Black Mirror: The Entire History of You (2011)

BLACK MIRROR | S01 | E03 | 2011
Can you handle the truth of something burried in the past or would you think it’s easier to forget?

In future Britain, everyone is implanted with a memory implant for their brain called the Grain. It allows them to access their past memories, that you can rewind and replayed not only for yourself but also for anyone to see. This way, you’ll be able to access the memories stored in your brain and quite literally can not forget anything.

Liam Foxwell (Toby Kebbell) arrives at a dinner party hosted by some of his wife’s friends, and sees his wife Ffion (Jodie Whittaker) talking to a man he doesn’t recognise, whom she introduces as Jonas (Tom Cullen). In the party, he got suspicious by his wife’s behaviour toward the gentleman and suspect they have a history that he did not know about.

Having access to your past memories and being able to recall and replay them at whim. This concept that made me think of eidetic or photographic memory (apparently Indonesia’s first president, Soekarno, claimed to possessed this ability). What is different is the memory you recall is not only for your own consumption alone, but it can be viewed by others (for security checks at airports to analyze possible crimes) or displayed on a TV and shown to your friends. It can be paused, zoom, slowed down, rewind, fast forward, even deleted partially. Just like a TiVo that is wired onto your brain. Of course the technology come with consequences, you almost can not lie because your Grain becomes a solid recording of your being.

While the previous episodes of Black Mirror is shown in large and in-your-face kind of style, The Entire History of You is more intimate and subtle. The discomfort is still exist, right on the edge of your peripheral vision. It focus on a relationship of a husband and wife and their close-knit circle of friends. The small, yet effective casts mainly of three characters, shown the strength of their performance in carrying the simple premise of the episode. This episode challenge the notion of privacy; or disrespect for and lack of privacy for that matter. It’s chilling conclusion, when sometimes, it is easier to forget, than to hold on to a cherished memory.

Like the previous predecessor, The Entire History of You still gave a thought provoking story that give the viewers a glimpse of the grim effect of technology. The after-effect is still discomforting and subtly disturbing. A bleak story indeed and somehow made a great conclusion for the first round of the mini series.

Robert Downey Jr had expressed his interest in adapting The Entire History of You into a feature film and had bought the rights to adapt the script. I wonder if he gonna play the title role himself, but i definitely am looking forward to the adaptation :)