The 5 Most Eerily Prophetic Episodes of Black Mirror

[Oliviarfrias]

I have been thinking a lot about near future science fiction… in particular Black Mirror. The show's title is one of the cleverest non-suggestive double entendres I've ever heard. Directly, it speaks to how a screen, whether it's on our tv or on our phone literally looks like a black mirror. Metaphorically, it references how those screens hold a mirror up to society and often reflect back aspects of ourselves that we'd rather not see.

Like most science fiction, Black Mirror looks at things that are happening today and speculates on how they might look tomorrow. But unlike distant future science fiction like Star Trek that looks at how things might be hundreds of years from now, Black Mirror looks at bleak futures that could theoretically come to pass in our lifetimes. The first episode of Black Mirror premiered over twelve years ago, which gives us enough time to check back in on some of its ruminations about the future.

In that spirit, I now present the top 5 episodes that have predicted current events.

5. The Entire History of You (2011)

Going all the way back to season 1, "The Entire History of You" remains one of my favorite episodes of Black Mirror. It's set in a future where people wear contact lenses that allow them to record everything they see and do. As a result, people are constantly reliving old events as opposed to living in the present.

While memory recording contact lenses have not yet hit the market, the last twelve years have seen a generation of children grow up on social media. Kids and teens use their phones to record every moment of their lives and post them for all to see. And the result? We've seen a rise of instances of people dredging up old photos, videos, and tweets from people's past. We see people going on elaborate vacations or crazy pop up events, not to have the experience in the present, but rather to leave a record of themselves for the future.

While the technology has not yet become real, the lifestyle has.

4. Nose Dive (2016)

Shortly after the People's Republic of China began experimenting with a social credit system, Charlie Booker imagined a new version of this concept, one where instead of the government assigning a social credit score to its citizens, people would assign scores to each other via an Uber-like 5 point system. The episode features a young woman trying to up her score so that she can earn discounted rent at a trendy new apartment complex. The pursuit of becoming a "4" rules the woman's life and eventually leads to a downward spiral.

While no such social credit score exists in the US, it doesn't need to for "Nosedive" to feel eerily relevant. Since 2016, being an "influencer" has gone from being a joke to a very serious career. Not only do influencers enjoy things like free swag and discounted living expenses, but they can often make salaries in the high six or even seven figures. In fact, a recent study cited that 54% of young people aspire to be influencers.

3. Be Right Back (2013)

This season 2 episode introduces the Black Mirror audience to "cookies," i.e. virtual recreations of people's consciousness. This is a concept Booker returns to throughout multiple seasons of the show, but I would argue no single installment does it justice like "Be Right Back." The episode features a grieving widow who seeks comfort in a chatbot. Whereas later versions of the cookie concept feature perfect replicas of the deceased (like the teddy bear in "Black Museum"), the replica of Martha's husband is an imperfect replica made from his online presence, and that psychological uncanny valley of having someone who is almost…but not quite…the person she misses drives the tension of the episode.

I was reminded of this episode when reading about Replika, a chatbot service that learns a user's texting style to make a perfect online companion. While the service was initially meant to create virtual friends, some users began wanting something more. Real people fell in love with the chatbots that Replika created and were heartbroken when the service eventually decided to cut off X-rated content. When reading user testimonials from people affected by the shut off, you'll see that many people turned to Replika after losing a loved one just like Martha -- showing that replacing human connections with virtual ones is no longer purely the stuff of science fiction.

2. The Waldo Moment (2013)

While celebrity politicians are nothing new (Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger come to mind), the line between entertainment and politics had started to get very blurry around the time of Black Mirror's second season. In the US, people were clamoring for The Daily Show's Jon Stewart to run for office. And in the UK, Boris Johnson was becoming a public figure. So is it any wonder that Charlie Booker decided to do a tongue in cheek episode about a disgruntled comedian turned cartoon bear turned prime minister? If people were willing to vote for cartoony politicians like Johnson, why not vote for an actual cartoon?

At the time, the episode was panned for being too silly and not up to Black Mirror's normal standards for bleak realism. And yet, ten years later, we've had a US president who was best known as a reality tv show host, a Ukrainian president who is a comedian and former star of a political satire about a fake president, and the cartoonish figure Booker was mocking became prime minister. Despite what you may think of any of these political figures, their rise to power was eerily similar to Waldo's. So are we really that far off from electing a cartoon bear?

 

1. Joan is Awful (2023)

And the winner for creepiest Black Mirror prophecy goes to…this year's "Joan is Awful." The story of a woman who discovers that her life has been turned into a streaming series starring an AI re-creation of Salma Hayek definitely has me thinking Charlie Booker knew something we didn't. 

While AI isn't yet nearly sophisticated enough to create an entire show from scratch (see my earlier article about my experience using ChatGPT) if you're curious about that topic), a major sticking point for the actors who are now on strike is that a prominent production company allegedly wanted the rights to scan an actor's face and reuse it indefinitely for a one time fee of just $200.

Given that Black Mirror airs on one of the networks most often cited in complaints about use of AI for both writers and actors, only time will tell if future predictions will be made by Charlie Booker himself or, perhaps, a Charlie Booker inspired "cookie."