Swine Song: The End of Michael Callow

            Black Mirror is a British produced Netflix Original television show set in the near future. Each episode stands alone as an individual plot story with new actors every time. Episodes serve to communicate the dangers of a possible reality in which advanced technologies cause conflict when met with human nature.

            For this assignment, I watched the pilot episode of Black Mirror, entitled “The National Anthem,”. The episode opens to a dark bedroom where a man and a woman lie asleep in bed together. The couple’s sleep is disturbed when the telephone rings. The man answers the call with a gruff greeting of “hello,” and responds to the other end of the call by asking to just be told what has happened quickly. The audience is unable to hear the person speaking on the other end of the phone; however, the man in the scene’s voice sounds confused and slightly annoyed to have been woken during the night. This opening dialogue introduces the importance of communication between characters in the episode and the difference between on-screen interaction and face-to-face conversations. Through the episode it is revealed that communication in circumstances without in person interaction lack emotion and substance.

            The scene directly following the title credits tells the audience that the man who had received the phone call is the Prime Minister of Great Britain. The Prime Minister, named Michael Callow, is sat before a television screen watching an abducted princess from the Royal Family recite a script given to her by her captor. The princess tells the Prime Minister that he must have “sexual intercourse” with a pig on live broadcast before she will be released. The connotation of the princess’ declaration, which is written by her captor, is emotionally distant, formal, and missing personality. The detached diction used in the demand for the Prime Minister creates a sense of coldness behind the princess’ words; this is used to critique online communication as a core means of interacting with others. Legitimacy of any claims given when the dialogue excludes passionate feelings needs to be evaluated, for distance evokes a feeling of falsehood.

            Michael Callow responds to the princess’ demand in disbelief and anger to close members of his office, stating that he is not going to be “fucking a pig,” like he has been told to. The contrast between the princess’ and Michael’s statements are great in tone, phrasing, and circumstance. Where the princess was aloof and dispassionate, Michael is full of emotion. His inflection is audibly angry and confused as he appears to attempt to understand what is going on. Additionally, his fervent, vulgar diction relays a sense of shock and urgency. Michael may be using uncouth language as a coping mechanism for being placed in a situation over which he has no control. The word “fucking,” creates feelings of urgency or desperation to be out of the unpleasant situation. While the language used by Michael conveys an unfriendly environment due to hostile dialogue, the face-to-face interaction between himself and his colleagues remains authentic. Michael’s anger is real, and he expresses his emotions through in person dialogue which creates legitimacy for his experience. 

            I found this episode of Black Mirror incredibly intriguing and thought provoking. The language used in the dialogue of the show is interesting and significant. Specifically, the two main ways used to express the act that Michael Callow must commit for the release of the princess. The emotions, or lack thereof, present in the statements made by Michael and the princess show the importance of diction and intonation. This episode of Black Mirror suggests that for communication to contain emotion and validity it must be in person, rather than through a screen.

Dystopia?

Dystopia. The opposite of a utopia. What makes those frightening for me at this point in my life is that a lot of those stories have a chance to happen depending on what choices we as people cause. Having had experiences that I don’t usually share with people, and maybe you don’t even know, gives me a kind of glass half empty outlook on life. What happened to Monday? Is a movie with that kind of outlook. This movie was premiered on Netflix in August in France.

I want to look at the plot and how it fits a dystopian outlook. Dystopian novels are classified as, “a genre of fiction writing used to explore social and political structures in a dark, nightmare world.” (Booker, “Dystopian Literature: A Theory and Research Guide”) When explained in high school my teacher used the most widely used definition: the opposite of a utopia. So instead of finding a story with shoed everything we wanted out of this world, instead of finding the American dream, I found a movie about despair and what could happen based on poor decisions or better yet on decisions made for me, not by me.

In What happened to Monday? the world’s population has grown and is continuing to grow exponentially, weaning the world of our resources. The more people on the earth meant more mouths to feed, but the amount of crops weren’t growing. So they genetically engineered them. That enhancement also affected the people eating them though; whatever they did to the crops made it so nearly every woman only got pregnant with multiple births. Doesn’t help their cause right? So how they continue to deal with the overpopulation is to do what China has had from 1979 to today and according to them will continue in the future: a one child law. You had to choose which of your children you would keep because you could only have one, and the families were told that their other children are being cryogenically frozen until a time comes when they can live freely on their world.

Spoiler. They lied. The main characters’ grandfather decides to keep all seven of his identical granddaughters and name them each after a day of the week, and that is the only day they are allowed out of the house, unless they want to be killed. They all live one life, with one name on their day. Only in their home could they be themselves, and as assumed by the title one day Monday doesn’t come back.

Just from that description I would say that this movie classifies as a dystopian film. This film explores a political and social construct currently in use in one part of the world. It takes this idea and shows what could happen if we continue in that route, but in a dark and almost sinister light. The morals shown in this movie are what make dystopian novels so compelling. No one who would watch What happened to Monday?  Would think that this movie ends like a fairytale romance.  This type of movie or book is made to make you think about humanity and where we are headed. Is that world somewhere I would want to live? How would we go about fixing that kind of world? I personally liked What happened to Monday?, but if you know me, you know I love dystopian things.

3%

Hey friend! It’s Caroline from the past! I’m writing about some interesting aspects of my life for you, so you can know me that much better. For now, I wanted to write about my current favorite movie and tv genre, sci-fi. I’ve watched a lot of different shows, but (as of now) I wanted to tell you about the latest one I watched. Before the latest, I watched the OA (and then finishing the first season because I fell in love). I started to want to watch more sci-fi. I’m really into the genre as you know, but after that show I wanted even more. I began scrolling through Netflix Originals, as of what had been released in October of 2017, looking for something that would suffice. Something not too long, that fit my genre request, and would be fun to watch. I finally found one that looked appealing, a show called “3%”. It looked like it had a minimal concept, only one season, and it was a dystopian, a subgenre that I also enjoy. I began watching, until I ran into a minor issue: I chose Netflix’s first Brazilian production, filmed entirely in Portuguese. So, I decided to try something that’s usually a pet peeve of mine, and I watched the whole thing with English dubs over it. I’m not sure if I’ll continue watching foreign shows with English dubs, I guess you’ll know if I have or not. I will say, it sometimes distracted from my experience, which is obviously not the fault of the show, and is a result of my own ignorance. However, this is a show I did enjoy watching, I got hooked very easily, and I’d highly recommend watching. That being said, if you can enjoy it in it’s parent language, then I think you’ll have that much better of a viewing experience.

3%, as I said, is a dystopian sci-fi filmed in Brazil. People are living in a community full of poverty and despair, known as The Inland. Once someone turns 20, they may try their luck, skill, and merit in the Process, where only 3% of candidates will be welcomed into the utopian community on the Offshore. It’s assumed the show takes place sometime in the future, and I can only hope that the future isn’t like this show. In most shows like this, you’d expect the main protagonists to be the successors and the antagonist to fall short. However, this show is full of twists that I feel make this show worth watching. And, while I want to talk about these twists, I’ll add in a potential spoiler alert. In the first episode, we’re introduced to multiple characters that are presumably the protagonists that we will follow to their success on the Offshore. In the first “test” they take, however, half of these characters are cut. One goes so far as to commit suicide out of despair. It’s here we realize no one is safe from the Process. I feel that’s one of the main things that helped me to stay hooked, that I never knew who would be cut, and it helped immerse the viewer even more. I hope we can enjoy some shows together, let me know! And if you watch this show, definitely tell me about how you liked it. Maybe there will be more than 1 season by the time you see it.