The Entire History of You

In the not too distant future, everyone has implant technology that allows full recall of all memories. After a poor review, Liam joins his partner Ffion at a party where an ex of hers is a guest, Liam obsessed over it.

An early episode, and a definite classic, The Entire history of you is one of the best episodes of this amazing show, it never gets tired. What's so stark and unnerving about this one, is that it could potentially happen, who knows.

Does anyone have the right to personal memories? It's one thing we have that nobody else has access to, a scary thought to imagine losing that one thing.

I think I miss the early years of Black Mirror, a heavy reliance on story and scenario, less focus on budget and star names, hopefully if the show returns again, it'll go back to stories such as this one.

The green eyed monster is the worst emotion of all, there's nothing like it to eat you up inside, imagine having access to memories to stoke the flames, paranoia and envy overdrive or what.

Toby Kebbell is outstanding here, he's so good, and it's one of the best performances of Jodie Whittaker I've ever seen.

9/10.

I have decided to only write reviews on these episodes after I watch them for a second time. I am mid-way through the 3rd season on my 2nd run. As many of my outlooks on various episodes have changed, this one stayed very much the same, which is not a good or bad thing... it's a great thing! It seems a lot of people watch this show for all different reasons. My reason is evolving and changing the more I watch it. As before, I watched it to see a dark foretelling of how technology affects our lives... I am not starting to see that technology is merely the vehicle in this series, and the vehicle drives our human nature. Human nature is becoming the theme to me more and more, and technology is a perfect catalyst to drive our inner most desires, which they can be beautiful, as well as dark and depraved.

This episode is driven by the "Grain" implant that allows us to see the entirety of all the moments we have lived throughout our lives. There are characters shown in this episode on both spectrums; those who live it and find it to now be the only way to live; and those who see how destructive it can be, and prefer to live without it. I think I would be in the latter category myself.

The way our protagonist over analyzes every little element of body language, the way things are said, so on and so forth, the more you see how quickly you can become obsessive with such a privilege. Though many drone-like people (the ones of today who are staring at their Iphone while walking amongst actual beauty in our natural world) might see nothing harmful about this, but instead see convenience, leisure, and after awhile, necessity. However, it is increasingly clear to me that it is a destroyer. A destroyer of our privacy, our humility, our ability to grow and evolve, and ultimately, a destroyer of our sanity. This is done very well by telling an impactful story of what could very easily happen within the lives of many ordinary people.

Again we come back to human nature. If such a thing were to exist, I can think of so many people I personally know who would take advantage of this exactly as our protagonist does, eventually leading to him becoming completely insane, and ultimately alone and depressed. Though human evolution is essential, and I don't wish to go back to the days of being neanderthals... this episode has as strong a message as ever, as well as being entertaining. That message is that although progress is good, perhaps we SHOULD backtrack a bit. I am already seeing that in today's world, 2018, our dependence on technology is so great, that we are approaching a time where we (collectively as a species) don't even know how to live anymore. I truly feel sorry for anyone who has been born in the new millenium. Will we forget how to build a fire, read a map, etc?

Yes, I tend to go on stream-of-consciousness tangents in my reviews... but this is what the show does to me. It makes me think like this, more so than anything I have ever watched, and this episode is one of a few that is the epitome of what Black Mirror is all about, and why I love it so dearly.

Black Mirror's first episode was darkly humorous and suspenseful, while its second was a heartbreaking Greek tragedy. Now we have "The entire history of you", which is neither humorous, nor devastatingly tragic. It is however painful and uncomfortable to watch. The technological aspect of this episode is simple: humans have the ability to recall their own memories at the press of a button. We can rewind, zoom in, and examine every detail of our lives in painstaking detail.

What makes this episode so painful, is that we witness the end of a once loving relationship, in all its sad, pathetic and all too human frailty and weakness. The technology that seemed so useful and essential now becomes a curse and enhances our cruel nature.

As great sci-fi should, it provokes thought about our past and future and our relationship with technology, while still telling an intrinsically human story, with real emotion and sadness.

Loved this episode because it looks too true to not believe. With the revolution that started with cameras and selfies, there are security cameras and drones flying everywhere. Gradually there would be cars and tons and tons of data flying everywhere. There will absolutely be no movement or activity that will be hidden but do we really want to keep rewinding and living the past activities.

Liam hardly seems to be living in the present. all his activities be it sex, drinking viewing or work are carried out by looking towards the past ... thereby no new experience. The grain chip technology is no doubt a great resource for goverment and crime agencies; classic example will be where the security guy allows him to board by looking at his past but I wonder if a human needs access to his history all the time. It will only make a person live his traumas and virtual pleasures over and over again.

This for me was the best episode of the two series of Black Mirror, and also the best piece of Television drama over the past 5-8 years.

As a television production student I am critical of drama pieces, but this episode completely blew me away and gripped me from start to end. If anyone asks can television drama be effective over 45-60 minutes , I will always tell them to watch this episode.

This is a masterclass in directing by Ben Welsh. The direction of the cast was perfect, the camera-work suited the feel of the piece , and choice of locations and props for me really added to this film. How they were able to add this futuristic technology to the characters felt 'scarily' believable (especially these days with the development of Google Glasses)

For me this films shows thats you can make an effective drama without making over dramatic and unbelievable plots. As this films grabs its audience, and using its 'gritty' and 'subtle' style makes it for me as one of my favourite dramas ever broadcasted on TV