Before there was "Black Mirror," there was George Carlin. He was, in every sense, an unapologetic truth-teller and seeker — not just a comedian, but a relentless, life-long crusader against the bullshit espoused by those in power; whether raining down from the frothy mouths of corruptible politicians, soul-sucking corporations, or our very own lizard-brain collective subconscious. Before his untimely demise in ‘08, Carlin frequently posited that the United States, the so-called land of the free, was actually a bastion of intellectual oppression, and that the "freedoms" afforded to its citizens was actually an illusion. What we’re doled out instead is the exercise of meaningless choices, amounting to the most mundane and obstinate examples of democratic free will. “Paper or Plastic? Aisle or Window? Smoking or Non-Smoking?” We’re indoctrinated early on — in our schooling, by the media, even our patriotic elders, that the nation's framers offered free and fair elections to defy tyranny, when in fact our two-party system elicits the false appearance of choice, and basis for which said tyranny can still exist unimpeded. There are no true unalienable rights to speak of, merely pipe dreams to which we continually surrender ourselves.
“Black Mirror's” famed premiere episode, "The National Anthem," in which a knock-off David Cameron is forced to have sex with a pig on national television, proved that politics and nefarious tech abuses often go hand in hand — as evidenced by Russia's 2016 election interference campaign, they are also regularly in servitude of one another. After all, look at what Vladimir Putin was able to do with a few bot accounts on Facebook and Instagram. Our institutional freedoms were clandestinely usurped, weaponized, and turned against us, yet instead of relying on trusted news sources, we shrunk inward toward our own tribal corners; i.e. our friends’ feeds, where we re-shared, re-tweeted, and re-propagandized the will of a hostile foreign power. Black Mirror has yet to do a proper send-up of the 2016 election (sometimes truth is stranger than fiction), but it did correctly predict the chaos that befell the UK with “Brexit,” and the subsequent fallout and complete humiliation of not only former PM Cameron, but those who would come after him to clean up the mess. If only Theresa May had her own choose-your-own-adventure game to turn to, one with a dedicated outcome already in place, or at least that which kept her country safe from the brink of economic calamity.
With "Bandersnatch," creator Charlie Brooker re-channels that underlying unease and tension, and ups the ante with some rather inspired and bone-chilling results. Netflix’s choose-your-own-misadventure approach can feel frustrating at times, but just when you think you've got things figured out Brooker invites viewers back for extra paranoid puzzles and misdirection, resulting in more of an "experience" than standalone film. The gimmick runs dry at times, but it is the eventual realization that our choices are meaningless that really ratchets up the drama. For instance, there’s a sequence early on where we are asked if we prefer Sugar Puffs to Frosted Flakes — a seemingly innocuous and innocent enough question which at first feels as though there’s some butterfly-effect master plan behind it. Yet by the time "Bandersnatch" asks whether we’d like to bury our father's body or chop it up into pieces, we've essentially wised up to the trick, and are keen to let the drama play out with or without our input. The cumulative effect of this, however, renders the whole affair moot, and about as aspirational as a Coen Brothers' ending, where death itself (which cannot be hindered by free will), is also what allows us to breath easy and accept our cruel — but expected — fate. It’s certainly the most glib “Black Mirror” lesson of them all, and in 2019, that’s really saying something.
"BANDERSNATCH: A BLACK MIRROR EVENT" a.k.a. “Freedoms of Choice” on NETFLIX. TV-MA.
