Lately I’ve been watching once more the excellent Channel 4 drama series Black Mirror. Conceived by Charlie Brooker (he of the Weekly Wipe) it’s a series of dramas set in an unspecified future and dealing with the effects of imagined technological advances on society. (Warning: spoiler alert coming.) In one, a woman wakes up to find people outside her house all filming her on their phones. Someone tries to run her over, then a woman comes along and pretends to be helping her. It’s not clear why they’re being pursued but the places they go to seem to resonate with her in some way although she can’t recall them. In the final scene she is tied to a chair and forced to watch a film of herself and her partner killing a child: turns out the scenario she has just been through is her daily punishment. Every night her memory is wiped and every morning it starts again.
Crime and retributive justice are also the theme of the best episode ever, White Christmas. I’ve already blogged about this one here and if you haven’t seen it it’s well worth watching.
https://lizardyoga.wordpress.com/2015/04/19/always-winter-and-always-christmas/
A third episode is somewhat prescient, telling the story of an abducted princess and a demand for the Prime Minister to have sex with a pig live on youtube before the kidnappers will release her. In the end they release her early and no-one notices as everyone’s indoors watching the event on youtube. It turns out to be an ‘art event’: in the end the PM’s popularity (unlike the current one’s) rises to an all-time high but his wife will no longer have sex with him (I’m not sure about Samantha on this one.)
There’s a sort of black theme to things at the moment. I’m already heartily sick of Black Friday and it’s only been going a couple of years: as if there wasn’t enough rampant consumerism around at Christmas, they have to bring in another grab-fest. Advent traditionally is supposed to be a period of fasting to prepare for the feast of Christmas but by the time you’ve done the round of office parties, children’s parties and parties for just about every group or society you’re involved in, you can barely face the prospect of Christmas Day itself.
Well, at least I’m managing to stay off Facebook!
Kirk out
Sarada Gray 