In this review I will cover Black Mirror season 5 episode 2, Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too, without spoilers.
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Year: 2019
Category: Science Fiction.
Director: Anne Sewitsky.
Cast: Miley Cyrus, Angourie Rice, Madison Davenport, Frances Sholto-Douglas, Greg Kriek, Susan Pourfar, Glenn Webster, Martin Munro.
Plot
A lonely teenager becomes obsessed with a robot doll based on her pop idol, Ashley O, just when the life of the real Ashley has problems.
Opinion
The episode basically tells two stories that at some point and in a slightly absurd way are related, on the one hand we have Rachel and Jack two sisters who share the same room but do not have the best relationship, while living with their father Kevin, a innovative mouse hunter. Rachel, the character that moves this story, feels very lonely because has no friends, so since it's her birthday asks her father to give an Ashley Too, a robot doll based on the personality of their favorite singer, Ashley O, and which is marketed by Catherine, the singer's aunt, who also completely controls the image of her niece and has very abusive practices, so Ashley is not satisfied.
After watching the two previous episodes and disappointing me a bit with the season, I did not know what to expect from Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too, the last episode of the season, and to see that Miley Cyrus would be one of the actresses of the episode was not a good presage, however, I never thought I would see an episode of Hannah Montana just with a slightly darker narrative.
The director, Anne Sewitsky, who previously directed four episodes of the Norwegian series Himmelblå, and two other films Happy, Happy and Totally True Love, was responsible for directing this episode, and although she did a decent job with photography, the execution of some events was not the best, we could even say that it was too naive.
The Charlie Brooker script again requires the viewer to work hard to assume that the facts shown are coherent and valid. The character of Miley Cyrus seems a reflection of the interpreter, as if the evolution that Ashley has during the episode was related to the transition process that Miley Cyrus has in her period as Hannah Montana. Nor is it explained why the singer's aunt took care of her sacrificing so much if she was finally a bad person, so we have, as spectators, to suppose things to fill the holes left by the script, to the point where Catherine, the Aunt, accompanied by her foolish henchmen resemble the Futurama character named Mom and they to the sons.
I think Angourie Rice's character was pathetic and not very credible, but it is not the actress's fault, I'm sure she did the best she could, I would say that it is not a character indicated for her but for someone even younger, but no, the error is in the script, which really pretends that we believe that a teenager can find emotional refuge in a kind of robot doll.
Usually we see that Black Mirror tells a story related to technology and its effect on society, and it's amazing how this season seems that Charlie Brooker forgot that, I do not understand how it is possible that he overlooked that even today girls replaced anything with smartphones, so the series instead of being one step ahead as it usually does, seems to have stayed in the recent past when you could still try to sell something like that and awaken a desperate desire to consume in people.
I must also mention that the few twits that have the episode are absolutely absurd, as the part related to the configuration of the robot, it was only necessary to select with the mouse and press delete for the two sisters to put the whole plan of the evil Catherine in risk, just absurd, I will not say more about it to avoid spoilers.
In conclusion, if we forget that this is an Black Mirror episode and imagine better than this is the result of Disney's attempt to do with Hannah Montana what Christopher Nolan did with The Dark Knight, to sell the show to modern teenagers, then everything would make sense.
Trailer
Score
5/10
If you see this episode as if it were Black Mirror, then you will probably feel a bit disappointed, however, it serves as a dark version of a teen movie.
