Black Mirror: Be Right Back (2013) Review

Or happy Valentines day darling, one of us will die only to be kept alive by a creepy social media echo.

Black Mirror (2011 - Present):
An empty television screen reflecting into our soul. Spooky.

Now I know this isn't a film, but gosh darnit if someone is going to make me watch an episode for 1 hour and 10 minutes (I've included ad breaks in there to be tricksy) then I will classify it as a film if I want.

So, I don't really celebrate Valentines Day, and outside of the time spent at work Manface spent the majority of the day with his true love, Liverpool FC. I spent it in a separate room rekindling an old flame, my Xbox. I'm only using it for it's body though. Manface however is in a true affair of the mind, heart and soul. He's the real villain.

When we finally did regroup for the day we decided to watch the first episode in the new series of Black Mirror (2013) by Charlie Brooker. It had been setting on our scary, flashy, recordy device for a few days and by jingo it was long over due.

Charlie Brooker: - I Can Make You Hate.
Cheerful stuff.

Now, I love anything by Brooker. I could watch him for hours. Though I am absolutely positive that if I ever had to sit in a room with him for more than ten minutes not only would I hate him, but I would debate on whether or not I was morally obliged to put him out of his misery. I can be an annoyingly chipper sort. The kind who wakes up first thing after a heavy night and yet is still excitable and cheery. I can't comprehend that anyone can genuinely despise our existence so much; let alone do so and wish to continue being in it.

Thinking about it, I think Brooker would probably put me down first. He would think of me as some kind of borderline braindead collie. Bring it, Brooker.

If any of you don't know who Charlie Brooker is, just go check something of his out. I know a lot of you come over from the States (don't think I can't see you lurking there, I have stats and stuff. You can comment, I don't bite.) and I don't really know if any of his stuff ever goes your way. He's crude, he's scathing and above all he is massively cynical and monstrously witty. He doesn't like the popular or the populous for that matter and he will definitely make you know it.

His latest offering really is something special though. It's like the Tinman finally grew a heart. He's fallen in love and although every episode is that epic mixture of beautiful and harrowing, by the conclusion he is still desperately trying to think of ways to ruin it with his cynicism. It's as if he can't risk happiness. Completely bittersweet. Completely Brooker.

Black Mirror - Be Right Back (2013)

Black Mirror - Be Right Back (2013) or S02E01, focusses on Martha and Ash, a young couple who have just moved out of town and into the country. When tragedy bursts their idyllic bubble, Martha discovers a corporation have found a way to keep Ash alive from his social media fingerprint. Yet the mask of our digital persona shows itself to be more shallow than we would admit.

Without making myself sound morbid it is something I have thought about a lot; the idea that we will all live on long after we die through this odd electronic mask we have crafted for ourselves, lying to and haunting all those we have left behind. All the while perpetuating this horrendous idealism that we were so much more perfect than we were and making the idea of moving on so much harder.

The archaeology of the future will be found in excavating hard drives and dissecting the cloud. We leave nothing as a mystery any more. Every move that we make is self documented in this claustrophobic autobiography. We invite those left behind for generations and generations to come, to never truly let us rest.

I want a self destruct button.

Brooker writes stories that I wish I had and is one of the rare modern writers than I don't delude myself into thinking I could have written it better or that their story was too obvious. I feel Brooker is my antithesis. Whereas I am full of hope and naivety he is cycnicism and harsh reality. Because of this I could never write like him, and deep down I know I wouldn't want to no matter how brilliant he is. Although the way he looks at the world completely intrigues me, I wouldn't ever really want to think that way. I believe we are intrinsically good. Brooker however believes we are ultimately mindless lemmings who will happily let ourselves be led to our doom.

I hate to admit it but I was worried when I found out he was marrying Konnie Huq, in a way that I have never cared about a 'celebrity's' personal life before. I mean, if there is anyone who Brooker should despise it's a sweetness and light ex Blue Peter presenter! In fact if I had been in the area there would have be the possibility of me screaming 'Nooooo!' at the right moments then 'what about your art!' But Black Mirror shows, if anything, that Brooker and Huq are a real dream team.

My absolute favourite episode of the first season (and a real wildcard as I thought it would be the one I enjoyed the least) was Black Mirror: Fifteen Million Merits (2011) S01E02, which happens to be the one they co-penned and Huq's input really shines. She adds the something truly beautiful in the seemingly mundane. Those things which we can only see in each other because we are good, and because we do love, and because one person can mean so much more to us than our primal selfishness which many would have you believe controls us.

Huq contributes that which Brooker can never really see behind his sulphur fogged glasses. This is only really present when she is credited, however even in the other episodes she has forced Brooker's ideas to mature.  He's lost his arrogance and pomp. Now he's not just witty, he's touching.

Don't you worry, I'm not going to spend this being completely sycophantic and what I love about him is my ultimate niggle really.

The trouble is with Be Right Back is that there is no cause for redemption. Now I don't mean that everything should be neatly tied up and turn out right in the end. I believe every story should have some form of serious sacrifice for the characters to evolve, wether someone dies or they have to die a little on the inside. However, they should come through it because they know there is hope for them and us in the end.

In Be Righ Back however, we just learn to live with it. Of course that is the reality, and to climax with any kind of solution would have been an indulgent and deluded fantasy.

So I'm not really sure what my problem is. Guess it's ultimately with the reality not the fantasy. Go figure.