Reflections on the disturbing Netflix series now in its fourth season.
Featuring dystopian near-future stories emphasizing tech-dependence, "Black Mirror" at first blush plays like a contemporary version of "The Twilight Zone."
Created for British TV, the first episode aired Dec. 4, 2011, and the show continued on into 2014. In 2016, Netflix picked up the series.
As with "The Twilight Zone," some episodes are lighter in tone than the majority. However, "Black Mirror" is its own show, and differs from Rod Serling's creation significantly. For example, "The Twilight Zone" was the brainchild of a well-respected, much-honored writer looking to outsmart the censors with the protections afforded by speaking in the language of sci-fi and fantasy, whereas "Black Mirror" boasts no such background and faces no such censorship scrutiny.
In the first two episodes of the show, there is nothing of the TV classic's old school character or charm. "The Twilight Zone" is a just universe where bad things happen to bad people and the good are treated accordingly. The first episode of "Black Mirror," however, while well-written and excellently presented, seems specifically intended to anger and disgust.
Remaining deliberately vague to preserve the experience, suffice to say the Prime Minister of UK is terrorized with the execution of the nation's very popular princess unless he does something terrible--although it could have been really worse--on live TV. The second episode is also quite well done, even though the story seems, again, intended to disappoint. It is as though the dehumanizing problems of the 21st-century are too severe for stories concerning them to make folks feel great.
So it comes down to an aesthetic. But certainly the writing for the anthology series is top-notch, as is the production value of the Netflix show which Netflix gives its highest rating.
From ETA Hoffmann's early sci-fi story "Automata" and Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, to the horrors in HG Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau and Stephen King's Cell, potential problems with technology prove great grist for the writerly mill, and often prophetically so.
The show has no clench-jawed, chain-smoking host with a penchant for alliterative lead-ins, nor the unforgettable theme music of Hollywood's greatest composer, but audiences will relate to the problems presented. Paying particular attention to detail and therefore verisimilitude, "Black Mirror" pulls the viewer into entertaining, thought-provoking tales reflecting our dark world.
Stewart Kirby writes for
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