I’m thankful that I’ve never experienced the grief of losing a loved one I am extremely close to, but I know that I can’t imagine life without those people there. How would I be able to carry on if someone I loved more than anything was suddenly gone, without warning, and without purpose. With artificial intelligence getting smarter every day, and with many of us sharing our entire lives on social media, it’s not hard to think that someone might be able to create an AI using a persons social media profiles as a template to create a clone of sorts; a robot that looks like you, sounds like you, has your mannerisms and humour. But would that be enough to fill the void left by that persons unexpected death? Is there enough of them in there to mask the pain forever?
Be Right Back follows Martha (Hayley Atwell) as she and her boyfriend Ash (Domnhall Gleeson) move into Ash’s childhood home so that they can start a family. On his way to return the rental van however, Ash is killed, presumably in a traffic collision. Martha is wrought with grief, unable to cope on her own in a house filled with his childhood memories, unable to make the place her own without covering up what is left of him. That is until a friend of Martha’s informs her about an AI program that can email Martha as an impersonation of Ash; using his social media posts and email correspondence to structure sentences and respond in the ways he would. As Martha gives the AI more and more of Ash’s personal data, she soon orders a robotic skin for the AI to live in, so that once the transfer is complete she will have an identical, seemingly alive version of Ash living with her.
But Martha begins to notice small details that aren’t right, things that show that the robot Ash isn’t the real deal; and so Martha must decide whether she can continue living with this imitation, and whether it is ethically acceptable to end its life.
Black Mirror kicks its second series off with a heavy hitter, and one that’s considerably more depressing and relatable than anything in the first series. Be Right Back is a very detailed dissection of grief and how the inability to let go of someone after they have died can cause psychological damage and emotional distress over a prolonged period of time. At multiple points throughout the episode Martha becomes so depressed and anxious that she is unable to function, both in the immediate aftermath of Ash’s death and at multiple points thereafter where she depends on contact with the AI to be able to complete basic day to day activities.
The catalyst to the whole situation is Martha discovering that she is pregnant and can’t face the idea of raising a child on her own. She depends on the robot Ash to pick up where things left off and be the father he was always going to be, but because the robot can only learn through Ash’s public posts it has no way of learning how to interact with Martha on an intimate level, or even how to handle day to day tasks, let alone the prospect of raising a child.
Be Right Back follows Martha (Hayley Atwell) as she and her boyfriend Ash (Domnhall Gleeson) move into Ash’s childhood home so that they can start a family. On his way to return the rental van however, Ash is killed, presumably in a traffic collision. Martha is wrought with grief, unable to cope on her own in a house filled with his childhood memories, unable to make the place her own without covering up what is left of him. That is until a friend of Martha’s informs her about an AI program that can email Martha as an impersonation of Ash; using his social media posts and email correspondence to structure sentences and respond in the ways he would. As Martha gives the AI more and more of Ash’s personal data, she soon orders a robotic skin for the AI to live in, so that once the transfer is complete she will have an identical, seemingly alive version of Ash living with her.
But Martha begins to notice small details that aren’t right, things that show that the robot Ash isn’t the real deal; and so Martha must decide whether she can continue living with this imitation, and whether it is ethically acceptable to end its life.
Black Mirror kicks its second series off with a heavy hitter, and one that’s considerably more depressing and relatable than anything in the first series. Be Right Back is a very detailed dissection of grief and how the inability to let go of someone after they have died can cause psychological damage and emotional distress over a prolonged period of time. At multiple points throughout the episode Martha becomes so depressed and anxious that she is unable to function, both in the immediate aftermath of Ash’s death and at multiple points thereafter where she depends on contact with the AI to be able to complete basic day to day activities.
The catalyst to the whole situation is Martha discovering that she is pregnant and can’t face the idea of raising a child on her own. She depends on the robot Ash to pick up where things left off and be the father he was always going to be, but because the robot can only learn through Ash’s public posts it has no way of learning how to interact with Martha on an intimate level, or even how to handle day to day tasks, let alone the prospect of raising a child.
Hayley Atwell provides an incredible performance as Martha. At times it’s difficult to remember that this is all a performance because the role comes so naturally to her. It’s only elevated by Gleeson’s comparatively wooden performance, which I don’t mean in a negative way, it simply serves as a constant reminder that he isn’t human. So, when the two actors are interacting with each other, it’s so clear that Ash is totally alien, inhuman.
The only major drawback to the whole experience is the ending as it doesn’t provide any kind of closure to the narrative or the themes present in the episode. In the end it’s revealed that robot Ash permanently lives in the attic, and several years have passed with Martha’s daughter now being somewhere around the age of ten. Martha’s daughter speaks to Ash every weekend and Martha keeps contact with him to a minimum, similar to how separated parents manage their own children. Ash appears unsatisfied with this by his choice of words in the scene, indicating some kind of cognitive development and formation of its own personality, but it doesn’t resolve anything. A lot of Black Mirror episodes don’t provide clear answers, but this one doesn’t give you any at all and it can prove frustrating as a result.
In short, Be Right Back is an excellent continuation of the Black Mirror formula that manages to make the story considerably more intimate and the emotional distress more arresting as a result. An excellent start to the second series of Black Mirror, and continues to prove that even in a short forty-five minute window, Charlie Brooker can create some of the most horrifically unsettling TV in British history, without the need for any violence or scary imagery.
The only major drawback to the whole experience is the ending as it doesn’t provide any kind of closure to the narrative or the themes present in the episode. In the end it’s revealed that robot Ash permanently lives in the attic, and several years have passed with Martha’s daughter now being somewhere around the age of ten. Martha’s daughter speaks to Ash every weekend and Martha keeps contact with him to a minimum, similar to how separated parents manage their own children. Ash appears unsatisfied with this by his choice of words in the scene, indicating some kind of cognitive development and formation of its own personality, but it doesn’t resolve anything. A lot of Black Mirror episodes don’t provide clear answers, but this one doesn’t give you any at all and it can prove frustrating as a result.
In short, Be Right Back is an excellent continuation of the Black Mirror formula that manages to make the story considerably more intimate and the emotional distress more arresting as a result. An excellent start to the second series of Black Mirror, and continues to prove that even in a short forty-five minute window, Charlie Brooker can create some of the most horrifically unsettling TV in British history, without the need for any violence or scary imagery.