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| Photo: "The Uncanny Dodo" by Mads Bødker via Flickr |
Black Mirror first aired on British television, Channel 4 in 2011 and has now found a wider audience reach through Netflix’s online-streaming service.
This science fiction drama created by Charlie Brooker depicts a near-future society that is influenced by our relationship with technology. However, there is a tone in which Brooker sets his stories. The series consists of a series of standalone episodes, each having a satiric and melancholic representation of a future world (or perhaps a reflection of our current society). These stories are told under “what if” circumstances. What if it is possible that we can record our memories and play them back again and again? What if a type of virtual reality console can recognize our deepest fears and confront them in a form of a video game? What if we can block a person from our lives in real life? What if we can feed a person’s online data into a machine to reanimate the deceased?
Some are depictions of causal implications such as the use of social media and its direct effect on a targeted person and others that provide cultural criticisms focusing on the possibilities of our current technology.
What this critically-acclaimed TV series explores is the depths of human desires and how it affects and to an extent, control us. Perhaps this series is not for everyone and it certainly is. A single episode can be pretty heavy handed such that it can leave a melancholic feeling on one’s chest upon layers of realizations that one can experience while going through the episodes. The series is considered as “thought-provoking” and is often compared to “Twilight Zone,” which similarly exposes a particular side of humanity that is most often ignored.
One can argue that TV as an entertainment platform must offer a form of catharsis that relieves the audience from their problems. By being passive observers, during the course of watching something, we are absorbed into the narrative, the cinematography -- the reality of it. The way media can imitate a type of reality that we are living in detaches ourselves from ourselves which makes it a great tool for reflection. True, TV series vary from one type to another. From comedy to drama and from reality shows to science fiction. Also, it is a matter of preference depending on one’s taste and it is out of the question to force people to watch anything that they do not want.
One of the reasons that make the series seems repulsive to other people and makes it harder to watch is its uncanny recognition of the truth that is prevalent in our society. Sigmund Freud, the well-known neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis who is also known from his book, The Interpretation of Dreams introduced the term “uncanny.” Freud describes it as something familiar but at the same time, disturbingly unknown. This is the same feeling we get during a deja vu occurrence or being creeped out by anthropomorphic figures which can manifest through the fear of clowns.
The Uncanny Valley was introduced by Masahiro Mori, a Japanese roboticist in 1970, which basically states that the more human inhuman figures are becoming, the more likely they can elicit an “eerie” feeling. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why there is a fear of artificial intelligence among most people. It basically poses a threat to human existence for the fear that we might not be able to recognize a human from an AI robot in the future.
Black Mirror, however, takes the uncanny valley beyond robotics by simulating a familiar human society, including its structure and basic human interrelationships and juxtaposing it with a different situation into the screen, efficiently projecting the human condition before our very eyes.
Due to our familiarity with our current gadgets, we seem to embody a type of knowing that they are particularly harmless. However, the immense possibility disillusions us, letting us know that we are holding on to a false sense of security.
"If technology is a drug - and it does feel like a drug - then what, precisely, are the side-effects? This area - between delight and discomfort - is where Black Mirror, my new drama series, is set. The 'black mirror' of the title is the one you'll find on every wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the cold, shiny screen of a TV, a monitor, and smartphone," says Charlie Brooker when he was asked about the inception of the series.
Black Mirror provides a paradigm shift within the entertainment industry where the creative and the critical melds into one. Perhaps this type of approach is what the mainstream entertainment industry is actually starving for. Given the title, what “Black Mirror” actually refers to is the sight of our gadgets when its screen is off that provide a reflection of our own selves, in a cynical manner.
