It seems in the age of the smartphone that people are desperate to capture every moment of their lives, no matter how mundane it may be. We see it all the time in the form of vloggers and influencers who take pictures of, or video everything they do, and the majority of it is completely worthless to anybody but themselves. We take more pictures and videos now than we ever have before thanks to the immediacy and permanence of digital photo and video that is with us wherever we go. This is even starting to translate into wearable technology such as head mounted cameras, and even glasses that have the ability to capture photo and video. So, if you had the opportunity to be able to record everything your eyes saw, every second of the day, without even having to wear or use anything, would you? And what kind of effect would that have on your personal relationships, and your own self-image?
The Entire History of You tells the tale of Liam (Toby Kebbell), a lawyer who following a bad day at work attends a dinner party with some of his wife’s old friends. He notices that his wife Ffion (Jodie Whittaker) is very friendly with a man he hasn’t met before, Jonas (Tom Cullen), and presses her for information about him, such as who he is, how they know each other, and why her body language was so intimate with him.
Most people have chosen to have a small device implemented into their body, just behind the ear, called a Grain. The Grain records everything you see, say, and hear. It then allows the user to rewind time and watch back what they have seen, with the ability to zoom in, and enhance audio when desired.
Liam spends the rest of the night drinking and replaying various aspects of the evening, convincing himself that Ffion is having an affair with Jonas. Ffion insists that Jonas is only an old friend, whom she had a fleeting relationship with prior to even meeting Liam. However, this conflicts with previous information she had disclosed when they met about Ffion’s mystery lover, ‘Mr. Marrakesh’.
Liam puts two and two together and confronts Jonas about being Mr. Marrakesh, threatening to forcibly cut out and destroy Jonas’ Grain unless he deletes all files he currently has saved of Ffion. Reviewing the footage on the way back to his house, Liam makes the horrifying discovery that Jonas was in his and Ffion’s bedroom eighteen months prior thanks to a video thumbnail he sees whilst Jonas is deleting the files. He confronts Ffion who cannot keep a straight story before Liam forces her to show him the footage she has saved of her and Jonas having sex. It’s through this that Liam comes to realise that his daughter Jodie may not be his as Jonas did not wear a condom. Distraught and alone, Liam relives happy memories with Ffion before cutting out his own Grain.
The Entire History of You tells the tale of Liam (Toby Kebbell), a lawyer who following a bad day at work attends a dinner party with some of his wife’s old friends. He notices that his wife Ffion (Jodie Whittaker) is very friendly with a man he hasn’t met before, Jonas (Tom Cullen), and presses her for information about him, such as who he is, how they know each other, and why her body language was so intimate with him.
Most people have chosen to have a small device implemented into their body, just behind the ear, called a Grain. The Grain records everything you see, say, and hear. It then allows the user to rewind time and watch back what they have seen, with the ability to zoom in, and enhance audio when desired.
Liam spends the rest of the night drinking and replaying various aspects of the evening, convincing himself that Ffion is having an affair with Jonas. Ffion insists that Jonas is only an old friend, whom she had a fleeting relationship with prior to even meeting Liam. However, this conflicts with previous information she had disclosed when they met about Ffion’s mystery lover, ‘Mr. Marrakesh’.
Liam puts two and two together and confronts Jonas about being Mr. Marrakesh, threatening to forcibly cut out and destroy Jonas’ Grain unless he deletes all files he currently has saved of Ffion. Reviewing the footage on the way back to his house, Liam makes the horrifying discovery that Jonas was in his and Ffion’s bedroom eighteen months prior thanks to a video thumbnail he sees whilst Jonas is deleting the files. He confronts Ffion who cannot keep a straight story before Liam forces her to show him the footage she has saved of her and Jonas having sex. It’s through this that Liam comes to realise that his daughter Jodie may not be his as Jonas did not wear a condom. Distraught and alone, Liam relives happy memories with Ffion before cutting out his own Grain.
The Entire History of You is the first Black Mirror episode to focus the story to a domestic, relatable setting. Where the previous two episodes have either been about government dealings, or straight up science fiction, The Entire History of You manages to find that balance between sci-fi, realism, and being relatable enough to the viewer to be able to fully comprehend all the emotions at hand. Whilst not everyone will have been in a relationship with trust issues or infidelity, almost everyone will know someone who has. Director Brian Welsh really leans into this to communicate to viewers just how incredible and devastating this kind of technology could be in a context we can all familiarise ourselves with and relate to.
