Black Mirror Series 3 Episodes 1-3 (2016) - Review

Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Wyatt Russell, Alex Lawther & Jerome Flynn

Written By: Charlie Brooker & William Bridges

Directed By: Joe Wright, Dan Trachtenberg & James Watkins

Certificate: 15

 

After an extraordinary Christmas special and another gap of over eighteen months, 'Black Mirror' returned for its third series. A lot has changed behind the scenes during the wait for the new series, with the show having made the move from Channel 4 to Netflix. The move to Netflix has not only increased international audience awareness and interest in the show, but also allowed it a much bigger budget. Netflix commissioned twelve new episodes, although it was later decided to split them into a third and fourth series. As usual, I'll be looking at each episode in the series individually, though due to the increased episode count, this review will be split into three episodes each, beginning with 'Nosedive', 'Playtest' and 'Shut Up & Dance'.

 

The first instalment of the series is 'Nosedive', an episode which takes place in a futuristic society where people use eye implants and their mobile devices to rate the people they meet and their social interactions with them. Lacie, a young woman with a 4.2/5 rating, is hoping to improve her rating to a 4.5 in order to obtain a discount on a new apartment. When an old school friend asks Lacie to be maid-of-honour at her wedding, where many highly-rated guests will be present, she sees an opportunity to greatly improve her own rating. 'Nosedive' is probably one of the best-known episodes of 'Black Mirror', and out of all of them, it's certainly the most recognizable one thanks to its distinctive look. The colour scheme in particular should immediately stand out, with the bright and sunny locations we get to see, as well as the pastel colours used in costumes, props and more. The colourful aesthetic of 'Nosedive' initially gives the episode a happy, utopian feel, but being 'Black Mirror', that obviously isn't going to last very long. In actual fact, the use of colour and bright lighting eventually starts to appear more and more sinister: it's too happy, it's too perfect. That's why this is the perfect backdrop for exploring our relationship with social media. I've said before in my previous 'Black Mirror' reviews that while not always the case, the things people (including myself) often share on social media are heavily filtered to just focus on the positives. Putting on this performance, and being happy and nice on social media just to impress others – it's a false happiness, exactly like this episode's sunny colours and visuals. There's no time of day for personal issues or problems, and as of late, I'm increasingly noticing how it can even be considered rude to be unhappy or to share your problems with others. The more you think about it, the false happiness this episode presents only gets more and more eerie. 'Nosedive's idea of assigning ratings to people based on their social interactions is also a nightmarish idea for people with anxiety, or socially awkward people like myself, who can't seem to go two minutes talking to a stranger without feeling awkward. I can almost guarantee you that I simply wouldn't get any rating above 2.5/5 or thereabouts.

 

 

One of the scariest things about this episode is how some of the things it depicts can already be seen happening. For example, the rating system is increasingly being used when it comes to providing feedback on certain things in day-to-day life. If I use an app such as Google Maps to navigate somewhere, often I'll find that a few days later, I'm being asked to rate the place I visited out of five stars. It doesn't matter what the place is, I'll just be asked to rate it. The same is happening when it comes to rating products we have delivered to our homes, or journeys we take on buses or taxis. With this already happening, what's to say someone won't have the idea of applying ratings to people? But the problem is that a system like this can never fully work when it comes to human beings, because it just isn't human nature. The individual person can't accurately be quantified using numbers, and introducing a system like the one seen in 'Nosedive' can only lead to negative traits such as narcissism and obsession (just look at almost any reality star and you can see that). At this point, I feel I should point out that yes I am aware of the irony in me criticizing rating systems, when I rate things all the time on this site and will soon be doing the same for 'Nosedive', but shush. There are even several moments in 'Nosedive' that don't have to predict anything to do with social media – they're just pure mimicry. Early on we see Lacie buy a coffee and a biscuit at a local café, and she takes care to get the perfect bite into the biscuit, just so she can share a photo of it online for likes, even though she herself doesn't actually like it. Try telling me you have not at least seen that somewhere on social media. If I had one small criticism of 'Nosedive', it's that the plot does become a little bit predictable about mid-way through. Once Lacie leaves to try and get to Naomi's wedding, you can kind of piece together where the episode's heading. However, this is made up for thanks to the brilliant production I've already discussed, as well as one of the best and most memorable performances so far in 'Black Mirror' from Bryce Dallas Howard. You're completely invested in Lacie's character arc, and it's satisfying to see her true personality emerge over the course of the episode. Her journey to Naomi's wedding plays out almost like a road trip movie, as she learns crucial lessons on the way there, but realizes she cannot return to her old life with that new knowledge. (Skip ahead to the next paragraph now to avoid spoilers!) Sealing the deal on 'Nosedive', it ends on a moving, bittersweet note (a rarity for 'Black Mirror') as Lacie is put in prison and has her eye implants removed. Removing the implants allows her to see the dust in the air – the world around her is imperfect. But it's not a miserable ending, and it doesn't turn around and go “The world's s***, move on!”. It acknowledges the world's flaws, but it grants Lacie her freedom. Ironically, she is only free once she is in prison – she's free to say what she wants for the first time, and to unleash her primitive inner anger and feelings at the man in the next cell. It's impressive to think that an episode that ends with two characters shouting “F*** YOU!” at each other feels so sweet and hopeful.

