The next big new thing is here—Black Mirror—and you have to watch it now. The British television series, created by Charlie Booker, has recently begun its third season on Netflix and it deserves our limited attention spans. Why? Because Black Mirror theorizes the consequences of future technology in such unsettling, terrifying detail, that we might just resist the next Next Big Thing—before it’s too late.
Though each hour long episode is comprised of different characters, a unique setting, and a plot unconnected to a larger series, Black Mirror imagines an eerily familiar future, in which everyday people are destroyed by the gadgets in their pockets, and the chips in their head. “If technology is a drug, and it does feel like a drug, then what, precisely, are the side effects?” Booker asks.
Henry Ford never imagined car accidents and car bombs would kill hundreds of thousands of people every year, and Alexander Graham Bell couldn’t have imagined scammers would one day attempt to virtually ‘kidnap’ your child. More often than not, the rewards of new inventions are immediately obvious, while the consequences remain hidden. Black Mirror wisely gives us reason to regard the future with suspicion, not open-armed acceptance. “Like an addict,” Booker admits, “I check my Twitter timeline the moment I wake up. And often I wonder: is all this really good for me? For us? None of these things have been foisted upon humankind—we’ve merrily embraced them. But where is it all leading?” he wonders. The answer he provides is chilling.
Would you implant a computer chip to record your memories (Episode 1.3)? You’d be able to replay and re-experience your son’s 12th birthday party in perfect detail, just like the man who once slept with your wife will be able to enjoy his experience over, and over, and over again. Imagine a head implant that could save soldiers from PTSD. What if it disguised their human targets as vicious animals, and deadened their senses and emotions? In ‘Men Against Fire,’ a soldiers implant malfunctions and he ‘wakes up’ to find himself carrying out an ethnic cleansing, instead of heroically defending mankind as he was made to believe.
Booker has said his show is, in many ways, inspired by Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Sterling found he could only make it past the network censors and address contemporary issues if the setting was fictional. Racism, atomic weapons, and the threat of Soviet Russia could be most openly discussed “In another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind: The Twilight Zone.” Black Mirror, updated for an audience looking forward to Google cars and Amazon drones, reopens the door for such criticism and it’s difficult to imagine a better antidote to our cultural moment. Imagine a society in which real people can be ‘blocked,’ muted and made invisible, with the click of a button. Imagine a world in which social approval (‘likes’) determine your success in life. It all sounds ridiculous until you distractedly check your Facebook feed.
Black Mirror makes its argument with a subtle, masterful use of horror. The imagined future looks disturbingly familiar, and is nearly identical to our present day. If anything, the future seems ideal. The people are gorgeous, and live happy, elegant lives with their families in tastefully designed homes. It’s easy to picture the new implant or service selling off the shelves next week, making its consequences all the frightening. “This area—between delight and discomfort—is where Black Mirror is set,” Booker explains. The result demands too much emotion and critical thought to be binge watched, and rewards analysis long after the credits roll.
Much like The Twilight Zone, the world we know darkens to a horrorscape with a single catastrophic twist, a second twist makes us realize the extent of the perversion, and the screen goes black. The title, “Black Mirror,” is a tech reference to the dark, reflective monitor of a laptop, smartphone, or television when it’s turned off. It’s an excellent metaphor for Booker’s truest insight—no matter the setting, the characters, the time period—man stays the same. Whatever you do, don’t blame the latest gizmo. Instead, blame mankind, who inevitably puts every invention, no matter how miraculous, to cruel, hateful use. Pull the plug, turn off the power, shoot down a drone, and human nature remains the same, staring back from the blackened screen.
