Black Mirror season 4 - a review

Black Mirror is back with a vengeance. From the very first episode on I was lost in the same old internal monologue I always get watching this show: “Interesting! But what if…” and then ‘if’ happens.

Each episode of this series is, per usual, a standalone episode. However, as of late I did start to notice the blueprint of episode order being more and more set in stone. The first episode is about available technology taken a step too far. The second episode then is true sci-fi and the third is dark as can get.

Just remember the first season; it was the same order.

In that sense the Netflix watcher who started on this show only last season might notice quite a few similarities between these new episodes and the episodes past.

One could explain this as a lack of ‘new ideas’. I though would (and will) highlight the fact that it’s nothing more than looking at a subject from a different perspective. After all; aren’t all human questions not the same in basis?
Anyway, when you get right down to it one thing always stays the same in Black Mirror: don’t expect to be happy!

Archangel
To start with the first episode: Archangel (directed by Jodie Foster no less).
A few months ago I reviewed the Tom Hanks and Emma Watson movie: The circle (link). Even though that movie wasn’t very interesting as a movie it was, however, chockfull of interesting ideas about the potential/future of new media. One of these ideas proposed in this movie was an implant to track your children 24/7.
An idea that might look benign at first but then, when you turn to your cynical (or realistic) mindset a million and one issues pop up.
The same happens in Archangel: a young mother ‘tags’ her child.
Already, in the very first moment in that doctor’s office, the hair on the back of my neck were on end. Because this magical device can see: everything.
Not only see what the girl is seeing in real time (hello puberty and uncomfortable dinner conversations!) but also a constant control on her medical status. Or as the –a little too kind- doctor explains: ‘Is she eating enough?’

But since this is Black Mirror there is more. Merely questions about privacy or social coercion on raising your child isn’t enough to fill this one hour show. There is also the dual question about ‘life-experience’ and ‘raising by monitor’.

Without spoiling too much I am convinced that the mother character in this episode could have saved herself a heap of trouble if she just had ‘the talk’ instead of hiding behind her little tablet.

The first hour of Black Mirror season four is (like last year’s Nosedive) a nicely small-scaled episode to ease us into the season. There are little recurrent jokes (like grandpa’s God-awful coffee mug) and the whole drama manages to balance neatly between ‘predicable expectations’ (it’s Black Mirror after all –things don’t end happily) and some nice ‘surprises’ (or as I always call those moments the: ‘oh no you don’t!-moments’).

BTW is it me or are the bad boyfriends on television becoming sweeter?

After Stranger Things’s Steve we now have a sweetheart drugs dealer on this show. A sign of the times I guess.

Question: When are you a helicopter parent?

USS Callister
Like last year the second episode is about immersive gaming.
But there’s another previous episode involved: each and every little morality question that was raised by the (brilliant) Christmas special is being re-examined here. It’s not like Black Mirror is copying itself. It rather looks at some of the same questions from episodes past from a different perspective.
In this sense it is utterly fitting that this episode is a direct homage to Star Trek (and even Star Wars).

Which this episode plays with with such utmost dedication it (pretty much) is on the same level as the modern classic: Galaxy Quest.

The clothing, the dodgy effects, the people tumbling over themselves, even the interracial kiss: everything is in there.

This whole episode glimmers with delight from writing to acting.

Again this episode asks the question when something is real enough? It uses the tech from White Christmas and puts it in the hands of somebody fully aware of the moral debauchery.
This brings me to the morality-element which has always been a running thread throughout each season. As it is in this one. But this season appears to highlight it.

In Archangel it is mentioned that the Archangel-project is stopped for various reasons. And with this second episode I feel like it takes place a few years after the events in White Christmas.
It’s like Black Mirror first shows the dystopian possibilities of technology without touching too much on the morality aspect (because the minute you do you lose the drama element). Then, now, ten episodes in, it revisits the old questions and continues the story after the moral-discussion has finished.
At least that’s what I get from this episode: which also has a nice take on the nerd as the ultimate good-guy notion. Again it is a sign of the times that this isn’t a clear-cut case anymore.

Question: If a human could truly be God with all the power that accompanies it; how long would it take him/her to become evil?

Crocodile
The trend continues: the immensely depressing episode.
Some people say ‘the perfect murder only exists in fiction’. I disagree, or there would not be so many unsolved murders. There are, however, two rules of murder to always keep in mind: Getting away with murder can be childishly easy or frighteningly hard. It’s all luck really. Which brings me to the second rule of murder: if it is difficult; how far are you willing to go to get away with it?

Crocodile is a delicious murder mystery with a technological edge: memory retrace. An insurance detective (Kiran Sonia Sawar who suddenly –for me- became the ultimate female Poirot. I loved her) investigates a case that brings her closer and closer to a real life murderess.
Black Mirror is known for its depressing storylines and Crocodile is really trying its best to be the most depressing of them all. Taking all the visual clues from Scandinavian detective series this episodes relies heavily on Andrea Riseborough’s big doe-like eyes which are constantly set on terror and remorse.

