In what can only be described as a technology-centric version of The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror sounds like a show that would offend most tech-loving millennials. I was admittedly skeptical when I started the show myself. Being well-adjusted to technology, I expected Black Mirror to be yet another undeserved platform used up by baby boomers to take their frustration over not being able to use their new iPhone out on the younger generation. Like many other people my age, I’d had my fill of finger-wagging about how my tech was taking me down a slippery slope to mindless zombiehood. Nonetheless my father, whose taste I trust above all others, had recommended the show highly, so I was determined to get through at least the first two episodes.
What I learned was the ultimate lesson in judging a book by its cover (or rather, a TV show by its premise). The first episode of the series, a gruesome jump-off of the David Cameron bestiality scandal, had me intrigued. My final breaking point, however, was the episode “Be Right Back,” a grim tale about a woman who, upon losing her partner, purchases an android replacement of him. The narrative of the episode plunges deeply into the true nature of loneliness and grief, takes an iron grip on your heart, and refuses to let go. From that point on, I knew Black Mirror wasn’t just fear-fodder trying to spoil millennials’ fun.
Black Mirror tackles the subject of technology without talking down to its viewers and without dismissing the power of tech. Many anti-tech people love to talk about technology like it’s a black and white issue, like solving any problems it causes is as simple as the flip of a switch. Black Mirror, on the other hand, dabbles mostly in the gray areas. Black Mirror realizes that modern technology isn’t something you can easily step away from, and that when tech goes wrong the blame goes to the higher-ups who didn’t think their ideas through before releasing it on the world. Some episodes, like the episode from season 3 entitled “San Junipero,” have nothing but positivity for technology.
Black Mirror shows us how things can go wrong while also seeming to understand why technology is so seductive in the first place. Unlike what you’d expect from the kind of show that it is, Black Mirror shows us disastrous tech-driven possibilities, but without blaming users of technology themselves. It merely gives us the chance to learn to take a critical eye to the gadgets we take for granted without trying to guilt or judge anybody.
