Black Mirror

     Black Mirror is terrifying. Not in a slasher movie or even Psycho kind of way, but in a very hyper reality sort of way. The show has brought on comparisons from fans and critics alike to the Twilight Zone. The reasoning is justified, Black Mirror, is a sci-fi anthology series, much like Twilight Zone, in which each episode has a different conflict, different characters and actors, different worlds, and a different tone. 

     Created by Charlie Booker, a British satirist and broadcaster, the show aired on Britain's Channel 4. The cast includes many popular British actors. Popularity in the US increased when the series was placed on Netflix. The shows main theme is how technology is shaping the not so distant future. While the technology is different in every episode its still the driving force behind the characters and their motivations. The third episode, "Be Right Back" was picked up by Robert Downey Jr. to produce.           

                                                                            There are currently six episodes, three each for two seasons, and a third season in production. The plots include: a man who rides a bike for points and spends those points on an avatar, a society in which the chips in people's brains record everything they see and allow for playback, a comedian who uses an electronic bear to run for political office.                                                                                                         

                                                  

    The production quality is phenomenal. The worlds, which are so unique and distant, feel familiar and tangible. The lighting, in "Fifteen Million Merits" puts the viewer inside the glass rooms which the characters live. The walls are all LED displays and the lighting work that goes into this affect is astonishing. "Fifteen Million Merits" is the most dystopic setting and yet still strikes a visual nerve that is believable.

     Why the show is so terrifying, so gut wrenchingly horrible, is that each episode plays with our expectations and rooting interests. They establish the world, get the viewer comfortable as the characters are, and the shake the world violently. Often we are rooting for immoral actions but they are the best possible result in this strange dystopic future we've found ourselves. 

    It's believable. That's the scary part. It's so real. Each episode could happen; you can see it. The moral implications and the themes leave you silent at the end. Plot twists aside it's scary what humans can do to each other. It's even more horrifying when we look at the technology that the worlds use are not that far off. The camera angles tell the story, the colors tell the story, the extras are perfectly in sync.

        We are going crazy with the characters because of the production and the writing and the acting. It's a show that has accomplished and exceeded all it set out to achieve. It's truly a modern anthology.

                    

Why I Might Watch Almost Human

Good sci-fi shows are a rarity. In part, it’s because they cater to such a niche audience; the general population likes to stick to a blend of mostly drama/reality TV, and that usually does not include futuristic societies, robots, aliens, or any combination of the three. The first truly weird and successful sci-fi-esque show would have to be the Twilight Zone, created by Ithaca’s own Rod Serling. It was incredibly ahead of it’s time, and combined fantasy elements with current-day

issues to create a show that was a crazy and wonderful kind of social commentary. Few shows have really broken through the mold since then. The ones that have, however, have been mostly excellent.

In the mid 90s, the X-Files proved that it’s totally possible to have a successful procedural show about aliens, which is something people didn’t realize they were missing until the show debuted. A few other great sci-fi shows came during the mid 2000s, some recognized for their greatness (the adventure/drama/crazy shit-show that was Lost and the surprisingly critically acclaimed Fringe - thanks J.J. Abrams) and some that were not (you’ll always have Netflix, Firefly). Besides the love it or loathe it Battlestar Gallactica, no other shows immediately come to mind, which just goes to show that networks either don’t care for sci-fi shows anymore or that sci-fi shows, basically, just need to get better. 

Which is why I’m so intrigued by Almost Human. FOX has really been pushing this show for a while now, airing commercials for it almost constantly since before the World Series. It’s gotten to the point where I’m embarrassed to say that I’m interested in it; every time I see an ad, my roommates lampoon me for ever bringing it up. And yet, here I am, on Hulu, with my curser hovering over the ‘play’ button on the pilot of Almost Human. 

Part of me wants to give it a chance. For me, personally, it has a lot of similarities to Fringe when that first aired: it’s on FOX, it’s very much a science fiction show, and I know next to nothing about it, despite all the commercials. From what I gather, Karl Urban is a hard-ass cop living in a society that embraces robots. I think he gets hurt or something, and wakes up with a new robot partner, which he isn’t happy with. It’s like a buddy-cop movie, just instead of a person, one buddy is a robot. And they’re not buddies. So. 

The other part of me, though, doesn’t want to get hurt again. Knowing the life-spans of sci-fi shows, I know that the chances of it being good/getting picked up for multiple seasons is slim at best. That being said, the reviews have been mostly positive so far (even though only the pilot has aired and that has to be good) and people seem to be truly enjoying it. It’s also another show that J.J. Abrams has slapped his name on, so you have to expect a certain level of excellence from it. Well. It’s decided then. Despite whatever flak I might get from my roommates, I will sit myself down over Thanksgiving break and watch Almost Human. 

Maybe.