Next we have 'Playtest', an episode where we meet Cooper, an American tourist travelling the world until he ends up stranded in England. Cooper offers to take part in a playtest of a new augmented reality video game. Using a gadget that searches his brain for information about what scares him, Cooper is left alone for a night in a haunted mansion, but soon the line between reality and artificial images and objects becomes blurred, with severe consequences. With 'Playtest' the focus shifts from social media to video game technology, and you can tell that despite some of the ideas the episode later goes into, Charlie Brooker has a clear affection for certain video games. Though this is unsurprising considering he used to work in video game journalism. Especially around the beginning of the episode, there's a lot of neat little Easter eggs to be found, as well as references to game series' such as Street Fighter and Mario Bros. However, video games are primarily used as a way of posing questions about the differences and similarities between reality and simulation. With every new video game that's released, there's a desire for better and better graphics and increased technical proficiency. Many gamers want better-looking games and more realism and immersion. I'm only a casual gamer myself, but I've noticed lately that the focus seems to have shifted from things like gameplay and more towards better graphics and improving things such as frame rates. I find this a bit of a shame really, as while yes I do enjoy better graphics, the gameplay is what should always come first for me. Probably the best example of the increased desire for gaming immersion is the arrival of Virtual Reality (VR) headsets, where literally all you see is the game. With these headsets, you are completely absorbed into another world. And while I understand gaming's escapism appeal, VR headsets have always felt like a step too far to an old-fashioned bore like me. There's something about it that feels uncomfortable to me, and with video game addiction said to be growing, is it a particularly good idea to have your vision completely surrounded by a screen? Overuse of and spending too much time with something like VR technology has the potential in the future to lead to a situation where you lose sight of reality and start getting absorbed into a virtual world. The line between reality and simulation becomes blurred, and as 'Playtest' brilliantly demonstrates, this can be a dangerous game in itself.

What I will say about 'Playtest' compared to other episodes in 'Black Mirror's catalogue, is that thematically it has less to offer. There's less for me to go on about with this episode's ideas, compared to just say the previous episode, 'Nosedive', where I had to actively hold myself back from writing too much. That being said, I can to an extent forgive this, as 'Playtest' is more focused on generating atmosphere and genre than it is anything else. Particularly once Cooper is left on his own in the haunted house, 'Playtest' evolves from sci-fi to horror. And as a horror story, it succeeds, with strong direction, use of lighting and even pulling out and playing with a couple of genre clichés. Misdirection, jump scares and more can all be found during Cooper's time in the house, but it provides its own spin on them and does a better job with the horror genre than a fair few modern horror films have managed. I also really liked the episode's ending – it did a great job at bringing together the episode's themes and content and it definitely left an impression on me by the time the credits had rolled. (Spoiler Warning!) The scenes of Cooper losing his memories and screaming that he doesn't know who he even is anymore felt particularly powerful, and feature Wyatt Russell's best bit of acting from the episode. Sadly, it was in honesty, the only time I really felt anything for Cooper, as the rest of the time, he did end up as a pretty forgettable protagonist. 'Black Mirror' often does as brilliant a job as ever with its protagonists, but Cooper is an exception. He felt like a rather weak and generic lead, never really being particularly likeable and nothing much that stood out.

