"Black Mirror" – one of the original Netflix series. I like them for their eccentricity, imagination and a certain independence from the Hollywood stereotype. This review is about the first episode of this year USS Callister.
However, Robert finds the way to turn the tide to his offenders in the private version of the game, where he appears as bold and popular captain of the spacecraft USS Callister.
In the setup of the ship and the team uniforms, one immediately recognizes Star Trek captain Kirk in Robert Daly, a caricature of him. Star Trek serial is clearly pointed to by the set of old VHS tapes in the office of Robert Daly. He is a diehard fan of this series and star fleet regulations, which he faithfully replicated in his game.
The team he assembled is a digital copy of all his abusers, whose DNA he secretly collects at work. Inside the private version of the game, where Robert has an absolute power, he handles cosmic monsters and puts his foes in their place. The contrast of Robert’s position in the episode beautifully exposes his true character – small, vengeful and cruel.
Thus, his unlucky colleagues would go on living in this incessant nightmare, should it not happened that a new programmer was starting in the company, a girl, who, incidentally, was beautifully played by the granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin (Oona).
At first, she enjoys getting to know Robert, whom he knows by his code. But then she also falls into disfavor; she is digitized and is transmitted into the virtual world of the spaceship.
I do not want to spoil your impression by telling you the entire story. You'll be much better watching it. Suffice it to say that despite her small stature and fragility, the girl has a strong character and manifests the unwillingness to submit to overwhelming circumstances. In the struggle of these two characters, the entire subsequent episode takes place. In addition to that, it is amusing and has several funny scenes.
The most interesting aspect of the episode is the approach to the confrontation of the characters. How are such schemes usually put together? There is a good but humble person while not “really good” people offend him. The writer creates a situation in which everything is turned around and they realize how rotten they were, and how bad it was for them to do so. This conclusion would have been the moral of the whole episode.
However, in this case, the reversal of the situation has led to a completely different result. This humble person turns out to be a real monster. The moral of the episode, therefore, is that such a person should be kept under pressure. No one needs to bring such a monstrous character to fruition in real life.
Alternatively, a different conclusion could be drawn. A weak person, when he is morally suppressed, becomes a monster inside, and in his heart, he cherishes thoughts that allow him to take revenge on his tormentors. While the strong person, when encounters difficulties, faces them bravely and fights to the end.
This ambiguity of this conclusion, not my opinion, makes this work especially powerful.
