by Gill Pringle in Los Angeles
After Black Mirror’s previous season of gory horror and the supernatural, writer/creator Charlie Brooker was eager to return to the show’s original near-future tech themes.
But he still wanted to keep audiences on their toes. “Technology is definitely at the forefront, but it’s contemplative,” reveals Brooker about the new season which showcases his unique anxiety-inducing brand of social commentary laced with a satirical undercurrent.
It is apt that Season 7 opens with the episode “Common People”, a deep dive into how future technology might be applied to save lives …but at what cost?
Here we meet Rashida Jones’ school teacher Amanda, fighting for her life after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
In desperation, her construction worker husband Mike (Chris O’Dowd) signs her up for Rivermind, a high-tech brain implant that will keep her alive.
As Rivermind’s spokesperson, Tracee Ellis Ross’ Gaynor does a great job at selling the product, herself a survivor.
“They decide to keep her alive by taking a new implant on a subscription service. And it all goes wrong from there . . .” cautions O’Dowd, who was thrilled to be asked to join the cast.
“The initial draw was to be part of a show that is an institution already, and almost like its own style of television, which is cool. I’ve known Charlie, just to say hello to, since we were both working at Channel 4, 15-20 years ago. I love what he does. Then I read it, and I thought it was gorgeous. It’s such a brilliant arc. It’s very unusual to have so much to play with.
“You get to do all of the happy rom-com stuff with Rashida, and then this dystopian world with Tracey Ellis Ross. It was a bit of a no-brainer in terms of getting involved,” says the usually comedic actor, who, admittedly, was surprised at the episode’s darkness.
“But I think the way that it ends up will satisfy people’s absolute bloodlust for dystopia. In many ways, that is why people turn to Black Mirror. It’s not called ‘Grey Mirror’. But it does feel like an old-school episode of the show about the vile advancement of technology and how it’s going to dislocate our lives and pierce our souls, which is well encapsulated in this.”
Rashida Jones was no newcomer to the Black Mirror universe – co-writing Season 3 episode ‘Nosedive’ starring Bryce Dallas Howard – and was delighted to be front and center of “Common People”.
“As somebody who’s familiar with and loves Black Mirror, I wasn’t surprised by the bleakness of it, but I was sort of surprised by how engaged I was with the characters, and then so disappointed with how things turned out. I felt very, like, invested personally,” she says.
Jones admits that she was already anxious about the potential dangers of technology before filming the unsettling “Common People”.
“I remember seeing somewhere that in the first hour of your day, you’re setting your dopamine levels, and so, whatever you input into the system in that hour is going to dictate the rest of your day. Not to say that I always follow this for myself, but it’s good to know. So, you’re like, ‘Okay, I have an hour to figure out what kind of person I’m going to be today’. And I fail all the time!” laughs the actress.
Like it or not, technology has insinuated itself into our lives in so many ways. “We’re giving ourselves over to something very easily, because it’s very enticing and it’s easy and it’s efficient, and it makes life easier and more beautiful. But, at what cost? I think about this a lot with the one-click-pay or user agreements where you’re just like: ‘I can get that Neosporin later tonight. Let me just click that thing, whatever’. It’s the ease of being alive right now,” she says.
Jones’ role in “Common People” served as an opportunity to also reunite with Tracee Ellis Ross, having guest-starred as her sister in episodes of the hit TV series Black-ish.
Ross was relieved to have a friendly familiar face on the British Black Mirror set. “I think it’s a huge benefit. Sometimes, you don’t know someone at all, and trust emerges immediately, but Rashida and I do know each other really well, so it wasn’t scary to come onto a set that had already existed.
“It didn’t feel like that first day of school where you’re like, ‘I don’t know anybody, how does this work?’ I was able to just ask Rashida. I had a built-in safety partner in the mix with me. We’re friends, and I love working with friends. It’s one of the gifts of this career to be on set with your friends. It was also fun seeing her work, she is exceptional in this,” says the actress, daughter of the legendary Diana Ross.
Ask her what she feels the message is behind “Common People”, Ross says, “be wary of innovation that is a mask for greed, that was my takeaway. Humans have a tendency to get what we want, when we want it. If we are not careful, I think technology, science, innovation, can swoop in at moments when it’s offering something that we think is the better, faster choice that gives us what we think we need – but at the expense of what?
“But it’s never one thing with Charlie [Brooker]. It’s never like, ‘this is the bad choice’, and ‘this is the right choice’. It’s the very complicated, nuanced option, where there’s upsides and downsides to both. It just gives you a big, very scary bag of broken glass to eat,” she says.
If Ross’ Gaynor is, to an extent, the villain in the piece, then the actress brings a certain warmth to the situation. “In all honesty, it’s what was really interesting about the character. There wasn’t a lot that you had to kind of fill in around the sides for her. The fact that she was also a Rivermind client, I think, lent itself to being able to play the humanity and not play a villain.
“I think it would be easier to play just a salesperson – but the fact that she was a client gave her a sense of connection and a reality, like an intimacy to what she was talking about and knowing, and I feel like she’s stuck in the same system. That was really what I was playing,” she says.
If the Rivermind system is able to enhance clients’ moods and skills, then Ross is certain which setting she would choose for herself.
“I’d like to have fear and anxiety gone. So, I’d turn up the contentment and serenity, for sure,” she says.
Black Mirror Season 7 is streaming now
