" Arkangel " is the second episode of the fourth series of anthology series Black Mirror . It was written by Charlie Brooker and directed by Jodie Foster. The first episode airs on Netflix, along with the rest of the four series, on December 29, 2017.
In the episode, "Arkangel" is the name of embedded chip technology that allows parents to track and monitor their children, as well as pixel images that will cause them depression. Marie's single mother (played by Rosemarie DeWitt) has her daughter Sara planted with Arkangel, who was initially effective, a dangerous obstacle, and Marie allows Sara to grow up without using Arkangel. When adult Sara becomes a teenager (played by Brenna Harding), Marie becomes tempted to use Arkangel again.
The episode was the first episode of Black Mirror directed by a woman, and the first had a strong emphasis on the family. Arkangel is greeted with mixed acceptance and compared to indie films. Some critics praised the episode concept, but regarded the theme of helicopter care as being emphasized at the expense of another potentially more interesting aspect.
Video Arkangel (Black Mirror)
Plot
The protector of single mother Marie Sambrell (Rosemarie DeWitt) gave birth to her daughter Sara. Three years later, Sara lost a day at the playground, chasing a cat. Marie became hysterical and called for Sara, but she soon recovered without incident. Afraid of future crises, Marie enlisted to participate in Arkangel's limited free trial, a revolutionary child-integrated monitoring system. The Arkangel representative manages Sara's neural implants, allowing Marie to monitor her geolocation and medical condition in real time via the included tablet computer. Representatives also showed the option to see Sara's direct vision, and censor obscenity and other stress stimuli with audio pixelization and distortion. The Arkangel system proved to be initially successful, censoring an intimidating neighbor's dog; However, the shortcomings in the system itself, such as obscene filters prevent Sara from reacting appropriately to the stroke of her living grandfather.
Years later, after the death of his grandfather, Sara has become socially wasted and emotionally immature because of the lack of exposure to stress stimuli. She gets frustrated at not being able to see the content of the shock site, its contents explain it to her, or even illustrate blood on paper. That night, she stabbed her finger with a pencil in an effort to produce blood, and slapped her mother when she tried to stop her. Marie has been analyzed by a child psychologist, who concludes that the now-controversial and immediately banned Arkangel will be responsible. Although the implant itself can not be removed, she persuades Marie to disable the obscenity filter and keep the tablet away. Sara went to school unattended for the first time, where her schoolmate Trick exposed her to gore, internet pornography and beheadings.
At the age of fifteen, Sara (Brenna Harding), now highly tuned and popular, secretly attends a party with Trick (Owen Teague) in a nearby lake, tells Marie that she is going to a friend's house. Marie gets worried after Sara fails to answer a phone call and the parents of her schoolmate can not find her, and she reactivates Arkangel tablets in a panic to find Sara and Trick having sex. Sometime later, Marie, having disbelieved her daughter, used Arkangel's tablet again and saw Sara persuade Trick to let her try cocaine; identifying him with a reverse image search, he intimidates Trick broke up with Sara and cuts it off. After vomiting because the emergency contraception pills sneak into her drink by Marie, Sara finds a reactivated tablet and confronts Marie in her bedroom. She keeps the tablets from Marie's hands, accidentally activates the obscenity filters, and beats Marie involuntarily with the tablet until it breaks. This filter deactivates moments later and Sara finally sees what she has done.
The bewildered Marie, rising and frantically calling Sara's name on the street, reflects her reaction to Sara's disappearance twelve years earlier. Meanwhile, after escaping from the scene, Sara drops a semi truck to drive.
Maps Arkangel (Black Mirror)
Analysis
One critic compares the "Arkangel" with previous episodes of Black Mirror Your entire history and Be Be Back Back, because every episode is based on existing technology, and it plausibly shows how technology can go wrong in the future.
Production
While the series one and two of the Black Mirror were shown on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, in September 2015 Netflix commissioned the series for 12 episodes, and in March 2016 it defeated Channel 4 for the right to distribute all three series, $ 40 million. The sequence of 12 episodes is divided into two series of six episodes each.
