Why you should be watching Black Mirror

02/11/2012

Two weeks ago, while everyone was shouting some random person should be PM based on a few minutes’ worth of comments on Q and A, we were all missing out one of the most important, daring, scariest, funniest and surprising programmes of 2012. Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror. A dark look into the world of technology from our own horrible human hearts.

Black Mirror is the second serial series after Brooker's award-winning and frighteningly awesome Dark Set, a zombie series set during a Big Brother eviction. It has more heart and brains, less bickering and a lot more commentary on society than a whole series of The Walking Dead. Dead Set wasn't Brooker's first creative entrance into the pop culture arena as he'd been running an amazing set of series about Television Analysis and Journalism, called Screenwipe and Newswipe respectively.

Black Mirror finally turns the world of technology back on us and the media at large as the series went to air in the UK earlier this year. The first episode, The National Anthem had a simple premise but the way Brooker shows the story from multiple perspectives is done with such clarity and honesty, it's like watching one of those well-produced docu-dramas you see Ten make. The premise needs a singular sentence all on its own so you aren't taken aback by the wall of text that proceeds it, so here it goes.

The Prime Minister of Britain must have sex with a pig, on live television, to ensure the release of a kidnapped beloved member of the Royal Family.

No, I am not kidding. Go back and read that sentence again, and if you don't believe me, check Wikipedia or Tweet Mr. Brooker. That is the premise for the first episode of Black Mirror and it holds no bars. Forget that, it levitates the bar over your head and then bludgeons a shark to death with it. Black Mirror's debut episode may be about a ministerial bestiality but really it's about the way social media works in a new media world. The newspapers are hit with an instant superinjunction – a simple bunch of words that basically ban reporters from reporting – but the kidnappers video has gone viral and Twitter has gone mental with the future copulation.

Black Mirror itself refers to the dark void we stare into when we look at our phones, TV's and handheld devices when it's off. The world is in the palm of our hands but we really don't know where it leads or what to do with it sometimes. This is what Black Mirror is all about. It's the nightmare of every single tablet, smartphone and internet 3D TV come to life.

The second episode is a lot less vulgar and if you want to ease yourself into Black Mirror, I suggest starting here. A simplistic, where one man fights in a gamified universe to get to the woman of his dreams after she competes on a reality game show. 15 Million Merits is what I would start with anyone who doesn't get gamification, reality TV or what it means to truly be human.

Brooker has given commentary to reality TV in the past, from its editing, the ludicrous displays of ‘talent’ both on and off stage, as well as the insecurities felt when trying to produce one of his own, but I feel here he makes a raw statement on the degrading factors that come with every reality game show and the importance of lifting great talent upon high.

While I will not spoil the ending, I'll just say the tragic but beautiful update to the 1970's flick Network will have you welling up with some tears only to be thrown back against the Black Mirror like a Sim who blew up a stove.

Essentially, the three biggest reasons you should be watching Black Mirror are:

• It's the most contemporary show you'll see all year. Not many shows acknowledge the existence, let alone provide a strong commentary on the issues that Brooker provides, knows well and is able to write with clarity and intelligence.
   
• The satire, dark humour and sadness are spot on and never feel out of place. They ring true with every single punchline, but never stray too far from the truth of the dark heart of technology.
  
  and
   
• Charlie Brooker is a bonafide genius.

You can catch up on the SBS on Demand website and the last episode airs next week. The episode in question? Imagine an entire world where everything we say and do is recorded. A whole world where the human eye is a personal and public panopticon. Brooker let's your imagination run wild as a man who is worried about losing his wife to adultery searches through his own “Re-Do” - a technology that records through your own eye sight – for his and her mistakes.

Black Mirror is a frightening look into the future and while you can still make peace with your TV set, it may already be too late for your own black mirror.

Written by HE