Black Mirror... Sydney Sweeney...
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Black Mirror's psychic grip, Sydney Sweeney's Euphoria, A24's Eternity, where The Crow flies, and Eleanor Rigby.
Let’s go!
BLACK MIRROR IS BACK
In an era of technological and geo-political uncertainty, Black Mirror seems more important than ever.
Thankfully, it has just been renewed for a 7th season, which will premiere in 2025.
The show’s prescience, since it premiered on the UK’s Channel Four in 2011, has allowed viewers to preview our emerging dystopian-tinged society, even if it terrifies them:
Season 1/2011
Predicted Apple Vision Pro’s ability to record moments in 3 dimensions and re-experience them as memories. (Apple video)
Season 2/2013
Predicted the ease at which the presidency can be obtained by TV stars
Season 2/2014
Predicted Smartphone's ability to erase someone in photographs
But over a decade before Charlie Brooker, the creator of Black Mirror, saw into the future and wrote the first episode of the series, he was stuck in his personal past, agonizing over failed relationships.
He went so far as to lie on his couch and turn the TV sideways so he wouldn't have to sit up.
He noted:
“[I was like] a woozy sea lion.”
He turned his cynical focus to watching non-stop British reality shows and talent competitions. Out of this was born TVGoHome, an alternate-TV Guide-type blog that he would update with his own made-up ironic TV shows.
The blog gained mass popularity; Booker was ultimately hired by Channel 4 to write the TVGoHome series…
So, it seems he was just one good idea away from breaking into the industry.
As we navigate collective tumultuous times, TV and film, like Black Mirror, play a vital role in offering a preview of our reality, making impending changes less disconcerting.
From a poem by Bertolt Brecht, circulated by Sundance at the start of the pandemic:
“In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will also be singing.
About the dark times.”
Black Mirror continues to sing, providing a thought-provoking and cautionary melody about the complexities of our digital age.
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