Series Review: Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror

Last year Charlie Brooker introduced us to Black Mirror; a series of one-off modern fables about the Twitter-age where we saw social networking lead to the Prime Minister publicly copulating with a sedated sow, a dystopian state in which an X-factor equivalent dictated the destinies of the majority of the population and technology that allowed us to review our own memories on demand. For three weeks these tales brought a breath of fresh air to, not only Channel 4's documentary-fueled schedule, but television in general. Admittedly, it was not always clear what the message was in series one, where the ideas were always interesting but did not always fulfill their potential - particularly Jesse Armstrong's The Entire History Of You which was marred by a disappointing plot (interestingly it has been picked up by Robert Downey Jr. for adaptation). Nonetheless it was, for most, welcome news when adverts for series two started cropping up before that show where someones cooks and everyone slates him for it or in the middle of that kind-of-northern soap opera. 

[Warning: spoilers] 

Series two promised some fresh ideas alongside the usual uncomfortable, Orwellian undertones that made the first so watchable as well as some more recognizable faces (Captain America's Hayley Atwell, Guy Ritchie's Jason Flemyng and...er...the BT adverts' Daniel Rigby). Here's our recap and reaction to the next three installments:

Be Right Back
The first of the new series brought some welcome heart to the collection, centering around the story of young professional Martha (Atwell) who tragically loses her partner Ash (Dohmnall 'Son of Brendan' Gleeson) to a car accident. With a little more character depth than the previous episodes offered, Be Right Back began to look as if it might signal a more traditional turn for the Black Mirror books - but that didn't last long. Martha is introduced to a programme (for want of a better word) that will 'ease' her mourning by allowing her to simulate instant messaging conversation with her deceased. However, upgrades on the technology quickly escalate as Martha increasingly tries to bring Ash back from the grave. The result is a complete boyfriend-simulator that would not have been out of place in an old episode of Doctor Who.

It is a clever re-introduction to the series, as Brooker teases us with a glimpse of how normal TV drama feels before ripping the heart out. This simulant could represent Brooker's message throughout Black Mirror: 'It's just technology, that's all it is. There's something more to life than what technology can provide.' All in all, Be Right Back was a solid series opener although it perhaps suffered from a hurried conclusion.

White Bear
Episode two threw us into an apparent social-media controlled state where most of the population did nothing more than photograph, share and (presumably) Tweet about the atrocities performed on a small number of individuals who were seemingly chosen at random to be victims of this twisted entertainment. Victoria (Being Human's Lenora Crichlow) wakes up unable to remember anything, but surrounded by evidence that suggests she has survived a suicide attempt. She leaves her home to find that  people are filming her on their camera phones. To make matters worse, a man whom she does recognize proceeds to shoot at her. What follows is a gripping saga where she (in between screaming a lot) begins to remember snippets of her past. The episode seems to be reaching its conclusion in entertaining but characteristic Black Mirror style before a fascinating twist is revealed that throws the episode on its head. Victoria is being endlessly punished for a murder her and her boyfriend committed and filmed on her phone; every day she wakes up with amnesia and the same events play out before the truth is revealed and the cycle begins again.

I'm sure I am not the only one who will merit White Bear as the best episode of series two (and, in my opinion, the collection so far). For the first time it really feels like one of Brooker's ideas has lived up to its potential. The twist is great - it would have been simple enough to reveal that it was all just a game show, for example - but the horror of the truth left viewers with their heads spinning. This was an episode that was stuck in my head for days afterwards; something, t is not hard to imagine, Brooker would really like each episode to do. 

The Waldo Moment
Previews of episode three promised a strong series conclusion. Brooker was going to show how a children's television character could be elected into Parliament. In actual fact, Waldo is a faux children's character, created to wind up celebrities and politicians - played by Jamie (Daniel Rigby), an unsuccessful sketch comedian. Having wound up a popular Tory candidate, the team behind Waldo realise that running for election would be a great publicity stunt. Waldo becomes a symbol for anti-politics, and gains popularity through childish humour and mockery of the system. Eventually, Jamie realises that Waldo is not really a symbol for anything and renounces his actions - only to be seamlessly replaced by the rest of the Waldo team. As the credits roll, we're shown (another) dystopian state where Waldo pretty much owns everything.

