Film Review: Black Mirror Series Three, Redux (Part 3/3)

The last episode, Hated by the Nation, is styled like a police procedural and reminds me strongly of movies like Se7en, with a tech bent. It also boasts a really large cast.

This is the quintessential Black Mirror in the sense that the evils of Social Media and cyberbullying is central to the plot. In fact, it's like a violent and explosive version of The National Anthem.

The Premise

It's a few years into the future, and the extinction of bees has given rise to a tech creation known as Autonomous Drone Insects (ADIs). These tiny robots are used as an instrument for murder, with Social Media as a trigger. A nasty twist at the end ensures that few remain unscathed, either physically or psychologically.

The Characters

Kelly McDonald as Karin Parke. She's a jaded and cynical veteran of the force, and a divorcee. Every sarcastic quip and world-weary expression McDonald throws out is gold. For real, the dialogue is excellent. And McDonald delivers like a pro.

Liza: What about the others who chipped in? Are you going to tell them off too? I didn't do anything!

Karin: Start a thread about it.

Now that was a performance I truly enjoyed. She puts a lot of people in their place just with a look or a carefully-placed stinging remark. Which makes it all the more poignant when it's quite obvious that the events have somewhat broken her.

Faye Marsay as Blue Coulson. A former idealist who wants some field experience. Coulson is tech-savvy and does a lot of the investigation regarding how the "Game of Consequences" works. She's a great foil to the bitter jadedness of Karin Parke.

Benedict Wong as Shaun Li from the National Crime Agency. I just about fanboyed out loud when the Sorceror Supreme appeared on screen! In here, he's a straight-laced, growly-voiced semi-antagonist, serious as a heart attack.

Jonas Karlsson plays the ADI engineer Rasmus Sjoberg. He provides, with earnestness, most of the exposition around the ecology of ADIs and the tech behind it.

Joe Armstrong as Nick Shelton. Other than being a victim, I'm not sure what use he was to the plot.

Elizabeth Berrington as Jo Powers. She's a provocative journalist who writes vicious articles that punch down, and punch down hard. This makes her a publicly hated figure, and she's the first victim of the hashtag. Berrington plays her as a woman with an extremely thick skin who weathers the constant vitriol hurled her way, letting everything roll off her.

Charles Babaloa as Tusk. An obnoxious black rapper who becomes the next target of public hate and thus dies a grisly death.

Ben Miles makes a delightfully foul-mouthed appearance as Tom Pickering, the slimy and heartless politician. We see him burst into expletives under pressure, and it is so fun to watch.

Holli Dempsey as Clara Meades. She's presented as a feckless young woman who earns public hate due to a silly and disrespectful prank.

James Larkin as Simon Powers, Jo's husband. Now, this role is tragic. Larkin plays him as a traumatized husband who had to watch his wife kill herself in violently crazed fashion.

Georgina Rich as Tess Wallander. She's a soft-spoken individual who was a victim of cyber-bullying, and the original inspiration for the deadly hashtag.

Duncan Pow as Garett Scholes. Some psycho who dispenses what he calls justice... but with the tech skills to actually make it happen. We don't see much of him except toward the end, and even then there's not all that much of him to form a strong opinion.

Vinette Robinson as Liza Bahar. She's a pre-school teacher who is found to be using the hashtag without really understanding the consequences but otherwise does not seem to be a horrible person. Later on, Scholes delivers her comeuppance and I can't help but feel that perhaps it was a bit much. It was probably deliberate, to show us just how disproportionate extremism can be.

Esther Hall as Vanessa Dahl. What was she even doing taking up space on-screen? What a waste. She existed for no other reason than to be the verbal punching bag for other characters, mostly Karin.

The Mood

It's a big city vibe, but with grim undertones to it. Karin and Blue pretty much nail it with their conversations while driving. The surroundings are bustling and lively and the investigative feel of the entire episode is pretty pervasive.

What I liked

The red herring in the form of Jo's cake was clever. And yes, like her husband said, "very creative".

The scene where Karin and Blue initially have a conversation in the former's car, contains a reference to the Series Two episode, White Bear. And it carries the same vibe that Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman had in Se7en, with Kelly McDonald playing the part of the jaded veteran, and Faye Marsay being the earnest newbie who just wants to make the world a safer place.

I thought Tusk's death was particularly creative. Gotta see it to appreciate it.

I like the display where several ADIs fly in formation to form Granular's logo. It even rotates!

The screenshot doesn't do it justice, but the interior of Shaun's NCA-issued car is really impressive!

That sequence of the ADIs leaving their hive to wreak bloody murder, is both poetic and terrifying.

That entire episode, along with the final twist, is very characteristic of Black Mirror. The horrors of Social Media, and how people are utter dicks to each other. In particular, how people don't stop using the hashtag even after finding out what it does, and actually pile it on. This makes it really hard to sympathize with them later on.

And later on, when Karin and Blue wander through that hall filled with bodybags of victims, the sheer bleakness of the shot is iconic.

What I didn't

The format of having the episode framed by Karin as a narrator, felt unnecessary. The ending was also pretty ambiguous. This episode could have worked better as a full-length movie, with perhaps a proper resolution. As it was, it was already about 90 minutes in length.

Wait, if the ADIs attack based on facial recognition, couldn't potential victims just mask their faces for protection? Isn't that exactly what Scholes does at the end? Why the need for that sequence regarding the bunker to protect Pickering? This seems like quite the plot hole.

Conclusion

This final episode really rounded up Black Mirror Series Three really well. While the cast just seemed a little larger than it really needed to be, the snappy dialogue and tension-laced action absolutely did it for me. This is a great addition into the franchise despite some totally superfluous bits.

My Rating

9 / 10

Final Thoughts on Black Mirror Series Three

I liked Series Three as a whole. After the slight disappointment that was Series Two, Black Mirror came back strong with plenty of content, all the while staying somewhat true to what came before.

San Junipero was the standout, though in terms of storyline and vibe, it was very different from the entire Black Mirror universe. Still, it was a sweet love story that strongly resonated.

A close second was Nosedive and Shut Up and Dance. These were episodes that were very typical of Black Mirror, showcasing the ugliness of humanity, amplified by advanced (or in the case of Shut Up and Dance, not all that advanced) technology. Men Against Fire and Hated in the Nation were both strong action-packed offerings and gave me a satisfying conclusion to Series Three. And while Playtest wasn't (in my opinion) as good as the others, it was by no means a weak episode.

All in all, this was very, very satisfying.

#DeathToBlackMirror (heh heh)
T___T