Men Against Fire

I find it interesting how everyone likes or dislikes different Black Mirror episodes in different proportions. A great deal of your opinion of an episode has to do with personal experiences and philosophies, a successful echo of the use of "Mirror" in the title.

Men Against Fire was really testing my patience for the first thirty minutes, the first time I had experienced agitation with an episode of the series. We have already seen so many of these themes with "History of You" and "Playtest" that the main character's fascination with the technology around him was belaboring any point that needed to be made. However, the episode did a fantastic job of bringing it all together and causing the viewer to re-examine previous events, a la "Shut Up and Dance". With a clever turn of events, all of the reasoning was explained to my satisfaction. Another solid theme explored by Season 3.

We all have different expectations of what an episode of Black Mirror should be, but this, for me, is it. The indirect exposure to the social ills that plague us, to the systematic exploitation of our brothers and sisters, to the possible disastrous effects of future technologies, to the brutal efficacy with which we are controlled.

This episode is brilliantly acted, written and directed. It takes you into the character's mind and you see and hear only what they know. We mostly look through the lens of our own beliefs and view points, and reject the others. And you, along with the main character, slowly stumble upon the truth, which can only be established by considering everything. You will slowly begin to realize what is truly happening here, and you couldn't help but praise the ingenuity with which this was done.

We as a species have always been invested in making progress, increasing our knowledge, and making ourselves smart. A soundproof way to doing that is by eliminating genes that inhibit us, and helping the propagation of only those genes which help us. This has been a key propaganda issue in the 20th century and this century and is very likely to be the focus as we make progress in DNA mapping and genetic engineering. Just as we have designed dogs to be cute, playful and loyal by killing those which lack these qualities, we can design our future population too. To do that we need to have control over the populace and have means to control them, you need to have enough power and sway to contain any rebellious elements. The episode conveys this effortlessly, not once appearing to try to hard.

A true Black Mirror episode. I only wish the ending scene with Doug could have been better executed.

To me, this episode felt more like an episode of Black Mirror than any other this season. The thing I like most about this series is the way that it makes me ask myself ethical questions that I never would have thought about otherwise while I'm watching. It brings up the topic of morality relative to near future technology. That is what has been in some ways lacking from this season... until this episode. Admittedly, the episode is a little bit heavy-handed at times, a little predictable at others. But at least it was working with big ideas, putting them out there, and making me think. For that reason and that reason alone, I liked it more than any other this season.

The episode follows future soldiers as they hunt down and kill genetically inferior "roaches" in some part of Europe. The subjects of eugenics, consent, and propaganda in the modern age are all brought into question by the episode.

I'm no stranger to series skewed towards irony and twists. I love Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, so I should have predicted what was coming here. But I was somewhat blindsided by this one. It fits in along with the overarching theme of technology being a double- edged sword, and if something looks feels and smells real, how can one tell what is real and what isn't? Almost like an existential Turing test for reality. This is a recurring theme in almost all Black Mirror episodes. The audience is again left questioning reality. But this particular episode kind of hits close to home. Especially given the events happening around the world nowadays. I can't say anymore without giving too much away. For any Twilight Zone fans out there, do yourself a solid and watch this episode.

I don't understand why this episode is so lowly rated. The episode made me think so much. And the ending, wow. While it's quite intense, very intense, I definitely recommend it to everyone just for the reflection alone.