Contextual Research | British TV Drama Review & Analysis - Black Mirror 3x02 "Playtest"

Black Mirror Season 3, Episode 2: "Playtest" Review

'Playtest' is the second episode in the third season of 'Black Mirror', this being Charlie Brooker's hit TV series surrounding the dangers of technology and the way in which our society could use it, each episode being focused on a different aspect set in a very near dystopian future.

'Playtest' is part of the third season, which was published by Netflix in October 2016 after they purchased the rights to the show from the British TV company Channel 4 in 2015. How does 'Playtest' stack up against the previous episodes, and ultimately does it convey an interesting & unique message, as each episode endeavours to do?

I review my content based on a 5-step process; Premise, Execution, Highlights, Drawbacks and a Conclusion. Let's begin with the premise...

Premise

'Cooper' portrayed by Wyatt Russell, in Black Mirror.

So this story focuses on a character called Cooper, a scruffy American travelling the world fleeing from the death of his late father who suffered from Alzheimers disease. We're introduced to him at the beginning of his grand escapade around the world, packing a bag in what we are to presume is his childhood bedroom. He stuffs sentimental memorabilia into a rucksack as he begins to make his leave, almost forgetting his passport; we as an audience already getting a sense of Cooper's personality, as-well as his habits. I feel like the idea for this character was to show an individual at the beginning of an episode who possessed very little empathy, struggled or perhaps intentionally masked his emotions behind a façade of overconfidence and immature humour, and over the course of 60 minutes, humanise this character to the point of courting strong sympathy from the audience. In a nutshell, I feel that 'Playtest' succeeds in doing that.

Sonja seduces Cooper in a London bar.

Does it break boundaries in terms of innovative concepts? Not necessarily. But it does tackle some interesting issues within our society and (as Black Mirror always intends to do) gets people thinking about the negative potential technology could possess in the wrong hands, while maintaining a very gritty, realistic way of portraying it. The plot follows Cooper as he meets a girl while exploring London, Sonja, who suggests he try and earn some money through a beta test of a new AR (Augmented Reality) video game experience. Over the course of the episode he's introduced to the AR concept and grapples with the scary reality of something that manipulates his reality into anything the developers want. Culminating in a horrific and depressing reality of the situation by the end of the 60 minutes.

Execution

Katie, one of Saitogamu's employees.

This story has a lot of sinister undertones, throughout the entire episode there are consistent questions presented to the audience such as "Why does Cooper ignore his mum's calls?" and "What's the true purpose of Saitogamu's prototype test?". We get the impression from the offset that there is going to be something more to the test than what is initially presented, Cooper of course is entirely unaware of this until he is reduced to a crumbling, emotional mess by the end of his time in the mansion. There's a lot to learn about the character Cooper, we get the sense he relies heavily on communication as a way for survival. Being social is how he gets through life, we see him glaring at a couple, with a real look of regret. The sense of loneliness, perhaps isolation piercing through his gaze is extremely evident.

"Playtest" does a fantastic job of blurring the line betweens the real and the artificial, much like the way technology is heading today, augmented reality has become incredibly powerful and while this can and will be applied to many different positive things, here we see it gradually break Cooper down to the point where he is unable to even remember who he is, and that's fantastic to watch. We're literally told where Cooper stands morally, despite the flaws he sees in himself Sonja tells him "You're a good guy Cooper... call your mum.". Once again addressing his ignorance towards his mother's attention. Later it's revealed that he ran away from his mother after his father died of Alzheimers, in the hopes of making the memories he wanted before he missed the chance. This is actually the only real time he opens up to anyone on screen without the least bit of humour or irony.

Shuo Saito, CEO of Saitogamu.

Cooper is a fascinating character, he's written to be incredibly relatable to the audience; he possesses many fears that are likely to be similar to the viewer, and the episode toys with these irrational concepts that play on people's minds, arachnophobia for example is one of the most common phobias in the world, therefore statistically the appearance of a spider, small at first, but much larger later on, is likely to affect a large amount of viewers at home and thus leave a significant impact upon them. Cooper also consistently attempts to rationalise everything with a reasonable explanation, something humans do all of the time therefore making the character even more relatable. As events transpire and the experience becomes more and more intense, Cooper begins to become unable to differentiate what's real and what isn't, and by doing so presents the audience with a very real ethical issue that could arise with the implementation of augmented reality into mainstream professions and general culture. Furthermore as Cooper's state of sanity continues to decline he forgets crucial details of his life, relatives, Sonja's name and even his own identity. Katie compares this to his father's Alzheimers, something that they weren't directly told about as far as we know. This could be a reference to the data collection policies that large corporations impose on their consumers with little to no explicit guidance as to what they're
signing up for.

Highlights

Cooper losing his mind at the hands of
Saitogamu.

Playtest's way of expressing certain modern day concerns in a way that emphasises the potential negatives of said technology is incredible. Whether it be the social commentary on the obsession with social media as Cooper takes selfies throughout his travel, not to mention the reason for his death, mobile interference, being motivated by the potential to make money by leaking images to social media. It's interesting towards the end of the episode where Shuo Saito, CEO of the company addresses Cooper saying "On behalf of Saitogamu team, I most humbly apologise" for essentially causing brain death. I feel that this is a remark on the empty apologies that corporations tend to make in the face of crisis.

Cooper as a character tends to hop, skip and jump through the scenes, laughing in the face of maturity, constantly referencing pop culture e.g. comparing the technology in Saitogamu's headquarters to that of Hogwartz from Harry Potter. His humour is infectious and carries the viewer through every scenario, making it harder the accept the outcome of events by the end of the episode.

Additionally, the entire episode is absolutely littered with easter eggs and references towards video games, and video game culture. Aerial establishing shots of the Saitogamu HQ actually emulate a top down perspective similar to that of gaming classics such as 'Grand Theft Auto III' and even modern shooters such as 'Hotline Miami'. Similarly - the line "Would you kindly open the door?" towards the end of the episode is a direct reference to the video game 'Bioshock', in which the protagonist is brainwashed into obeying commands when prefaced with the phrase 'would you kindly?'. Thus turning a simple question into a command. Also, Shuo Saito seems heavily influenced by real world video game developer Hideo Kojima. Brooker gleefully plays with all aspects of pop culture as he crafts these deep and incredibly complex narratives.

Drawbacks

Cooper receives a phone call from his mother.

In terms of negative things to say about the episode, off the top of my head it's difficult to criticise, however I would argue that certain aspects of the show are hard to keep up with, especially towards the end where differentiation between reality and the artificial becomes almost impossible; while it's interesting and unique it can easily be confusing, therefore leading to losing the viewer amidst said confusion.

I also think that by pulling the 'dream within a dream' trope that was almost pioneered by the likes of 'Inception (2010)' ... "Playtest" risks alienating it's audience. It's a powerful technique when used sparingly, however after two or three times it can easily become tedious.

Conclusion

Ultimately, I feel that "Playtest" is an awesome, eye-opening experience in which the viewer is forced to watch the slow deterioration of a character who initially comes across as arrogant & un-empathetic, but becomes more and more likable as the episode continues. All of which happens at the hands of corporate greed and corruption - by the end of the episode Cooper is nothing more than another person who went missing in a foreign country and was never seen or heard from again, and that sucks - but Black Mirror teaches us that certain parts of life do suck, poetically crafting a guideline as 'what not to do' when faced with new, powerful and innovative technology.