There’s a lot to love in The Entire History of You. The dialogue and performances are of such a high quality that you’ll very quickly understand how the Grain functions and how it is used to manipulate aspects of the story in particular ways. The opening scene of Liam attending a work appraisal seems to go one way when you watch it play out in real time, but once he leaves the building and enters the taxi home he replays the meeting, analysing the footage as he goes, zooming in on faces to look at the body language in ways the human eye can’t register normally, and replaying the audio over and over to catch how words are said rather than what’s said. It’s this obsessive compulsiveness that sets him on his downward spiral, and whilst he certainly turns out to be right in the end, it leaves the viewer wondering whether if they had access to Grain technology, would they really want it if it led to behaviour like Liam exhibits?
There’s a great scene during the dinner party where it is revealed that one of the guests, Hallam (Phoebe Fox), does not have a Grain. It was forcibly removed from her several months prior, a process that can lead to blindness or death, and discovered that she quite liked not obsessing over small details from her past so never got it replaced. This is met with a mixed reception with some guests praising her, some simply curious, and one outright disapproval to the point where it seems as though they are offended at the thought of someone not wanting one. It’s very well handled because each person at the table has some sort of obsession over their Grain. One guest reviews places he has visited so often to find things he doesn’t like about them and then complains about it. Jonas claims his previous relationship broke down because he would rather review footage of previous sexual partners and masturbate to it rather than have sex with his partner. Liam and Ffion both have a tendency to review each other’s behaviour or what they say and edit it to their choosing, thereby creating arguments.
The episode does a fantastic job of illustrating all the benefits a Grain has, as well as all the way it would inevitably be destructive to people.
The Entire History of You is bleak, which isn’t new information as this is Black Mirror we’re talking about here; but I would argue it’s definitely one of the more depressing episodes because of just how close to home it has the ability to hit. The ending has no glimmer of hope in it whatsoever and whilst Black Mirror episodes are known for their depressing tales, The Entire History of You is likely to leave you feeling genuinely empty afterwards.
There’s a lot to love in The Entire History of You. The dialogue and performances are of such a high quality that you’ll very quickly understand how the Grain functions and how it is used to manipulate aspects of the story in particular ways. The opening scene of Liam attending a work appraisal seems to go one way when you watch it play out in real time, but once he leaves the building and enters the taxi home he replays the meeting, analysing the footage as he goes, zooming in on faces to look at the body language in ways the human eye can’t register normally, and replaying the audio over and over to catch how words are said rather than what’s said. It’s this obsessive compulsiveness that sets him on his downward spiral, and whilst he certainly turns out to be right in the end, it leaves the viewer wondering whether if they had access to Grain technology, would they really want it if it led to behaviour like Liam exhibits?
There’s a great scene during the dinner party where it is revealed that one of the guests, Hallam (Phoebe Fox), does not have a Grain. It was forcibly removed from her several months prior, a process that can lead to blindness or death, and discovered that she quite liked not obsessing over small details from her past so never got it replaced. This is met with a mixed reception with some guests praising her, some simply curious, and one outright disapproval to the point where it seems as though they are offended at the thought of someone not wanting one. It’s very well handled because each person at the table has some sort of obsession over their Grain. One guest reviews places he has visited so often to find things he doesn’t like about them and then complains about it. Jonas claims his previous relationship broke down because he would rather review footage of previous sexual partners and masturbate to it rather than have sex with his partner. Liam and Ffion both have a tendency to review each other’s behaviour or what they say and edit it to their choosing, thereby creating arguments.
The episode does a fantastic job of illustrating all the benefits a Grain has, as well as all the way it would inevitably be destructive to people.
The Entire History of You is bleak, which isn’t new information as this is Black Mirror we’re talking about here; but I would argue it’s definitely one of the more depressing episodes because of just how close to home it has the ability to hit. The ending has no glimmer of hope in it whatsoever and whilst Black Mirror episodes are known for their depressing tales, The Entire History of You is likely to leave you feeling genuinely empty afterwards.