Black Mirror (boxed spoilers)

Black Mirror is Charlie Brooker’s latest project, airing on Channel 4 in the UK and it’s some of the most amazing television I’ve watched all year.

Each of the three episodes is it’s own, independent mini-black comedy that’s full of darkness and pathos. Currently, the first two have aired, the first involving:

the Prime Minister receiving a ransom request that the kidnapped princess will be killed unless he has sex with a pig live on television in 8 hours.

It’s one of the most accurate portrayals of the new social media landscape that we currently live in as well as a fascinating study on how people react under extreme pressure.

The second episode is

a dark satire on pushing gamification to it’s logical extreme and a bread-and-circuses totalitarian government that uses idol style competitions and virtual goods to mollify the masses

If there’s one criticism, it’s that I feel like both ambitiously paint themselves into a corner and then kind of deflate, escaping through an anti-climax. Still, the mood it sets and the ideas it plumbs were deeply affecting. I can’t wait until the 3rd one airs.

I do like the way Charlie Brooker’s mind works and I’m enjoying the episodes so far.
At a high level I’m not sure he is putting forward any startlingly new ideas, but he is doing it with some style and certainly the second episode is a neat contemplation on the age-old dystopian nightmares.
It is scary how close we are to that reality.