Black Mirror's New Season Premiere: As Familiar as it is Outrageous

Black Mirror is not the kind of show I like to binge. It's better in small doses for a few reasons. Some episodes get really heavy and at times hit a bit too close to home. I also like taking it slow because the stories are so rich and full of meaning. It takes a while to let them marinate. Clearly they are meant to do more than just entertain.

Now that TV shows release entire seasons on streaming services, choosing what order to watch episodes has become a modern conundrum especially when the show has an episodic rather than a continuous narrative. I still prefer to watch in order rather than cherry picking episodes that look interesting or have critics buzzing. I assume there was a creative reason for how they chose to arrange them.

The first episode of this season is called "Common People." It stars Rashida Jones (from The Office) and Chris O'Dowd (from Bridesmaids) as a couple struggling with fertility issues, but otherwise happily married.

*****Spoilers Ahead*****

Jones' character, Amanda, experiences an aneurysm and falls into a coma. The doctors tell her husband, Mike (O'Dowd), that she will never wake up unless they try a new product called 'Rivermind.' The damaged part of her brain is replaced by the technology and powered by a remote server. It works like a subscription service, costing three hundred dollars a month.

Mike works overtime to afford it. The only side effects for Amanda are a few extra hours of sleep a night and she must stay within range of the servers. This works until the couple travels out of range. When they go back to the sales rep (played to perfection by Tracee Ellis Ross), they are told that the new servers on the map are dedicated to a more expensive version of the subscription.

The couple, of course, cannot afford the enhanced subscription package. They soon find out they cannot afford to go without it when their old coverage plan becomes suspiciously less effective than it used to be.

Sound familiar?

I think we have all owned a cell phone that suddenly became slower and a paid service that suddenly started showing more ads when a newer pricier model is introduced. It is called planned obsolescence. The practice is outlawed in France and discouraged in the rest of the European Union through consumer protection directives. The US has no such protections. Let the free market decide!

In Amanda's case, she has to sleep even more and begins unconsciously spouting commercials in the middle of conversation. It happens while she is at work and she is held accountable, alienated from everyone, and eventually loses her job. Perhaps a nod to how our society treats individuals with invisible disabilities.

Amanda's situation becomes so unbearable, Mike starts degrading himself for money on the dark web, so he can pay for the Rivermind upgrade. The site where Mike goes to sell his dignity is called 'DumDummies.' It is like a twisted combination of 'GoFundMe' and 'OnlyFans' for humiliating oneself for cash and having to rely on the generosity or in this case depravity of others to survive.

Rivermind keeps escalating the price and the couple continues to suffer financially, physically and emotionally. They are a shell of their former selves. They have nothing left, not even the hope of one day having a child after learning that Rivermind charges extra for pregnancy.

Black mirror has always tackled difficult subjects. As its title suggests, it is a mirror to the darkest intersections of humanity and technology. It answers the question of just how far it would go if we let it?

We all know that if this technology existed this is exactly how it would go. Billionaire tech bros would absolutely put life sustaining technology behind a paywall. They would absolutely take advantage of people at their most vulnerable. Milk them for every cent. If you can't pay a premium for basic quality of life, well then tough shit! Just kill yourself, you miserable fuck! That's capitalism, baby! No mercy!

In conclusion, Black Mirror is looking less like science fiction and more like a documentary these days.