Black Mirror returned to Netflix on June 5, 2019, after a year-long hiatus (if you don’t count their full-length interactive film Bandersnatch that came out in December). I’m one of the fans that has watched every episode from day one when the series debuted in 2011, so I was eagerly waiting for the new season. Season 5 showcased three episodes (the last two seasons have featured six, so this was kind of a disappointment). Each episode featured more well-known (American) actors than previous seasons (Anthony Mackie in 05.01, Topher Grace in 05.02, and Miley Cyrus in 05.03). Last season, I wrote about how the episodes were getting too gimmicky: technology is evil, humanity is doomed, a horrible lesson is learned, the end. This season, none of that happened.
I will be reviewing each episode, so there will be spoilers below!
“Striking Vipers”
My rating: 7/10
This episode was the shortest in terms of time, but it dragged the longest for me. When I saw the trailer, I figured it was about an unhappy marriage, where the husband cheats on his wife in a virtual world. Sounds like a typical plot found in Black Mirror, right? Well… Anthony Mackie and Nicole Beharie play the husband and wife, Danny and Theo, who are bored living in suburbia with their young son. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays Karl, their old college friend. In college, Danny and Karl loved playing video games together, particularly one called Striking Vipers (imagine Mortal Kombat). As adults, the three become estranged as Danny and Theo settle into parenthood and Karl remains a bachelor. At Danny’s 38th birthday party, Karl gifts Danny with a new, upgraded version of their old video game — one where they can actually enter a VR world. When Karl and Danny enter the game as their players (Karl plays a sexy fighter named Roxette, while Danny chooses Lance, the fighter with washboard abs), their “fighting” suddenly turns sexual, and soon, Karl and Danny as their video game characters are sleeping together. I didn’t see that twist coming! Even as Karl tries to break off their “relationship,” Danny pursues him to keep playing. In the end, Danny comes clean to Theo, and Theo allows Danny and Karl one day a year (Danny’s birthday) to play the game (basically to sleep together) — while she gets to have some fun too, putting away her wedding ring and meeting strange men in bars. This was a bit jarring for me because we never got to see “the talk” between Danny and Theo, where they would agree to this arrangement.
So, yeah, even though this episode raised some interesting questions (Is it still cheating if you’re having sex in VR? How is gender defined? Is this any different than watching porn?), I felt like nothing changed in the end. What was the lesson we were supposed to learn?
“Smithereens”
My rating: 7/10
This was another frustrating episode. We meet a rideshare driver named Chris played by Andrew Scott, who always picks up riders outside the Smithereen’s London office (think Twitter). We don’t get much of an explanation of who he is and why he’s so interested in that location, but we do see him go to a group meeting about grief counseling. Obviously, he’s lost someone close to him, which we see only see in bits and pieces through flashbacks. One day, Chris finally picks up a Smithereen employee and ends up kidnapping the guy. But it turns out the guy is just an intern, who has only been at his job for a week. Soon, Chris is in a stand-off with the cops. His demand is that he wants to speak with Billy Bauer, the founder of Smithereen, played by Topher Grace (complete with man-bun), or he’s going to kill the intern.
The really interesting aspect of this episode was that the Smithereen folks in Silicon Valley were able to listen to Chris through his cell phone and pull up his identity from his Smithereen account faster than the cops. At one point, the Smithereen folks were even one step ahead of the FBI. It’s a reality that seems plausible in today’s world, where privacy and security is a major issue among Facebook and other social media channels. When Chris finally gets Billy on the phone, he shares how he lost his fiance in a car crash, where instead of paying attention to the road, he was reading a Smithereen notification. He blames himself — and his smartphone addiction — for her death. We’ve all been there. We check our phones as soon as we wake up, throughout the day, and even sleep with the device next to us in bed. We’re distracted by them, choosing to interact with our screens rather than interact face-to-face.
It turns out all Chris wanted to do was get Billy on the phone so he could listen to his story. The episode doesn’t wrap up in a neat way, and we are left wondering whether Chris is even alive as the cops finally close in on him. The last images are of people’s phones going off with a notification (I’m guessing they got a news alert about Chris), and Billy’s nonchalant reaction to the events that transpired as the camera fades to black. Again, nothing changed. What was the lesson we were supposed to learn?
“Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too”
My rating: 8/10
This is going to be known as the Miley episode, when it should also be known as the Nine Inch Nails episode. Miley Cyrus plays Ashley O, a pop star who wants to break free from her controlling aunt/manager and perform the music she really wants to play, which is loud, angry rock music. At the start of the episode, Ashley debuts a new AI doll named Ashley Too (think Alexa), which is basically a mini-version of Ashley. One lucky fan to get the doll is a lonely teenager named Rachel, who idolizes Ashley. Her older sister, Jack, is the complete opposite of Rachel, who listens to punk music. We find out Ashley’s aunt has been giving pills to Ashley to keep her compliant, but Ashley has been hiding the pills to use them as evidence to get out of her contract. Once Ashley’s aunt finds out, she sneaks the pills into Ashley’s food, causing her to fall into a coma. While she is in a coma, she is still writing music, so her aunt plugs into her mind and puts together Ashley’s next album without any interference from her niece. Meanwhile, Rachel’s Ashley Too doll comes to life when she and Jack remove a filter that allows the real Ashley’s consciousness to come through. When Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too break into Ashley’s home, the real Ashley wakes up, and they’re off to stop her aunt, who is on the verge of taking Ashley Eternal (a hologram of Ashley) on tour. This episode was worth it for the last 5 minutes, where we see Ashley Fucking O — finally free to be who she wants to be – -rocking out on stage in a dive bar singing “Head Like a Hole” by Nine Inch Nails. Imagine that. A Black Mirror episode with a happy ending!
This episode also brought some interesting questions: Who is in charge of an artist’s music when he/she passes? How do you feel about seeing a hologram of your favorite artist going on tour? It also eerily reminded me of Miley Cyrus when she broke away from her Disney image and took control of her own career, so I can see why she was attracted to this role. Even though I was entertained through this episode, I had to ask myself once again: What were we supposed to learn?
If you learned anything watching these three new episodes, please share them in the comments! I’m genuinely interested.
No Comments