Black Mirror is a Netflix original television series that aims to shock its viewers by using hypothetical stories to warn society about the dangers of the quick advancement of technology. Each episode is a sort-of short film that stands alone and they each have different plot lines and actors. This is satisfying for a consumer of Netflix to be able to start and finish one storyline without the need to follow episodes in order or feel the obligation to watch the series for hours at a time. It also gives the viewer more power to be able to pick and choose what stories they are interested in.
The episode that I watched most recently is titled “Arkangel” and is in Black Mirror’s fourth season. The plot revolves around a mother who is very much a cosseting parent because she worries about her daughter constantly and makes sure to always have an eye on her. When the daughter gets lost after a visit to the park, the mother is motivated to further her obsession of control by implanting a device in her daughter’s brain that gives her the power to see through her daughter’s eyes and know her location. She also is able to control what her daughter sees by blurring situations that would cause her stress levels to rise. A few years later, the device is banned from being produced and implanted, so the mother decides to stop using it. When the girl becomes a teenager, she begins lying to her mother about her whereabouts. The mother decides to restart the device again, which causes family tension and eventually leads to the two having a very intense fight.
One of the most compelling things in this particular episode is the aesthetic of the cinematography. The director provides visuals that are consistent in color scheme and are also very clean and organized. The plotline also keeps viewers engaged because it gets them thinking about their own life and ways that they have normalized and abused technology. Particularly, this story implements the ideas of privacy between parents and their children and how much surveillance is too much. The majority of Black Mirror’s audiences can relate to some sort of parent or child relationship that involves control.
This specific episode made me think about what my life would be like if my mother had this kind of control over me. I would be a much different person if I had limitations set on my experiences and had to live my life worrying about what my mother could see. I fear that I would also lack emotion due to the blurring filter because I would not have the ability to learn how to cope with stress and recognize when someone was in pain or needed help. I also began to think about what I would do if I were put in this position of control. It must have been very hard for the mother to quit using the device. She got used to having so much control over her child that she became almost addicted to it. It makes it easier for the mother to worry after knowing that there is a way she could intervene. This is something that I fear could happen to me or anyone else with that kind of power.
Overall, Black Mirror’s seemingly unrealistic ideas about technology's impact on society should be considered so that if similar advancements are made in the near future, we will have an understanding of how detrimental they could possibly be to not only society, but also for future generations.
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