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'Black Mirror' season four warns against misuse of technology

tv review

The fourth season of the popular science fiction anthology series "Black Mirror" hit Netflix Dec. 29.
The fourth season of the popular science fiction anthology series "Black Mirror" hit Netflix Dec. 29.

I was once a big fan of dystopian novels and films. The bleak, trash-filled landscape of “WALL-E” and the babies born in jars in Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” both scared and intrigued me. But I became tired of seeing numerous, modified versions of the “big brother” trope and robot-like people. Then, the recently released season of “Black Mirror” on Netflix revived my interest in dystopia, despite several flawed story lines throughout the episodes.

All six episodes of the new season take place in a future where people rely on machines for almost everything, including finding a romantic partner. Each episodes begins with characters finding a device or an attractive digital system — in the first episode, for example, a virtual reality video game allows the user to become the captain of a spaceship resembling that of “Star Trek”'s Starship Enterprise. But as the episodes proceed, the characters become involved in complicated situations either because they discover the technology’s threatening outcome or because they misuse it.

Each episode has a different plot, mostly based on solving a mystery with intricate clues hidden in different scenes. I could not ignore a small detail, because even a simple prop like an abandoned coffee cup became an allusion to how the episode would end. But among all the clues presented throughout the plots, my favorite was the soundtrack.

An episode titled “Black Museum” begins with Nish, the protagonist, driving on an empty country road with “Always Something There to Remind Me” by Naked Eyes playing. The music seems to do nothing more than set a joyful atmosphere before Nish encounters a former neuroscientist who owns a museum full of quirky inventions. But with the twist at the end involving some unexpected closeness between the consciousness of Nish and her mother, the lyrics of the song perfectly fit into the mystery presented throughout the episode. As Nish drives away from the museum with the same Naked Eyes song playing, the episode came into a full circle with its mysteries unsolved.

But the modern Agatha Christie stories were not without their flaws. Some of the intended epiphany moments at the end did not answer my remaining questions about the plot.

Unlike in typical detective stories, the viewers know who the murderer is in an episode titled “Crocodile” while the characters try to figure out the murderer’s identity. Throughout the episode, a woman named Shazia uses her memory recall device, which tracks down characters’ memories to discover visual clues about crime scenes and plays a key role in connecting unrelated people and identifying the murderer. With the device attached to the witnesses’ heads, Shazia communicates with the characters to help them recall specific moments, which may provide important clues for solving crimes. However, the episode grows confusing as a guinea pig becomes the only surviving witness of a murder scene. I know that the episode takes place in a distant future with well-developed technology, but considering that the device works mostly based on communication between the investigator and the witness, it is difficult to understand how a guinea pig, which obviously does not speak a human language, can provide a crucial clue to identify a murderer. Also, I wonder whether the guinea pig has the same clarity of vision as humans and helped the police could capture the clear face of Mia from its memory. 

I still have some questions about some of the plots that bother me. But all of the episodes in the new season stood out with their unique warnings about the misuse of technology. 

Correction: A previous version of the article misstated the title of the episode “Crocodile.” The Chronicle regrets the error.

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