 

The final episode I'll be looking at in this half of the review is 'Shut Up & Dance'. Taking place in a contemporary time and setting, nineteen year-old Kenny's laptop is hacked when downloading an anti-malware program. The program allows the hackers access to the laptop's webcam, which they later use to record Kenny masturbating. Getting in contact with Kenny, the hackers threaten to send the video to all of his contacts unless he does exactly what they instruct, and a terrified Kenny reluctantly agrees. For me, 'Shut Up & Dance' is one of the absolute best bits of television 'Black Mirror' has produced to date, up there with my other faves from the show, namely 'Fifteen Million Merits' and 'White Christmas'. It's the kind of episode I can't talk about without spoiling several major plot points, so be aware that big spoilers lie ahead. Similarly to previous episodes such as 'The National Anthem', 'Shut Up & Dance' requires barely any sci-fi elements, and the technology it requires for the story to work already exists. However, while 'The National Anthem' presented a deliberately exaggerated and far-fetched scenario, the ideas in 'Shut Up & Dance' feel almost entirely real and believable. It's terrifying to think that the events of this episode could genuinely take place right now. The episode affected me in particular as it played on an irrational personal fear of mine I've had since I was young, and that's the fear of being watched through a webcam. Whenever I use a laptop or computer with a built-in webcam, it makes me feel slightly uncomfortable that somebody could be watching me without me knowing about it. Once the setup for 'Shut Up & Dance' is established, the rest of the episode unfolds into something absolutely brutal, with some incredibly uncomfortable scenes involving Kenny. At one point, Kenny is instructed to rob a bank, but he's so terrified that mid-way through the robbery, he ends up wetting himself – it's such a raw and unforgiving scene. Later, as the episode draws towards the climax, Kenny is told he has to fight another man to the death, and certain revelations that take place during this scene elevate the episode into one of the most powerful bits of drama I've ever watched.

 

 

Several people have drawn comparisons between 'Shut Up & Dance' and an episode from the previous series, 'White Bear', and there are definite similarities to be found. The main thing they have in common is that they are both able to make you sympathize with their lead characters and the nightmare that they're put through, despite the things they are revealed to have done. In 'Shut Up & Dance', with the reveal that Kenny was not only recorded masturbating, but doing it to child pornography, the episode reveals its hand and you realize that Charlie Brooker once again has managed to humanize and get us to sympathize with the criminal. It's a perfect twist, as on first viewing at least, there's little evidence to suggest that Kenny is a paedophile, but at the same time, it's a twist that makes sense. It once again raises a lot of ethical questions about crime and punishment, and self-titled paedophile hunters. Our instinct to want to see abusers punished seems to grow stronger when it involves crimes with children, but should anyone, even paedophiles and other criminals be put through the same kind of treatment as Kenny? What about the other people we see forced to play along in this twisted game – do things such as infidelity deserve to be treated on the same level as paedophilia? In absolutely no way do I endorse paedophilia, and I agree that it should be punished, but think about it – is Kenny ever implied to have actually harmed or abused a child himself? Shouldn't the focus be more on those who actually do create and distribute such sick content involving children online? These are just some of the big, complex questions 'Shut Up & Dance' poses. They're not easy or pleasant, and I have my own views on some of these questions, but one that I hope we can all agree on is that the episode does get you to feel some sympathy towards Kenny. It's not just the script that generates that sympathy, but Alex Lawther's performance too. The performance led to something I like to call the Norman Bates trick, where a character hides dark secrets underneath a demeanour that's completely the opposite. Kenny does come across for a large part of the episode as kind, sweet and innocent – essentially one of the last people you'd expect to be a paedophile – and Lawther's performance is a big part of realizing that (honestly, it's one of the best performances I've seen so far this year). With this, once the twist is revealed, it plays about with your perceptions of the character, and it leaves you feeling conflicted. It's worth mentioning that Jerome Flynn as Hector is a brilliant counter to Lawther as Kenny. While Kenny is quite shy and reserved, Hector is much more down-to-earth and feels like someone you'd actually expect to meet in real life. The two characters make a great pairing, and they share some fantastic scenes together.

 

We're now three episodes in and have reached the halfway point of the third series. I think I'll leave it there for now, but you can find the second half of my review, where I take a look at 'San Junipero', 'Men Against Fire' and 'Hated In The Nation' here: https://ojgreviews.blogspot.com/2018/09/black-mirror-series-3-episodes-4-6-2016.html

Nosedive

 

9/10

Playtest

 

8/10

Shut Up & Dance

10/10