Black Mirror

When I watched the first episode I wanted to give up half way and yet I forced myself to sit through it. The episode left my mind in a tussle. The first thing that crossed my mind when I watched the episode was “ The Bed” by Tracey Emin. I remember looking at the image and wondering why someone would pay to see that or why would someone not get her into therapy after such a confession. Is madness intrinsic in art? Are the two inclusive of each other? Why is it that in the modern day we find art in brutality? Why must we conjure and explore the demons deep within us to put before people to have them praise/criticize it? Why would anyone subject something so personal to them to public scrutiny? More importantly how can I sit back and say I understand the reason for the art and its placement or even understand the underlying emotion. Yes, I am hopeless at conceptual art. My understanding is limited to brush strokes and use of colors so it is further limited only to paintings and nothing beyond it. I can’t feign to know the artists temperament either. See? Everything I have typed so far are questions. I haven’t yet come to the point of this post. I don’t understand asking the Prime Minister to have intercourse with a pig with the entire world as an audience as being a piece of art. When the PM goes ahead with the act believing that his actions will help in freeing the kidnapped royal relative the audience i.e you and I see that she is freed even before the PM gets down to going ahead with the dare. At the end of the episode, the kidnapper who was a previous Turner Awardee commits suicide and there is discord in the PM’s relationship with his wife. [This reminded me of Boston Legal Season 2 episode 7]

The whole point was to show how the world pins its concentration on something so trivial as opposed to just taking a moment to notice what is going on around them. No one notices the kidnapped girl freed. Everybody is looking at the screen, watching rapt in attention as their PM faces what can only be described as mortification for nothing. Just like what we are now becoming, people who are so concentrated on happenings on YouTube or twitter instead of just looking outside the window. Always looking at the black mirror. I want to say society is suffering from a serious case of blurred lines between virtual and real world. [No reference to Thicke, but then again if it weren’t for #AskThicke we would have lost out on several puns. Thanks Twitter?]

The 2 other episodes from season 1 are equally mind boggling. Episode 2 deals with the idea of living a life in a box literally where people are divided into two groups and the healthier ones have a chance to upgrade their lives but in order to do so they have to cycle, watch ads and shows to gain the required points to buy their ticket out of there. All goes well till the protagonist succumbs to the system. I found this episode very bitter sweet to watch.

Episode 3 was slightly unnerving personally because it was something that I could relate to. I have an excellent memory and that is why I can remember a ton of case laws and sections and not have to read a book more than once. Unfortunately for me this episode hit a sore point – How much do you really want to know about someone? I don’t need a capsule behind my ear to record everything I witness during the course of the day so that I can get back home and replay it to assess my day. Closing my eyes does the job. Which is why there are some events in my life that I go back to and I know the choice I made at that point of time was because of certain little things that added up for me to make a choice. It is suffice to say that when I close my eyes those little things stand out magnified and I know I did the right thing. But what can go wrong when you are in a relationship is what this episode looks into. Do we have to share everything with our significant other? Will we be able to live like that? Does Trust get completely chucked out of the window and are we okay in a world like that?

Season 2 further takes us to what technology can accomplish in the near future. We already live a dual life i.e the people we actually are and the person we are on social networking sites. Now, if this virtual person were to be given a chance at obtaining a physical form to come and live with us in the absence of the real person         , how would we like it? Will we be able to deal with what is cumulative sum of the internet persona that cannot think for itself but only do as is told?

Like I mentioned earlier each episode sucks you further into its chasm of surreal virtual reality.

The stories further delve on criminal justice system in the near future. The cruelty inflicted up on the convicted is beyond imaginable. I support death penalty. I do. I thought death penalty was the cruelest surest way of scaring of any lurking offenders. This episode made me realize that “living” with the crime on a daily basis is far worse and crueler. I actually paused to ask myself if I, supporting death penalty and by awarding the convicted this punishment are we making it easier on the convicted? They only have to face death and nothing beyond. The only sufferers are their family. But if we let the convicted live, with the nightmares of what they did. To daily wake up  in a cell remembering what they did. Knowing that even if they spend 14 years inside, they won’t be accepted outside. The horror of what lays beyond. The horror of what could happen to them in prison. Makes one wonder doesn’t it?

Also in season 2 episode 3 I am sure Waldo was named Waldo because everybody could spot him and he appeared in a manner distinguishable from the others?

Verdict: I love the series, it is crisp and intense, and also because the idea is not far-fetched and we are witnessing what is happening around us today sitting in the comforts of our homes looking into others lives through our black mirror so the idea that some of these stories could actually be our future doesn’t alarm me.