Black Mirror is best typified as a show about the dangers of technology abuse. It takes a near future version of technology we already have, and shows how if this technology is used in the wrong ways how it could be extremely dangerous or damaging. To say the show has an overwhelmingly pessimistic view is an understatement, and so the majority of people who don’t like Black Mirror often use that as the reason as to why they don’t like it. It’s heavy stuff, and usually you feel bad after watching it, not exactly easy viewing. But the fourth episode of Season Three flips the script and presents Black Mirror in a way that is had never been shown as before, or since. San Junipero is not only the best episode of Black Mirror yet, but it’s arguably one of the best sixty minutes of TV you could ever see.
The year is 1987 and Yorkie (Mackenzie Davis) meets Kelly (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) in a nightclub where the two become friends. Having never had this kind of connection with someone before, Yorkie searches for Kelly week after week in San Junipero’s nightclub’s and the two begin to form a romantic, and complicated relationship. But when the two disagree on the legitimacy and longevity of San Junipero because of their ailing health their relationship is thrown into disarray.
The year is 1987 and Yorkie (Mackenzie Davis) meets Kelly (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) in a nightclub where the two become friends. Having never had this kind of connection with someone before, Yorkie searches for Kelly week after week in San Junipero’s nightclub’s and the two begin to form a romantic, and complicated relationship. But when the two disagree on the legitimacy and longevity of San Junipero because of their ailing health their relationship is thrown into disarray.
If you’re thinking that the synopsis doesn’t sound like much of a Black Mirror episode then you’d be right, because San Junipero is perhaps the least ‘Black Mirror’ of all the Black Mirror episodes, and it works massively in the episode’s favour. Black Mirror is typified by the abuse of technology and the repercussions that has on human social interaction, but San Junipero for once actually looks at a potential positive that could come from technology when looked at from the perspective of the terminally ill.
It's tough to talk about the real story of San Junipero without spoiling the entire thing, because what the episode is really about is kept well-hidden for the majority of the episode’s runtime. So if you’re yet to watch the episode then I highly recommend you do so without reading the rest of this review, whether you’ve liked previous Black Mirror episodes or not, or whether you’ve never seen them before, I honestly think San Junipero is something everyone should watch because it’s just so incredible. With that said, full spoilers ahead.
After spending several Saturday nights with Yorkie and Kelly we begin to learn that San Junipero isn’t a real place, and that everyone who is in San Junipero is actually either dead or dying. San Junipero is revealed to be a virtual world where people’s consciousnesses are stored for them to live out their youth indefinitely, in an era of their choosing. Yorkie has an attachment to the 1980’s which is why she spends all of her time there (due to reasons I’ll address shortly), whereas Kelly will often hop between decades to sample not just her own youth but the youth of other generations too. Kelly is terminally ill and trialling San Junipero to decide whether she wants to be ‘uploaded’ upon her death, however her husband believed that death should be the end (potentially due to some religious views) and so she feels an obligation to join him in the finality of death. Yorkie meanwhile was paralysed as a young woman and so San Junipero has given her a life she never got to live, and is hoping to marry one of her carers so that they can sign a euthanasia agreement, allowing her to be permanently uploaded into San Junipero and switching off her life support. The ‘problem’ in this episode of Black Mirror that technology poses is entirely down to the views of the individual, and it’s explored from two completely opposing sides very well.
Rather than there being a black or white moral standpoint as in episodes like White Bear, Shut Up and Dance, or Be Right Back; San Junipero presents a true spectrum of opinions, and you can create your own viewpoint on it. Does the very existence of San Junipero remove meaning from death? Does San Junipero remove the need for religion, or belief in an afterlife? Should Yorkie be able to end her life on her own terms? Is ‘Heaven Is A Place On Earth’ an absolute banger (The only correct answer is yes)?
That’s what makes San Junipero so special when looked at in the bigger picture of Black Mirror. There’s so much to peel back and so many different takes on the big moral issues presented in the episode that it opens so many cans of worms in so many philosophical fields. I could talk for days and days about the smallest details from this episode, and the best part is, that’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what makes San Junipero such incredible TV.
It's tough to talk about the real story of San Junipero without spoiling the entire thing, because what the episode is really about is kept well-hidden for the majority of the episode’s runtime. So if you’re yet to watch the episode then I highly recommend you do so without reading the rest of this review, whether you’ve liked previous Black Mirror episodes or not, or whether you’ve never seen them before, I honestly think San Junipero is something everyone should watch because it’s just so incredible. With that said, full spoilers ahead.
