Film Review: Black Mirror Series One (Part 3/3)

Time to take a look at the final episode, The Entire History of You.

The Premise

In a reimagined version of today's world, a device known as The Grain is implanted into human beings, which records all visual and audio events experienced by them. These can be replayed using another device known as a Redo, with zooming and analytics able to be run on these replays.

Society runs on these - we see customs officers request them to ascertain that the owners have not been in contact with any known persons of interest, and policemen request them for visual evidence when reports are made.

The Characters

Toby Kebbell is Liam Foxwell the lawyer. He somehow manages to look simultaneously befuddled, accusatory and disturbed. He's obsessive and not very likeable.

Jodie Whittaker, who six years later took over the mantle of Doctor Who, is his wife, Ffion Foxwell. I had no idea the name was spelled with two "f"s. I'm quite taken with her display, here. Sure, she gets a little dramatic, but maybe that's called for.

Tom Cullen as Jonas. Not a big fan of his performance. I feel like he isn't really believable as the guy who somehow keeps being able to get into the pants of women.

Phoebe Fox as Hallam. She cuts a suitably tragic figure as the victim of a "Gouging", and later on becomes the one-night stand of Jonas, which actually serves as an interesting plot point.

Rhashan Stone as Jeff, the black guy who works in Recruitment and obsesses over details. Entertainingly whiny.

Rebekah Staton as Colleen. Works in Grain Development. Not extremely interesting.

Mona Goodwin as Gina the babysitter. Doesn't have much to do except look uncomfortable, which she does acceptably well, I guess.

Amy Beth Hayes as Lucy the hostess. Pleasant but superficial, with very little to do with the plot.

Jimi Mistry as her husband Paul. Serves as a dialogue point and a prop, nothing more.

The Mood

There is almost zero humor in this episode. The other episodes had moments of dark comedy - this one is just dark. Not visually, but tonally. Everything just seems dead serious and tragic.

And this at the end, when Liam Gouges himself. Grim!

What I liked

The story. It was a tight narrative, masterfully told with little to no dead weight in between the plot points.

The scene where Liam watches the Redo of his wife having an affair with Jonas. It is heartbreaking and the entire leadup to that was masterfully executed. What's even better is that only audio is heard and we, the audience, doesn't actually see anything.

The special effect of the eyes changing color to a luminous grey every time a person is doing a Redo, didn't strike me as all that special at first. Until this scene, where Liam and Ffion are having sex and reliving other memories at the same time.

This was powerful... especially when it's implied that Ffion is focusing on some other memory of someone else while she's having sex with her husband. Because we see what Liam's watching, but we don't see the same for Ffion.

The moral of the story seems to be that it's better to live in the present than keep reliving the past. From Jonas's account of how he spends his time masturbating to replays of his previous sexual conquests instead of having sex with the current women in his life, to Liam's obsessiveness with details from the past rather than enjoying what he has, the episode makes it easy to see why Nature causes memories to fade, and what would happen if this were not the case.

The scope of this tale is extremely relatable as well. Cheating spouses and infidelity is a naturally hard-hitting subject simply because it's such an everyday concern.

What I didn't

What happens when someone watches a Redo? Does that get recorded? Is that like a photocopy of a photocopy? So many questions!

This entire concept of The Grain is brilliant, but it has so many other implications. What about memories of people having sex? Can that be voluntarily peddled for porn, instead? What are the legalities here?

Conclusion

This episode is the crowning achievement in Black Mirror Series One. The premise and story are not only bleak, but also a cautionary tale as to the dangers of being able to recall everything in your life history with perfect clarity.

Sure, it could have been a lot more, but maybe it's just as well that the scope was trimmed down for this one story. Less is more, after all.

My Rating

9.5 / 10

Final thoughts on Black Mirror Series One

Love it. Love it. It's tech-related, though not overly techy, and the thought-provoking narrative throughout the series is: tech could be able to accomplish this, but how far should we take it before it becomes harmful? The National Anthem deals with the attention span of the general spectator public on new media. Fifteen Million Credits deals with the obsession of virtual users with useless, well, virtual stuff. And The Entire History of You touches on the culture of surveillance. All great stuff.

Resume viewing? Y/N
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