Black Mirror and Real Life (Why These Are My Top Five Episodes)

Black Mirror used to be one of my favorite TV series. It goes down a lot after season four, but it's still better than most of the other shows out there. I am a sucker for realistic future scenarios, and as scary as it is, many 'fictional' scenarios in Black Mirror have come true all around the world, but that will be the topic for another day. Today, I want to list my favorite episodes based on how they affected me the first time I saw them. Many of them might be off of others' popular lists, but I have my reasons.

I don't watch Black Mirror for the technology and what-ifs alone but for the implication to our lives. With everything that is invented to make our life easier, it comes with consequences as well. It has always been this way, just like smartphones in our pocket; most of us can't live without them now, but it also takes away some meaningful interactions, quality time, privacy etc. I used to remember every phone number and do every calculation by head, now I barely remember mine. We invented plastics, which help us in everyday tasks, from simple necessities like carrying a bucket of water to holding up our valuables, and now we are dealing with microplastic and out-of-control waste management. This is now, what about the future? We continuously invent new things and technology. Most start with good intentions, just like road to hell. Black Mirror is based on this concept. To me, it's a very intriguing and thought-provoking series. If you are into this kind of story, check it out. And while it's mild, spoiler alert ahead.

Top Five Black Mirror episodes:

5. Black Museum

The creative collective stories in this episode sell it for me. I like the first and second stories a lot. As someone who is quite stoic, I was 'advised' to have more empathy sometimes. My problem besides not being the best person to express sympathy and compassion, there are also too many fake problems escalated to gain genuine compassion. Sometimes I see through them, and sometimes that is just me, standing there blinking while for the umpteenth time, my colleague bawled in front of me. Why did she have so many drama in her life? Why so many broken love stories? Why so many evil people out to get her? It's either she was very good in exaggerating things or she was the most unfortunate victim in everything. Generally, I'd try to help with solutions while the other parties need listening ears more, they don't really need my advice, but my face and ears. Why they think I am capable of doing that is anyone's guess. So lack of empathy is what they diagnosed me with.

So, what if you can be empathetic in a very literal way? That is the idea of the first story in Black Museum.

Most married couples would testify that it takes quite a lot to live together with another person. Sometimes the way you breathe can be wrong too, not to mention the order of the towel and how you arrange the grocery. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Now imagine someone living in your head.

What about immortality? One of the most popular wishes out there. Think about it. Living forever is cool, especially if you are not getting older. For me, I'd prefer to be a Highlander, when I can go around enjoying life and when I get bored, I can ask for a fellow Highlander to just chop off my head.

4. Nosedive

I am not popular, I am not a sucker, and I don't know how to please people to save my life. Ask my late grandma about why I was her least favorite grandchild (true story) and my 'co-boss' about how he tried to sack me as long as I was in the company. The bottom line is if life is based on rating, and rating is obtained by how people view you, I am doomed. Doom. Dead.

That is why this episode is intriguing to me, and it's getting even more intriguing because it's happening in China right now. This is one of the lighter episodes and garners much hate, as far as I know. It's very predictable, and I am so very thankful that it is still in fiction territory for now, or is it? We may not be in China capacity yet, but we are certainly swimming in social media and rating pool right now everywhere we go.

3. Fifteen Millions Merit

One thing that Black Mirror is good at is putting the characters in a maddening and mundane situation, to name a few: White Christmas, Black Museum, and White Bear. Fifteen Million Merit is one of them. Can you imagine that we have to pay to turn off advertisements in our lives? Wait, that already happens. Until now, viewers speculate about this episode about what it is trying to portray. Is it a prison, office, or entertainment industry? My answer is YES. The reality sucks. But back when Black Mirror was new, the first episode left my jaw open, and this is the second. I was convinced that this series might be a keeper.

2. Be Right Back

It's a dread most of us live with every day, including me; losing loved ones. Why are we so vulnerable? I fail to answer these questions. Love comes with a big consequence, and grief is something that increases exponentially the more you love. Because of that, as far as we live, I'd say we continue trying to find ways to solve this. Be Right Back addresses this. What if we are able to recreate someone's existence from their social media presence? This has happened in real life using our current technology. Someone did this with their AI grandma for heartbreaking reasons.

For me, I barely have social media existence. There is nothing to gain, but for many others, especially those who are born into this current world, they advertise their lives out there. But are they real? Are they really represent what they really are?

The episode is clunky and could be better, but it lingers in my mind long after I watched it.

1. Beyond the Sea

Recency bias. To me, Beyond the Sea feels like a classic Black Mirror episode—a combination of a heartfelt story, futuristic technology, good characters and plots.

Beyond the Sea tells us a tale of two astronauts on duty in space. Both of them are given a physical replica that functions like themselves, something like an avatar. They can visit their lives back on earth when they are off duty from the space task. I can't speak for others, but this sounds like a dream job to me. With basically only a few hours work or less every day, you can enjoy the magnificent space and see your family, and interact with them daily? It's better than what I have now!

