episode is no exception. That said, I think the pizza delivery accident that kicks off the whole thing is brushed off too quickly. It would be much more interesting to explore a world where self-driving cars and delivery robots are commonplace, and what implications that can have for society in general.
Season 4 Episode 4, Hang the DJ:
This episode is centered around a sort of extreme version of dating apps and online matchmaking. Every character in the episode has a little AI powered devices that pairs them up with seemingly random people to go on a date, and then live together with for a certain amount of time. After a few rounds like this, the AI will figure out each person’s perfect match and set them up for life. The concept of an AI powered match making service is 100% believable, in fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if something like this came out on the market within a few years. The story itself is a light-hearted love story that’s not very thought provoking but quite entertaining.
Season 4 Episode 5, Metalhead:
Here is another episode where the creators of the show have clearly wanted to try their hand at a different genre than the usual one. This time it’s a post apocalypse thriller about some survivors being chased by a robotic dog. To make it even more special, the whole thing is black and white. I believe the robot dog is inspired by the ones currently built by Boston Dynamics that have gained some popularity on the internet. That a much more advanced version of this could exist in an indeterminate future is a no brainer. As a work of fiction it’s a pretty simple but none the less thrilling piece of survival horror. I have to add one thing though, the post-apocalyptic setting puts this episode too far into the future to fit the general theme of Black Mirror, so despite fulfilling my criteria for a good episode, I don’t think it really counts.
Season 4 Episode 6, Black Museum:
Once again we have an anthology within an anthology. In this case we have a framing narrative where a woman visits a small museum and the proprietor shows her around, telling stories about the objects. Each such story is like a little mini episode. They are all centered around technology for connecting a person’s brain to a computer in some way. As I’ve already made abundantly clear, I think the human brain is too complex for this to be realistic. The three stories themselves are, I think, relatively well made but not very interesting. Previous episodes of Black Mirror have explored similar ideas and done it better than this one.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Black Mirror is Annoying and Here’s Why
Season 4 Episode 1, USS Callister:
The first two seasons of Black Mirror are extremely bleak; all the episodes have what I would consider to be tragic endings. During season three this started to change and by season four the entire tone of the show has shifted to become much more positive. The very first episode of season four is a clear example of this. It’s a fun romp of an adventure that moves back and forth between the real world and a computer simulation that’s a clear homage to old episodes of Star Trek. The technology that powers this simulation is very similar to the one used in San Junipero and thus equally unrealistic but that doesn’t matter because the episode is so entertaining.
Season 4 Episode 2, Arkangel:
The episode starts with a young girl wandering away from the playground while her mother isn’t paying attention. The mother eventually finds the girl but to prevent something like that from happening again, she lets a doctor install a small tracking chip underneath her daughters skin. So far so good but then it turns out that the chip isn’t just for tracking. It also allows the mom to hijack her daughter’s sense so she can see through her eyes and hear through her ears. She’s even able to turn on a sort of censorship algorithm that blurs anything disturbing. This system works well as long as the girl is little but as she grows older it limits her freedom to such a degree that it starts to hinder her development. When the mother then turns the system off, the girl overcompensates by getting into worse and worse trouble.
As you can probably guess by now, the only realistic part of this tech is the GPS tracking, everything else is too far fetched. That said, this episode works really well as a cautionary tale about parents invading their children’s privacy in an effort to keep them safe. The thing is, the story could have worked just as well with an existing technology such as a spy program in the daughter’s cell phone. That unrealistic brain chip just detracts from the story unnecessarily.
Season 4 Episode 3, Crocodile:
Here we have an episode that revolves around something as mundane as insurance. An insurance agent is investigating an accident involving s pizza delivery robot using a sort of memory viewing machine. During her investigation she stumbles on something she shouldn’t have seen which gets her in trouble… The memory viewing technology seems similar to the one in The Entire History of You so of course I think it’s too far fetched to exist in the near future. What this episode does well however, is that people can’t simply project their memories on any screen, the have to be hooked up to a little machine, and the memories are shown as blurry, incoherent snippets of video. This makes the whole thing far more realistic. The story itself is a variant of a crime investigation drama and as we already know, the makers of Black Mirror are pretty competent at making those. This episode is no exception. That said, I think the pizza delivery accident that kicks off the whole thing is brushed off too quickly. It would be much more interesting to explore a world where self-driving cars and delivery robots are commonplace, and what implications that can have for society in general.
Season 4 Episode 4, Hang the DJ:
This episode is centered around a sort of extreme version of dating apps and online matchmaking. Every character in the episode has a little AI powered devices that pairs them up with seemingly random people to go on a date, and then live together with for a certain amount of time. After a few rounds like this, the AI will figure out each person’s perfect match and set them up for life. The concept of an AI powered match making service is 100% believable, in fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if something like this came out on the market within a few years. The story itself is a light-hearted love story that’s not very thought provoking but quite entertaining.
Season 4 Episode 5, Metalhead:
Here is another episode where the creators of the show have clearly wanted to try their hand at a different genre than the usual one. This time it’s a post apocalypse thriller about some survivors being chased by a robotic dog. To make it even more special, the whole thing is black and white. I believe the robot dog is inspired by the ones currently built by Boston Dynamics that have gained some popularity on the internet. That a much more advanced version of this could exist in an indeterminate future is a no brainer. As a work of fiction it’s a pretty simple but none the less thrilling piece of survival horror. I have to add one thing though, the post-apocalyptic setting puts this episode too far into the future to fit the general theme of Black Mirror, so despite fulfilling my criteria for a good episode, I don’t think it really counts.
Season 4 Episode 6, Black Museum:
Once again we have an anthology within an anthology. In this case we have a framing narrative where a woman visits a small museum and the proprietor shows her around, telling stories about the objects. Each such story is like a little mini episode. They are all centered around technology for connecting a person’s brain to a computer in some way. As I’ve already made abundantly clear, I think the human brain is too complex for this to be realistic. The three stories themselves are, I think, relatively well made but not very interesting. Previous episodes of Black Mirror have explored similar ideas and done it better than this one.
Share this:
Like this:
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
RenegadeTourist
February 21, 2023
Media commentary, Movie review
annoying, Black Mirror, review, TV show