Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
There is much to fear inBlack Mirror, but one scene in particular keeps me up at night.
Its not the bees (not the bees!)
of Hated in the Nation, and its not the man-spider of Playtest.
Its visually innocuous and devoid of jump-scares or hideous beasts.
Its just a human turning a dial.
At the conclusion of 2014s White Christmas, Rafe Spalls Potter sits alone in a snowbound cabin.
The cabin was a simulation and Matt had been sent in to extract a confession.
But Jesus, is it?
Even for a law-breaking misanthrope, thats immeasurably harsh.
What can virtual Potter do?
Hes just lines of code, after all.
He has no mode of recourse.
Such an argument is vital for American viewers in 2018.
Theschool-to-prison pipelineis alive and well, funneling kids disproportionately ones of color and/or from low-income backgrounds into cells.
Expertscompareharsh labor within prisons to slavery.
(Here,Black Mirrorhas an advantage in that its stories are stand-alones.
The incarceration metaphors inBlack Mirror, however, are pure agony.
He was innocent of the crime, but that doesnt matter much to profit-hungry Rolo.
There is no rehabilitation for him, just raw punishment for ever and ever, amen.
Its prison as spectator sport.
The key here is that were given no reason to believe shes innocent.
In all likelihood, she did participate in a heinous crime.
The average person would understandably want to see her pay a debt to society.