However, things are not always rosy, and although I have some nitpicks, the story and the ending got me. It's quite a slow burn, sometimes feels predictable, the kind of story that you think you have seen before. But sometimes, that is all you need. With the crazy direction that season 6 ends up going, this is definitely what I need.

I know, most likely, this is not on your list. Many choose San Junipero, The Entire History of You, White Christmas, USS Callister, Shut Up and Dance. They are great episodes, and I could promote them with some persuasion, but I also have reasons for not thinking my list is terrible. And if you disagree, I have news for you. I seriously consider the weirdest Black Mirror episode 'Metalhead' my top five. When I watched it, my first reaction was WTF? But it grows on me, and I now have a serious soft spot for it.

That's all for today!

Papers in Trash Pool

Here I am again, staring at another brochure of an appliance manufacturer, advertising things I don’t need, using colorful thick papers that are hard to tear, just because I bought something from them almost twenty years ago. I didn’t sign up for anything except to register for the warranty, and they appear in my email inbox and home address. Almost two decades.

I used to like National Geographic magazine. It has a lot of interesting articles and beautiful natural pictures. In fact, I liked it so much that I subscribed to their magazine one time. And having them in my inbox was great; it was something other than bills. Anyway, I didn’t renew the subscription after a year because I had to cut much of my spending. But almost every few months after that, for over ten years, they keep sending a stack of brochures, including subscription forms. Some were wrapped in clear plastics, some in postcards, and most were paper brochures. Every time, there were at least a couple of item combinations. A stack is not an exaggeration. I wrote to them and re-confirmed my intention that I would not re-subscribe and to stop sending me those, but nothing worked. It still arrived in my mailbox for more than a decade. I wouldn’t say that I am doing as much as I wish to help the environment, but trying to reduce and recycle are some little efforts I try to maintain. So one day, on top of my ongoing annoyance, I snapped when these junks came together with the advertisement of their new edition about reducing waste and plastic, saving our planet stuff. I hadn’t been active on my social media for a long time, but I logged into my personal Facebook and posted a rant about it on their wall. I believe the post was deleted, I don’t know if they had ways to track me, but I haven’t had anything from them in my mail.

But they are simply too many to devote the time to eliminate them. The efforts hardly worked the first few times, and the junks reappeared. I have tried to mail back those unsolicited insurance registrations; they come in many pages, forms, ads, plans, and most people throw them in the trash. We live in a public apartment building, and the letterboxes are easily accessible for anyone to put their junk mail in. Some have proper names and specific addresses, just like the one I hold that still haunts me after two decades. So what we should do with these forms is to fill them, sign them, and mail them back, and they’ll get a new customer, and I’ll have another insurance in case I’ll need hospitalization recovery after I sell my kidney to pay for the premium. As goodwill, they always send you an envelope with a return stamp. And when I am able to, I send them back the empty forms, with everything else that comes in the envelope. Junk in a full circle. I wonder if they work.

Because of Covid, I hadn’t been coming back here (I stay in two places) for almost four years. So last year, when I was back, there was a lot of housekeeping to do, updating my expired bank card, activating online banking, and resetting my account preference. I am talking about a single basic ATM card that one can’t function without nowadays. Nothing fancy, and I have almost nothing inside. The day after, I received eight crisp envelopes in my mailbox. It was scary. Who is looking for me in these proper-formal-written white envelopes? You know where I am going. One letter is a notification about me changing my password, and then about the password change confirmation, notification, and confirmation about my new card, internet banking, account setting, and the list of awesome readers’ reviews for my books. Wait, unfortunately, not the last one. To add to the landfill, they include promotions for the bank products in at least half of those. All are identical.

Some companies have options to opt out of paper notifications, but some are still hanging onto it. To be honest, I prefer monthly paper notifications for my transactions so that I can check on them, but nothing beyond that.

At least, compared to ten years ago, the apartments no longer have a built-in trash pool below the letter boxes. The trash pool was a square concrete box as wide as the collective letter slots, knee high, where residents could just swipe the unwanted real estate and advertisement brochures into them. Keep them neat? Not at all, the mailboxes were packed with them every day, and this concrete paper pool would be filled to the brim, and those pesky papers would fly away.

So now I am writing the return address of this brochure, foaming in my mouth, knowing that doing this might result in nothing and, ironically, most likely as destructive as what they are doing.

I’m not sure if this is the cost of living in modern society. I don’t remember getting more than a few small-sized advertisements in a more laidback place for over a decade, and everything is useful about some plumbing, technician, and other business that I happily keep in case I need them. Do you have this kind of problem too where you are?

I don’t know much about advertisements, but imho, these papers deserve to end up somewhere other than the trash pool. Books!