Film Review
Jasmine Kwan 12J
28/02/2024 |
Black Mirror series reviewThe Entire History of You - Season 1 Episode 3 (2011)
Black Mirror episodes often use the themes of technology and media to comment on contemporary social issues, exploring the relationship between man and technology, and its potential risks.
In a reality set in the near future, most people have a 'grain' implanted behind their ear that records everything they do, see or hear. This allows memories to be played back either in front of the person's eyes or on a screen, a process known as a 're-do'. Main character Liam Foxwell arrives at a dinner party hosted by some of his wife's friends and sees his wife Ffion talking to a man he doesn't recognise, whom she introduces as Jonas. Liam grows suspicious of the relationship between these two because Ffion seems to laugh at all his jokes, even inappropriate ones. He is also aware that the way she looks at Jonas seems way too fond and passionate. One woman at dinner says that she had her grain violently removed, and many at the table agree that it is lucky her vision was spared. She says she would rather live "grain-free". This is foreshadowing Liam’s gruesome decision at the end of the episode. When Liam and Ffion return home, Ffion reveals that she had had a previous relationship with Jonas many years ago which she had mentioned to Liam but downplayed. She initially said it lasted a week, then says a month, and then admits it was six months. These initial lies make Liam even more paranoid, and he insists on replaying footage from the evening and demanding explanations for why Ffion said and did the things she did. In the next morning, Liam drinks excessively and angrily arrives at Jonas’ house, demanding to delete clips involving Ffion from his grain, or else Liam would cut Jonas’ grain out of his neck. The two fought for a while until Jonas finally abides. Liam drives away drunk, crashes into a tree and passes out. Liam wakes up and replays his latest memories with increasing horror. He confronts Ffion, as when Jonas projected his footage of Ffion onto the wall screen before deleting it, Liam noticed that there was a file proving Jonas and Ffion last had sex eighteen months ago when they were still together. She really cheated on Liam. Their conversations increasingly grow intense and Liam is filled with anger. Fast-forward to a later time, Liam is shown in an empty house with Ffion and his daughter Jodie gone. He repeatedly replays re-dos of happy memories with his now gone family, before going into the bathroom and messily cutting his grain out from behind his ear with a razor. The episode ends. Curiosity kills the cat. Did this episode prove this saying true? Perhaps Liam saw too much, questioned too much, and knows too much, which finally backfires on him. You’d think how different their lives would be without the existence of this ‘grain’. It seems like the technology is to blame, instead of people. On one hand of course cheating is not morally correct, and Liam is not in the wrong, but he could have gone on happily with his married life without knowing that Ffion had this disgraceful past. Ultimately it all depends on the choices Liam makes which lead to its consequences. Frankly I think that this ‘grain’ would do more harm than good as people would fixate or obsess over every small detail in their lives. We already see people submerging themselves in technology every day with minimal social interaction, e.g. people sitting in front of their computers gaming all day. It is not physically and mentally healthy, and I think that humans are meant to forget certain things, perhaps sad and traumatic ones, and remember the good memories vividly. Forms of media released in the 2000s-2010s are the most interesting in my opinion, perhaps it’s because I grew up in these decades. It’s not that newer media don’t fascinate me anymore, but the charm that the 00s and 10s have just cease seem to show in recent years. Positively though, representation in media nowadays is much more diverse than before, as recent important issues that shifted public attitude on certain topics affected media representation a lot. Examples are the Black Lives Matter Movement, the COVID-19 pandemic and the #MeToo Movement. Getting back to my point, if soon that such technologies like the ‘grain’ exist, it would be hard to decide whether I would personally jump on the bandwagon or not – future is unpredictable. Thanks for reading as always - please look out for my next article! The article starts here |