Black Mirror: Eulogy
I watch Black Mirror.
I’ve been a fan since about 2016. I found the show, and I was mesmerized by the complexity and the sincerity with which it approached its technologies, its people, and its plot. There was real care taken to show a near-future world with outstanding technology that can turn on us quickly, and Charlie Brooker is an incredible writer/producer. If you’ve seen it, “White Christmas” is still what I’d consider to be a perfect sci-fi short story.
Netflix definitely softened the tone of the show when they picked it up, but they maintained the solid punch that that show had with episodes like San Junipero and USS Callister even if they removed some of the dark aspects that gave Black Mirror its “blackness”.
I recently watched the episode called “Eulogy” on the latest series release (Series 7, Episode 5), and I was blown away. I don’t want to give away too much if you haven’t seen it because part of the joy of Black Mirror is the twist that it pulls on you; even when you learn to expect it or predict it, it’s still a fantastic journey. Paul Giamatti’s character learns that someone from his past has passed away. There’s a phone call to him from an (AI) system designed to help people construct holistic versions of the deceased so that others can get to know the deceased better. He’s sent a package to help him construct these memories and capture them for the platform.
Again, I don’t want to give away too much, but Giamatti is phenomenal in his role, playing someone who is transformed by his own recollections where he initially doesn’t want to remember a person, then realizes that maybe his memory is slightly jaded, and then has an epiphany about his understanding of past events through the lens of this AI program that helps him extract and recall memories from a set of old photos. Giamatti is a one-man, tour de force in what is essentially a “bottle episode” where it’s mostly him in his house and then with the AI working their way through recreations of his photos in faux 2.5D. He walks us through tangible emotions from someone that initially doesn’t want to remember to someone who desperately wants to understand and recall. It’s just brilliantly written and performed.
It’s hard to watch this and for me to not think about Facet. I think that the eventual end goal for this is to be able to help people capture and recapture lives that maybe they’ve lost to time or degrading memories. It would be great to build a platform that helps people see each other more clearly and get deeper perspective for the events and emotions experienced by themselves and those around them.
Some bullets from the show while I’m thinking about it:
There were many special subtle comments on things I’ve been thinking about for years:
Older people (Boomers, GenX, some GenY) don’t have their lives digitized yet. We’re the between generation where some of our lives are digitized, so many memories that we might have are stored in shoe boxes or old cameras. The show does a great job of showcasing this.
Sometimes, we think of people often, but we don’t have a lot of physical bits or pieces of that person around us. Sometimes, we only have a few photos and a letter from them stored away, but that doesn’t mean that those people didn’t matter or affect us significantly.
An AI agent is super useful to help someone talk/walk their way through their memories of another person, experience, or time period, even being powerful enough to maybe pick up on details that the person may not have noticed.
The collective input from multiple sources can build a better view of a person.
We cherish the items from others, and we store and save them in ways to help us remember, even when the memory of that person is painful.
Overall, fantastic episode, and serendipitously relevant. 5 stars. Highly recommended.
🎵 So Slow - Yuno
