Black Mirror S02E01

An under 2000 character Review on Anthologies. Number 4, Black Mirror S01E01 – Be Right Back – Directed By: Owen Harris – Written By: Charlie Brooker – Release Date: 2/11/2013. Originally posted on 6/11/2020.

Black Mirror is a UK retelling, of sorts, of the Twilight Zone. Most of the episodes have to do with humanity or the dark sides of humanity in relation to modern society, technological advancements and media/social media sensationalism aka what I call “POOP Culture.”

Be Right Back is the tale of what if we could bring our loved one’s back from the dead in some capacity? It is them, yet, not them. Like the BSG show Caprica, this episode of Black Mirror creates a new AI-based lifeform from compiling as much data about a person, digitally, using all data on the INTERNET about that person and then using an AI to study said data and create an interactive profile based on that data.

The more data one can upload to the AI server the more accurate that profile can be to the original person. Things become complicated when a synthetic body can now be produced and that profile uploaded to said body. The AI/Robot, whatever you wanna call “IT,” can be easily mistaken as a human on the outside looking in.

However, it does not require food, water, sleep or even breathing. These are aesthetic things the replica can perform to make the experience more, human. The Replica can also learn new data by searching the INTERNET.

It can also adapt itself in other human behaviors such as sex and sexual performance. When Martha loses her husband, Ash in a car accident, she cannot handle the isolation and loneliness of Ash’s passing. She will do anything to have him back.

We further go down this rabbit hole when Martha learns she is pregnant and it happened before Ash’s death. We go through all the pain, emotional woes that a person goes through when someone loses someone like this. We also explore the moral implications of attempting to clone or copy a person’s soul using technology…