White Christmas
Year: 2014
Directed by: Carl Tibbets
Starring: Jon Hamm & Rafe Spall
Runtime: 74 minutes
Directed by: Carl Tibbets
Starring: Jon Hamm & Rafe Spall
Runtime: 74 minutes
Charlie Brooker’s sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror had a peculiar relationship with broadcaster Channel 4. Despite the show receiving almost near universal acclaim for each episode produced thus far, and audience numbers being indicative of a show with moderate success considering the time the show often aired and the subject matter contained within. But despite this Channel 4 deemed the show unworthy of renewing for a third series, even when presented with the tempting offer of co-producing the show with Netflix. As such one final Channel 4 produced episode of Black Mirror was commissioned and unsure of how different the experience would be working for a streaming service as opposed to network TV, Brooker went all out with an extended Christmas Special that seemingly encompassed the majority of ideas presented in the previous six episodes. Surely you weren’t expecting some kind of jolly White Christmas, were you?
Joe (Rafe Spall) and Matt (Jon Hamm) have lived together in a remote cabin for five years, and yet despite living and working together the two have barely shared a conversation. To break the monotony of a Christmas Day spent staring at the snow fall, Matt proposes the two try and connect with each other and learn about each other’s lives, and what led them to living in that cabin.
Matt kicks things off by describing how in his spare time he used to help unconfident men seduce women at parties by giving them social cues from a remote location whilst he watched in through the men’s ‘Z-Eye’ implants (similar to the Grain technology from The Entire History of You). But unfortunately things went disastrously wrong, leading him to be ‘blocked’ by his wife, leaving him unable to see or speak to her.
Matt then elaborates to say that he works as a ‘Cookie’ trainer. A Cookie is a digital clone of a real person who is placed inside of electronic devices that control smart homes. The Cookie works for the person they’re based on, so that they can automate the house around the person’s day, knowing exactly how they like things done and how best to help them. Matt recalls one time how he had to artificially speed up time for one Cookie so that they had to spend six months unable to eat, sleep, or do anything to entertain themselves to convince them to do the job they were created for, something Joe believes is unethical.
Lowering his walls, Joe then recounts the time he and his partner split up following his discovery of a pregnancy test. His partner blocked him for years, so long in fact that Joe noticed she had gone through with having the child, who was also blocked to him. Joe then spent every Christmas watching from afar as his daughter’s silhouette grow up with him unable to approach her, speak to her, or even see her face.
Joe (Rafe Spall) and Matt (Jon Hamm) have lived together in a remote cabin for five years, and yet despite living and working together the two have barely shared a conversation. To break the monotony of a Christmas Day spent staring at the snow fall, Matt proposes the two try and connect with each other and learn about each other’s lives, and what led them to living in that cabin.
Matt kicks things off by describing how in his spare time he used to help unconfident men seduce women at parties by giving them social cues from a remote location whilst he watched in through the men’s ‘Z-Eye’ implants (similar to the Grain technology from The Entire History of You). But unfortunately things went disastrously wrong, leading him to be ‘blocked’ by his wife, leaving him unable to see or speak to her.
Matt then elaborates to say that he works as a ‘Cookie’ trainer. A Cookie is a digital clone of a real person who is placed inside of electronic devices that control smart homes. The Cookie works for the person they’re based on, so that they can automate the house around the person’s day, knowing exactly how they like things done and how best to help them. Matt recalls one time how he had to artificially speed up time for one Cookie so that they had to spend six months unable to eat, sleep, or do anything to entertain themselves to convince them to do the job they were created for, something Joe believes is unethical.
Lowering his walls, Joe then recounts the time he and his partner split up following his discovery of a pregnancy test. His partner blocked him for years, so long in fact that Joe noticed she had gone through with having the child, who was also blocked to him. Joe then spent every Christmas watching from afar as his daughter’s silhouette grow up with him unable to approach her, speak to her, or even see her face.
That’s not the end of White Christmas’ story, but I’ll leave the twists up to you to witness for yourself because White Christmas goes in hard for shock value at almost any given opportunity. If you finish this episode without feeling empty inside, then there’s something seriously wrong with you.
White Christmas manages to encompass all the great things about episodes like ‘The National Anthem’, ‘The Entire History of You’, and ‘White Bear’, whilst also expanding on the ideas presented in those episodes in meaningful ways. What if you could share your eyes with someone and you see something awful, akin to the nation watching someone humiliate themselves? What if you could replay every moment of your life, block people out, and corrupt memories, in a more advanced version of the technology presented in ‘The Entire History of You’? What if you could make someone live in a prison for the rest of their lives, like in ‘White Bear’, but this time they’re unable to ever distinguish the fact that the prison they’re in isn’t even real?
Spall is good in the episode, but it takes him a long time to really get involved as Joe’s character isn’t explored until the third act starts. Instead it’s Hamm that takes the spotlight in this episode and Matt is a fantastic character. He’s quick witted, charismatic, brutally honest, but also unsettlingly lacking in ethical consideration and morals.
This combined with some great pacing makes Matt’s slow reveal as a villainous figure all the more satisfying, and whilst he’s not the big bad pulling the strings, the way he manipulates any situation he’s in to be the man in control is captivating.
White Christmas is a fantastic episode of Black Mirror, but it’s best experienced as a fan of the show. The subtle nods to previous episodes, as well as the expansion of ideas presented in them makes White Christmas a great culmination of everything Brooker had worked to achieve the with the show up to that point. It also marks the end of the ‘old’ style of Black Mirror before Netflix pumped so much money into the show that Brooker’s tight and incredibly high quality writing arguably began to get slightly more bloated and less impactful.
But despite the name, maybe don’t gather the family around the TV to watch it together this Christmas…it’s certainly not a joyful experience.
White Christmas manages to encompass all the great things about episodes like ‘The National Anthem’, ‘The Entire History of You’, and ‘White Bear’, whilst also expanding on the ideas presented in those episodes in meaningful ways. What if you could share your eyes with someone and you see something awful, akin to the nation watching someone humiliate themselves? What if you could replay every moment of your life, block people out, and corrupt memories, in a more advanced version of the technology presented in ‘The Entire History of You’? What if you could make someone live in a prison for the rest of their lives, like in ‘White Bear’, but this time they’re unable to ever distinguish the fact that the prison they’re in isn’t even real?
Spall is good in the episode, but it takes him a long time to really get involved as Joe’s character isn’t explored until the third act starts. Instead it’s Hamm that takes the spotlight in this episode and Matt is a fantastic character. He’s quick witted, charismatic, brutally honest, but also unsettlingly lacking in ethical consideration and morals.
This combined with some great pacing makes Matt’s slow reveal as a villainous figure all the more satisfying, and whilst he’s not the big bad pulling the strings, the way he manipulates any situation he’s in to be the man in control is captivating.
White Christmas is a fantastic episode of Black Mirror, but it’s best experienced as a fan of the show. The subtle nods to previous episodes, as well as the expansion of ideas presented in them makes White Christmas a great culmination of everything Brooker had worked to achieve the with the show up to that point. It also marks the end of the ‘old’ style of Black Mirror before Netflix pumped so much money into the show that Brooker’s tight and incredibly high quality writing arguably began to get slightly more bloated and less impactful.
But despite the name, maybe don’t gather the family around the TV to watch it together this Christmas…it’s certainly not a joyful experience.