Karen Chapero
Bio
I am a poet and fiction writer with a poem published in my English department's literary magazine called the Pacific Review. Check out more poetry and fiction written by me on my personal blog http://www.the21stage.com.
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Reality TV Gone to the Extreme?
Part I: Message of the Episode Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror is an anthropology series from the United Kingdom that touches on people’s everyday use of technology, and how it can or has shaped us in the 21st century. While many episodes do a good job portraying their stories and characters by having them come face to face with the situation often revolved around technology, there is one episode in particular that stands out because of its grim environment and how writer Charlie Brooker, and director Cal Tibbetts, utilize the public space, media, and technology to create a setting that is fueled with hatred, retribution, and obsession with reality television. The episode, White Bear, follows a simple plot: a young woman named Victoria awakens in a disordered house with her hands tied to a chair, and has no memory of what happened nor who she is exactly. From there she joins another woman to reach an area known as “White Bear,” that is supposed to bring an “end” to what is going on, while also being hunt down by masked killers and surrounded by bystanders recording everything on their phones instead of helping out the main characters. What is interesting about this episode is the fact that the public space is set up like a reality show where the public can come together and discuss as well as punish Victoria for recording and killing a young child not too long ago. Because of this she is forced to watch news reports about the murder, paraded in a glass case as the audience call her out as a “murderer,” and be strapped down on the same chair she found herself in earlier, and given a headset that produces shock therapy before reliving the same frightening scenario she endured throughout this episode.
By Karen Chapero9 years ago in Geeks