After spending several Saturday nights with Yorkie and Kelly we begin to learn that San Junipero isn’t a real place, and that everyone who is in San Junipero is actually either dead or dying. San Junipero is revealed to be a virtual world where people’s consciousnesses are stored for them to live out their youth indefinitely, in an era of their choosing. Yorkie has an attachment to the 1980’s which is why she spends all of her time there (due to reasons I’ll address shortly), whereas Kelly will often hop between decades to sample not just her own youth but the youth of other generations too. Kelly is terminally ill and trialling San Junipero to decide whether she wants to be ‘uploaded’ upon her death, however her husband believed that death should be the end (potentially due to some religious views) and so she feels an obligation to join him in the finality of death. Yorkie meanwhile was paralysed as a young woman and so San Junipero has given her a life she never got to live, and is hoping to marry one of her carers so that they can sign a euthanasia agreement, allowing her to be permanently uploaded into San Junipero and switching off her life support. The ‘problem’ in this episode of Black Mirror that technology poses is entirely down to the views of the individual, and it’s explored from two completely opposing sides very well.
Rather than there being a black or white moral standpoint as in episodes like White Bear, Shut Up and Dance, or Be Right Back; San Junipero presents a true spectrum of opinions, and you can create your own viewpoint on it. Does the very existence of San Junipero remove meaning from death? Does San Junipero remove the need for religion, or belief in an afterlife? Should Yorkie be able to end her life on her own terms? Is ‘Heaven Is A Place On Earth’ an absolute banger (The only correct answer is yes)?
That’s what makes San Junipero so special when looked at in the bigger picture of Black Mirror. There’s so much to peel back and so many different takes on the big moral issues presented in the episode that it opens so many cans of worms in so many philosophical fields. I could talk for days and days about the smallest details from this episode, and the best part is, that’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what makes San Junipero such incredible TV.
Mackenzie Davis and Gugu Mbatha-Raw are phenomenal in this episode. I love both of these actresses anyway in various projects they have done before and since, but San Junipero is arguably both of their greatest performances of their entire careers. I am so involved with their plight that I forget that they’re acting, they truly embody these characters so well that I can’t tell where the performance begins and ends. They both present such raw and vulnerable performances with so many different layers to their characters.
In fact, it comes as kind of a shock to think that there are almost no other characters in the episode other than them. You have Greg (Raymond McAnally) who is the carer Yorkie is due to marry, Wes (Gavin Stenhouse) who is a fellow San Junipero visitor who has feelings for Kelly, and Davis (Billy Griffin Jr.) who has the hots for Yorkie. None of these characters play a particularly significant role in the story beyond Greg, and he’s only in like two scenes near the end of the episode. For almost the entire sixty minutes you’re exclusively with Yorkie and Kelly, and the performances from Davis and Mbatha-Raw are so powerful that you hardly even notice.
San Junipero looks gorgeous and has a rocking soundtrack to boot. Cinematographer Gustav Danielsson and Editor Nicolas Chaudeurge present such a gorgeous looking world that you immediately fall in love with San Junipero as much as Yorkie does. The colours are so vivid, the framing so precise, and the cuts are timed so well to the music. Speaking of which, the soundtrack for this episode feels like it was lifted directly from a ‘1980’s Greatest Hits’ playlist and every single one of them is a total knockout. The music tells as much of a story as the dialogue, and I can guarantee you’ll be playing a lot of the songs from this episode on repeat after you finish it.
San Junipero isn’t just great TV, it’s some of the best TV I’ve ever seen. I can’t think of a single thing that I would change, or anything that I think could be improved. Whilst I’m sure not everyone will hold this same opinion as me, I genuinely do feel as though this episode was made specifically for me and my interests. There’s just so much to unpack and digest from narrative standpoint, plus the performances are spot on and seemingly effortless. I could not give this a bigger recommendation if I tried, and I really do think this is something that everyone needs to watch. I just love it.
In fact, it comes as kind of a shock to think that there are almost no other characters in the episode other than them. You have Greg (Raymond McAnally) who is the carer Yorkie is due to marry, Wes (Gavin Stenhouse) who is a fellow San Junipero visitor who has feelings for Kelly, and Davis (Billy Griffin Jr.) who has the hots for Yorkie. None of these characters play a particularly significant role in the story beyond Greg, and he’s only in like two scenes near the end of the episode. For almost the entire sixty minutes you’re exclusively with Yorkie and Kelly, and the performances from Davis and Mbatha-Raw are so powerful that you hardly even notice.
San Junipero looks gorgeous and has a rocking soundtrack to boot. Cinematographer Gustav Danielsson and Editor Nicolas Chaudeurge present such a gorgeous looking world that you immediately fall in love with San Junipero as much as Yorkie does. The colours are so vivid, the framing so precise, and the cuts are timed so well to the music. Speaking of which, the soundtrack for this episode feels like it was lifted directly from a ‘1980’s Greatest Hits’ playlist and every single one of them is a total knockout. The music tells as much of a story as the dialogue, and I can guarantee you’ll be playing a lot of the songs from this episode on repeat after you finish it.
San Junipero isn’t just great TV, it’s some of the best TV I’ve ever seen. I can’t think of a single thing that I would change, or anything that I think could be improved. Whilst I’m sure not everyone will hold this same opinion as me, I genuinely do feel as though this episode was made specifically for me and my interests. There’s just so much to unpack and digest from narrative standpoint, plus the performances are spot on and seemingly effortless. I could not give this a bigger recommendation if I tried, and I really do think this is something that everyone needs to watch. I just love it.