Black Mirror: White Christmas review

You have to wonder if at some point Charlie Brooker took the lyrics to Wizzard’s song literally and imagined what it would be like if it really was Christmas everyday - the answer is nightmarish.

Have you ever felt that there’s something more sinister about Christmas – that beneath the perceived merriment and togetherness lurks an unspoken darkness? You might think it’s a miserable, potentially lonely occasion and that I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday by Wizzard is actually a terrifyingly eerie song. Charlie Brooker certainly thinks so. And in his Black Mirror: White Christmas, he invites us to explore that harrowing side of the holiday period, sharing more of his bleak visions of a future bound by technology.

This yuletide tale begins with Rafe Spall’s character Joe Potter waking up in an apparent work station, seemingly surrounded by endless amounts of snow. Also inside is Matt Trent (John Hamm) who is preparing a Christmas dinner in hope that the two will finally strike up a conversation.

Matt then guides us through an intricate narrative consisting of intersecting stories that explain how he has ended up in this solitary snowy hell. Joe however, is more reserved and has no recollection of how he got there.

The stories feature some frightfully feasible technology concepts, including inbuilt cameras in eyes that cannot be removed, artificial intelligence implanted in heads, and the ability to block people in real life, turning them into a voiceless, anonymous silhouette. If the basis of these ideas had been introduced in previous Black Mirror series – An Entire History Of You in particular – then this feature length episode sees them flourish into an even more darkly profound vision of the future.

The narrative structure itself is also more ambitious, intertwining the seemingly unrelated stories into an elaborately clever, bigger picture. Matt coaches a hopeless individual in dating, feeding him chat-up lines while watching everything through the customer’s ‘Z Eyes’, and Joe is brutally blocked by his girlfriend after finding out she is pregnant. It’s a side to Brooker’s storytelling we have not previously seen, bringing together various anecdotes to deliver a greater final blow, while reminding us that the technological, modern hell we live in can only lead to more misery.

Those who have read The Hell Of It All and I Can Make You Hate will be used to such sentiments. They’ll also be able to hear Brooker pouring through his characters as they express their disdain towards office parties or any form of social gathering for that matter. And with that comes his typically cheerless, but brilliant sense of humour. You have to wonder if at some point Brooker took the lyrics to Wizzard’s song literally and imagined what it would be like if it really was Christmas everyday - the answer is nightmarish.

Chris Edwards @CynicalCME

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