This is the first episode of Black Mirror directed by a woman, Jodie Foster. Foster was in charge of casting episodes that led to his friend's casting, Rosemarie DeWitt as Marie, when the couple met Foster's wife, Alexandra Hedison; this is only the second time Foster is working with a friend as a director, after Mel Gibson in the 2011 film The Beaver . According to Brooker, Foster was chosen for the episode because as a former child actor, he will understand how it feels to be in the spotlight, as well as how to handle child actors during filming. Netflix also recommends Foster to Brooker, as he has previously directed episodes of their series Orange is New Black and House of Cards; he gave "good" feedback on the script before shooting, according to Brooker. Foster also flew to London to assist in the editing of the episode with Brooker.
Written by Charlie Brooker, this episode is meant to sympathize with helicopter parenting; Brooker took inspiration as to how he "reprogrammed" after the birth of his children that made him more protective. Annabel Jones, co-producer for this series, says that the idea of ​​Arkangel comes from a microchip implant used to identify pets that, at the time of writing, are also being considered for children. Jones said, "We want to think what the latest version of it [is] and find a very good idea of ​​how it can be very wrong". The original script gave Marie's father only a very small portion, but this was refined by Foster. Foster also influences other changes in the manuscript, and offers many observations on the technology used and Marie's motivation for his actions after seeing his daughter having sex with Trick.
Filming took place in Toronto for three weeks in November 2016, starting around the 2016 US presidential election. Foster stated that filming involves "very long hours" and that the scenes that children starred in are very troublesome. Showing graphic content is avoided in the episode, with Foster believing it will "distract from what it means". The exception is the scene where Sara attacked her mother. Brooker notes that in this scene, more whips are filmed than made it into the episode, although it is quite necessary for viewers to understand Sara's perspective, and make Marie unconscious. The final image of the episode, where Marie frantically tried to use the tablet while shouting, "No!" repeatedly, was filmed a day after the election results entered; DeWitt injects his personal reactions on the results to the scene.
Describing her character's actions, DeWitt said in an interview that a single mother "experienced a different betrayal"; Foster adds that when Marie realizes Sarah is lying to her, but not facing her, it causes a "gap" and Marie begins to "fight to win control". By trying to keep her daughter from abandoning her, Marie is the victim of a self-fulfilling prophecy as she "delivers the right result she fears most".
Marketing
In May 2017, Reddit posts unofficially announce the name and director of the six episodes in series 4 of the Black Mirror . The first footage for this series was released by Netflix on August 25, 2017, and contains six episode titles. In September 2017, two photos from the fourth season were released, including one from "Arkangel".
Beginning on November 24, 2017, Netflix published a series of posters and trailers for the fourth series of performances, referred to as "13 Days of Black Mirror ". On December 6, Netflix published a footage featuring a merging scene from the fourth series, announcing that the series will be released on December 29th.
Reception
Praising Foster's directive and DeWitt's acting, Adam Starkey from Metro writes that the episode is about "recognizable paranoia" compensating for the implementation of "less predictable" episodes. In a positive review for Den of Geek, Louisa Mellor praised the "dexterity" given to the episode-driven ethical quandary, as well as the sensitive and emotional "indie-movie" of US film "and how the story is told with authority, but "with empathy".
Sophie Gilbert of The Atlantic argues that despite the excellent episode premise, it fails due to lack of execution. Gilbert further asserts that the moral episode is clear, and the question of what the impact of an adult image on a child is attractive but not explored far enough. In a three-star review for The Telegraph Ed Power has the same criticism that Brooker can "investigate further" into the impact of children watching violent and pornographic images, calling the episode "Black Mirror archetype, almost up to a mistake ".
Planned Parenthood has criticized the episode for an inaccurate display of how emergency contraceptive pills work; this episode implies that these pills terminate the pregnancy, while some prevent or delay ovulation. Others (mifepristone) do prevent embryo implantation.
Episode Rating
"Arkangel" is badly rated by critics who assess each of the 19 episodes of Black Mirror by quality:
Khosla of Mashable Proma reviewed 19 episode events based on the tone, ranking "Arkangel" as the 10 most pessimistic.
Other critics consider six series four episodes in their ratings:
References
External links
- "Arkangel" in IMDb
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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