I had been wanting to see Black Mirror for a while, and this is the episode Netflix decided to play for me. Oddly, they have Black Mirror starting from the Most Recent Season and then going back to the first season… so it’s the opposite of what they normally do.
Also, in case no one knows, Black Mirror is a horror/sci fi series kind of like The Twilight Zone, but a lot darker and scarier. So each episode is different, different cast different characters, different story… so its kind of like its own movie… but a little bit shorter.
This one stars Bryce Dallas Howard as a woman living in a world where Social Media is everything. People have something attached to their eye that brings up everyone’s profile whenever you look at them, you can see their “Score” which shows how popular they are. 5s are the highest… most people are in the 4 range. Bryce Dallas Howard’s character is in the mid-4’s and she’s looking to bring herself up to a higher 4. There are advantages to being a high 4-5. She can get the house that she wants, later on when her score lowers she isn’t able to get on the flight that she needs to get on… she can’t rent a reliable car to get her to where she needs to go on time… life is just a mess when her score lowers.
She’s planning on raising her score at a friends wedding. The friend wants her to be Maid of Honor and to give a speech… and had everything gone her way and her score had never lowered… she would be a high 4 in no time and have that apartment… but this is a dark show… so that didn’t happen.
I thought it was interesting how they portrayed this woman that was addicted to her social media. At first I thought that it was just how this particular woman lived her life and not how the world was… and even though it was the way of the world and everyone was trying to improve their score- it was mostly apparent in this particular woman’s case. She was very lonely and this one friend, who had a seemingly perfect life reached out to her… and she desperately wanted it to be genuine… although sadly- it was not! The friend wasn’t a real friend- which BDH’s characters brother warned her about- and this friend just wanted to improve her score by having a friend with a lower score as her Maid of Honor. When her score got too low, she didn’t want anything to do with her.
There were a lot of messages women could relate to in this I think… for one thing the friendship that drifted apart… and she wasn’t a true friend unless she needed BDH’s character. There was also mention of an eating disorder and a lot of jealousy and boyfriend stealing. It was really sad to hear that this character that you grow so attached to throughout the episode had such a sad backstory.
Also Bryce Dallas Howard is in every single scene of the episode… which is cool. You can really see how she Nosedive’s to the bottom and then the end is kind of cathartic… but also very sad because she almost had it all… but I think she’s happier where she ended up.
There was also a wise truck-driver woman that had a lower score than Bryce Dallas Howard… and she picked her up to try and get her to the wedding… and she gave a lot of advice to her that none of this really mattered. Her husband and her used to have a higher score- but her husband got cancer… and he was a 4.4 and they ended up giving his room to a 4.6. There’s always someone better that they would rather help.
So there was really a strong message of Equality as a whole in this episode… and it wasn’t particularly addressing any feminist issues… but it did say a lot about equality and for that, I think it is worth watching from a feminist/ equal rights perspective!
Byeee!
-Shannon!
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