Posts for 2024

At long last, it's time for a review of Series Four of Black Mirror! There are six episodes, and as with Black Mirror Series Three, I will take you through three harrowing episodes before covering the rest at a later date.


For those not in the know, Black Mirror is an anthological series about tech and the harmful ways in which people use it.

Warning

The twists within Black Mirror come thick and fast. It's possible to not have spoilers, but I'd rather have spoilers and give you this warning. Heavy, heavy spoilers.

The Premise

The series kicks off with USS Callister, a virtual reality skit that at first seems to be harmless fantasy, until what we're led to believe is the protagonist of the story, turns out to be the villain (well, this is Black Mirror, amirite?).


And then things get horrifying real quickly. Suffice to say, if the plight of cookies in previous seasons of Black Mirror made you uncomfortable, this takes it up another notch.

This episode appears to take place in the USA, if the title is any indication.

The Characters

Jesse Plemons plays the role of Robert Daly, the put-upon CTO of a gaming company. I last saw Plemons in Breaking Bad, where he was suitably sinister. In here, he's far campier and more sadistic, and the prime example of how power, even virtual power, can get to someone's head. Plemons provides a fascinating portrayal of an incel who gets increasingly petty the more his power trip fantasies play out.

Jimmi Simpson gives us a contrasting depiction of James Walton. As the CEO of Callister, Inc., he comes across as a charismatic but demanding boss and sleazy womanizer. It's only as the First Mate of USS Callister where we see his human side, where Daly's sadistic atrocities pile onto his tragedy.

Cristin Milioti as new hire Nanette Cole. Another contrasting portrayal. As the new hire, we see her as a gushing fangirl of Daly. But as his virtual prisoner, we see other aspects - her defiance, leadership qualities, and even her salacious side! She carries a good part of this episode with her pluck, and is, to me, a believable heroine. Also, very easy on the eyes. Just sayin'.

Michaela Coel makes her second Black Mirror appearance as Shania Lowry. She looks remarkably different here, from when she first appeared during Nosedive in Black Mirror Series Three. Her character acts as exposition - out in the real world, advising Nanette on the landscape of the office, and in the virtual world. Lowry is also depicted as the closest person to Nanette in the office.

Osy Ikhile as intern Nate Packer. He makes coffee for people, and a botched order causes Daly to imprison him in the simulation. Seems harmless enough, if largely colorless.

Milanka Brooks as receptionist Elena Tulaska. She's unsmiling and taciturn, and very straight-laced. This is what causes Daly to gun for her - not smiling enough - which only serves to underline his pettiness.

Paul G. Raymond as programmer Kabir Dudani. Does not seem to have done much to warrant his imprisonment as he actually seems to respect Daly in the office. Serves as the techie in the simulation, at least until Nanette comes along.

Billy Magnussen as Valdack, who is also the gym bro in the office. He came across as a nice friendly guy in the office, and gave some hammy overacting in the simulation. Fun to watch, a tad underused.

Hammed Animashaun as pizza guy. A cameo, nothing more, but he made the most of it!

The Mood

It starts off as a cheerfully campy Star Trek knockoff, complete with clunky visual effects, cheesy dialogue science fiction technobabble. Somewhat predictably (again, this is Black Mirror, amirite?) it turns out to be a simulation minutes later but there's still nothing overtly wrong until we see how Daily really treats his crew.


The bright cheery colors somehow make his scenes of torture even more horrifying.

This does change, though, near the end, and become more akin to an inspiring tale of courage and freedom. And yes, sacrifice.

What I liked

In general the campiness of the whole Star Trek setup was a huge plus for me. Love it. Love it!

There's a funny background event as the unfortunate soul that Daly turned into an Arachajax, subsides and looks to be taking a break as Daly pauses the game.

And in that same scene, the hilariously over-the-top acting (which makes Nanette do an eye-roll) is just too good.

The reactions and remarks of the crew as they look over Nanette's racy pictures, are amusing.

That anguished fuck-you speech that Walton gives Daly is wrenching. He first admits his failings as a person, but also points out that Daly's retribution trumps everything that Walton ever did to him. This ends with a roar of defiance as Walton gets blown to smithereens. Maximum drama.

"Rannoch" and "Skillane" were the names of the destinations that USS Callister travelled to in the simulation. They seemed oddly familiar, and then it hit me - those names were used in White Bear of Black Mirror Series Two!

What I didn't

That little device where Daly feeds DNA samples into, to produce the virtual clones, is just a little too far-out. I get that this is supposed to be science fiction, but tech on this level seems to trump video game technology. This should be a bigger deal than is depicted in this story.


I'm not really sure the whole removal of genitals thing was necessary. It was mildly amusing, but I feel like it ultimately added very little to the plot while taking way too much time.


Wait, if all the characters in the simulation were reverted to their actual selves after escaping, whatever happened to Valerie from Marketing?!

