My thoughts about movies and TV shows I've been watching

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Monday, January 2, 2017

Why I've seen enough of Black Mirror

Although it made my 10-best list and the lists from many others as well, we've reached a point where we've seen enough of the Netflix series Black Mirror (midway through season 3). In a word, it's just too creepy. As noted previously, w/ the exception of the boring episode 2 every episode is compelling and engaging start to finish. All explore some way in which technology can change (and has changed) our lives, mostly for the worse. Some are speculative and set in the indeterminate future (imagining that we can, for example, have implanted devices that allow us to replay scenes from or post or to "block" people we don's to see, hear, or acknowledge); others could take place right now. The episode saw last night was one of the latter: it's about a teenage boy whose laptop is invaded by malware that enables someone, somewhere to see and record him through the camera eye. They record him watching some pornography and masturbating; then they message him w/ blackmail - they'll send the video to all of his contacts unless he follows a set of instructions. I won't give anything away, except to note that the outcome is grim and horrid. Possible? Yes. Believable? Possibly. A fair warning? Sure - be careful what you download, and don't act like an idiot. But the overall mood of this episode and of most of the others is bitter and dark and cynical. Is technology evil only? Can only bad things happen in this world? As with all of the Black Mirror episodes (this is an anthology series and it doesn't matter what order you watch or which you watch; each is independent), at the end you're tense and unsettled and feel a little bit contaminated. I give the series full credit for accomplishing its goals and attaining its ends; I just don't want to go there any more.

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