The Waldo idea is really interesting, and I had high expectations of the series finale, but unfortunately it came as a disappointing end. The idea was carried out, in my opinion, on too small a scale and then suddenly overblown to worldwide proportions for about twenty seconds at the end. There was no real sense of how that actually happened - sure, Waldo's popularity was increasing but he didn't even win a local election. Furthermore, I find myself skeptical that a world full of people like Charlie Brooker (despite the fact that it often feels as though he thinks he's the only one...) would actually allow an animated bear to effectively take over. There were, on the other hand, some things to take away from the episode; primarily, that Rigby is worthy of more than BT ads. Judged on this performance I'd say he's ready to do the "reverse Kris Marshall" and follow up those adverts with a promising career. Rigby's casting struck me as particularly interesting because it was pointed out that his character was a failed comedian whose career has peaked in a popular advert. Surely, it was no coincidence that Brooker chose 'the BT guy' to fill this role - quite what the point was is is not immediately obvious, but that's often been the case throughout Black Mirror. Regardless, Rigby's performance was a highlight of the series.

Series two has undoubtedly built upon the first's success, and Brooker looks more capable of hitting the Twitter-bashing, politics-busting, Brave New World-suggesting nail on the head. Let's hope that when series three arrives he's been able to do just that.

Time Travel in Cinema

The notion of time travelling captures the imagination of every child- who hasn’t dreamt of going back to the Jurassic age and encountering a dinosaur, or medieval England to see a princess in a castle? In the last century in particular, time travel has also been the subject of serious debate in philosophical converse, from considering whether it’s even theoretically possible, to the problems of reverse causation. (For example, could I travel back fifty years and kill my grandfather in his youth?) Regardless of whether it’s possible or not, we’d all love see what would happen if we really could time travel…and that’s where cinema comes in.

Rian Jonhson's Looper: 2012's best time travel film

One of the first time travel films was, appropriately, the 1960 adaptation of H. G. Wells’ great work The Time Machine. The protagonist, named after Wells himself, builds a time machine that takes him to the future where he discovers that humankind has evolved to form two unique species; a surface dwelling passive one not unlike humanity as we know it and an underground civilisation of primitive but ferocious primates. A couple of years later a French film, La Jetée,was released. La Jetée is a less traditional tale centring on a World War Three soldier who experiences flashbacks to a pre-apocalyptic past, but its legacy is just as great (it is considered the inspiration for Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys). 1968 was an important year for science-fiction, seeing the release of the bar-raising Planet of the Apes, which changed the face of the genre thanks to that ending (I’ll say no more for those who haven’t seen it but the clue is: this article’s about time travel). More than a decade later, two significant time travel trilogies got underway in the form of 1984’s Schwarzenegger-starring Terminator and 1985’s Back to the Future, which shot Michael J. Fox to new levels of cool and showed that time travel stories can be light-hearted while just as clever. In ’93 Groundhog Day proved that time travel films need not be concerned with the fate of humanity or dystopian futures, so long as they feature Bill Murray. The best time travel film of the early 2000s is the supremely baffling Donnie Darko. Thanks to an eerie performance from Jake Gyllenhaal, Frank the terrifying rabbit and a fantastic causal loop storyline this film successfully brought out the dark side of time travel fantasy (also see The Butterfly Effect – warning: it stars Ashton Kutcher).

Back to the Future(1985): coolest film ever?

Time travel films are just as popular today, as J. J. Abrams Star Trek reboot demonstrated, and with original screenplays like Rian Johnson’s Looper coming off the production line the future of time travel cinema is bright (trust me, I’ve seen it…).

Please note: this article has already been published by the Leeds Student at http://www.leedsstudent.org/2013-02-16/ls2/arts/a-closer-look-at-time-travel-in-cinema

Images courtesy of Creative Commons