Conclusion

A more than decent episode, albeit pretty predictable. Honestly, did anyone not see Robert Daly meeting a depressing end? This is Black Mirror, FFS.


On the other hand, this episode had plenty of funny bits, and a surprising amount of compelling acting. It's a great opening for Series Four! And if you're a Star Trek fan, this should totally be your jam.

My Rating

8.5 / 10

The second episode is Arkangel and it's a bit of a depressing ride, let me just warn you.

The Premise

Marie is an overprotective mother who goes to extreme means to protect her child from any distress. This leads to severe consequences once the child grows up and starts experiencing things she should have developed defence mechanisms against.

The Characters

Rosemarie DeWitt as Marie Sambrell, who works as a chiropractor. Her acting was top-notch here. The audience gets drawn into her parental panic, and actually roots for her when she does the sensible thing and disables Arkangel. But when when she starts it up again, we kind of get why. And there's a question lingering: would we have done the same thing?


Aniya Hodge as young Sara Sambrell. She's an adorable kid who doesn't need to do much other than be adorable.

Sarah Abbott as older Sara Sambrell. Now a bit more nuance is shown as Sara is perpetually confused over all the stuff she can't see that the others can. This is very well done.

Brenna Harding as teenage Sara Sambrell. She's beautiful and has an insatiable curiosity about her that ultimately proves to be her undoing.

Nicholas Campbell as grandfather Russ Sambrell. Wise old man with plenty of sensible advice and snark to go with it. I was sad when he died, but it was a necessary plot point.



Nicky Torchia as young Trick, a.k.a Ryan Trebecky. Came off as a brat, but it was kind of adorable how he so enthustiastically became a bad influence for young Sara.

Owen Teague as teenage Trick. Sure he's a drug-pusher and shit, but this was a sympathetic figure that actually seemed to care for Sara. The sheer expression of horror on his face when he asks Amy "You've still got that system?" even seems to convey less fear for himself than horror on behalf of Sara. I can't even bring myself to feel anything negative about how he dumped Sara, it's not like the guy had any good options there. Owen Teague has a gift for playing creeps - I last saw him in the movie IT.

Abby Quinn as Sara's best friend Meryl. It's a bit-part that requires her to be chummy with Sara and little else.

The Mood

Initially, everything looks like the typical suburban scenario, childbirth scene in hospital notwithstanding. Soon, however, we're given a peek into Marie's paranoia. So far so good, until Arkangel comes into the picture and we get a good look at how extreme surveillance and censorship, facilitated by tech, harms the psyche. The effects are long-term and deep-rooted, made all the scarier by the fact that they aren't immediate and brutal.

Later on, there's an outburst of violence that marks the end of an excellent sequence of discovery of betrayal.

What I liked

The concept itself wasn't over-the-top, even though the specific technology isn't here yet. But with censorship and surveillance by governments, it's not too hard to point to modern-day parallels.

Russ's scenes with both mother and daughter are great. Seriously. Ribbing, laughter, lots of love...


...and even this scene depicting Russ Sambrell's heart attack from the viewpoint of Sara, is cleverly done, wringing out the first moment of drama where we see how Arkangel can have potentially fatal consequences.

The sequence where pre-teen Sara grows into teenage Sara, is really well done. I especially like the part where the dog starts getting used to Sara and even befriends her. That was sweet.


The Face Seeker app is just a plot device, but it is cool, man.


The soundtrack that plays when Sara discovers that her mother has been spying on her, is so effective at maintaining the tension. In fact, the entire sequence leading up to the confrontation, as well as the confrontation itself, is so well done.

What I didn't

Wait, the contraceptives that Amy put into Sara's smoothies terminated her pegnancy? Granted I'm no expert, and this is supposed to be science fiction, but I'm pretty sure that's not how contraception works.

The episode can be painfully slow at times, often out of neccessity. Still, I can't help but feel certain scenes could have been omitted. Like, what did the entire childbirth sequence really accomplish?

Also, when Arkangel is reactivated, we see that the censorship protocol has kicked in when Sara attacks Marie and her cortisol levels rise. So if Marie reactivated Arkangel a while back, how the hell did Sara not notice it? Are we expected to believe that no distressing events happened that would trigger the censorship protocol? How about Trick's breakup with Sara? FFS, Arkangel was active during that time. Marie was even watching Trick break up with her!

Conclusion

This episode was more about how human beings can always be counted on to use tech for questionable things, even with pure motives, than tech itself. There was nothing intrinsically sinister about the concept of Arkangel - it built to plant false images into someone's brain, for instance - but once its usage was taken to extreme levels, it damaged relationships beyond repair.

One could argue that teenage Sara had not exactly covered herself in glory with her experimentation with sex and drugs, but what teenager doesn't do stupid and reckless shit? This episode showed us how far a paranoid parent could go, even with the best of intentions, with the advancement of tech. And for that, it gets an absolute thumbs up from me.

