"Black Mirror" is no longer a surprise. We are screwed up

When you Eyes on Billy Bauer, he's over 40 minutes in "Smithereens", the first episode of Black mirroris the new season. Bauer, the young CEO of a social media platform, is struggling with a crisis. A carpool driver has taken hostage one of his employees and demands to talk to him. Getting Bauer was a bit difficult, however, considering that he is in silent retreat for 10 days in the middle of the mountains. When the camera finally lands on him, with soft hair and a kind of bushy beard, sitting in lotus position, the neon sign blinks even louder: HI GUYS. GUYS! THIS IS JACK DORSEY.

As for satire, it's okay. A bit on the nose, perhaps, given the famous 10-day Vipassana retreat of Twitter's CEO in Myanmar, but still enjoyable. There is just one thing: Dorsey first mentioned his retirement in December 2018, at which time at least part of "Smithereens" was filmed. In other words, series creator Charlie Brooker and executive producer Annabel Jones have presumably pinned Bauer's vision quest not in the news, but in their own brains, but only so that the reality goes beyond what would otherwise be a perfect thunder from the founder's sanctuary of technology. This is the burden of Black mirror. More than seven years after its debut, the sci-fi anthology can still make you laugh (sometimes), annoy you (many times), and even disappoint you (more about it in a bit). This may not be able to surprise you anymore.

The fifth season of the series, which comes out today, only includes three episodes, no doubt out of respect for the disproportionate demands of the interactive episode of last year, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. "Smithereens", which portrays Andrew Scott as the hostage leader in question and Topher Grace as Bauer, is based on a well-known social media mastership, so familiar in fact that it is the only one in the world. episode never really takes into account the essence of the series. it belongs to. Black mirrorThe best episodes of this film present either a speculative vision of the future, a mirror-like distortion of our worst selves, or both. "Smithereens", with its current setting and predictable turn, could as well be a well-played episode of CSI: Cyber. (Scott, who recently appeared at FleabagThe second season of, turns into a moving and nervous performance.)

"Striking Vipers", in the second episode, at least tries to steer the mind in a new direction – unless you are already tired of meeting a boy, a boy wife boy, a boy plays with a boy, a virtual reality, play stories with old friend and finish well-let me not-mess-here. Black mirror has dealt with virtual reality more than a few times, but never before has it frankly addressed the unprecedented ways in which virtual realization can upset the human experience. When you can inhabit a different body, what does this body's actions mean for ILR? What happens in virtual reality is it real enough to constitute infidelity? Can it change your sexuality, even your gender identity? What begins to feel caricatural ends up legitimately touching, anchored by the strong turning points of the episode's core trio (Anthony Mackie, Nicole Beharie and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II).

As this has become more and more the case during the series, the new season is studded with references to other Black mirror episodes. Brooker and Jones like to hide their Easter eggs from the connected universe in the news, and a momentary shot in "Smithereens" is worth it. (Look for basic brands around the world, such as game developer Saito and the science fiction series Sea of ​​tranquility, with classically Black mirror News Topics #StJunipersStrike and #snoutrage.) Similarly, the VR of "Striking Vipers" is transmitted through TCKR, the technology company that handles much of the Pandora's gadget-s Boxiest, since its chronological beginnings in the 1980s (Bandersnatch, in its beginnings under the name of Tuckersoft), to its decades, therefore to its future ("San Junipero").

So. This is the part where you say hey, there are three episodes and you only mentioned two of them. This is the part where you say Miley Cyrus does not show up this season? This is the part where you say, I'm starting to get the idea that you may not have much to say about "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too". And you would be right on all three points. The last episode is … well, it's bad. The story of a teenage girl (Angourie Rice) who receives an Alexa version of the cutesy-robotic robot from her favorite pop star, Ashley (Cyrus), is a warning against exploitation and the artistic development of the music industry, but never goes out of hackneyed territory. Most seasons of Black mirror have, if not a pure clunker, at least one episode that falls away. From her ugly dishes to her easy allegory to her final musical number, "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too" is not just this episode of season 5, but this episode for the whole series. (It also includes what must be the most contorted, poorly explained, ooooh, scary! technology in Black mirror l & # 39; story).

But perhaps the most disappointing, it's just not shocking. Of the three, only "Striking Vipers" offer what viewers expect from Brooker and Jones after 18 episodes and two specials. Part of that is inevitable, right? Black mirror at one of the highest degrees of difficulty on television. A speculative anthology of dark satire is hard enough to make, not to mention every episode as a life-giving extrapolation of one of the many ways people have mortgaged their humanity for reasons of convenience and narcissism. A fall was inevitable. But it's hard to believe that in Season 5, the problem is not in the artistic choices: it's that wherever we go in the current wake of the platform, we will clearly get there before. Black mirror Is.

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