By maybe the 10th instance of a soldier mentioning how excited they are to kill the so-called “roaches,” it’s clear that there’s more to the supposed monsters than we are initially led to believe. The narrative inches along to a twist that the audience has likely already figured out.
While the AR combat interface is a cool visual, reminiscent of shooter games like Halo or Call of Duty, and it’s an interesting idea that the military would create this technology, much of the discourse is familiar. As we come to find out, the technology is largely built with the intention of galvanizing soldiers into killing their enemies and eliminating any possibility that they’ll empathize with their targets on the battlefield. In a dystopian future, soldiers are implanted with neural “Mass” technology, which processes their senses and provides them instant data through an augmented-reality interface. “Men Against Fire” is one of the series’ prime examples of a compelling piece of potential technology being wasted by a flat narrative. If we wanted to feel bad about pop culture’s influence on our body politic, we’d turn on the news. Still, without a more complicated protagonist to sympathize with, “The Waldo Moment” ends up about as ham-fisted as the malevolent dancing bear for which it’s named. This is an outing that gives ammunition to the critics that accuse Black Mirror of one-note technophobia it’s also a reminder of the early identity the show grew past as creator Charlie Brooker developed an interest in higher-concept, more experimental stuff. But just because “The Waldo Moment” is right doesn’t mean it’s particularly artful. It’s tempting to give this episode retroactive points for its prescient warnings about entertainment and politics, and its initially mocking, disturbingly successful attempts to combine the two. The one with … the political cartoon bear But before we get to the manic, Alexa-like doll voiced by Miley Cyrus or the latest cellphone-induced tirade, let’s look back on Black Mirror ’s first 20 episodes and decide how they stack up against one another. On June 5, Black Mirror will return with three new episodes to remind us, yet again, that technology is just about the scariest thing on earth.
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