As my favorite episode, White Bear provides everything that you can get out of a thriller series like Black Mirror— distrust of technology, a major plot-twist, and a questioning of your own morality.

Black Mirror is a series of stand-alone dramas on Netflix where each episode focuses on the negative impacts of a futuristic world on individuals and overall society. As this is one of my favorite TV Shows, my passion blog will be my review of the most notable episodes and my view of the deeper meanings behind them. In my eighth and last post, I will be looking at Season 2, Episode 2: White Bear.

The episode follows Lenora, who wakes up with a terrible migraine, and the TVs in her house all show a strange symbol. As she runs out of her house, panicked and fearful, she asks her neighbors and other people to help her. Yet, all they do is record her with their phones, while masked men chase Lenora with guns. Throughout the episode, we see Lenora trying to escape the mobs that are chasing her. Towards the end of the episode, Lenora is caught and held at gunpoint. However, when the gun fires, confetti sprays instead of a bullet. The background is suddenly a backdrop, and an audience is watching the entire scene— the fourth wall breaks for everyone but Lenora. The narrator suddenly informs Lenora that her real name is Victoria. Years ago, Victoria’s fiance had abducted and murdered a small girl, all while Victoria had recorded. As punishment for her crimes, Victoria/Lenora has her memories erased daily and is harassed in the White Bear Justice Park facility while the audience simply records her. The episode ends with Victoria/Lenora being taken back into the facility to have her memory cleared for the next day.

There is a significant amount of analysis in this episode. To start, the behavior of the audience reflects the current public. People are so absorbed into filming an objective view from their phone that they refuse to show any sort of sympathy. No one bothers to help Victoria because they are all to busy filming her.

Furthermore, this episode raises a question which was also expressed in Black Museum (PAS 6): If one commits murder, how far can you go into punishing them? White Bear stays in the perspective of Victoria/Lenora, causing the audience to sympathize with her up until the end plot-twist. Yet, Victoria’s/Lenora’s punishment still seems terribly cruel, and having to go through it every single day seems excessive. It becomes an issue of morality, and how our society needs to bring in a new perspective into the conversation of modernity.

The creation of advanced technology in this episode brings up a new issue— how can we stay ethical in an increasingly technological world? Watch Black Mirror and answer the question for yourself.

The COVID-19 pandemic came abruptly, changing our lives in the most chaotic of ways overnight. I can still recall the earliest days of it all, when the term “COVID” was trending on social media, when it was only China’s problem and not a global crisis. Even when schools and businesses were put on lockdown, the magnitude of the situation did not fully occur to me until I fell upon this picture on Twitter.

At first glance, the photograph displays a toddler holding his hand out to a man, who stands on the other side of a glass sliding door, his hand pressed up against the boy’s. It is easy to infer that the man is most likely the father of this boy, and he is a doctor, as indicated by the wearing of green scrubs. Though the picture is quite simple, there is a lot that can be unpacked from the visuals, specifically from the timing of the photo, the hand-placements, and the size difference of the son and father.

This photo was posted on March 28, 2020. Back then, there was very little to be known about COVID— it was fast-spreading, and it was deadly. The climate of March 2020 was one of fear and unease, and this picture seems to reflect that atmosphere while also spreading happiness. Alyssa Burks, the wife of the doctor in the photo, posted this picture on Facebook, stating, “He [her husband] is working right now in a rotation that has him all around the hospital, including the ER, and he just felt like it would be responsible for us to quarantine from each other.” Front-line workers showed bravery throughout the pandemic by facing the unknowns of COVID, and this picture truly reflects the sacrifices which they all have made.

Another thing to note is the hand-placement of the father and son. The picture captures the boy ‘high-fiving’ his father’s hand through glass. This represents how family can united, even in the most difficult of times. Although the two are separated by a sheet of glass, they manage to ignore it, spreading their palms out in order to share a touching (no pun intended) moment.

Finally, the contrast between the small toddler and the father provide deeper meaning to this photo. The juxtaposition of various ages demonstrates how every single person in this pandemic is being affected— from young infants to healthy adults. This ties in well with the last analysis point, that even though we are in an unfortunate event, we are all in this together, (gloved) hand-in-hand.

As the most popular of Black Mirror episodes, Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too draws in a great number of viewers for “exposing” the management teams behind pop stars with a wonderful portrayal from Miley Cyrus.

Black Mirror is a series of stand-alone dramas on Netflix where each episode focuses on the negative impacts of a futuristic world on individuals and overall society. As this is one of my favorite TV Shows, my passion blog will be my review of the most notable episodes and my view of the deeper meanings behind them. In my seventh blog post, I will be looking at Season 5, Episode 3: Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too.

The episode follows sisters Rachel and Jack. Rachel is a big fan of Ashley O and receives a robotic doll of her for her birthday, Ashley Too. Rachel becomes obsessed with the toy, which begins to annoy Jack. When Rachel performs an Ashley O song for a talent show at her school, she falls and embarrasses herself, causing Jack to hide away the Ashley Too doll. Rachel blames Jack for suppressing her creativity.

While this occurs, viewers also get to follow Ashley O. Ashley O wants to follow a rock music path, but her management is pressuring her to continue singing and writing pop music. When Ashley tries to stand up for herself, her manager, Catherine, drugs her, forcing Ashley O into a comatose state.

Months later, a news report about Ashley O airs on TV, which triggers Rachel’s Ashley Too robot to activate. Ashley Too claims that it is a clone of Ashley O’s consciousness and begs Rachel and Jack to expose Catherine. Rachel and Jack drive to Catherine’s house, and instead of finding evidence to frame Catherine, they find Ashley O’s unconscious body. The Ashley Too doll is able to unplug the medication that Ashley O was receiving, causing her to wake up. Ashley O starts her new career under the name “Ashley Fuckn O”, producing her own rock music.

This episode truly does an incredible job at how society limits creativity for the sake of “public image.” We see this with Rachel, who wants to be a singer just like Ashley O, but her sister Jack tries to suppress her because she believes that Rachel is embarrassing herself. This also occurs with Ashley O, who wants to be a rock star, but her management wants her to continue to be a pop singer. Using Miley Cyrus as Ashley O was also an excellent creative decision, as Miley herself started from pop music and is now slowly transitioning into rock. It almost seems as though Miley’s own story is being portrayed hyperbolically, since she has been vocal about how her past management forced her to be someone that she wasn’t.

But the one main take away I got from this Black Mirror is that it isn’t technology that we should fear— we should fear lack of creativity.