Tag Archive: Black Mirror


Burial tunes for a broken world

BURIAL – Tunes 2011-2019 (Hyperdub, 2019)
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“The world is falling to pieces, but some of the pieces taste good”. So wrote Adrian Mitchell in his poem ‘Peace Is Milk’, first published in his ‘Out Loud’ collection in 1968.

This remains an accurate statement even though the world is a very different place from half a century ago. Technology and technocracy have made even digital natives long for an analog age they have no direct experience of.

Allied to this is an entrenched pessimism towards the shapes of things to come. By and large, the consensus among Science Fiction writers and filmmakers is that there is little to gain from imagining what the future will be like when the present is already dystopic enough. 1984 has been and gone and the Brave New World is here and now. The plots of Black Mirror are no fiction. As William Gibson, the creator of Neuromancer, noted “The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.” Continue reading

black-mirror-logoThese days I find most TV shows cringeworthy rather than bingeworthy. Black Mirror is the exception that proves the rule.

Charlie Brooker’s brilliant techie-themed tales of the unexpected continue to enthrall and entertain.

The six diverse new episodes in season 4 were released by Netflix on December 29th and I consumed them all eagerly in just a couple of days. Continue reading

pressTwo articles in The Guardian caught my eye today.

The first in a series called ‘first thoughts’ on the topic of the train and coach crashes in Spain and Italy that have claimed over a hundred lives.

If journalism has any function, it should offer fresh insights or offer new perspectives on tragic events like these. Continue reading

Martha (Hayley Atwell) and Ash (Domhnall Gleeson) bathed in the glow of new technology.

Martha (Hayley Atwell) and Ash (Domhnall Gleeson) bathed in the glow of new technology.

Between season one and two the Channel 4’s  Black Mirror, the series creator Charlie Brooker has become a father. This major event on life’s timeline typically has a softening effect on even the most hard-hearted of cynics.

As a screenwriter, broadcaster and columnist, Brooker’s stock in trade is as a satirist with finely tuned bullshit detector. The manner in which the modern world is in thrall to the supposedly liberating qualities of new technology is one of his recurring topics and is the theme behind Black Mirror, the title being a reference to the myriad screens humankind is glued to and how this techno-dependency affects our behaviour and personal relationships.

Episode 1 of season 2 (Be Back Soon) does not show a uniformly utopian view of the near future but it does demonstrate how Brooker’s writing has matured to the point that it doesn’t set out merely to shock but rather wants us to question to what extent we allow technology to intrude upon our perception of ‘reality’. Continue reading

2011 IN REVIEW : TV

My TV year started very late. On principle, I watch as little Italian TV as possible. I prefer to follow the advice of the graffiti in the photo: ‘Turn off the TV and turn your brain back on’.

Up until November, the only way of watching UK TV was to travel to Britain. But thanks to the Hide My Ass app  I can now encrypt my  internet activity and travel virtually to  access online channels from most countries.

As an Englishman, my main interest is in BBC, ITV and Channel 4. The latter is the where I have discovered this year’s highlights. Continue reading