Be Right Back

Imagine if it would have ended with the second-to-last scene.

As much as the episode kept me connected throughout the whole story, feeling Martha's pain and jitters with every scene of the episode; it was also a revelation how much we are allowing the technology and different technical giants to control us. Every single movement, every single browsing history is captured somewhere. In this case clone was created for a loved one and the reason, howsoever illogical was genuine ... but doesn't it allow for digital clones that can be created and misused for any person possible. Texture mapping and tons of data floating around definitely make it very much feasible.

Yes, the idea of being connected even after death was very touching and I am sure it pulled in the audience, because only at the moment you lose someone you want them all the much more, you understand their importance in your life. But at the same time i felt really bad for Martha, she was stuck with a robot for life whom she cannot get rid of out of the respect for Ash memories but that will never ever let her move on with life as well. She will keep clinging to the memories and never be able to make new ones.

Also, the part where she yells at the robot to hit her brings out a very interesting aspect of human psychology. As much as we all want perfect and serving people in our lives, what makes them real and lovable is their imperfections. The imperfections in humans is what makes them different from algorithmically programmed robots; by the time we realize this difference it shouldn't be too late that we are living our lives more in control of the robots than ourselves.

Hope this is not our future. Insane. Mindblowing. Intense emotions. I love it.

I've not seen the new Spike Jonse film "Her" but watching this episode of Black Mirror which was screened over a year before Her was released in the US does rather make one think that Charlie Brooker would have some reason to be aggrieved at a film doing so well with a similar idea at its core. In the case of Be Right Back, the plot sees Martha and Ash as a couple – with Ash being a heavy online presence via social networks and so on. When Ash dies leaving Martha alone, she turns to a piece of software which will emulate your former partner and they begin chatting online.

Although I did not think the first season of Back Mirror was perfect, I really did like that it is able to take current situations and move them a few steps down a logical or reasonable line and then see what happens in a specific situation. As with the previous season this episode very much sticks with technology as its jumping off point but it is most in common with the third episode of the first season it the way it is driven by an emotional core. The idea in this case is that, just as it is possible already to have software that can just about text you like a person, so, in theory, it should be possible to have software that builds a "you" based on all your emails, texts, Facebook posts and so on; OK it is a few steps beyond Amazon suggesting products based on your purchasing history, but it is effective because it doesn't seem too far away and thus we are not given the comfort of a future far from our own.

With small steps we get to a plot that is far-fetched while being conceivable and with this idea as the narrative device, Brooker builds a story that is emotionally engaging as we can both empathize with what Martha does while also seeing how bad a thing it is in the grand scheme of things – just like it being easy to see the faults of others from a distance while totally failing to see the same in ourselves. It is really moving and the conflict is throughout the story which means that it never stops working on the level it does at the start. The downside is that it ends in the same mould rather than having something dramatic, but still it is effective for what it does.

The direction is good and the tone matches Brooker's excellent writing. If I didn't already know this is the same sarcastic and miserable Brooker we see on Screenwipe, I never would have believed he wrote this. What really seals the deal though is the performance from Atwell, because she is amazing. She really understands her character and she convinces through the story whether she be content, grieving, denying, hurting or accepting. The story is essentially a two-hander but she is the lion's share of it and her success is the film's success. Gleeson is more of a device than character but his performance is also well pitched, convincing in how he needs to be even if Atwell gets the better of the split.

This film will be hard to watch in the wake of Her since thematically they are similar but I'm sure this is just coincidence. It is best to ignore this and focus on the film doing what it does because it is clever, engaging, convincing, moving and sobering. Hard to believe that the guy cursing at his TV would turn out to be such a good sci-fi writer or that the pretty girl from the Captain America film would have such a great performance in her, but BRB is great.

Black Mirror touches upon the edges of what is possible and where we are heading. It also raises some warning alarms that might seem esoteric and far fetched at first but they ring so true if we just consider the already psychopathic exchange we have with the available technology. New diseases are now being coined as a result of our obsession with the internet and social media; we do not hesitate at all at denouncing someone at chats and obstinately sticking to our opinion without considering every angle; we are slowly but surely moving away from reality to a contrived virtual reality. More powerful technology is certainly going to cause more egregious side-effects.

This episode is so engrossing. The acting and the scenes are convincing enough in relaying the grief and misery Martha is going through. You can relate to her feelings and actions as she takes several steps in the wrong direction. The episode succeeds in conveying the addicting power of such a tech, and how it may adversely affect the terrified human psyche, that with every ounce of its being opposes the idea of death. It wants to cling on to happy memories and is so fearful of moving past.

A few plot instruments might seem inconceivable, but we are not far from the possibility of a virtual avatar with your voice, personality and behavior based on all the digital storage we have of us. But we need to recognize that there is another side to the veil as well.