If you're thinking that your life is just a little too normal or just a little too easy to deal with then, boy, do I have the show for you! In the past couple of weeks, I've been hearing about this, not really new, show called Black Mirror. Netflix describes the show to be "mind-bending" and "chilling" and Jesus-freaking-Christ it is. I've only watched two of these episodes and the both of them have done quite some damage to me as a person.
The overall theme of Black Mirror is basically "modern day horror stories." It's weird to call it that since horror movies where a psychopath murders a couple of unfortunate and stupid souls can be categorized as a modern-day horror story. But Black Mirror is different because there's a critique on society behind each episode and also, Black Mirror decides to turn whatever is trending in today's society into something horrific, almost like the famous Japanese horror manga writer, Junji Ito; taking normal everyday elements and morphing them into something that can only be made in your nightmares.
When I came up with the idea to review the odd and unknown selections of Netflix I was told by a handful of people that I should write about Black Mirror. At first, I was reluctant. I wanted to focus on movies or shows that not a lot of people knew about, whether they're bad or whether they're really good. Black Mirror was trending and becoming popular, there wasn't much of a reason to review something if everyone is just going to watch it anyway, But I decided to give it a shot and here I am...4:18 in the morning binge-watching every episode of season two.
When I first decided to watch Black Mirror I went straight to season three because of this one episode called "Play Test." I was told to watch it because of how much of a mind distorter it was. And I must agree it was. The plot behind that episode is how a man named Cooper gets involved with a very private video game company after losing all of his money on his credit card. The video game company hires him to try out their new VR (virtual reality) game they've been working on. It starts off pretty weird but still reasonable as the game company introduces the new VR technology being something that you have to basically implant into your spine. This is where things get a tad bit screwy.
From here on out, right after Cooper puts on the VR technology, the viewers are made to believe that everything after this is happening in real life, at least before he "returns" back into the VR world. After his first test run, he meets the CEO, straps on the VR headset once again and then begins to "play test" the new horror survival the company is working on. The next thirty to thirty-five minutes takes place in the haunted house where Cooper will have to face all of his fears, the first one starting with spiders and the next being his childhood bully. The fears start off slow by climbing higher and higher, drilling deep into Cooper's psyche. Around the end of Cooper's play test, the voice guiding him the whole time, named Katie, starts telling him how he's just like his father, then draining him of his memories and personality, basically inducing his fear of losing himself. Once Cooper starts screaming to let him out, for them to stop, the "play test" ends.
Cooper escapes the facility and realizes it's time for him to go back home and deal with the thing he's been dodging this whole time, dealing with his father's death. In the beginning of this episode, we watch Cooper continuously hang up on his grieving mother on the sheer fact that he just doesn't want to deal with his father's death, the man who, of course, raised him but was also Cooper's best friend. When Cooper returns home he sees his mother crying for her son to come home. No matter how many times Cooper tries to tell his mother that he's right in front of her, she doesn't respond. It isn't until the phone starts ringing in his mom's hand that Cooper realizes that he's still in the VR game....Cliche, yet still a little mind-blowing.
The final scene is of Cooper suffering from a seizure. In turns out that his cell phone in reality actually went off, disrupting the VR signals and lighting Cooper's brain neurons, frying it completely. His last words were him crying out for his mother. The point I picked up from this episode is that gamers or tech fanatics are so engrossed with escaping reality or the next big thing that they're not paying attention to what really matters. Cooper didn't really come off as a gamer but he used his money to travel and to not face reality; typically this can come off as therapeutic but it comes off as selfish in this scenario being that Cooper abandoned his grieving mother for his own pain. Using VR in this episode made it more relatable because VR and other sorts of technology, like social media or just pointless websites are currently what's helping us deal with the harshness of reality.
This was only one episode, but I swear to you the rest are either equally or more wonky than this one. Another episode I finished was about people being forced to do things so these hackers wouldn't expose their most private and dark emails. Right now, that ones currently my favorite. I'd give this series a must watch and must share. It's dark, horrifying, thought-provoking, and yet sort of fun and it'll keep you coming back for another critique of modern culture until you probably hate yourself for becoming the technology mongering sheep that you are.