Black Mirror Archives

Trapped in the Cities That Are Driving Us Crazy

Vikramaditya Motwane’s Trapped goes to the heart of an inherent paranoia that cityfolk are programmed to feel. We run to these stories for the morbid fascination of possibility.

Nimisha Misra June 20, 2016

Pop Culture

“Hang the DJ”: Directionless Hearts in the Age of Driverless Rickshaws

Barring outliers like “San Junipero”, Black Mirror isn’t renowned for its optimism. But the online dating-focused “Hang The DJ” strikes a hopeful, uplifting chord with lovelorn millennials.

Jackie Thakkar May 29, 2016

Pop Culture

What Watching Black Mirror with My Boyfriend Taught Me About Love

I wondered if watching Black Mirror with my boyfriend was creating a real trust deficit between the two of us. There’s honestly just too much relating with the characters. They are us and we are them in so many ways.

Alisha Sachdev April 24, 2016

Bollywood

Years Before Black Mirror, We Had Love Sex Aur Dhokha

Dibakar Banerjee’s Love Sex Aur Dhokha, which turns eight today, warned us of the dangers of technology long before Black Mirror could. It might not have had the feeling of impending doom that pervades through Charlie Brooker’s show, but in impact, LSD was nothing short of a scary trip.

Anahad Madhav April 7, 2016

Pop Culture

Altered Carbon Reminds Us of What Makes Us Human

On the surface, Altered Carbon, Netflix's latest cyberpunk dystopian drama is a technologically drunk science-fiction show but its heart lies in being an effective meditation on the cost of humanity.

Poulomi Das April 3, 2016

Technology

From the Jetsons to Black Mirror: When Did the Future Go from Utopia to Dystopia?

In the last two decades, our approach to technology in pop culture has swung from the unremarkable Jetsons to dystopian web series like Black Mirror or A.I.SHA. What changed? At some point, we had to deal with the very immediate prospect of robots taking our jobs, and inevitably, the world.

Kahini Iyer March 27, 2016

POV

With Oxygen Bars in Delhi, Are We Now Living in a Sci-Fi Dystopia?

Welcome to the era where dystopia and our world overlap. An oxygen bar for a choking city might have felt like a far-flung science-fiction trope when we were kids, but today, it’s the reality in which we live.

Deepak Gopalakrishnan March 22, 2016