As a title explanation I would go for ‘Crocodile tears’. Great that you are crying by you’re still a killer!

Her white skin, white clothing and the snowy desolate landscape speak of a world (this character inhabits) that lacks any kind of colour. There are glimmers of love and sweetness in this world but only glimmers.

Like children performing Guys and Dolls (or Bugsy Malone –what is it with kids plays and mafia?) with laser rifles and Bazookas –hilarious.

Like last year’s Shut up and dance this hour of drama makes good use of the technological (sci-fi) element but it’s mainly a character study to see how far you can push a person. In Black Mirror’s opinion: very (very) far.
I guess I should have known: the minute that song (THAT song) came on I should have know what I was in for.

But then again, the trailer of Jurassic World 2 started with the same song…

As for the final twist…it could have done without. It reminded me of that famous QI question: “Why do pigeons don’t like cinema?”

Question: If the truth always comes out –what lengths will people go to to hide it?

Hang the D.J.
I’m liking the new happy episodes. Maybe I’m a romantic at heart.
Hang the D.J. is probably the most predictable episode of the bunch. But that doesn’t matter since it is so sweet (and funny). Basically it is tinder (or grinder) in the extreme. But without the possibility of swiping.
Selling it as a small love story (that rather reminded me of The adjustment bureau) it moves from A to Z in a comfortable manner. This episode takes its time to play with all the those little mannerism people have that break or make a relationship. But at the same time it isn’t afraid to skip a few ‘months’ to speed up the story.

But getting right down to it this episode hinges on the fact that the two actors have to be believably in love. And I certainly believed that. When is the wedding date?

SPOILER: Stones skipping four times. Nobody strangling their partner in their sleep. The clues are everywhere.

 BTW I would argue that these simulations are the basis for the tech used in White Christmas.

Version 1.0 as it were. Only later would the computer upload the entirety of personality.

Question: How do two people know that they love each other?

Metalhead
A new cinematic style to play around with this episode: it is in full glorious black and white. In a post-apocalyptic landscape military (or perhaps security) robots have gone rogue.

Though I do wonder what use a security robot has with a tracking bomb and knife wielding capabilities.

As any post-apocalypse movie teaches us it isn’t necessarily the ‘why’ that matters but the ‘how’ and ‘getting away with it’. Placing the timeframe a mere (I guess) two years after the initial events it is refreshing to see that the three people we meet aren’t full-scaled robot killers yet. But they aren’t completely out of their depth either.

In fact, casting an older woman (Maxine Peake) in the leading part herby helps the overall tension of normal people in a dire situation. A John Conner would have known what to do, this woman only knows parts. She’s learning as she goes along. But, alas, in such a world most people don’t survive long enough to learn all.

What I really enjoyed in this episode –which is basically the Terminator all over again –is that it lifted one scene directly from the World War Z-novel. Like Black Mirror wanted to show the creators of the movie-adaptation how it should have been done. And I would most certainly agree. These forty minutes were far superior than the two and a half hour Brad Pitt extravaganza.

Question: If we teach robots to kill. Is it so strange to think that we might teach them to wipe use out?

Black Museum
And the season comes full circle: morality.
In each and every little segment I wrote here I could’ve included a paragraph about morality.

I didn’t because it would me make me repeat myself even more than I usually do.

Even more than seasons previous this season of Black Mirror asked about the consequences of technology and human action. What is the consequence of the Archangel-project? And, as Black Museum show, what is the consequence of having quite the silly amateur psychopath holding the powers the each episode plays with?

Taking quite the shine from the anthology horror movies of the ‘80s Black museum does what Black Mirror does so well: it eases you in. Mr. Rollo, at first seems like a lovable chap. But the minute he placed those mouses on the table I knew that this wasn’t a nice person. By the time he was sweating I also knew how the story would pan out.
Not because it is entirely predictable but rather because Black museum is more than the other episodes a complete call-back to episodes previous from fifteen million merits on. Except that the morality questions this time ‘round have already been asked. There’s no real new angle.

This is a shame really. However, it does work nicely with the whole carny-angle. It makes it all a bit silly, which I am certain this particular episode was trying for. But as a standalone Black Mirror episode Black museum has too little to offer that is either fresh or unique.

Question: Is it true that what one person might see as progress another might see as degrading?

Conclusion:
So which episode was the best? How would I rank this season of Black Mirror? There is no real standout episode for me this time ‘round. Black Museum however I would rank last because it didn’t really bring anything new to the table. USS Calister then, even though it is a brilliant episode did leave me with more questions than answers (still if I’ve I had to grade it it would be a solid 8).  Archangel would be next as an example of the perfect Black Mirror-episode. Then in tied place Crocodile and Metalhead because of the attempts to use the anthology format the branch out in new visual styles of storytelling. Making me, this year, end on the happy episode of Hang the D.J. The world is a dark place sometimes. We could all use a little bit of love…

Final conclusion:…even though that love breaks the hearts of a million ones and zeroes.