Despite glaring plot holes, Arkangel was a good premise to build on.

My Rating

8.5 / 10

The Premise

In order to cover up her involvement in a hit-and-run, Mia commits murder. Now exists a technology that can replay memories, and this leads to more murders being committed to cover up the earlier one.


But what about the tech? Well, a device known as a Corroborator comes into play here. You plug one end into someone's temple, turn on the machine, and there's your replay! This thing also plays a huge part in the story.

The Characters

Andrea Riseborough absolutely kills it (pun intended) as the reluctant serial murderer Mia Nolan. Gotta say, Riseborough was a superb choice to play this role. You can see every line on her face telling the story of the strain the murders take on her. The tears she sheds before and after each one, the cold fury every time a threat to her family or career surfaces. Riseborough's facial expressions just nailed the entire thing for me.

Andrew Gower as Mia's ex-boyfriend Rob. When he first see him he's frantic and panicked, and makes selfish and irresponsible decisions, and even pressures Mia into doing the same. Years later, guilt and remorse have changed him. He's a recovering alcoholic who wants to mitigate his crime years before, but his fate is tragic. It's hard to sympathize with the character, really. He started out disposing of the body of the man he accidentally killed, but by the first quarter of the show, it's his body that is being disposed of by Mia.

Kiran Sonia Sawar delivers a delightful performance as investigator Shazia Akhand. She's pretty as a picture but doesn't get sexualized in any way, which is refreshing. There's that moment where she gets in over her head while just trying to do her job, and it's powerful.

Anthony Welsh as Shazia's's husband Anan Akhand. He has a certain puppy-dog presence which is supposed to get us in the feels when he gets murdered later on. It kind of works, except it all gets overshadowed by the kid getting murdered as well.

Jamie Michie as Simon Nicholls. Big bear of a man, jovial and kind, probably meant as a foil to the murderous character of Mia Nolan. Good casting choice here.

Joshua James as Gordy. He's the guy who gets knocked over by the self-driving pizza delivery vehicle, and is it just me, or does he actually looks more like a serial murderer than Andrea Riseborough? Might be the teeth.

Adelle Leonce as Nini Harper-Brown. Is it just me, or did she look more appealing in the memory replay than in-person? Genius if so, touching on how memories could be biased.

Brian Pettifer as dentist Willian Grange. Supposed to come across as some kind of creepy pervert. Wish he'd played it up a little more. Oh, well.

Armin Karina has a brief appearance as concierge Farshad. Hardly the picture of discretion, but I enjoyed the subtle look of mischief on his face.

Stefan Orn Eggertson as Finn Nicholls. Cute kid. The role was necessary for the purposes of showing the audience that Mia Nolan has a family that she wants to protect, though he didn't have much to do.

The Mood

It begins with a starkly beautiful scene of winter in the mountains, and then later on there's a tad more color than blue, grey and white. Tension fairly courses through the entire hour. Throughout it all, there's very little joy in this episode (other than the welcome scenes of Shazia and her family), and this is easily one of the bleakest stories Black Mirror has ever told.

What I liked

Did I mention that the scenery and backdrop were amazing?

The opening strains of that dang-blasted song play early on. Normally this makes me groan, but it went astonishingly well with the snowy mountain backdrop.


Wow, a mobile pizza delivery self-driving vehicle! These already kind of exist, but none of the pictures I saw on the net look remotely this cool. I also liked that this little baby was an integral part of the story.


Looks like in this episode, facial recognition seems to be a function one can access on their phone! So mundane, yet so many possibilities.


The Corroborator tech. This thing about plugging in one thumbtack-like piece on the side of someone's head is consistent with the interface used in USS Callister, and makes it possible to believe that it all exists in the same world.

I also like the thing Shazia did with the subjects, like using the scent of alcohol to trigger those memories. Just adds some dimension to the entire thing.

What I didn't

I don't understand the title at all. "Crocodile"? Like, what?

The murder of Rob was a bit puzzling. One moment Mia is trying to stop Rob from leaving, and next moment he's lying on his back with a nosebleed. I get that this was a murder, but how was he killed? Some clarity would be nice.

I feel like something as intrusive as a Corroborator would have consequences such as the one that happened to Shazia, far more commonplace, and the episode writers just didn't take that into account. It wasn't even mentioned.

At some point, the song gets a little overused, and starts being annoying. It's good in small, very sparing doses.

Conclusion

This wasn't a bad episode, though the plot left me a bit baffled at times.

Also, a baby gets murdered. And all for nothing. Depressing as all hell, this story. There were good bits here and there, but meh I wasn't feeling it all that much.

My Rating

8 / 10

Final thoughts on Black Mirror Series Four so far...

The first three episodes have been banging. Especially the first two. They certainly stuck to the spirit of the Black Mirror series. The third episode took things up a notch in terms of darkness, and that's a brave choice.

Looking forward to the next three episodes. I have a feeling it's going to get way darker than this.