The best episode of Black Mirror | Common people
Black Mirror is a series that I can definitely classify as one of my favorites. Although there are a few episodes that I don't like, for the most part I think it's a gem. It shows a future that sometimes sounds quite terrifying, how technology can push us to the limit. Some of these things seemed crazy to us when the first season of Black Mirror premiered, but more than 10 years later, we can say that some things that seemed like mere entertainment are coming true. Technology continues to advance, and I feel that we are getting closer and closer to an episode of Black Mirror, especially with the topic of AI, which has been perfected so much in recent years.
But today I don't want to talk about the entire season of Black Mirror. today I want to talk about my favorite episode of the season, called “Common People.” Definitely, NO ONE prepared me for this episode, I started watching it without knowing anything about it, and some parts were so absurd but at the same time so real that it made me laugh, this episode has a lot of emotions and things that perfectly apply to the present day, only taken to a slightly more dramatic and exaggerated extreme.
As the title suggests, we begin by seeing an ordinary couple: Mike and Amanda, who love each other and have jobs that allow them to live a decent life. Amanda works as a teacher, and one day she simply faints, for a moment, I came up with some theories in my head and imagined that this episode would be about Mike replacing his wife with a robot that looked like her or something like that, but it was different. When Mike arrives at the hospital, he finds out that his wife has a brain tumor and is basically going to die, a woman sees the situation and takes the opportunity to convince Mike to try an experiment that could save Amanda's life. This is where things get murky, as the proposal involves removing part of her brain and backing it up on a server, a server to which she will always be connected and which will allow her to continue living as long as her payments are made on time. In addition to this, Amanda cannot travel very far, as the signal from this program does not cover the entire country. If she leaves the coverage area, it simply turns off, just like any other device.
Membership costs approximately $300 per month, but Mike does not hesitate to pay it because he loves his wife so much and could not live without her. As often happens in real life, the service goes well at first, but then everything becomes complicated. Every time everything seems to be going well, something goes wrong with the service, and when he complains, they tell him that he must upgrade his plan in order to enjoy all the benefits they offer. Each time, the plan they have ends up being the basic one, and a better one comes out, but obviously more expensive. Apart from that, Amanda experiences changes in her sleep, she sleeps a lot but wakes up tired, and one day she ends up threatened with losing her job because they added advertising to the system, and at random moments, Amanda loses consciousness and says advertisements according to the topic being discussed.
The issue of advertising was quite stressful for the couple, and in one way or another, Mike has to pay more to get a better subscription and avoid these awkward moments. But for Mike, it's very difficult to pay all this money, so he decides to join a platform where people practically humiliate themselves and do whatever their viewers ask them to do for money, and that's how he manages to earn enough each month. But then the service lowers the quality again, ha ha ha. This episode is terribly frustrating and exasperating.
Mike does these live streams wearing a mask so he won't be recognized, but one day he is offered a lot of money to take off his mask. He finally accepts, and that ends up ruining everything. At work, his colleagues tease him because they now know what he does, and that leads to a fight between Mike and another man, which causes an accident that results in Mike being fired. Amanda also ends up getting fired because they can't pay for the full service and she continues to advertise all the time. In his desperation, Mike throws himself into the live streams, where he does horrible things for money. Amanda looks increasingly depressed, suffering more and more each day from the decline in membership.
Although it is quite unrealistic (for now), this episode shows some very real things taken to another extreme. It seems that Black Mirror criticizes paid subscription companies like Netflix, which is quite ironic, but it also shows how far we are capable of going for money. I can easily compare those Lives where Mike was with the Lives people did on TikTok pretending to be an NPC, Although they didn't do things that could hurt them, it feels humiliating to be paid to react to gifts from TikTok. Many of these people spend hours doing these Lives without caring about anything, simply looking for a way to make money, and to a certain extent, I understand that. I also have no doubt that there are really Lives of this type on the Deep Web or something like that, where they take everything to the extreme of Black Mirror.
And this world is so crazy that I'm sure these things would happen in real life if it were possible. We're already contaminated with technology everywhere, advertisements even in paid subscriptions such as MAX, the thousands of advertisements on social media and YouTube. Black Mirror is really becoming more and more of a reality.
This episode gives you a lot to think about, but it also stirs up your feelings because you can understand how they feel and put yourself in their shoes.
Capturas sacadas de Netflix
Screenshots taken from Netflix
If there is a series that gives me regret not having seen for being in college is Black Mirror and to become extensive as it costs me start it because if, it is a huge amount of people who told me it is great precisely because of the successful in the futuristic approaches made, is like traveling to the future episodes to see what we will live in a few years in our reality.
A great series for the topics it handles, I have it on my list forever but I'm too lazy to watch such extensive series haha 😅
Es realmente buena! al menos ve una temporada y esperas un tiempo para ver la siguiente te juro que no te aburriras 😁
asi sera jaja 😁
I really need to sit down and watch all of Black Mirror in sequence when I get the time to do so. I know that all the episodes are stand alone, but I get in a certain mood when I watch the clever writing in play. I have to digest it all at once, then come up for air after! :D
There are some really good episodes and others that aren't as impressive, but Black Mirror is definitely a very good series overall
se ve buena, excelente post!